You know what time it is?

Sat, 25 Jun 2005 17:23:15 +0200

It's time to rock! :)

Or at least it was on June 5th when we went to see Yngwie Malmsteen at the Melkweg in Amsterdam.

Admittedly, that's a while ago and I don't even have an excuse for being lazy. Call it 'not in the mood to blog'. However, I do want to share a few pictures that I took that night.

To my surprise Yngwie lost a serious amount of weight and there were no cigarettes on stage and he was drinking nothing but water and he appeared as energetic as in the old days. I am impressed. :)

The other, even bigger surprise was the setlist that contained but one song off of the new album 'Unleash The Fury'. Be it an accident or some odd sort of clever new marketing strategy to start the tour a good month before the release of the new CD, we got to witness a 'Very Best of Yngwie Malmsteen' show that the world will most likely not see again.

As I've been following his career since 1985 it was more than exciting to get to hear all the best songs again 20 years later.

And just as last time I saw him a long time ago on the Fire & Ice tour, I grabbed two of those plectrums. Actually he kicked one of them right into the palm of my hand. They're now in a safe place: in the jewel case of my Japan import of 'Unleash the Fury'. :)

After the show I tried to get myself a t-shirt, but alas, unless you're a huge swedish Hulk you won't find anything at the merch stand. No girlie shirts. :(

The helpful merch guy made a few suggestions, like wearing the shirt instead of pajamas, and then tried to talk me into buying a Yngwie Malmsteen thong, but nah... rather not. :P

I did get a good laugh out of that, but dear Yngwie, you do need to work on your merchandise, really. I left with one of the necklaces which is now dangling from my TFTs. It looks cool, but I still want a shirt! :)

However, if you can catch Yngwie on his current tour, go and see him. You won't regret it. :)