Tim Ripper, Kulturhaus, 20.02.11

What started out as a birthday gift for my boyfriend turned out to be a fantastic night, better then I could’ve expected. Even though I adore his voice, I’m not very familiar with Tim Ripper’s career outside of Judas Priest and Iced Earth, so I probably wouldn’t have gone to the concert if not for the fact that my boyfriend is a huge fan, but I’m really glad I did.

I had TONS of fun! Aside from the fact that Ripper is extremely talented (which is kinda obvious when you think he was able to fill Rob Halford’s humongous shoes in Judas Priest and Matt Barlow’s rather large shoes in Iced Earth), he is also a great performer. Not in a theatrical kind of way, with props and make up and dramatic gestures, but in a very down to earth “let’s rock and have fun” kind of way. Also, he may be completely badass vocally and looks-wise, but in terms of personality he seems like such a lovable guy. Humble, very open and friendly with the audience, smiling and truly enjoying himself. What I appreciate even more is that he did all that not for a large venue, but for only 200 people (I think it was the smallest and most intimate concert I’ve ever gone to).

My favourite moment was when he told us it’s one of the musicians’ birthday and prompted us to tell him “happy birthday, fucker” and to sing Happy birthday to him. Like the good compliant audience that we were, we started singing and when we got to the name part, we all went “happy birthday, dear fucker” in a very natural way, with that „what else were we supposed to call him?” air and all the band burst into laughter. In fact, the whole atmosphere was great, for such a small crowd, we were really loud and excited and sang along most of the show. Ripper really deserved it! The musicians were also very good, to share the stage with such a magnetic personality and not fade in the background is really something to appreciate.

I heard a lot of people complaining about the setlist (especially those who decided not to come) and indeed most of the setlist was dominated by Judas Priest songs and I think everyone was sad about the complete exclusion of Iced Earth from the setlist, but this dude can sing lullabies and still make it awesome. He must be the only person in the world who can make both a Painkiller and Heaven and hell cover and not only not suck at it, but do it flawlessly. And he made everything so much fun too. I left the show full of energy, completely hyped up and determined to listen to more Tim Ripper!