 I wanted to attend this live for two reasons, besides of course the fact that I like a lot both bands. Each reason concerns each band. First for Firewind was that I wanted so much to see a Greek band that metallers worldwide make such a fuss over its name, with Gus G. being a modern guitar hero. The second about Kamelot, was whether they could present us on stage all these theatricality and emotions flowing from their albums.
Unfortunately the opening time was not marked on the ticket so I only got to see half of Firewind's show and judging from that and from what I was told by the others they delivered a very good live performance. Without necessarily focusing on their latest studio effort, they included in their set tracks from all their works so far and performed intensively, passionately and with an urge to satisfy the crowd of Gus' hometown, who responded to this call and sang on almost all songs creating a very exciting atmosphere. The sound was very good and same was Firewind's performance on stage, proving that the fuss around their name isn't just incidental, but they have more to offer in the near future and the potential to do so.
I wasn't fully covered though, concerning the second reason I went to this show, mostly due to Khan's poor interpretation, who is one of my favorite singers by the way. His below-bar show could be attributed to his tiredness, apparent but unexplained, but he really didn't seem to be well. Anyhow they kicked off with a girl playing the "Ghost Opera" intro amidst smoke and then the band throwed in some songs from all the albums that Roy Khan sings. Their presence on stage and  setup was flawless (except Khan that is), communicating very often with the audience and the sound of each instrument and also on the whole was crystal clear. All of them but Tom Youngblood carried out a solo piece and at the end they came out two times for encore. The crowd didn't actually respond the same way like with Firewind, but it was rather cold and distant with the Americans, who nonetheless showed pure professionalism, with only weak point being Khan's poor condition. Unluckily for Kamelot, the magic and beauty of their songs is based to a high degree on his interpretation.
P.S. The thing with the cameras and cell-phones with cam has gone too far. We go to a concert to view the band and have fun and not watching a raising hand trying to shoot a photo. At some point there were 15 persons in the front rows shooting with a cam and blocking the view of all those behind them.
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