We all know that Sabaton are doing well for themselves, but bringing such a classic band as Accept along as special guest on their The Last Tour tour, well, that sets another milestone marker for their success. And I’m sure at least some of the crowd in the sold-out Vega had come out to see this band as a primary factor.

“We had a day off here yesterday. You have such a beautiful city!”
- Mark Tornillo (vocals)

For my own sake, I can say that Accept is part of my history and upbringing. There are many fond memories there. On the other hand, Accept has never been a band that I actively followed, so having them here was fun mostly out of nostalgic reasons, but fun nonetheless.
Regardless of how you felt about the band, they sure filled their role as special guest, contrary to support band. They had brought along a huge stage build-up, making the stage look like a large industry zone, and the videoscreen background projected a church-like industrial building with a large band-logo across it.
Given that Sabaton had their own, even larger stage-build behind it, this didn’t leave too much room for the musicians, but I guess they were used to it as it didn’t seem to bother them at all.
Cheers arose as they took the stage, and smoke cannons erupted around the stage as soon as they were in place. We soon saw that this was a band filled with energy, and in a good mood. The two latest additions to the line-up, drummer Christopher Williams and guitarist Uwe Lulis both did a spectacular job. Williams showed great playfulness in his way of beating the drums, and Lulis was always smiling and had a good connection going with the crowd in front of him.
The old guard did good as well of course, with Peter Baltes (bass) and Wolf Hoffmann (guitar) keeping the energy up, moving about a lot, and headbanging. Hoffmann got to show off during the solos, but it was easy to see that it was more a fun game to him, than a show-of attitude. Just take the solo, or rather instrumental, section in Metal Heart, where the band jammed out a humorous and I believe extended version of Für Elise.
Tornillo on his hand, did his job as a frontman to the point. He did all he could to keep the energy up, spoke well to the crowd between songs, and delivered a powerful vocal performance.

Herein lies my greatest let-down of the show though. Even though Tornillo showed us what his windpipes were made of, a surprisingly bad sound hampered the impact of his delivery. You know that tinny sound you often get when listening to a demo tape without any real mastering or production value to it? That’s how the vocals came out this evening. Strange really, because everything else sounded really good. The sound tech’s managed to improve on it throughout the show, but it never got as good as the rest.
It wasn’t just this that kept me out of the show spirit though, as they say. I mean, the band was doing a good job, no doubt about it, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I was very much aware of being a spectator, instead of being engulfed in the atmosphere of the show. Well, up to a point anyway. You see, when the scratchy vinyl intro to Fast As A Shark came on, I couldn’t help but get a big smile on my lips, and “Heidi heido heida!” along with the rest of them, and from there on out, my feelings for the show warmed.
In regards to the rest of the crowd, there were certainly Accept fans among them. They cheered and bellowed between songs. They sang along to the “oh oh” sections which popped up in each and every song. They didn’t do too much else. Some arms were raised from time to time, and there were a few headbangers in the front row, but other than that, the sea of faces remained rather calm throughout the show. The Für Elise jam was one of the most well received gimmicks of the show, garnering loud cheers, and in Princess Of The Dawn Tornillo convinced the crowd to shout out the chorus, but overall Accept had to work for their money.

Even though it took some time before I surrendered myself to this dose of classical metal, I can’t deny the quality of the band’s work. True professionals, clearly doing something they love, this was a good testament as to why they are still around, and why they still hold a good status in true metal homes.
I don’t know, maybe the average age in here was too low to clearly know who they were dealing with, while on the other hand, the age of those who knew, put them outside of the wildest sections of the crowd? Whatever the reason, I had expected a larger response for the band, and find it hard to accept (pun of course intended) that, with all their hard work, they weren’t able to get the crowd going more than they did.

Setlist:

Stampede
Stalingrad
Restless And Wild
London Leatherboys
Final Journey
Princess Of The Dawn
Fast As A Shark
Metal Heart
Teutonic Terror
Balls To The Wall