SAXON Rocked Buenos Aires

On the Thursday night of May 8, the Teatro Flores was the scene of another evening of Heavy Metal. Saxon arrived in Buenos Aires once again, ready to perform their new songs and do something very interesting: play their classic album “Wheels of Steel” in its entirety.

The local support band was Karkaman. This band sounds huge every time they play and keeps getting bigger as they share the stage with music legends. This time with Saxon, last month with Uriah Heep at Groove Theater… and the list surely will keep on growing.
With his Hard Rock/Heavy Metal they captured the energy of the crowd and gave them a powerful show. A show that had a space in between for some classic covers as a present for the people showing early, like “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC or “Highway Star” by Deep Purple.

The night went crazy at 21.00, when a tape started sounding background, the stage was filled with smoke and lights went off.
The band showed up and began their powerful set with “Hell, Fire and Damnation”, the song that gives name to their latest record, published last year. A wise man said “If you introduce a new song to the crowd, then it has to be followed by a classic one”; and “Power and the Glory” was played. The next one took us way back in time to the first album: “Backs to the Wall”. And, of course, they still had to play some of the newest stuff, it wasn’t just an exclusive “greatest hits” night; therefore, “Madame Guillotine” where next on the setlist. 

Every time I see Saxon performing live, it blows my mind how they get to sound so tight, Biff is an amazing singer, he never misses a single note. His vocals can still be compared to the golden age of the band. Same thing with Nigel on drums. Don’t get fooled by his appearance, he may look like a simple (and adorable) grandpa; but when he sits behind his drumkit, he will melt your face every time he makes a drum fill!
Fortunately, the band isn’t just 2 legends alongside 3 other guys. All the band members are just incredible musicians with a great couple of decades (and great albums) in their backs like Nibbs on bass (who was maybe a little drunk haha but having an amazing time with a huge smile on his face during the whole show) or Doug on guitar. Don’t forget about Brian, the guitar player from the legendary band Diamond Head (who inspired the creation of bands like Metallica or Megadeth) who is replacing the master Paul Quinn, who doesn’t tour anymore with Saxon.

These guys sound younger than ever, and they always look for something new to put on their live sets. This time there were video tapes for every song on the backscreen, backing tracks too!
Whatever, continuing with the massive and powerful setlist: if you’re a fan of the album “Strong Arm of the Law”, the next part of the set would be your favorite, ’cause they played “Heavy Metal Thunder”, “Dallas 1 PM” and “Strong Arm of the Law”. 3 classic songs in a row, like a punch in the face. And it was followed by another new song from “Hell, Fire and Damnation”: “1066”.
With “The Eagle Has Landed”, they concluded the first part of the setlist. The second part was the hottest one.

It was time for a time travel to the 80s when Heavy Metal ruled the Earth.
The “Wheels of Steel” album is, for most of the fans, the best from the band, and it was about to be played in its entirety.
The first song, “Motorcycle Man” set the crowd on fire. Mosh pits were opened alongside the intense riff of that song. 

“Stand Up and Be Counted”, “747 (Strangers in the Night)” and “Wheels of Steel” were next, and the chantings from the crowd kept on getting louder and louder. Every time a song ended, the crowd didn’t waste any time and started singing “Olé Olé”.

The special “Wheels of Steel” setlist continued with “Freeway Mad”, “See the Light Shining” and “Street Fighting Gang”. Some of these songs weren’t played in a long long time. That’s what made this evening so special, it had a lot of fan service. You don’t even know if it was the last time you got the opportunity to hear that track live.

At this moment of the night, Biff saw a guy in the crowd showing a Saxon patch on the back of his jean jacket, and Biff asked this guy to give it to him. More fans with jean jackets with Saxon patches decided to do the same, so the stage had 3 jackets with patches. Biff, Doug, and Brian ended up wearing them, and surprisingly they kept the jackets on for almost the end of the show.
As in the original album, the last 2 songs from the “WOS” set were “Suzie Hold On” and “Machine Gun”.

With these amazing tunes being played, the time had come to leave the stage for a moment. The famous time when the Argentinian crowd gets as loud as they can for the band to come onstage again. 
The band felt so overwhelmed that Biff grabbed his phone and started filming the people chanting.
The encore came sooner than earlier starting with “Crusader”, followed by “Denim and Leather”. In the middle of this song, Biff signed the 3 jean jackets and returned them to his owners in the crowd. I guess this guy will never wash that jacket again, and show everyone the videos of the band playing song after song wearing it haha.
The last 2 songs of the evening were “And the Bands Played On” and “Princess of the Night”. And that was it. 

An incredible show by an incredible and legendary band like Saxon. You can always trust them, they never fail to give an outstanding performance to their crowds. And every time I got to see them live, it’s like they surprise you with something new and you feel every show gets better and better.
With 50 years as a band, Saxon sounds younger than ever, and still releasing good albums, something that is really hardly seen.

Photos by Damian Muñoz

Review by Agustin Lopez

Produced by Icarus Music

Press Marcela Scorca