After Freedom Call we were well-dressed for some power metal, and so when main act Gamma Ray, which arguably is one of the best power metal acts around, took the stage the roof was nearly lifted off of KB as hundreds (or how many we were) of voices sang in unison to the familiar songs.

Taking into account that KB doesn’t have the largest stage in the world, I was impressed at the amount of stage gimmicks Gamma Ray had brought along; there were painted clothes all over and special lights and stuff leading up to the slightly elevated drums in the middle.
Another feature which caught my eye was the fact that the whole (visible) band was wearing if not identical then at least matching outfits for the show, something at least I can’t recall Gamma Ray ever doing before.
Other than that the show went pretty much as one could expect, which is definitely a good thing as Kai Hansen and the boys make up a great live band by my standards!

The well-known chanting along to the songs started out well in New World Order, and carried on and only grew louder (and slightly more hoarse) as the night grew on and the beers flowed in.
True to their nature, Gamma Ray also offered some pauses to the normal song-after-song setup, first with a drumsolo by Dan Zimmermann, and later (during Armageddon) a prolonged guitar-solo by Mr. Hansen himself. The drum-solo was unsurprisingly technically well-executed, but in my opinion it lacked connection with the crowd; towards the end where some backing music played along to the solo this changed towards the better, but it never grew completely perfect.
Hansen decided to go for humour as well as technicality for his part, largely displayed by the fact that the guitar he changed into for the event was painted with an image of Spongebob Squarepants!
These two weren’t the only ones who were given time to shine however; for No Need To Cry Dirk Schlächter took a lone spot on the stage with an acoustical guitar and sang his part of the song quite excellently, except for a short venture into falsetto which didn’t completely work out.
Only Henjo Richter took a somewhat more anonymous part of the show this night, but still looked cool and composed in his own sort of way.

With first Freedom Call and then Gamma Ray, this concert was a complete win-win situation for me; both bands performed just the way they should and gave us all a great time to remember. My only question is, why wasn’t Man On A Mission played even though it was on the setlist?
Still, Gamma Ray was the clear winner in a battle where there really weren’t any losers.

Setlist:

Welcome
Gardens Of The Sinner
New World Order
Empathy
Deadlands
Fight
Mother Angel
No Need To Cry
The Saviour / Abyss Of The Void
Solo (Zimmermann)
Armageddon
To The Metal
Rebellion In Dreamland
I Want Out
Send Me A Sign