Running Wild (Kaubeueren - 23.03.02)
Written by: Aleš Podbrežnik

Ten confirmed tour dates exclusively on north of Germany. Nothing in Running Wild tour practice didn't change for almost a decade. Therefore visiting the Kaufbeueren, as the southest tour point with its Saturday date, was a great opportunity to see Running Wild, the giants on German heavy metal scene for a 23 years now. A hellish cold day was windy and even snow began to fall. Having only ten tour dates in program is a good trick how to get a full visit of an audience. As we arrived into a lovely little town of Kaufbeueren, there wasn't almost a single person on a streets. We parked in front of "Zeppelinhale" and as the time was passing by, "the legions in black" were coming from all directions of Kaufbeueren filling the hall. I was very surprised with rich merchandise, offering us all sort of different articles which were low priced too.

Show began at 8:00 p.m. with support act called "Rebellion" presenting their first release "Macbeth". Band was founded this year by ex-Grave Digger guitarist Uwe Lulis, Tomi Götlich joining the band on bass guitar and real metal attraction on drums Randy Black who played drums on Annihilator new release "Waken The Fury". What we could hear was classic heavy metal, based on straight heavy metal riffing with acoustic passages. Unfortunately nothing new on a scene. Vocalist was showing us his great muscles, highly trained vocals, but that was all. Unexpressed singing. The biggest tragedy that could happened for a band was bad try of covering two Grave Digger classics "Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching)" and "William Wallace (The Braveheart)". There were no use of copying Chris Bolthendal's vocal, which is one of the greatest Grave Digger trademarks. As if somebody would try to sing like Ozzy, D. Coverdale, R. Plant or J.Oliva. There can be no copy of Grave Digger or "Uncle's Reaper" vocals. Good or bad. And if the "Rebellion" boys still don't know that fact, they're making a big mistake. I was dying for "Rebellion" to bring their show finally to an end. Their gig was complete disaster, presenting themselves as another cheap trick to pull some money from people by selling their (good and bad) copies of other bands originality. "Rebellion" played almost an hour.

Stage has been after 30 minutes of pause, finally prepared for Running Wild to step in for the kill. The blood was boiling in my veins, I was really excited. At one moment, the whole place was obscured by complete darkness and we could hear the tunes of taped intro called "March Of The Final Battle (The End Of All Evil)" from "Rivalry" release. I was asking myself if the band will strike with a "Rivalry". At the same moment the curtain raised with great pyrotechnical effects and we were "Welcome In Hell". Everybody in the hall ran wild. With no pause the band continued with "Bad To The Bone", a track which was on previous tour included as a part of encore stuff, followed by one of surprises a piece called "Lead Or Gold". I thought for a while that I was lost myself in fourth dimension, especially when the band played "Riding The Storm". After blowing our heads off, boys slowed down with "When Time Runs Out".

After the end of a song left Rock'n'Rolf the stage for a few moments. He changed his clothes and came back disguised as a rich man in tail-coat and silk hat. The band stroke with "The Brotherhood". A nice new track. But what followed after, was complete fairy tale to me. One of the highlights of the whole gig. Famous piece "Blazon Stone". It was played straight without intro riff.

Well in first row, there were a little group of Italian fans with "Victory" flag. They went totally mad and high on emotions. They helped in raising the atmosphere and the whole band felt that, so Rolf & co. get totally relaxed in expressing their feelings. That's what I was asking for. Running Wild did exactly what dictates their name of the band.

But atmosphere went down after boring "Crossfire" and the weakest song from "Black Hand Inn" called "Soulless". Then boys went behind the curtains for a refreshment. Of course Rock'n'Rolf did change his clothes again. Now he was prepared for a final battle like hussar. Meanwhile Mathias did his solo drums preparing scene for a crazy flowing pieces "Running Blood" and "Uaschitschun". The whole crowd was on fire again. Main part of gig was finished with "Unation" and "Victory". Classic fade out of the "Victory" detonated with a lot of pyrotechnical effects again.

"Prisoners Of Our Time" brought the band back on stage. I just still don't understand what "The Soulstrippers" was doin' in encore. Third piece was again something from the old Running Wild stuff. "Purgatory" is the piece that can be heard only on live release "Ready For Boarding" and is probably a "Granite Heart" heritage (1976-79) of the band.

Now what? Is it all over? Rolf returned on stage this time disguised as a pirate and Running Wild stormed for the last time with an iron piece "Under Jolly Roger". The whole gig lasted a little less than two hours. After the show we "chilled out" our heads listening to taped outro of E. Morricone's soundtrack from a film "My Name Is Nobody".

Nothing went wrong between the show, sound was perfect. It was a real pleasure that everybody from the audience could "take a row ride" in watching Running Wild giving their best to the fans. They were on fire and they were Running Wild. I was especially enthusiastic over the new guitarist Bernd Aufermann (ex-Angel Dust) who played all his guitar solos on his own way with his self home made guitar.

At the end I must mention some weak points of the show. First is that we didn't heard not a single track from albums "Masquerade" and "Rivalry". Second bad thing was Rolf's decision of including five songs from Running Wild latest release "The Brotherhood". Third weakness was continuous Rock'n'Rolf's disguising, which killed step by step the atmosphere between the show.

Anyway, I would like to all you metal maniacs, to have once in a lifetime opportunity to see one of those crazy Running Wild shows.

Running Wild set list:
--------------------------------------------------------- taped intro
1. March Of The Final Battle (The End Of All Evil)
---------------------------------------------------------
2. Welcome To Hell
3. Bad To The Bone
4. Lead Or Gold
5. Riding The Storm
6. When Time Runs Out
7. The Brotherhood
8. Blazon Stone
9. Crossfire
10. Soulless
11. Drum Solo
12. Running Blood
13. Uaschitschun
14. Unation
15. Victory
--------------------------------------------------------- 1st encore
16. Prisoners Of Our Time
17. Soulstrippers
18. Purgatory
--------------------------------------------------------- 2nd encore
19. Under Jolly Roger
--------------------------------------------------------- taped outro
20. My Name Is Nobody (music by E. Morricone)