I just woke up from last night. It was the Monsters Of Rock 2005 concert here in Santiago. The Argentinians "Rata Blanca" came and played before Whitesnake, and the main event was Judas Priest. We got there about 18:00, the doors opened about 19:00, and Rata Blanca started playing at 20:15.
They were good, their guitar player was fucking 90, but still rocked on. They had a pretty good drummer, and I knew about 2 songs. They played Deep Purple's "Highway Star" though.
Then came Whitesnake. When we first arrived we were at the far back of the concert, but as Whitesnake got on stage, we punched our way the 3 row of people, like 5 meters away of the artists. If you have never been to a metal concert, you have to push and punch and fight for place, it's pretty entertaining, but obviously painful. The opener was AGAIN, Deep Purple's "Burn/Stormbringer", it was pretty cool. This guy next to me was so fucking excited he started doing this strange dances as the dull 80s ballads started, and I was like
, just standing there. The drummer started doing a solo, with the last 2 minutes of it playing with his bare hands. It was a sight to see, pretty funny.
We had 45 minute breaks between bands, so we could "relax". You just had to stand there, MAYBE kneeling with the risk of people stomping you being very high. My two buds gulped down a bottle of beer before the event so they were pretty enthusiastic, and I had smoked half my freakin' packet, so I had to ration them. Then, at like 23:15, all lights shut down. A giant eye was on-stage, and the laser that came out of it's pupil started moving. This represents the song "Electric Eye". It was a fucking rocker man, everybody went wild. When it finished, we were soaking wet, and it was just the first song. Then, out came Rob Halford, the fiftysomething, biker, homosexual lead singer of the band. He just has the most AMAZING stage presence, he can single-handedly make the audience do whatever he wants. Well, I think that applies to all rock stars and their headbanging fans.
Anyways, they played some old tunes, a ballad called "Beyond The Realms Of Death", very good song. "Breaking The Law" was CRAZY, and their news stuff was cool too. "Painkiller" was BY FAR the most celebrated one, we were shouting for it for half an hour, and finally it came. Such power comes from Scott Travis, the drummer. If you passed him on the street you think he is a timid shoe salesman, but WHOA. His double bass drum was pretty astonishing.
They finished with "Hell Bent For Leather", just as Halford came riding a Harley ti the stage. The last song, "You Got Another Thing Coming" got quite a response from the crowd. Overall it was a great concert, had a GREAT time, and I'm not going to school today, I'm too tired, and my neck and back are KILLING me.
I hope I didn't bore you to death, but just wanted to comment on the concert.
Peace.
