I've decided to write this review of the show, for I've been waiting for this band to come to Russia since 1985.

And I should tell that at first my spirits went down to zero after meeting our brave militia men, but then rose up to the skies when I saw my most favourite band live.

Personally, I believe that just like theatre, a rock concert begins with the cloak-room. Here it means a decently organized way for the fans to come to the concert!

Perhaps it isn't worth telling, but it hurt me to see people coming to see the show of the band they love and facing the rude and arrogant cops instead.

I believed that the attitude of "a man with the gun" towards the people had changed since Soviet times, but I was deadly wrong!

At the entrance we saw mounted militia who made fun of the folks forcing them to squeeze between horses' heads. Also I must note that they let us in only at 19.35 although the time printed on the tickets was 19.00!!!

Therefore there was a bad jam in the first rows, only because of the militia men!

And when I tried to tell one of the "law enforcement" guys that it makes no sense to trample down people with horses - well, I learned a lot of interesting... stuff about myself and my relatives from his reply.

Then there was triple thorough examination before the fans were finally let into the hall, though with mood spoiled, and some also with material losses. My neighbour told me that militia men had taken from his brother a ring they disliked for some reason.

Now, about the hall itself... As you understand, ice sports palaces aren't made for rock concerts. But someone could at least have removed the net hanging behind the gates to save the public from flying hockey pucks!
Or was it supposed to guard us from flying guitars? :)

OK, enough about this sad stuff. Now we come to the show itself!
Helloween were absolutely cool, but the sound was a complete mess. It wasn't enough that for some reason the drums' sound was cranked up to the limit, so one couldn't hear the amazing guitar riffs and improvisations properly. Hey, that's Helloween, not some kind of "Prodigy" beat! More than that, I got an impression that the loudspeakers were at 200% volume. The noise level was close to what I could get on a home cd player by setting the top volume and playing my favourite song, "Starlight". If you haven't been to the concert you can try this at home. But remember that Helloween played live with all the ensuing advantages and drawbacks. And most of the drawbacks were there thanks to the organizers!

So, we can draw a conclusion - once again we heard that no one in Russia yet knows how to tune the sound equipment for live concerts decently!!!

By the way, despite the crowd shouting "Starlight" all the time, the band didn't play it. :(