Live In Concert - Bruce Dickinson With Puller
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[an error occurred while processing this directive]

BRUCE DICKINSON
With Special Guests
PULLER
and
SOUL DESTRUCTION


Reviewed By

Jill Williams


Alrosa Villa
Columbus, OH
9/19/97

The Alrosa was set up a little differently for this concert. They had tables and chairs set up and it looked more like a comedy club than a concert hall. I thought it was great that I didn't have to stand the whole night. There was still an open area near the stage for people to dance, but that area didn't get much use in that respect on this night. It was mostly just used for standing and screaming during Bruce's set.

The evening started with "Soul Destruction," a local band, which seemed to be relatively interesting to the crowd, but nothing spectacular. For starters, they seemed to have stolen all of their music from Metallica, but made up their own lyrics. I really hate that. If you're going to be a band and people are going to pay to see you, you have to come up with something of your own. With the first song, "Loverboy," I thought they sounded a little like Metallica. By the second song, "Conflict of Interest," I was saying "hey I've heard that music before. Wasn't that on "And Justice For All?"

From there, they played a song that was actually pretty good called "Anchor Process." They mixed in some spoken word and actual singing, rather than shouting. The singing wasn't real impressive, but nothing was obviously stolen in that tune. Their most fun song was a cover of Cheech and Chong's "Earache My Eye." It was the only one the crowd really got into and I had a good time with it. The worst rip-off was "Reality" which sounded just like "The Unforgiven" for most of the song. The most original sounding song was "Follow Me" but the problem with it was, as their name might hint, that it was very sacreligious. Still a good song, certainly their best, but not for everyone. It was really long, and had all sorts of variety in it. Everything from speaking to singing to screaming. Slow, fast and in between. That's about all I want to say about that band. I was not impressed, overall.

Puller
Seemed like we had to wait forever in between bands that night, but I wasn't dissappointed. When they made it to the stage, "Puller" came out with a sound that seemed to bridge the gap between metal and alternative. I really enjoyed them and wish they had played longer. This was the only band I was allowed to take pictures of. I talked to Terry, the guitarist, before the show and he helped me out with that. Apparently someone had a real problem with photographers that night.

I'm sorry to say I missed the titles of their first few songs and I wasn't able to get a copy of their CD, so I'm just going to take a stab at some of these titles. "Shut Off" may have been their opening song. All I know for sure was that it was great and I was glad I was there to hear it. "React" was an incredible tune. I danced all over the place as they were playing it. Next was "I've Got Myself" and it was even better. They're definitely metal, but have a 90's sound, which is really fun to listen to.

The crowd stared to give "Puller" a hard time not long into their set asking where Bruce was and telling them to get off of the stage. It got me a little upset because I was enjoying the show. After a fair amount of heckling, the band tried to talk it up wth the audience and set them at ease, but they weren't having it. At least nothing got thrown here. Finally Mike Lewis, the lead singer, told everyone that Bruce wasn't coming on 'til 11 whether they were onstage or not and that people should really try to support the new groups because there weren't that many out there. I tend to agree with him. I could tell they were frustrated, but they tried not to let it show and kept on rockin'. They closed with "Sugarless," a hard, but slower song. It picks up speed then slows down again with an almost "Pink Floyd" kind of music to it. There were lots of musical interludes and it was really long which was great for me because I didn't want to see them go. They only played about 5 songs altogether. A terrific closer for a terrific set, despite all the crowd negativity.

Bruce Dickinson

I think we waited a year to see Bruce. I just kept sitting there waiting. It was awful. It also gave the crowd too much time to drink, which caused a few problems later on in the night. Everyone was chanting and going crazy waiting when they finally they came onstage.

The audience went bonkers. This was who they were there to see, and they finally got their wish. He opened with "Welcome Home" which everyone loved, but then, everyone loved everything. It was really great to hear some old music and some new by this great musician. It seemed like he deserved to have some really special lighting, and they did the best they could, but effects are limited in this club. The spotlights on the guitars and on Bruce did look nice though. It was the best lighting I've seen there.

Then "Star Children" began and the crowd started cheering again. Afterwards, Bruce totally went off on some guy near the front of the stage who had obviously had too much to drink. This "midget fuck" as Dickinson called him was hitting people and slamming into them and Bruce was not into that at all. No moshe pit was going to start while he was onstage, so Bruce had the guy come up onstage and then he grabs him and throws him right off sidestage. It was a kick! Everyone was loving it cause the guy was really causing some trouble, though I can't imagine how. He was almost too drunk to stand and was drooling by the time I saw security take him out after the next song.

Speaking of the next song, "Two Minutes" was the first to feature serious crowd interaction, but far from the last. Bruce was jumping all over the stage and the crowd sang most of the chorus. It was really exciting. After that, he started going off on secuity for not keeping people safe and not getting that drunk fella out of the place earlier. That seemed to be forgotten once "Dark Side of Aquarius" was underway. The lighting was great and all I could think of was what a shame it was I couldn't get any pictures for all of you to see. More singing by the whole club went on.

"Petition" was a hard love ballad that reminded me of the days when you could understand what people were singing. Sometimes I miss that, even though the new music is good too, just different. Then Bruce introduced the next song by talking about who all it might be about. The song was "Tattooed Millionaire" and he said it was for the "pussy bands" in the late 80's and early 90's who were really metal but claimed to be alternative, and the bands with the big hair and glittery clothes that claimed to be metal, but didn't have the edge. It was quite a monologue on the subject. "Soundgarden," "Kingdom Come," and "Nirvana" were some of the bands he mentioned being unhappy with. This generated lots of applause. He talked about how alternative sucked and metal was the only way for the future. Actually, he managed to say something interesting after nearly every song.

After the end of "Tattooed," he started talking about how it was illegal to get a blow job in Atlanta if it was between people of the opposite sex, but legal if you were of the same sex, and how screwed up that was. Then he started talking about Jesse Helms and his part in how fucked up the laws there were. So, he decided to sing "Road To Hell" to demonstrate where we were all going for getting head in Atlanta. It was political, but also pretty funny. Everyone laughed and had a little to think about too, I suppose. I guess since the song was about going to hell anyway, a girl decided to do her part and jump up onstage to grab Dickinson. He entertained her for a few seconds then sent her away.

The next song was "Tears of a Dragon." It was softer and the blue and yellow spotlights on Bruce were really nice. There were also slowly spinning lights of all sorts of colors washing over the band. Then, unfortunately, my attention was drawn away as some jerk decided to start a fight, got busted by security, and was trying to fight two of them off right next to me. I was a little scared 'cause he was huge, but the security guys managed to get control of him and get him out of the club.

After that, Bruce Dickinson and his band played what was the first of the last songs of the night and said goodbye. We were not satisfied. We wanted more and we got it. He came back out and played "Taking The Queen," which was just wonderful. Next, "Touch The Sky" got everyone moving and screaming. He left again but we still couldn't get enough. The place was shaking with chants of "Bruce!" Out he comes again and tells us all about his new album "Accident Of Birth" and plays a song from it entitled "The Joker's Back," I think. We all loved it and had just about had our fill, as I'm sure he had. They played for almost 2 hours. Finally, he finished up with "Now You See Me" and we all cheered through the song. It was a great end to a great night.

I highly recommend this show. You won't be disappointed and you will go home tired. This is definitely one you shouldn't miss.

 

 

 For more information on Puller, check the following sites:

www.puller.com


Back to Concerts