Headlining Germany’s invasion of the Swedish south this evening was Edguy, the forever trickster of power metal. I’d already gotten my money’s worth out of Freedom Call, and now I was curious to see if Edguy would add something to the evening, or just go full silly. You should never go full silly.

“Inhabitants of Malmö, we are Edguy from Deutschland and we are here to turn this Sunday into a Saturday night!”
- Tobias Sammet (vocals)

After an odd intro sounding like a theremin at first and ending in a speech about defenders of the crown, the band walked on to loud cheers from the rather well-packed hall. Immediately, Edguy dived into Love Tyger, the first song from the latest album to get the video treatment, after which they followed up with one of the title tracks (both were played during the evening) before seeking back to some Superheroes action.
The 12 songs long set, which honestly isn’t very much for a headliner, incorporated songs from several albums, but one thing the band didn’t really do was look to their roots – Vain Glory Opera was as far back as it stretched, which was fine of course, but other than that they never reached further back than Mandrake. Maybe Sammet feels uncomfortable with the high notes of old?

The band certainly wasn’t uncomfortable on stage performing though – Sammet made a quick move already in the first song pushing the monitors to the very edge of the stage so that they would have more room to move about on, and move about they did! Sammet and all of the string-benders were constantly throwing power-poses or ventured to the edge of the stage, and yet it was again Felix Bohnke behind the drums that managed to steal the show. To hell with the fact that the drum solo took up far too much time of the concert, this is still one guy who really knows how to entertain! When on the topic of the drum solo, I should also mention that even though it was lengthy beyond forgiveness, Bohnke had still managed to make it varied enough to save it from utter disaster – the Imperial March section with the inflated and radio controlled R2-D2 was a personal favourite.

Apart from this, Edguy gave us no less than two major sing-along sections to fill the time with as well. The first, a prolonged outro for Defenders Of The Crown, and the second, a "hey hey" marathon in Vain Glory Opera. To the latter Sammet scored some easy points as he said that it was the advanced technique needed from the audience that made them skip Stockholm on this tour and play here instead.
Stockholm wasn’t the only thing to get a sarcastic remark either, Sammet also made a snappy remark at Aftonbladet, a major Swedish news-paper, which apparently has called him homophobic. “How can I be homophobic”, he commented, “playing in a band with three gay people?” Which three he meant wasn’t delved deeper into.

He wasn’t unhappy with the Malmö crowd however, as well he shouldn’t – Malmö gave it all to make Edguy feel welcome. Hell, there even came a bra flying up to Sammet during Tears Of A Mandrake!
For my own part, I didn’t part way with any parts of my clothing, but I was positively surprised by the performance! Edguy navigated the thin line between humour and just too much, but contrary to several of Sammet’s recent shows, they stayed on the right side most of the time. A borderline effect was the spaceman balloon head that inflated during the final track, and the price for silliest part went to the inclusion of the Falco cover Rock Me Amadeus, but honestly, it wouldn’t be Edguy if it they didn’t misstep once in a while, would it?

Setlist:

Love Tyger
Space Police
Out Of Vogue
Superheroes
Defenders Of The Crown
Vain Glory Opera
Solo (Bohnke)
Ministry Of Saints
Rock Me Amadeus (Falco cover)
Tears Of A Mandrake
Lavatory Love Machine
Save Me
King Of Fools