Doro Pesch's concerts are always distinguished by their simplicity. There is no superfluous pomposity, no enormous stage sets, no conceptual narrative, no costume changes. There is a not-very-tall woman on stage with an astonishing energy and a unique gift for transforming the hall into a unified space — extraordinarily warm and welcoming. And most importantly, that space lives as one with the stage. In principle, once you have been to her show, you always know what to expect next time — and that very predictability only increases the chances of coming back. Even despite the fact that the set lists barely change from year to year. Why do people keep attending her concerts? Let us also say, without any sentimentality, that her performances always take place at a very high level, and there is a particular sincerity to them.
The moscow concert this year was no exception. Even the modest size of the venue did nothing to diminish it. The concert had originally been scheduled for the Tochka club; owing to renovation work there, the venue became the small hall of the Milk club (fortunately, that hall happened to be free on this Saturday). Outside the entrance one could observe a rather amusing spectacle: two separate queues stood for the club's two halls — the larger for TRACTOR BOWLING, the smaller for DORO. Which crowd belonged to which was immediately apparent; the two audiences were quite distinct both in appearance and in age. The majority of Doro Pesch's supporters have, at minimum, crossed the thirty-year mark. And her set lists reflect that fact. No fewer than half the songs come from the WARLOCK repertoire — the band in which Doro sang in the 1980s — and this is especially true at concerts like the present moscow one, not tied to a tour in support of a new album. The reason is straightforward: the age of the audience. Many heard Doro Pesch for the first time as part of WARLOCK; moreover, the singer's solo work has not achieved the same level of success, even though in terms of genre it is often more distinctive and considerably more varied. But people love WARLOCK and rather less so her solo output, and from this objective fact she constructs the set lists of her performances. She is not alone in this — Udo Dirkschneider operates similarly, performing ACCEPT songs; Ozzy incorporates BLACK SABBATH into his sets; Kim Bendix Petersen includes MERCYFUL FATE songs in the KING DIAMOND show.
So, the current concert amounted to what you might call a Best Of... setlist. The traditional intro and the first riffs of Earthshaker Rock, immediately followed by I Rule The Ruins — personally, when I hear this song live, I immediately associate it with the version arranged for string orchestra; but in the traditional heavy metal arrangement it sounds just as magnificent. And two more classic WARLOCK barnstormers — Fight for Rock and Burning The Witches. The witch-burning prompted an extraordinary reaction from the by-now fully packed hall. It should be noted, however, that there was no crushing at all — on the contrary, the atmosphere on the dance floor was very positive; the only difficulty people encountered was fighting their way to the bar. But I digress from the concert — which was still going! Doro nonetheless gratified fans of her solo work with a couple of compositions: Running From The Devil and The Night Of Warlock. In recent years the singer's set lists have regularly featured two covers; one of them is the monumental composition by the great Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P.) — Egypt (The Chains Are On).
Then came a simply fantastic surprise — the ballad Without You, one of WARLOCK's most brilliant compositions, which had not been performed live for many years. But Doro did not let the hall grow maudlin for long, performing True As Steel and then, arguably, her most celebrated solo composition — Burn It Up. Following this two-minute, astoundingly energetic piece came another salvo from the WARLOCK era: Metal Racer, Hellbound, and between them, of course, Für Immer, Doro's best-known ballad.
The vocalist devoted a long passage to Wacken Open Air; after a string of superlatives about the world's greatest metal festival, Doro announced the performance of the Wacken Anthem, We Are The Metalheads. In the original this song is performed by the band SKYLINE — unique in that it plays once a year and consists of the W.O.A. organisers. Their own Wacken tributes exist from Chris Boltendahl (GRAVE DIGGER), Onkel Tom (SODOM, ONKEL TOM), and Udo Dirkschneider (U.D.O.). In the previous year 2011, it was Doro who effectively opened the legendary festival after performing several SKYLINE songs of her own. What is striking is that Doro Pesch performs with equal organic ease in a small club, a large hall, and a giant open-air. I say this with full confidence, having seen her concerts at the Gorbusha, at the Tochka, and now in the small hall of Milk — and also having seen her at Wacken itself this very year, where I could not fail to note the supreme level of professionalism that allows her to perform on any stage and still achieve maximum contact with the audience, regardless of its size.
Haunted Heart — a soundtrack song from a film in which Doro played a role — concluded with an extended drum solo. There were also premieres: Raise Your Fist, a composition from the forthcoming album. Then came the second cover of the concert — Breaking The Law by JUDAS PRIEST. A quite unusual version: Doro essentially sings the song twice — first in a ballad arrangement, then in the full heavy electric version; on the original recording she has both a string orchestra and Udo Dirkschneider to assist her. The song is received with delight year after year by JUDAS PRIEST fans; in the current tour, incidentally, Rob Halford does not sing a single line of that legendary composition, offering the entire thing to the hall instead — so Doro made up for that. All We Are crowned the main portion of the concert, but five more tracks had been held back for the encore: Unholy Love, and the rather unexpected Herzblut from the solo catalogue, plus East Meets West and Metal Tango — from WARLOCK. The two-hour concert concluded with the song Doro addresses to her fans: You're My Family.
To summarise briefly: with the best will in the world there is almost nothing to find fault with — and what is especially gratifying is that the sound was simply excellent. And after a concert like this it becomes clear why Doro year after year draws people to her shows, maintaining a following that may not be vast but is extraordinarily loyal.
Setlist:
- Earthshaker Rock (Warlock cover)
- I Rule the Ruins (Warlock cover)
- Fight for Rock (Warlock cover)
- Burning the Witches (Warlock cover)
- Running From the Devil
- The Night of the Warlock
- Egypt (The Chains Are On) (DIO cover)
- Without You (Warlock cover)
- True as Steel (Warlock cover)
- Burn It Up
- Metal Racer (Warlock cover)
- Für Immer (Warlock cover)
- Hellbound (Warlock cover)
- Wacken Hymne — We Are the Metalheads (Skyline cover)
- Haunted Heart / Drum Solo
- Raise Your Fist (new song)
- Breaking the Law (Judas Priest cover)
- All We Are (Warlock cover)
Encore: 19. Unholy Love 20. East Meets West (Warlock cover) 21. Herzblut 22. Metal Tango (Warlock cover) 23. You're My Family
Special thanks to Spika Concert Agency and personally to Vera Dmitrieva for the accreditation provided