I was speaking with a friend of mine this week and she was lamenting the price of concert tickets (which I completely get) and saying that she just never goes to shows these days. She mentioned $300 a ticket for nose bleed seats, naturally more if you bring a date/friend/child. She’s right, of course. That said, my boyfriend and I still make an effort to get to at least a few shows each year. This is where NOT listening to the same thing as everyone else has really come in handy. I can go see a band that I really enjoy (in today’s piece TWO great bands) for a price that isn’t going to cripple my budget. Still pricey, but doable. We had great seats (yes, seats) for $158 each including all fees (which are not insignificant) and taxes for two amazing bands: Helloween and their opener Beast in Black.
Helloween have been around for most of my life and are consistently included as part of the Big Four of Power Metal: Blind Guardian, Sabaton, Stratovarius, and Helloween. This is not as firm a ranking as the Big Four of Thrash (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax) as arguments can be made, and are, for Hammerfall, Gamma Ray (also founded by Helloween’s Kai Hansen), Rhapsody (of Fire), Dragonforce and Sonata Arctica. Of these second five for MY personal list I would only consider Hammerfall, but that’s just me. It is one of a music fan’s greatest joys in life, the debating over anything musical. I love it and I’m sure there are plenty of people reading this who also enjoy it. Everyone wave your respective freak flags!
Anyhow, getting back to the concert review. The show was held at one of San Francisco’s most classic theaters, The Warfield. It’s a gorgeous venue originally built as a vaudeville theater in 1922. It was named in honor of David Warfield who was a native San Franciscan, a successful silent film actor and the close friend of the theater’s builder, Marcus Loew. It holds just shy of 2500 patrons. I’ve seen so many amazing shows there. I saw the original Queensryche (yes, with Tate & DeGarmo) perform Operation Mindcrime in its entirety (making it very clear who truly killed Mary), I saw Dream Theater perform their first show without drummer Mike Portnoy, and it was the last place I saw Ronnie James Dio perform live (with Heaven & Hell in November of 2009). You need to be sharp in that neighborhood and keep your wits about you. As a tiny gal I make sure never to be alone, but don’t let the neighborhood scare you off from the amazing music regularly being performed at this San Francisco treasure. This was the first time, I will say, that I had dinner at the venue. Usually we opt for some yummy trendy local restaurant. However, neither my date or I wanted to chance missing the opener, Beast in Black so we made a point to get there early. WORTH IT!!! And, fun fact, the hot dogs were quite tasty.
Beast in Black is a Finnish band (fronted by a Greek). They are about to release their fourth album, which I am excited to see. They often show up in my workout mixes. They are a blending of of power metal, dance metal, melodic metal and heavy metal. Basically, pick your metal. They frequently play with dark fantasy themes, love and relationships, literature, societal issues and science fiction. Obviously, if you’ve read my site for very long, everything that I enjoy. In person they are warm and inviting, clearly having a GREAT time and possess an amazing energy on stage. That kind of energy is infectious and creates this magical positive feedback loop between the audience and the artist.
For a taste of what the band sounds like, here is their video for one of my favorite Beast in Black songs, Blind & Frozen:
Moving on to the headliner, Helloween. The band was formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1984. The musicians had all come from other bands. Initially founder Kai Hansen sang lead vocals (and he still lends a hand as one of THREE lead vocalists in the group today). In 1986 the band became a five-piece with the addition of Michael Kiske. Over the years, the band has gone through various line-up changes and in 1994 they added another lead singer, Andi Deris after Kiske’s departure. Today Helloween has taken a page out of Iron Maiden’s book (who also sports three lead guitarists) and performs as a septet. I’m copying and pasting from Wikipedia (God bless them) here so that you can click on any of the members for more story/information:
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This whole One Big Happy Family thing that Helloween (and Maiden) have going is a huge gift to all of us fans who love the band, in all their different eras and personnel variations. Also, you can see even from the audience that these guys truly like each other and love what they do. Big egos have been set aside and it’s all just about going on stage and giving the best possible performance that they can. Now, is Kai’s voice QUITE what it once was? No, but it’s pretty darn good and Kiske and Deris haven’t lost a step. Does Markus look a little fragile? He does but his playing is completely on point. I was in guitar heaven. Sascha Gerstner is a relative newcomer and clearly fits in with (and adds to) the band. Having the extended line-up means that the guys who actually recorded The Keeper of The Seven Keys 1987, the guys who were on Master of The Rings 1994 AND the comeback self-titled Helloween of 2021 are ALL on stage. Epic, just epic.
The show was promoted as a 40th Anniversary Celebration and that is exactly what the band delivered. Definitely there was a lot of tracks from the The Keeper era, but I was delighted that there was an equal emphasis on the brand new album Giants & Monsters (released in late 2025) so that the tour is both a celebration of past glories and a promotion of the awesomeness of today. One of my biggest disappointments in music is when it becomes clear that a band I love has stagnated. They are no longer growing and creating. Instead, they are just playing the greatest hits. There is something sad, a sort of slow circling of the drain. Helloween isn’t there. They are still vibrant, alive and having a ball! And I have to admit if you had told sixteen-year-old me that forty years later that darn pumpkin motif was still going to be this cool, I’m not sure I would have believed you!
For a taste of what Helloween’s new album sounds like, please enjoy Universe (Gravity for Hearts)…some fan posted this on YouTube. It’s not perfect, but the music and the band’s energy live come through.
