Dio concert review; March 3rd, 1997 by Fedor de Lange

The following is a review of a Dio show on the second leg of Angry Machines European tour, originally mailed to me. Republished here with permission from the author. I had to edit the layout a little bit for better outlook on web, but all the information is still intact.


From: Fedor de Lange (f.delange@mail1.remote.uva.nl)
Subject: Dio in Paradiso
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 1997 16:39:43 +0100

Dio - Paradiso, Amsterdam (Netherlands) 03.03.97

Before the concert Ad and I went to the American to see if Dave was there. And of course, we found him at the bar :-) together with Peter from Rotterdam. After a drink at the American, the four of us went to the Paradiso, which took only two minutes to walk. We were a bit late, in the sense that we missed the support act, which I believe was 'Lamur Voice' or something, a Dutch band.

In a packed Paradiso -I guess it was nearly sold out- the lights went down, and the little giant made his appearance. The setlist was identical to the Scandinavian one:

encore:

The show was good. It was the first time for me to see Dio live, and he didn't dissatisfy me! I think his voice was a little bit down in the mix, which was a pity. I lost Peter and Dave in the crowd, but I met some people I knew from concerts, so that was also fun.

To be honest I'm not that familiar with all Dio's albums, but there was enough I recognized. The audience was very enthousiastic I think. A lot of arms in the air, singing along, and of course, a lot of 'devil-signs', both from Dio and his public.

Vinnie Appice was playing thight, as was the bass player of whom I forgot the name. Tracy G. was clear in the mix, and playing heavy. With his hand in a fist holding the plectrum, and with the bandana, he looked like a real rock animal. A mixture of Sandokan and a wood-sawyer.

The keyboards were hard to hear. In some songs not, like 'Last in Line', of which the keyboards reminded me of a song of Whitesnake's 'Slip of the Tongue', possibly the intro of the titletrack.

Dio was in good shape. Dressed in black, and of course, with of black star sewed on his trousers. His voice was great and powerful. Too bad only a few songs of 'Angry Machines were played. I think it's a good album, sounding modern and different. No echo on a lot of the vocals and therefore maybe sounding a bit dry, but as a result it puts the emphasis on the agression and energy of the songs.

The show was rather short. 83 minutes. Well, a little bit more improvisation, or some strange vocal stuff would have been extra cool. After the show Dave recognized the soundguy, who was according to Dave the same as worked for Deep Purple during the past US-tour.

Fedor


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