Concert Photos by Peter Mondria
MSG at Hedon, Zwolle, Netherland
September 11, 2009
Added on 09/12&22/2009

MSG at Hedon, Zwolle/ The Netherlands 11-09-2009

Friday, 11th of September: The Michael Schenker Group plays a live show at Hedon, Zwolle, a small venue, with an excellent sound quality. We arrived at Hedon a half an hour before the show was scheduled to start, so there was enough time to see the merchandising stand and buy myself a MS skull shirt. The openingact called 'Diggith' was done and the venue became packed with people waiting to listen to the world's greatest guitarplayer, many of them wearing MSG and UFO shirts of various vintages.

We moved to the front row, right in front of Michael's mic. Shortly after 10:00 pm, the lights dimmed, the band filled the stage and opened their set with 'Ride On My Way' running right into 'Cry For The Nations'.

I managed to see their setlist from the first row before they started and it looked great. Only minor moan is that it was the same setlist as ten months ago! Again, not very surprising but "safe" in order to please as many of the 40+ aged people in the crowd. A set full of classics and three songs of their latest album 'In The Midst Of Beauty"... just enough for me because 'ITMOB isn't my favorite MSG album. What I hear is certainly not bad and there isn't a lack of good guitarsolo's, but in my humble opinion the problem lies with the songs themselves. I'm sorry to say but the whole album sounds too commercial... Ok, back to the concert.

Michael had his black-glass specs on, a black leather jacket with a Michael Schenker skull shirt underneath it. He looked great and it's a real pleasure to see Michael truly enjoy himself with the band, and his playing showed it...Absolutely!! It's also a great pleasure to watch him play so many different Dean V's, a Schenker USA, USA Schenker Yin Yang, Schenker Custom Flames and finally a USA Schenker Brothers V.

There are plenty of highlights throughout the evening, but the highest of these is Michael's performance of 'Lost Horizons'. The beauty of his playing is so great, it completely overwhelmed me in a sense i can't explain. Yeah...everyone in the band was on fire and they all played with a lot of intensity and there's absolutely nothing that can hold these guys back from having a good time.

For me it's a great pleasure to see and hear Gary back in the band. His singing is amazing. His voice was very strong and he looks great. Wayne looks great too and has a good stage presence as always..! His playing is excellent and his showmanship never ceased to amaze me.

The setlist was, as mentioned, very straightforward, containing basically no surprises 'Let Sleeping Dogs Lie', 'Armed And Ready', 'Ready To Rock' and the marvellous 'Into The Arena', with Pete drumming his ass off. The band is very lucky with a drummer like him! And Chris?...well what can I say...he played his ass off too... and confirmed that he is a solid bass player, relaxed and energetic. Plus he has a great sense of humor; sticking his tongue out at the photographers from time to time.

After 'Attack Of The Mad Axeman', Michael, Gary, Wayne, Pete and Chris came to the front of the stage to say their goodbyes. All four members held hands and took their bows for about several minutes, all big smiles on all of them. After the band left the stage, the crowd began to yell 'MSG...MSG...MSG..', and before long, the band returned for an encore with 'Dance Gypsy Lady' followed by...yeaaah of course, no show complete without..... 'Rock Bottom', with the entire crowd singing along with Gary on the chorus. They left the stage again while the crowd was screaming for more. The band returned for a second encore 'Doctor Doctor' before a truly memorable night came to an all-too-soon end.





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