Loudness Make Triumphant Key Club Return

By Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal

My rating:

Setlist | "Ashes In The Sky" video | "King Of Pain" video

May 11th 2011, Key Club, Hollywood CA: It had been more than five years since Japanese heavy metal veterans Loudness last stepped on to this Key Club stage, and tonight was the occasion of their momentous comeback. It also marked their 30th anniversary as a band, so there was plenty of reason to celebrate. You could certainly tell that Loudness was going to play here tonight, just by looking at the number of Japanese people in the crowd. But it was also refreshing to see some young faces here to show their support to the old school. Having had such a long gap from the US touring circuit, the band certainly didn't disappoint their fans tonight, and made it quite worth the wait for everyone.

They hit the stage at around 11 PM among loud cheers, and made a truly fiery start with "Fire Of Spirit". They went from strength to strength and presented a great blend of classic tunes and the more recent material. It was always going to be hard to come up with a perfect representation of such a huge catalog, but I would say they did an excellent job with it, and any Loudness fan would have been more or less satisfied with the set tonight. The skill and speed of Akira Takasaki on guitar was there to be seen and heard throughout the night, specially during the guitar solo leading into my favorite song of the night, "Ashes In The Sky". I am a huge fan of such kind of easy-paced, clean and heavy rock tunes. I was instantly reminded of The Scorpions' "Coast To Coast", and thoroughly enjoyed this sweet Loudness tune. Frontman Minoru Niihara was hitting all the notes tonight, and showed that age hasn't had a negative effect on him. His interactions and conversations with the crowd were very enjoyable as well.

But on the other hand, it was the first ever US tour for drummer Masayuki Suzuki, and he definitely ensured that it won't be his last either, pounding away relentlessly with great energy and precision on tunes like "Hit The Rails", "In The Mirror", "King Of Pain" and many others. Overall, the band put on a really solid show, well worthy of their glorious reputation. I have only two negative things to say about their performance, firstly the sound level could have been even louder than it was, and secondly, it ended.

Through this terrific performance, Loudness have given fans a lot to cheer about, and a lot more to expect, with a new album and another possible tour coming up later in the year. A successful return indeed!

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