At the modest Mod Club in Toronto, one of the best venues for seeing your favourite bands up close, not a bad seat in the place, I was treated to a thundering metal show starting with Elm Street! These lads from Australia, chock-full of energy and a lovely growling Aussie accent yanked a somewhat sleepy crowd out of their stupor and poured it on! Shredding hits like Heavy Metal Power, Heartracer and Metal is the Way had us jumping appreciatively immediately.
Their power is unavoidable. Quiet Riot’s Bang Your Head, wonderfully thrown in, was a perfect preparation for the main act. DMM has reviewed these boys here; I do think I was the first to see them live!
UDO should be synonymous with ‘thundering bass’ as the band took to the small but homey stage and fired out great classics like Russian Roulette, London Leatherboys, Screaming for a Love Bite, Metal Heart and Balls to the Wall, Princess of the Dawn, and my favourite, which I finally got to see; that ear-piercing scream, Fight it Back! I am also glad for Midnight Mover – a thunderous applause and raucous chanting to this one.
UDO never slowed down, screamed his love bite all night long, and was backed by a powerful group that kept up the tempo for the near 2 hour performance! The band that night: UDO’s son Sven Dirkschneider on drums, Fitty Wienhold bass, Andrey Smirnov and Kasperi Heikkinen on axes. Very entertaining and great audience interactions, other than the “#1 Fans” with those damned phones in the air near every song, it was well worth the money to see them in this intimate venue. A song or two, maybe a 30 second clip, some memoir pics is ok, but “Unless You’re Press”, keep it to a minimum so the Short People like me can see.
A friendly, easygoing but metal hardened crowd looking for classic music was the order of the night!
9/10
Photos by Alessandro
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