Report: Helloween @Helsingin Jäähalli

“I’m alive” was one of those moments that the crowd used to show their love for Michael Kiske and Helloween’s older songs. This track from “Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I” proved to still be an absolute winner amongst the long dated fans of the band that teamed up in singing, clapping and overall enjoying this track. Used this track to start steaming out their excitement about this gig.

Jumping further in the band’s career,  it was Andi Deris ‘ time to bound / make closer connection / closely interact with the audience, playing “If I could Fly” from the 2001 album “Dark Ride”.  The interaction with singular elements of the crowd that surrounded the stage cat walk and the display of a superb light show turned this into another particularly special moment for the audience.

The career display / Walk through the band’s career  continued and it was time to visit the 2010 album “7 Sinners”. The  heavier and crowd teaser tune “Are you metal?” proved to really activate not only the audience but also the band. That with all the band elements moving so much back and forward almost ended up in Andi Deris bumping on the wall of guitar players that was formed unexpectedly behind him. Not a serious incident but that allowed to see the jolly mood amongst the band. Between short breaks were Seth and Doc kept everyone entertained, Michael Kiske even attacked by some flu virus continued together with the rest of the band to exhibit a skilled live performance playing another classic “Rise and Fall” ( Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part II)

“Waiting for the Thunder” taken from their 2013 album “Straight Out of Hell” was the next track selected for this tour lineup, this track was performed by Andi while Markus Grosskopf randomly trowed picks at the audience.

Their 1994 album “Master of the Rings” was not forgotten and upon a proper intermission to allow Andi to dress up for the occasion, it was the turn to entertain the audience with “Perfect Gentleman”. Wearing a classy top hat, cane and glittering coat Andi managed to keep the sold out venue in a very interactive spirit.

The jukebox that popped up in the intermission between songs entertained and kept the audience in suspense to what follows in the selected setlist. Also, the mention of  going old school in a band with this caliber is a guaranteed trigger for elation.

The first ballad from this setlist was “Forever and One (Neverland)” from  2003 album “The Time of the Oath” , and even though the ending of the track by Sascha ‘s solo came short due to guitar problems, the experienced band handled it perfectly fine.The second ballad of the night was “A Tale That Wasn’t Right”, taken from the “Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I”. At this moment you can witness a rebel and old school attitude with Kai Hansen lighting up a cigarette on stage. While Kiske claimed he didn’t had much voice left from this song, he nailed the first high pitch notes and even with half way troubles to hold some notes the song and with the help of the audience singing alone the song was another success of this night.

From their 1988 album “Better Than Raw” they selected “I can” and it was performed in glittery cloth to illuminate the stage. Even though Kiske’s flu started to show up and with some vocals fading away, he quickly recovered, keeping the good interaction with the band. In this track mainly with Andi and Markus.

A very special moment followed with a drums duel between Daniel and an old footage from Ingo. This was a nice way to immortalise and show some respect for the first drummer of the band, that unfortunately committed suicide few years after he was dismissed from the band. This few minutes homage was very welcomed by the audience that clapped for Daniel while he mimicked what Ingo was doing in the shown video. The massive drum kit structure that Daniel uses, with two big drum bass hanging high on his side, made this little moment even more stunning.

A gigantic clock in the background nicely synchronized with the song, was a nice visual opener to “A little Time”. For this one Kiske sat down at the end of the catwalk making it an even more intimate moment shared with the audience. This selected position also led to an amusing moment since he was kind of wrapped around the guitar player and eventually needed a hand to stand up.

“The Sole Survivor” from 1994 album “Master of the Rings” was a instigator of energy in a crowd that was faithfully standing for few hours at this moment.  The following tracks “Power” (from “The Time of the Oath” , 1986) and “How Many Tears” ( “Walls of Jericho” , 1987 ), which Andi claimed to be the first song he ever listened from Helloween,  were an equally  discharge of energy not only from the band but also from the audience.

After the encore some technical problems with Sasha microphone were noticeable and Kiske ‘s health status seems to be more afflicting, with him going around and sitting on the stage here and there.

There was a short intermission that they used to sing the “Blue swede shoes by elvis that they pulled off quite nicely, after some initial laughter amongst the band, showing once more the good mood and vibes that they transmitted as a group.

 From the audience reactions it was obvious that “Keeper of the Seven Keys” is still one of the dearest songs by Helloween. This was proven when upon Kiske voice lacking half way the song the audience imedialty backed him up to sing it in unison.

The show was clearly approaching its terminus as the band introduces themselves and leave the stage one by one with a non stopped clapping audience.

They came back for what was clearly the end of the show with a guitar solo by Kai Hansen, and their most welcomed classics  “Future World” (Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I) and “I Want Out”  (Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part II). The last song was the climax of an almost three hour show and orange and black balloons were thrown upon the audience.