Cornerstone

Plato, Helmond, The Netherlands  April 27, 2007


Cornerstone played last night a superb show in Helmond's Plato as part of their two week European tour. This was their second last show. Tonight they'll play their final date of this tour in Switzerland. We caught up with the band in the afternoon. Doogie and Steen were enjoying the sunny weather outside the venue when we arrived. We had a nice chat with Doogie. He told us the show the night before in Luxembourgh got cancelled. They travelled all the way from Hamburg to Luxembourgh in a hot touring coach to find out there was no show. Still Doogie was in a good mood, he said that he'll be recording the vocals for the new Yngwie Malmsteen album around July. And that he's still working on his solo CD and was hoping to do some more recording for that later this year. He told that among the musicians Craig Goldie and Rudy Sarzo, both of Dio, will be playing on that.

The band then had to do the soundcheck. Doogie in his 'shameless' shirt and Steen in his 'chaos' shirt went on stage with the rest of the band. Amongst the songs they played in the soundcheck were "Mother of Mercy" and "Two Tales Of One Tomorrow". Allan Sorensen was kicking the hell out of his drumkit. It felt like the walls of the whole venue were moving. After one song they even had to close the doors because neighbours otherwise would complain, like they done before told people of the venue. Guitarist Kasper Damgaard came outside and started doing some finger exercises on his guitar. Doogie had to do an interview (with Stratovana's Music Magazine - website). The band was in a very relaxed mood. Making jokes, signing some autographs, talking with the few fans that were around and posing together with those fans for photographs.

Most of the band and the crew went for a walk into the center of the town, which was only 5 minutes away. Doogie told they had some shows this tour that went very well but mainly for small crowds for only a few hundred people. Some shows only had about 50 fans who turned up.

Tonight it looked like it was going to be another poor crowd in numbers of people. Half an hour before the doors opened only about 10 people were waiting for the venue. There were some fans who travelled from Belgium and there were even two fans who came all the way from Lithuania. When the place opened the doors more fans arrived. Still I guess the crowd was no more than 100 - 150 people.

They even put a wall in the middle of the venue after the soundcheck so the venue became only half the normal size. Not that it's a big venue in the first place. A bit ridiculous that a great band like Cornerstone with the ex-singer of Rainbow and singer of Yngwie Malmsteen had to play for such a small audience.

The support act for the tour is Razorback. They are also on the Massacre Records label and already have 3 albums out.

Recently they released their 3rd album called "Deadringer". Razorback has some rock veterans in their line-up with Stefan Berggren (Ex-Company of Snakes) on guitar & vocals, Rolf Munkes (Empire, Tony Martin Band) on guitar, Chris Heun (Ex-Lanzer, Ex-Shylock) on bass and Mike Terrana (Masterplan, Axel Rudi Pell, Ex-Malmsteen) on drums.

As Mike Terrana is touring with Masterplan in April, they had another drummer for this tour with Danny Needham (Tony Martin Band) on drums. Razorback kicked off the night with a very good 45 minute set of kick ass hardrock with some bluesy influences. Stefan Berggren already proved with the Company of Snakes that he's a very good frontman. Tonight he showed it again. Rolf Munkes is a fine guitarist, Chris Heun is a good bassplayer and Danny Needham is a wild animal behind his drumkit.


After the break the lights in the venue went down at 21.45 and the intro for Cornerstone started. The band entered the stage and kicked off with "Misery" from their last album. Doogie in his Doctor Who shirt sang great. Allan and Rune both with sunglasses on. Kaspar standing a bit shy on the left side of the stage but playin' his guitar splendidly and Steen moving all over the stage. Right from the start they left a very positive impression. They gave the crowd a great mix of songs from their last 3 albums including "Wounded Land", "Mother Of Mercy", "Two Tales Of One Tomorrow", "Passion To Warfare" and the superb "Prey". The band gave a great show, had fun on stage and the audience loved it.


Doogie and Steen are together the driving force behind the band and they also show that on stage too. Kaspar, Rune and Allan make it all together to a great rockin' unit. They played a 80 minute set that had great songs like "The Unchosen One" and "When The Hammer Falls" at the end of the set. Cornerstone returned in no time back on stage for a superb three song encore: "21st Century Man", "Scream" and "Forever Young". Doogie thanked the audience and promised to be back with the others in the band in a quarter for signing autographs, taking pictures and answering questions. It took a bit longer than the promising quarter of a hour but nobody complained......



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More Cornerstone Reviews


Cornerstone - Verviers 22.04.2007 & Helmond 27.04.2007
Rainbow Fanclan Legacy Forum

Cornerstone - Hamburg 25.04.2007
Evilized Webzine [German Language]