Doro – Islington academy, London – 19th May 2014

nulldB
nulldB

First up were German band nulldB, playing their first ever UK show.  With one band member painted one half white and the other half black, he was certainly eye catching.  Musically this was metal with a real Rammstein influence, particularly with the guitar riffs.  It was very impressive stuff and they went down very well with the crowd.  To get the crowd more involved they played a bit of the Doro hit “All we are” which got the fans singing along.  They also did a very good cover of the Jimi Hendrix classic “Purple Haze”.  Definitely a band I’d like to see again.

Next up was the metal queen herself, Doro Pesch.  Her current tour celebrates her 30 years in metal and comes after she celebrated with two very special shows in her home town of Dusseldorf.
doroFor tonight’s set we got two hours of songs from across her career, from early Warlock songs to songs from her latest album, with plenty of fan favourites included.  There were also some covers – Judas Priest’s “Breaking the law”, which has long been a staple of her shows, and also a Dio cover – “Egypt (The chains are on)”, a song that appears on the recent Dio tribute album.  There was also “We are the metalheads” – the Wacken anthem which she recorded with Skyline.  We also got a rarely played song – “Without you”, which Doro told the crowd she hadn’t played in the UK for around 25 years.

While the set was mainly the heavier metal songs such as “Burning the witches”, “Raise your fist” and “Metal racer”, there was also time for Doro to show another side to her music with the ballad “Fur Immer”.  She’s not a performer to distance herself from the fans, and often plays without a photo pit to separate her from the crowd when the venue agrees, but tonight she was at the front of the stage and constantly leaning forward thrusting the microphone toward the crowd for them to sing, and regularly jumped down from the stage and came to the barrier to get up close to the fans.

She’s got a great band behind her, with even the most recent member having been in the band for many years, and they all clearly enjoy performing together.
This was another great gig from Doro – it’s just a shame it was the only UK show on the tour, but fans did get a small piece of good news when she announed she would be back later in the year to guest with Saxon at their London show.

Doro setlist:

I rule the ruins
Rock till death
Earthshaker rock
Burning the witches
Fight for rock
Night of the warlock
Raise your fist
Metal racer
Without you
Burn it up
Egypt (The chains are on)
East meets west
Fur Immer
Out of control
Drum solo
We are the metalheads
Revenge
Breaking the law
All we are

Encore:
Love me in black
Unholy love
Evil

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About Ant May

I spend half my life at gigs or festivals and the other half writing the reviews and editing photos, and somehow find time for a full time job too. Who needs sleep - I've got coffee.