What started out as a
birthday gift for my boyfriend turned out to be a fantastic night, better then
I could've expected. Even though I adore his voice, I'm not very familiar with
Tim Ripper's career outside of Judas Priest and Iced Earth, so I probably
wouldn't have gone to the concert if not for the fact that my boyfriend is a
huge fan, but I'm really glad I did.
I had TONS of fun!
Aside from the fact that Ripper is extremely talented (which is kinda obvious
when you think he was able to fill Rob Halford's humongous shoes in Judas
Priest and Matt Barlow's rather large shoes in Iced Earth), he is also a great
performer. Not in a theatrical kind of way, with props and make up and dramatic
gestures, but in a very down to earth "let's rock and have fun" kind
of way. Also, he may be completely badass vocally and looks-wise, but in terms
of personality he seems like such a lovable guy. Humble, very open and friendly
with the audience, smiling and truly enjoying himself. What I appreciate even
more is that he did all that not for a large venue, but for only 200 people (I
think it was the smallest and most intimate concert I've ever gone to).
My favourite moment
was when he told us it's one of the musicians' birthday and prompted us to
tell him "happy birthday, fucker" and to sing Happy birthday to him.
Like the good compliant audience that we were, we started singing and when we
got to the name part, we all went "happy birthday, dear fucker" in a
very natural way, with that „what else were we supposed to call him?” air and
all the band burst into laughter. In fact, the whole atmosphere was great, for
such a small crowd, we were really loud and excited and sang along most of the
show. Ripper really deserved it! The musicians were also very good, to share
the stage with such a magnetic personality and not fade in the background is
really something to appreciate.
I heard a lot of
people complaining about the setlist (especially those who decided not to come)
and indeed most of the setlist was dominated by Judas Priest songs and I think
everyone was sad about the complete exclusion of Iced Earth from the setlist,
but this dude can sing lullabies and still make it awesome. He must be the only
person in the world who can make both a Painkiller
and Heaven and hell cover and not
only not suck at it, but do it flawlessly. And he made everything so much fun
too. I left the show full of energy, completely hyped up and determined to
listen to more Tim Ripper!
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