It was not only the desire to see another performance of the Rokfest (Moscow) headliners, which rocked me at the end of the last year, that made me go to Finland. Also I wanted to listen to the full set of the current worldwide tour because in Moscow there was only a short one-hour-festival gig. And I was eager to enjoy myself in the field of photography (it was almost impossible in Moscow because of technical conditions and very strict accreditation rules) as well. But the tour-manager (after a certain period of time I recognized him as a drummer of the legendary Pink Cream 69, a former band of Andi Deris, Costa Zafiriou) had answered my every question about shooting (full of respect and looking up at heavens): "I have to ask Andi!". To be honest I ended up without any information about Deris' opinion on shooting, but according to the results he wasn't against not only photographing but even flash was Ok. But I guess, a small light of my flash was absolutely lost in the glow of the illumination on the stage. Sometimes goldish, sometimes red, or unreal dark blue... it was really spectacular especially mixed with smoke screen which sometimes went down on the stage

From the very beginning of the gig, when the trademark scream "Starlight" made rise a crowd of hands like a forest, it became absolutely clear what the Russian fans had missed. At least, I mean the Moscow gig in October 2004 was still one of the best within Rabbit tour. But compact and welcoming Finnish Pakkahoune looked much more cosy with approximately the same amount of people inside as in a huge Moscow sport hall. Moreover, the sound and the light show... oops! One could complain about conditions of Moscow venues again... Or misconditions, to be honest...

Also, I could think about reduced Moscow set list and complain and complain and complain. Believe me, just only 'Forever And One' which wasn't played in Russia could be a good reason for such a long trip! It was a real great live song especially impressive because of fans' singing along. And surely, I couldn't forget to speak about songs from the last album 'Rabbit Don't Come Easy' which were not played in Moscow at all. One could find it really strange that Helloween had refused songs from the last album a few times because of lack of time, despite the fact that formally it was a "Rabbit Don't Come Easy' tour. But it became absolutely clear after a simple arithmetic calculation. What a coincidence! There was so-called Rabbit's tour on the one hand and... 20 years had passed since that moment when a certain band from Hamburg was finally re-named to Helloween and began their long and glorious, "rise" and sometimes "fall" story!

Probably, this retrospective set was planned just for this anniversary. Perhaps, it was a feeling of nostalgy of the band-members. May be, Andi Deris decided to make it be taken for granted that Kiske was not the only one who could sing the old material properly... One could only guess. But it was the fact that the band concentrated on the old tracks (including the very early stuff). And it was absolutely clear that a risky step became really a great victory. The old songs sung by Deris sounded perfectly. Another fact came out: surprisingly (but not for me!) 'Rabbit Don't Come Easy' numbers were not worse than the well-known famous compositions. Especially 'Back Against The Wall' by its magic beginning with mysterious bursts of floodlights and the heaviest riffs in the middle part which were breaking me up from inside and turned my mind to a total black-out.

But all this magnificent stuff (including the Power-game-cliche about not "easycoming pussy") retreated into the shadow in comparison with 'How Many Tears' performance at the end. Particularly not in a big hall in Tampere but in a quite small venue - Tavastia club in the center of Helsinki, not far from the railway station, the next day. Due to the real closeness of the first rows that "chamberness" allowed the band to reach a good contact with the audience. And they used it in a brilliant way! For good jokes, for example. Andi Deris did not fail to flirt with the girls a bit. And Michael Weikath didn't forget to get the cigarettes from the boys in the first row. Yes, that's true, playing the second show in a row for two days Helloween seemed a bit tired. I felt it especially after being an eye-witness of a very energetic gig in Tampere a day before. But they compensated the lack of activity by their fabulous artistry. So, it was just what one could expect... Nowadays, Helloween is a single whole as never before. But it's not a totalitarian unity but an alliance of equal members. In Tavastia everybody played their own parts on the stage and everyone was the key one. Closer to the end Sascha knelt down to show his respect to Weikath and... Michael did the same expressive gesture for his younger colleague. Helloween demonstrated its good shape, unity and courage. It seemed to me and it still seems to me that the band can reach the highest aims even if we mean so-called Keeper III.

Author: Master of the Gigs