Helloween Concert Review, Mexico City, Mexico, October 21, 2017

Friday morning as I was sitting at work I started seeing vids posted from the Helloween concert in Monterrey, Mexico from their sold out Thursday night show. I thought they sounded great and I decided to just f’n go. I had been hemming and hawing about it for a few months anyhow. So I booked my trip.

I had never seen any version of the band and to be honest, I only like the Kiske era, but the setlist from Monterrey had just enough songs from that era to push my decision to a YES. The flight I booked had only gone up a little from when I looked a few months ago and I got a good hotel at a decent rate. I immediately took the decision of not bringing any luggage with me, just the clothes I was wearing.

Saturday Oct 21
The flight to Houston is only 30 minutes and was as smooth as could be. When we boarded for Mexico, we had just pulled from the gate and then the plane stopped. The pilot came on and said a warning light had come on and wanted to get it checked out. Back at the gate, a couple of Southwest maintenance folks boarded and a few minutes later we were asked to de-board the plane. The lady sitting next to me was an elderly lady who lived in Puebla, Mexico and was heading home from seeing her son who lives in Houston. She didn’t speak any English and didn’t understand what was going on so I explained it to her in Spanish. She asked if I would help her once back inside the airport and I of course obliged. Gloria became my adopted grandma/abuela for the trip. Southwest had a spare plane and we were delayed only an hour, but that hour obviously gave me less time to get to my hotel and to the show. No problem. Gloria stayed by my side at the gate and we sat together again on the new plane. When they were passing out the customs and immigrations forms, she let the flight attendant know that she could neither read nor write. I told her as long as she had her passport with her, I could fill out her form for her. “Muy amable. Gracias,” she said. While in the air I got my forms filled out and then hers. I said, “Gloria, usted necesita firmar aqui.” She took the pen and placed an “X” in the space and that was that. “Gracias, gracias.” Once we landed in Mexico City, we were getting off of the plane and one of the airport attendants had a sign with her name on it for a wheelchair to assist her in the airport. She didn’t see the sign and I said, “Gloria, tienen una silla para usted. Fue un placer de conocerle. Que tenga un buen dia!” She was all smiles and she reached up and asked for a hug. “Gracias por todo y para ser tan amable conmigo.” I gave her a hug and said, “Por supuesto pequena.” She was still all smiles. I’ll never forget Gloria.

Once through customs, I got some pesos from the ATM and headed to the subway. Last time I came, my friend Soledad was there to help but this time it was all me. Once figuring out the ticketing for the metro train and purchasing ($0.50), I was on the yellow line north to the stop closest to my airport. The train was pretty packed and I stood the whole ride. It was that long but I was pretty tired from the trip. Once off the train, I needed to get my bearings straight and started walking to the hotel. While it was just under a mile, it felt like forever. Once checked in, I laid down and grabbed a 20 minute pseudo-nap. That gave me just enough energy to make it through the evening.

I called for an Uber ride and was off to the arena shortly thereafter. Once dropped off, it was pretty crazy. Much like the King Diamond show down there earlier this year, there were about 100 canopies set up selling bootleg band merch. I didn’t buy any and went to the entrance to wait for Soledad. I was going to try for some official merch but the line was insane and I didn’t want to miss any of the show. So I got nothing.

I had other friends coming as well but ended up never catching up with any of them besides Diego from the band Voltax. Great dude. Once inside with Soledad, I needed to find some food. This venue was huge. We had tickets for the section down by the stage and headed down that way. We had a food and beverage area which only served hot dogs, burgers, pizza and corn dogs. I was famished and grabbed a corn dog and a Heineken. That was my dinner…in Mexico City…a fucking corn dog. haha. I womped that down and we headed to our area. We had to squeeze through a sea of people to get into the tiny gated entrance to the floor. We realized pretty quickly that once we got in there, we weren’t getting out until the end of the show.

A few minutes after we were inside, Soledad’s boyfriend Alonso showed up. And then boom. The lights started to go down and Robbie Williams’ Let Me Entertain You came over the speakers. Then a short pumpkin video came on the screens and BOOM, they open up with Halloween and go right into Dr. Stein. Both Michael Kiske and Andi Deris split vocal duties in those two. Then with just a short break and Kiske saying hello to the crowd, he went solo on I’m Alive and Kids of the Century. I though both of them sounded great, especially Deris. He’s still got quite a range. Oddly enough, Kiske seem to be having a little difficulty in singing the lower parts in some spots but still sounded great. Deris came back out and did 2 songs from his era with the band, If I Could Fly and Are You Metal? Plain and simple, I never got into his era of the band. His voice never did anything for me. But man, he sounded great live.

After a few more songs from each of the 2 singers, it was Kai Hansen’s turn on the mic. He didn’t get quite the same full song courtesy as the other 2 guys but did a medley of Starlight / Ride the Sky / Judas / Heavy Metal (Is the Law). While I’m not even much of a fan of the Kai era either, he sounded great and I knew the songs well. They did about 18 songs ending the main set with How Many Tears with vocals shared by Deris and Kai. At the Monterrey show, Deris and Kiske handled the vocals. Kiske seemed to be struggling in some spots but still got through most of the set fine.

The first encore consisted of Eagle Fly Free (Kiske only) and Keeper of the Seven Keys (Deris and Kiske but zzz). The second encore was Future World (Kiske only) and I Want Out (Kiske and Deris) and that was that. Show over.

Observations: I think there were about 12,000 people there and it was sold out by show time. Just like at the King Diamond show, it was pretty incredible being in a crowd of superfans like that. Everyone was singing every word and I was surprised and impressed that everyone seemingly loved the Deris era stuff. Everyone I met at the show was super friendly. On Facebook the day before the show, people were saying that Kiske was lip syncing at the Monterrey show. In one video I saw, I heard what I thought was a backing vocal track that you could hear but not see his mouth moving. It was in the chorus to I Want Out. Saturday, backing vocals were handled by Deris, Kai or the third guitarist (Sascha Gershner exFreedom Call) who was able to almost mimic Kiske’s vocals perfectly. He seemed to be able to help as needed. While Kiske sounded great and hit some sweet notes, the other three were definitely there to support in the endeavor. I neither saw nor heard any evidence of any canned vocals at all. Period. The whole band was awesome. It was so cool to have Kai, Michael Wiekath and Markus Groskopf together with Kiske again. Weikath didn’t come out to the front catwalk very often, but Markus had no problem coming out there. Also, drummer Daniel Lobel was incredible and no issue playing Ingo’s parts perfectly. RIP Ingo. Just an incredible show and I’m so glad I went. Between some songs, they showed some silly pumpkin cartoons. That wasn’t surprising really. The crowd seemed to enjoy them. I was impressed that Deris spoke pretty good Spanish. It was really apparent that like myself, he spoke Castilian Spanish, and used some terms that are primarily only used in Spain. But he did well. Orale! I wish they had played Twilight of the Gods, but oh well. I also realized how little I care for the Keeper 2 LP.

After the show, you get assaulted by taxi drivers. Both Alonso and I called for Uber rides and they took about 20-30 minutes to arrive. Traffic was nuts. They left and a few minutes later my car arrived. Riding around Mexico City during busy times will stress you out. I couldn’t believe we didn’t get into an accident the way that everyone cuts in and out of traffic. Seemingly it’s the norm. Once back at the hotel, I asked the clerk if their bar/restaurant were still open. Nope. Does anyone deliver? Not at this hour. So I was relegated to a pack of chocolate Emperador cookies and a Pepsi for dinner in the room. Then off to sleep.

Sunday Oct 22
Woke up and went downstairs for breakfast. Eggs, bacon, hash browns, fresh orange juice, fresh guava juice and chilaquiles con salsa verde y crema. The chilaquiles were pretty tasty. I went back to the room and took a nice long shower. I rested for a while and looked up record stores that would be open during the free hours I had before my afternoon flight. I may have dozed off for a little bit. I needed that. I was wiped out and my knees and back were killing me from the night before. I checked out and called for a ride to Retroactivo Records which was opening the earliest at 11AM. I got there at 11:05 and the doors weren’t open yet but people were mulling around the streets eating and drinking at the food stands an open air cafes. It was nice to see. A few moments later the owner showed up and I started digging. Didn’t find much to speak of and headed off to Dejalo Ser Records (aka Let It Be Records). They had 4 huge crates of metal. Lots of cool stuff but not much stuff that I wanted for my own collection. I still spent quite a bit and got a good cash discount. Much of the stuff I bought is to flip. Great store and they lady who runs it was really sweet. I met two guys from Puerto Rico there as well. They both live in Mexico City now but are headed back to PR next week to help in relief efforts. They said they had been once since the hurricane and it was surreal.

From there it was time to head to the airport. Uber is so cheap there. My almost 30 minute ride to the airport with Jorge cost $8. He was jamming Dream Theater the whole way.

I got checked in and through security quickly and waited at a café for a little while drinking Cubanas. Delicious. And then off to Houston for a 3 hour layover. I got through customs quickly although I was questioned about my lack of luggage. No biggie. That long wait was a bit brutal as I was really tired and treated myself to some seafood. I was back home and in bed by 11:30PM, wiped out. I’m still tired today but also energized from another great trip to Mexico. Time to explore Monterrey and some beach destinations next.

I don’t know that this tour will come to the States. I don’t see them doing well outside of LA, San Antonio, Chicago, NYC. Those places might get 500-1000.