AXEL RUDI PELL – Knights Live

Axel Rudi Pell, the axeslinger with the blonde split ends, didn’t invent the wheel, but he steers it pretty good at times. Like here, on his first double live album, a full show from his hometown Bochum in the German Ruhr area, where the sound is great, the crowd into it, and the band stellar as always. Nothing wrong really, and with a drummer like Mike Terrana and a keyboard magician like Ferdy Doernberg, both always stepping up for a paycheck ;-P – the overall talent is obvious. Also, the guy who does it just for fun as he makes good dollars back in the USA, Johnny Gioeli from Hardline, is worth his Europesos. Seriously, I have no reason to do all this money talk. This bands seems like a band where all the involved musicians love to do what they do; a slightly Neoclassical Traditional Hard Rock band with very catchy songwriting.

To see these guys perform is just like listening to this CD. (Wow, what a great conclusion!) I mean, it’s a bit of an overkill, really, unless you’re a musician yourself. I once saw these guys at the same location, and although I was impressed, the show simply lasted too long. Or did it? You see, during the two plus hours Axel and the guys play, Ramones would have had time to do their whole backing catalogue (that’s IF they were alive), but Axel only has time for a good handful of songs. Why is that? Solos, of course! Every band member, except for the bass player (thank God) has his own spot; Axel of course in every song, but to include a keyboard solo and a drum solo on a live album… Well, I think you have to be a musician to enjoy that. Fact is, Axel has lots of great songs that are to be excluded from the set only to give time for ego trips, and ok, maybe that works in concert, maybe also on a DVD (yes, this show is out on DVD), but on a live CD? I don’t think so. Take out the drum solo, the keyboard solo (with all respect to these musicians though), the band introduction and the cover “Stargazer”, and you are left with material that would be a really great live CD, a single disc that is.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with the performance, the musicianship, the sound, production etc. But you have to be a sucker for solos to dig this 100 percent. Meaning; Ronnie James Dio will for sure buy Knights Live!