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 Gent
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 1997 16:39:44 +0100
Dio in Vooruit, Gent (Belgium) 04.03.97
After the Amsterdam show, I drove to Belgium where Ad is from, where I should help him in getting on-line the next day. After we succeeded in doing so, we went to Gent, which was 1,5 hour driving from his house.
The venue was really beautifull; the outside and it's situation I mean. A big decorated building, with a canal flowing at the front. Maybe a bit comparable to the Paradiso. The Paradiso is an old church, as has a canal at the back. I think 'Vooruit' in Gent must have been -or still is?- a theathre or something. Nice looking inside too. A pity that -on the contrary to the night before- this time the balcony was closed.
I don't know whether there was a support band, but anyway we missed it. When Dio came on the audience went mad again. Tracy G was better than yesterday I think. This time without bandana, but still holding a guitar. During one of the first songs Dio put on a devil cap, with two horns sticking out. Only for ten seconds or so, but long enough to get my attention. :-)
The mix was better, and the overall sound more crisp than in Amsterdam. The setlist was identical again, except for Tracy's solo spot being a bit different.
I don't know if Dio saw Deep Purple live last year, but he also used these stroboscope effects. Also he used a red light effect at one song, in which he looked really evil. I read that he wants to get away from that, that he wants to make a shift towards less singing about evil, monsters, castles and rainbows, but appearently he's not so resolute that he stops using this stuff for the show. Of course, the audience wouldn't accept it.In a Dutch paper I read a small Dio article which said: "I think the world needs something entirely different to shake the current rockmusic awake. A totally new instrument for I care, that everyone first needs to learn to play. I mean, there must rise a new band that makes music that everybody hates. Of course it has to be a young band, 'cause you can't teach an old dog new tricks"
Well, I think 'Angry Machines' sounds rather different as I said before. Maybe he's right about a new young band with something new, but that's hard to establish when those younger guys have examples like Ronnie James! He is still great, and I sure hope to see him live again.
Fedor
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