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Yesterday at PestPop Festival it got late, coz it was time to say good-bye to some of the bands we met the last weeks and so I was a bit late for the early show on Sunday in Weert. I missed Triosphere and only saw a part of Elis. The Lichtenstein-based band had a tough year and many bands would have broke up. Last summer their singer Sabine Dünser died from a cerebral hemorrhage after collapsing during a rehearsal. The band decided to continue and to release Griefshire which was recorded with Sabine Dünser. Now they are on tour and ex-Dreams Of Sanity Sandra Schleret took over the microphone. Well, I'm not familiar with Elis' music and so I can't tell much about them or the songs they played. Musically I liked what I heard, but I had my problems with the vocals. Beside that the vocals kinda drowned in the music, the vocal performance of Sandra Schleret didn't fit - in my opinion. And perhaps it wasn't the best tour for them to pick, coz it seemed that not many were interested in them... But they did their best.
After a short change over Chris Caffery entered the stage. Guitarist / keyboarder Paul LaPlaca was on stage and Chris was calling for Nick Douglas and Madonna - which he explained is the alias of drummer John Macaluso. They started into their set with Edge Of Darkness of W.A.R.P.E.D., followed by a new track - Sixty-Six. It was obvious that the guys enjoyed being on stage and playing the new tracks like Torment and Chained. I didn't miss Ira Black and the songs sounded more focussed this time. Between the songs Chris Caffery had enough time to talk to the fans, coz somehow John Macaluso never been ready to get straight into the next track. Vocally Chris Caffery got a lot better, but decided to play a cover version of MSG, the instrumental Into The Arena to give himself a break from singing. Freed of the vocal part he could move around and focus just on his guitar play. In the middle of the song it was time for a short drum solo - and then Macaluso forget that there was a second part of Into The Arena. Chris and everybody else took it easily and continued after a moment. With Fade Into The X and Pisses Me Off Caffery played two of my favorites of his debut album Faces. Then Chris said that today he wants to play some Savatage songs which he didn't he day before, coz it would have felt wrong when the two original Savatage singers were present. And added that he likes to play the songs and that "now it's time for me to fuck up the songs" - and started playing Edge Of Thorns and The Wake Of Magellan. During The Wake Of Magellan Chris fucked up the counterpart vocals and started laughing, but kept playing. Definitely not one of the best performances of these songs, but a lot of fun! A Black Sabbath cover, then Abandoned and too soon it was over. It was fun and I hope he's coming back on tour soon. Unfortunately the rest of the tour was canceled, some problems with the booking...
Standing outside of the venue on a warm and sunny day was much nicer then waiting inside the venue. Soon the guys of Chris' band showed up and started talking with friends and fans. Time to hang out with them a bit - for me and some others it didn't matter that Kotipelto started playing. Sorry, but there will be another chance to see the Finnish singer and his band.
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