Manowar Resurgence

So, yesterday me, Arnoc and Alisa had arranged to head over to the Magic Circle Festival in order to see some bands that each of us liked. Vadim wanted to see Stormwarrior, Alisa Majesty and me mostly for Gamma Ray but since I had the chance, [tag]Manowar[/tag] for the first time. In the past I’ve always avoided Manowar concerts because of the overwhelming feeling of suck most people informed me of.

We initially planned to meet close to [tag]Arnoc[/tag]’s place at around 10:30 so that we would be there at around 12. Unfortunately Frankfurt had other plans for us. There was a big extreme-right (read neo-nazis) march going on at the time and as a result Alisa got stuck in the Train. We decided to go and pick her up but the whole ordeal set us back almost 2.5 hours as most of the roads were blocked (Helicopters flying everywhere and shit).

Eventually we got on the road and reached the concert with me doing the DJ for half the trip on Arnoc’s iPood. 2 Hours later we were at the concert.

We had to pay 5 more euros to go into the parking grounds (as if there was any other way for people to come to the concert except by car) and got to park in the other side of the world. After a long time we reached the festival grounds where we met some more friends and got to shopping. Among other stuff I bought (A new Tie, a new wrist spiked-leather, a new Finger spiked-leather etc) I finally decided to buy a ring (FYI I only ever had one in the past and that lasted for about 3 hours until I lost it). Looking around I found a suitable candidate and just went with my impulse and chose one with the Meandros decoration.

I will not go into many details on the bands that played but I just wanted to make a note about Manowar. Now initially I was not really so keen on seeing them live as I’ve heard from others that their concerts pretty much suck but this time seemed to be different.

First of all, as we were waiting for the soundcheck to finish the new Manowar promoter came out and asked the crowd to start shouting classic Manowar cries. They were making a DVD you see and needed the crowd to be very enthusiastic. Now ignoring how hypocritical the whole thing is, when you have to ask your fans to shout so that you can film them, this meant that the whole festival was going to be that much grander as a result. This actually explained the very low price tag on the ticket (11 euros). They were trying to get a large turnout of people for the DVD. At least that was to everyone’s benefit.

Unfortunately thing started to sour when we ended up waiting for 30 more minutes after the time the gig was about to start. It got to the point, 20 minutes in the waiting that we were just about to get up and leave in dusgust.

Fortunately for us they got on the stage 5 minutes before our breaking threshold. I do not know if it was my frquent shouts of “Heute” but I like to think so 🙂

The thing did prove to be everything I was expecting. They turned on the show with quite a bit invested in the look. Moving lights, Flames, Smoke and all the rest. They were giving their best for a good DVD experience while also playing classic Manowar classics to everyone’s (including mine) delight.

At around the middle of the show there was a pause where DeMaio came on the stage to announce the winners of some internet contest (pics, video etc) where the best of them won a Chopper! Classic to the Manowar sexist theme, they were more interested in how well the winner’s (girl) ass looked on the bike than anything else, but I guess she di not care to complain at the time.

Then he read a (pretty awful) poem and he invited a member of the front line to play the guitar with them which he would be able to subsequently keep. I’d love to think that this is what happens during all Manowar concerts but I’m pretty certain it doesn’t. Continuing with the sexist remarks he then invited some girls from the crowd to come and…encourage the guy (promising him he would get to fuck them all today no less). Not surprisingly, all the girls came from the side and almost all of them were hot. The whole thing was so fishy that I started to think that the guy they invited up was also one of their own (they wouldn’t want someone who could not play good guitar would they?) as he was also wearing a white shirt which is a) pretty uncommon in a Metal gig and b) stands out really really well in a crowd of people wearing almost exclusively Black, Blue (jeans) or Manowar T-Shirts. Things that make you say hmmm… eh?

The funniest part was when some of the girls they invited on the stage started showing off their boobs to which a surprised Eric Adams exclaimed “What the fuck!?” in the middle of the song 😉

In any case, Demaio then announced that next year’s Summer, as the 20th year after cranking out the Kings of Metal album, they are going to have the biggest and baddest Manowar concert ever. For the three days it is going to last, they are going to be signing autographs for the whole of the first day while allowing fans to stay in during the soundchecks. The second and third day they are going to play 6 full albums back to back. Battle Hymns, Into Glory Ride, & Hail to England during the first day and Sign of the Hammer,Fighting the World & Kings of Metal in the second. I honestly have no idea how they are going to pull this off but it will show us if all those muscles actually mean anything 🙂

They are also going to give away their chopper bikes through a lottery that people who buy a ticket will be able to participate and they are also going to give away 20k of free beers!

Now this whole thing: free motorcycles, free drinks, online video and pictures contest, free guitars, hot chicks on the stage (ok that’s not new for Manowar)…Well I’ll be damned, there does indeed seem to be one band who has started to get the hint, although I’m guessing it is not their own idea but rather their new promoter’s. They have seemed to realize that the money will not come from just selling CDs so they’re cranking up the promotion to the max (that is the reason for the new DVD) and creating an amazing experience so that word of mouth spreads far and wide.

Who doesn’t believe that next years concert will be sold out in a very short amount of time even with a more expensive price tag? Who is willing to bet that Manowar CD sales will not suddenly pick up after this stunt? There will be tons of people that will want to have an authentic signed CD and the fact that they will be signing for one full day…Hoo-ey!

So there you have it, Manowar who were practically absent for the last 10 years suddenly come back with a vengeance and start doing things in the “new and improved” way. This is the way that things will have to start being done if bands want to survive.