Kam-e-lot

Kamelot and Edugy rating: 9.5/10

My night started off by going to Wendy’s for a quick supper.  Then on my walk from the car to Station 4, there were a couple guys getting out of a car and walking into the tour bus next to them.  And when they were getting out of their car, the passenger put a Wendy’s cup on top of the car in order to get the rest of his luggage out.  So I turn to my brother and say “hey check it out, they went to Wendy’s too.”  Which at that time, my brother does a double check, as does the person getting out of the car.  Only a few seconds later to realize that the person exiting the car with a Wendy’s cup was none other than Kamelot’s guitarist Thomas Youngblood! Good start to the night.

Station 4 was fairly packed for a Kamelot/Edguy concert, I’d say there was a good 300-400 people there.  After buying merch and moving our way to get a good spot, we were ready for Edguy.  Edguy is a band from Europe, Deutschland more specifically.  There were plenty of fans there wearing Edguy shirts, so I knew that this band was going to put on a good show.  Tobias Sammet, lead singer of Edguy, had a great stage presence.  He joked around with the crowd in between songs and made sure everyone was into the music.  The sound was great for them too, so whoever was running the board for their set was a genius.  There were a few technical difficulties that their guitarist was going through for his wireless connection, but their tech was quick to fix them.  I had only heard of Edguy for about a month before this concert, but I thought they were really good, even though they only played 6 songs for being the opening band.  They said they would be back in St. Paul next year around September, so if you check them out from now till then, you may be able to see them next year.

We waited for about 45 minutes while they changed sets and took care of mic checks.  But apparently their were some more technical difficulties during set up, so it took longer for the set up to happen.   They came on around 9:30 and opened with Rule The World.  To hear Khan’s voice right away was almost surreal.  I’d been a fan of them for so long that it hadn’t hit me yet that I’d see them in person.  They played a variety of songs from their best albums, including some that the crowd didn’t even recognize, many of my favorites.  Khan was amazing, even though he said he had a cold when he came to Minnesota.  There were a few times that he tried to hit notes, but they just didn’t come out.  But one of my favorite parts was during Forever, when he lets the crowd sing along.  He usually sings the part first then lets the crowd mirror his vocals.  So in Forever, he tried to hit the high note and it didn’t come out, but when the crowd answered, we all hit the note.  Shows you the true Kamelot fans.  Also shows you how awesome Khan is.  Risking his voice to hit notes for all his fans.  Awesome.

Khan at Station 4

There were a good amount of fans who actually knew the lyrics.  The ones who didn’t mostly took up space.  But I’m fairly happy with where I was standing and the songs they played.  For their encore, they started out with Ghost Opera, then a breathtaking version of Epiloge, followed by Karma off their Epica album.  Then the lights went out and people started leaving.  But we’re like, that can’t be it.  Casey Grillo, Kamelot’s drummer, was still sitting behind his set, so we stayed a little longer.  The lights came back on and they played March of Mephisto off of The Black Halo album.  Made my night in an already awesome night.  I’m sure that they will end with this song on every concert they play from now on.  It’s perfect for a finale.

The only reason this concert got a 0.5 off its rating was because the sound was too loud which blended everything together, making some parts hard to pick out.  But I knew all the songs in the first place, so I didn’t need to hear everything to know what was going on.

So then after the show was over, my brother and I walked out of Station 4 and started down the sidewalk to the car.  When we first walked out of the building, we saw Khan and Thomas Youngblood getting into their tour bus.  But as we walked past the tour bus, Oliver Palotai, Kamelot’s keyboard player, walked around the corner heading for the bus.  My brother says “Oliver!” and as he walks past me I say “Oliver, nice show dude!” and pat him on the back as he walks past me.  He’s like “thanks, thanks.”  He probably just wanted to get on the tour bus, but this is my story of when I met Oliver Palotai.

I have a couple more concerts coming up in the next month, so check back for pre-concert posts and post-concert reviews.

Rock, BC