It is difficult
to hunt tigers in Hungary, it is
not enough that the beast is not
native to our country, but they
do not even visit us. It took 46
years for Tygers Of Pan Tang to
enter the walls of Analog Music
Hall. We reached the jungle at
21:25, the other joke of the
evening for me was the Mud hit,
Tiger Feet, which opened the
group's performance, and indeed,
the clawed paws of the tiger
reached out to us from the
projector, as it was drawn on
the cover of 'Live Blood'. The
group's founding guitarist, Robb
Weir, left his band after 4
records, and then he reorganized
the band from scratch in
2000.Since then, drummer Craig
Ellis has been with him, who
also represents the older
tigers, but he pushed the pace
below the others in a way that
belied his age, he was not in
stealth mode at all. Among the
younger Tigers, Jack Meille grew
up in the Italian wilderness
and, incidentally, also sings in
Berci Hirleman's band, Sainted
Sinners. He's a real front man,
and he didn't hesitate to cut
even the high C at the concert.
The "baby tigers", who only
recently joined the pack, are
bassist Huw Holding, who brought
the young, still long-haired
John Waite into style, but his
playing was just the opposite of
his sleepy movements, and the
youngest-looking, but more than
20 years old guitarist Francesco
Marras looking back on his
musical career. And the wildcats
chased us down.
Right at the beginning with
Euthanasia from the 'Wild Cat'
record. Robb set the mood with a
sambo-style talk box solo for
Francesco to add virga. The show
was almost identical to the
concert album recorded last year
and released this year in the
4th month, they played
alternately from the first 4 and
the last 4 records, and the new
songs blended very well with the
old ones. Jack communicated with
the audience in a professional
manner, if necessary, he made
them sing, but once he took his
phone out of the hand of one of
the spectators and took a photo
of the owner from the stage,
making him a lasting memory. The
background changed from time to
time from one album cover to
another, sometimes the giant
tiger of 'Crazy Nights'
imitating King Kong, sometimes
the big cat mask of 'Ritual',
sometimes the beast of the
latest studio album,
'Bloodlines', bursting out of
the trees in blood appeared in
the place of the concert album,
sensitive to the program
aligned. Analog's only fault is
the poor ventilation, recently
Tommy Johansson also remarked at
the Gary Moore Memorial that he
is not used to it as a Swede,
now Jack complained about how
"fucking hot" it is in the room,
and before Back For Good, which
starts with a long bass run, the
he also conferred his
four-string operator as the man
who never sweats. Except today.
By the way, the new record is
more hard rock than heavy metal,
the riff of this Back For Good
is reminiscent of Rainbow All
Night Long, for example, and
it's more of a hard rock
foundation. But somehow, even
then, their style changed from
album to album, even then the
4th album became almost melodic
hard rock, certainly with
today's ear, even if at that
time they stuck to the New Wave
Of British Heavy Metal label. In
any case, the audience responded
well to the songs, and this made
the musicians happy as well.
Robb glued his plucker to his
forehead, Jack sang sometimes
kneeling, sometimes leaning on
his back, if he wasn't
commanding the crowd standing on
the sound wall next to the drum
machine or strangling Robb
during his solo. At the end of
Slave To Freedom, Robb spat
water in the air, I thought,
like Gene Simmons, it would have
been more effective with blood,
and it would have been
appropriate for a tiger anyway.
Jack, on the other hand, learned
how to say "shit" in Hungarian.
They were so satisfied not only
with the audience, but also with
the arrangement, that right
there, during the concert, they
publicly thanked Zoli Csillag
for bringing them here to
Hungary ("Zoli, you're the star
to invite us!"), but after the
concert, another In a Facebook
post, they were also thanked for
the organization in line with
the textbook.
After the main show, they
extorted a few minutes of
applause - deservedly so - by
withdrawing, and then in a
two-song encore, after the
iconic hit of the 'Spellbound'
record, Hellbound, they said
goodbye with a love potion
successfully brewed by
Searchers. Jack's production at
the end of the song, supported
by an echo sounder, was mostly
reminiscent of David Coverdale's
"baby, baby, baby" in his best
days, it was ferocious. I didn't
see that there was a sense of
absence left in anyone, be it
older or younger, although they
didn't become as big stars as
Iron Maiden or Saxon, with whom
they started, but every movement
of the genre is in their little
finger, they pushed a really
good party. I saw satisfied,
smiling faces leaving. And the
band could also be satisfied,
because 46 years of deprivation
took its toll: we practically
ransacked the merch stand.
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