Stratovarius Community

I saw Strat in London last night and I was HUGELY disappointed. The set was NOT good , I'm afraid. The choice of venue was CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!. Who picks the venue???????????????????. It was too small for a band of Stratovarius' size. I have waited 3 years now to see this band and came away pissed off because I had to suffer standing in a stairwell with about 20 other people and had to suffer seemingly hundreds of people squeezing pass me for nearly 2 hours. There were three of us that made the trip,myself aged 42, Kev aged 42, and Mark aged 43 and quite frankly, we have been to better gigs. The music and sound was too distorted to hear anything properly. Timo's guitar could not be heard properly nor could Jens' keybourds or the vocals. And ,well, what can I say about the bass solo. WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Haven't Strat' got enough songs to pick from??????????????????????????Oh come on.............................. Did you want a break mid set??????????????.I seem angry and ,yeah , I am. The bloody train home took ages and I got to bed about 3.00 this morning.Collectively , we have been to approx' 400 gigs between us in the last 28 years and I have seen better and heard better. That is NOT the standard that I expected from such a professional outfit as Stratovarius. Oh and yes, I did buy a T-shirt which I will be proudly displaying whenever I go out.

I guess you were just unlucky. I was in front of the stage, and the sound was fantastic. Perfectly clear sound, heard everything just fine. I enjoyed the setlist, I thought it was just the right balance of old and new songs. Plus, Lauri Porra's solo was really good, and a break from the norm. It was great to hear songs like Twilight Symphony and Against the Wind, they're not too common. Plus, the new material (Maniac Dance, Fight and United) went down extremely well. The crowd was also great, and the performances were absolutely top-notch.

Being angry at a long train ride home has nothing to do with the gig. True, the venue could've been better, but that's down to promoters and management rather than the band themselves. They put on a tremendously professional show in my opinion, and I've been to my fair share of gigs in the past. This has to be one of the best. Your unpleasent experience I'm guessing had to do more with bad luck and timing I guess. I've seen Strato before (3 years ago) and this show was even better than that one.

Hi. Im sorry I have to disagree with a lot of your post. Firstly I do agree however the venue was a bit small for stratovarius, but thats the way it is in the UK unfortunately. Certainly where i was standing the sound quality was OK ( i have heard better) and the crowd around me were really up for it.
With regards to the setlist we had a longer/better one than for other recent gigs i seen posted. Notably the addition of against the wind and forever two amazing songs.

Maniac Dance
Speed of Light
Kiss of Judas
Eagleheart
Against the wind
Twilight Symphony
Fight
Bass Solo
Father Time
United
Hunting High and Low
**********
Forever
Destiny
Black Diamond

Having father time later to break up the newer songs really worked because the set started to lose momentum after twilight, fight and the impressive but way to long bass solo.

The band were tight as a babys bottom but I struggled to hear Tolki's guitar in the first half. I think the drums were also too high in the mix. this meant we lost some detail in Jens/Timo's playing which was a shame.

Hold on a mo, did you two go to the same gig as me? EVERYONE who I chatted to on the way back to the tube agreed with me when I bought up the points that I have mentioned. NOT ONE person said anything BAD about it other than what I have mentioed. And the trip home WAS bad luck and , yeah , it had nothing to do with the gig, but. it doesn't take away the fact that,no matter what you say, the band were just going " through the motions " last night.I tried to get tickets for their last gig 3 years ago but failed and I tried to get tickets for Accept At Wacken this year because I had a tip off that Strat were the special guests so this gig was a HUGE one for me. I am not some bleedin' 15 or 17 year old drooling over their fav guitar heroes mate. I know what I,m saying and ,from what I heard after the gig, I am right.

If you say so.

My first time seeing Strato, thought they owned the night \m/

Venue was pretty nice i thought, kinda like Shepherd's Bush, twas a good evening apart from the journey back.

Also i enjoyed Shakra, don't usually like many support bands but they were kool.

I was also on the front row, though i got my camera confiscated for having a lens

I was there last night and I thought it was incredible.One of the bests gigs this year. The sound wa fine. I was in the gallery and took over 50 pics. It was an awesome night!

Lizzie, I was one of the three guys that were stood behind you in the queue from Hants.
We didn't have a good night I'm afraid.

lizzie wrote:I was there last night and I thought it was incredible.One of the bests gigs this year. The sound wa fine. I was in the gallery and took over 50 pics. It was an awesome night!

Are those pics online?

Totally different opinions here. At least you did get to see them. I await Fireblades report.
And, yes I'd like to see Pics!

Great gig!

LOL, I had bad luck with the train back too (damn repair works!), but it was worth it! Both Hammerfall and Strato gave awesome performances, and the crowd was great too. I'm so glad that they played mostly their older songs, and just three from the new album. I had to miss Destiny and Black Diamond to dash for the train though.



I'm in the middle

A few pics for you:



















Sorry about slight blurriness in some of them, I was pushed around in the moshpit. They would be perfect if I had a photo pass.

P.S. If anyone wants these in bigger resolution (for websites, etc.) let me know.

THANK YOU!! Those are magnificient! *thumbsup*

It seems they were really enjoying themselves! I love those BIG pics!

I can't see the pics at the mo cos work has blocked the links again

I'm sure they're good though

browneyedgirl wrote: THANK YOU!! Those are magnificient! *thumbsup*

It seems they were really enjoying themselves! I love those BIG pics!

I agree with you, very good pics to see for a while with Stratovana´s nice pics from Tilburg-gig. Just think what would´ve happened if you "Vivaldi" had the photopass.

Wow, sorry to hear you had a bad experience.

I don't know how small the venue was there in England, but the venues where I saw Strato were quite small as well. But they rocked an elephant's balls off nonetheless.

Oh man, they played "Eagleheart"? I would have loved to hear that! But looks like you guys didn't get "Land of Ice and Snow", so I don't mind so much the trade-off.

Those are some great pictures, in a way I'm glad my digital camera broke so I can get a better one and take much better pictures than the ones I had!

Fireblade, what sayeth you? I've been waiting to hear your account of the event!

But we also got Against The Wind, probably one of my fav songs of theirs

htcdude wrote:But we also got Against The Wind, probably one of my fav songs of theirs

Yeah that was amazing. But Twilight Symphony really blew my head off I have to say. I was astonished when they performed the middle bit that's on a string quartet in the recording on guitar, bass and keys I was honestly expecting the sample as is on Visions of Europe! Really well performed. Also, in Forever they added the keyboards which gave so much depth to an already beautiful piece.

In fact, they didn't do a single thing wrong. Absolutely stunning. And I was equally amazed when Timo Tolkki played the first solo of Black Diamond upsidedown, Michael Angelo style!

What a great pics!

htcdude,
I posted my pics on the chris jericho members board, under the name of elizabeth if you want to see them, in the games thread random stuff

I enjoyed myself very much

Kool pics

My pics are at www.pbase.com/htcdude not my best at all it was a poor night for photography

No Strato thought remember i got my confiscated

I must say that it was a awesome gig...strat played brilliantly. I saw them in 2003 and this was a lot better,venue was bigger(holds around 1500 ppl).and i thought it was great .....and if you was a little tight were you was standing why didnt you move somewere diffrent like goto floor level(great atmophere).
Anyways heres a vid of Forever i took..no zoom but its shows what the venue was like and the sound was spot on.

Click here to watch Stratovarius-Forever-Koko-Club-London-7-11-05

Cool video. I'd like to download it in mpg not just stream though...

d3athang3l wrote:I must say that it was a awesome gig...strat played brilliantly. I saw them in 2003 and this was a lot better,venue was bigger(holds around 1500 ppl).and i thought it was great .....and if you was a little tight were you was standing why didnt you move somewere diffrent like goto floor level(great atmophere).
Anyways heres a vid of Forever i took..no zoom but its shows what the venue was like and the sound was spot on.

Click here to watch Stratovarius-Forever-Koko-Club-London-7-11-05

I saw them in 2003 as well... this was MUCH better... not as if the gig in 2003 wasn't good... absolutely amazing.

NeonVomit wrote:

d3athang3l wrote:I must say that it was a awesome gig...strat played brilliantly. I saw them in 2003 and this was a lot better,venue was bigger(holds around 1500 ppl).and i thought it was great .....and if you was a little tight were you was standing why didnt you move somewere diffrent like goto floor level(great atmophere).
Anyways heres a vid of Forever i took..no zoom but its shows what the venue was like and the sound was spot on.

Click here to watch Stratovarius-Forever-Koko-Club-London-7-11-05

I saw them in 2003 as well... this was MUCH better... not as if the gig in 2003 wasn't good... absolutely amazing.

damn right ...oh and if anyone knows were i can upload these vids cause i have a couple of em so you can download the mpeg.

d3athang3l wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:

d3athang3l wrote:I must say that it was a awesome gig...strat played brilliantly. I saw them in 2003 and this was a lot better,venue was bigger(holds around 1500 ppl).and i thought it was great .....and if you was a little tight were you was standing why didnt you move somewere diffrent like goto floor level(great atmophere).
Anyways heres a vid of Forever i took..no zoom but its shows what the venue was like and the sound was spot on.

Click here to watch Stratovarius-Forever-Koko-Club-London-7-11-05

I saw them in 2003 as well... this was MUCH better... not as if the gig in 2003 wasn't good... absolutely amazing.

damn right ...oh and if anyone knows were i can upload these vids cause i have a couple of em so you can download the mpeg.

www.yousendit.com

Enter you r own email address, then post the link here

udo999 wrote:The bloody train home took ages and I got to bed about 3.00 this morning.

oh, come on man, I sometimes go for a trip to see one band, which last over 30 hours - no sleep, no bed, only trains, waitnig for a changes, and after gig walking around for half night and waiting for the train back...
Last time I went to another country, I was away home for about 32 horus, just to see Gamma Ray live for 2 hours...
But I understand you, you may be dissapointed if it had been like you wrote...

But we also got Against The Wind, probably one of my fav songs of theirs

So did we, that was great. As long as I got one song from each of my two favorite Strato albums, Visions and Fourth Dimension, I was going to be happy. So to get two Fourth Dimension songs and three from Visions...I don't mind that much that I didn't get to hear "Eagleheart". Maybe next time.

Electric Eye wrote:

udo999 wrote:The bloody train home took ages and I got to bed about 3.00 this morning.

oh, come on man, I sometimes go for a trip to see one band, which last over 30 hours - no sleep, no bed, only trains, waitnig for a changes, and after gig walking around for half night and waiting for the train back...
Last time I went to another country, I was away home for about 32 horus, just to see Gamma Ray live for 2 hours...
But I understand you, you may be dissapointed if it had been like you wrote...

We didn't get in until 6:00 in the morning when we saw Strato in New York City. Work was bloody hell the next day! :tired:

Heres some vid clips for you to download......all in mpg vcd quality.....get them quick Oh and there big files

Half a bass solo and fathertime(cuts of at the end...run out of memory stick )

http://s60.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=31C6 ... SX7FD1C8JV

Forever.

http://s46.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2BN0 ... OXYW2RCBMU

Black Diamond

http://s60.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0KAB ... 3GS8JIXFWK

And for all you hammerfall fans At the end of the Rainbow.

http://s59.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3JED ... V94RCQLK65

Enjoy