Gamma Ray - BB King Blues Club – NYC -  May 5, 2006

 

 Gamma Ray is one of the few bands that we had not seen before that we always wanted to, and never expected to have a chance. When we found out that they were doing a short North American Tour including a stop at BB King Blues Club in NYC we were thrilled! Finally, the chance to see the legend that is Kai Hansen in action!

Imagine our happiness when we were also approved for photo passes AND an interview with Kai, we were beyond thrilled!!! We were also very happy to discover that our friends in the band Arctic Flame would be opening the night’s metal festivities. Also on the bill would be Canadian band Into Eternity. 

 

 On our way to the venue we got a call from Bridget Moyer at Chipster Entertainment informing us that we may not get a full interview but a more informal type thing…meeting the band, taking pictures, etc. We were still very happy with this news, once again just having the chance to meet such an innovative and legendary band as Gamma Ray. 

 

 We arrived at the venue shortly after doors opened, picked up our photo passes and asked for Sascha, the band’s tour manager. We were sent to the backstage area where we were met by Sascha, and informed that yes, we would have a full interview! Sascha sent us back up front to obtain “ALL ACCESS” passes. There was a little confusion at the door as we were just on the list for photo passes only, however thanks to BB King’s security manager Jerry, everything went smoothly and he hooked us up with the all access passes…a HUGE thank you goes out to him!!!

 

 We met Sascha once again and he introduced us to Dirk Schlachter, the band’s bassist, who then escorted us to the band’s dressing room, where the legend himself Kai Hansen was sitting along with guitarist Henjo Richter. We had a pleasant surprise when we saw our website on the band’s laptop…how cool is that?! After all introductions, we sat down with the band and conducted our interview, mostly with Kai. We must say that Sascha, and the members of Gamma Ray were very accommodating and great to talk to. After the interview we went out and talked to our friends in Arctic Flame and hung out with them in their dressing room for a bit. We also ran into our usual crowd of metal friends that we seem to run into at all of the local shows. One nice surprise was getting a chance to hang out and bang heads with our friend Mike (aka Scramble) and his significant other, Elizabeth from the Rob Halford Quorum. 

 

 So on with the show…Arctic Flame kicked it off with a very energetic set which seemed to get the crowd going. Now the venue at this point was a little more than half full, but the band got a great response from the crowd, which we were very happy to see, as we think these guys are fantastic. After their set we got to speak with them for a few more minutes and we were presented with a copy of their first full length CD. Can you imagine our surprise and happiness when we found out that they used some of our live pictures we had taken of them in the past on the CD booklet!!! We thought it was so cool of the guys and they also gave us a photo credit in the booklet. Look for great things from Arctic Flame, as their name is really starting to get out there!

 

 Into Eternity was next up. Now we have seen these guys quite a few times opening for several of our favorite bands that played at BB King (Stratovarius, Hammerfall, etc). The band played a decent set which included a couple of their newer songs, which we must say, we were quite impressed with. Seems like each time we see these guys, they grow on us more and more. We are actually looking forward to the next time they come around. During the course of the night we actually had a chance to chat with a few of the band members and they were very cool to us. 

 

 Last up was the highlight of the night and the show that we have been waiting our whole lives to see…the almighty Gamma Ray took the stage and the crowd went absolutely berserk! We have been to many New York City shows, and the crowds always seem to go nuts, but this time they went over the edge!!! The band seemed to be loving it and really enjoying themselves up on stage. The entire band sounded fantastic and Kai’s voice was great in hitting all the high notes…anyone that knows their metal knows that Kai Hansen has a very distinctive voice! The setlist consisted of songs spanning the band’s entire career, but the highlights for us were Heavy Metal Universe (one of Bill’s favorites), Blood Religion, Send Me a Sign, and a GREAT, crowd pleasing rendition of the Helloween classic I Want Out. The entire set list was as follows:

 

Welcome

Gardens of the Sinner

New World Order

Fight

Blood Religion

Armageddon

Heavy Metal Universe

The Silence

I Want Out

Rebellion In Dreamland/Land of the Free

 

Encore 1

Valley of the Kings

Somewhere out in Space

 

Encore 2

Send Me a Sign

 

 After the show was over, we once again to hang backstage for a bit and get a couple more pictures with the band and some autographs. The only complaint/gripe that we would have at all is that the show wasn’t sold out. You think with such a legendary metal band that has never toured in the US, except for a ProgPower stop in 2002, that this show would have sold out instantly, but it did not. Don’t get us wrong, they had a great crowd, we have heard an estimate of about 600. We believe that it was way more than that, at least it seemed that way to us. Come on all you metalheads, get on the ball if you want to see these great bands tour over here!!! Don’t let metal go the way it did in the early nineties!!! As Kai Hansen told us himself, Metal is NOT DEAD and don’t let it ever die! Just a little over a week after this show, we flew to Minnesota to also see Gamma Ray. Our sis in metal and Minnesota native Lori “MaidenDio” did a fantastic review of that show for our site, and also took some great pix. 

 

 In closing…we need to thank the following:

 

 First off a huge thank you to Bridget Moyer from Chipster Entertainment for setting everything up and calling us while we were on our way into the city. 

 

 The staff at BB King’s especially security manager Jerry, and publicity manager Rena for helping us out as always.

 

 Sascha, Gamma Ray’s tour manager for helping with the all access passes and interview.

 

 Last, but certainly not least: thanks to Kai Hansen, and the rest of the guys (Dirk, Henjo and Daniel) in Gamma Ray for being so accommodating and just so cool to talk to. We really hope to see you guys again here in the US!!!