And on we go

Saw a band for the first time in 23 years at the weekend, the American Lizzy Borden - last seen at the Reading festival in 1987 when their only chance of making an impact, playing the excellent "Me Against The World", was destroyed by vocals disappearing when trying to get a sing-along going. This is now my record for time between seeing a band multiple times.
Although the cheap Alice Cooper rip-off theatrics were still in place, what surprised me was the main man's blatant aping of Rob Halford's frontman style. Now why an American vocalist would want to imitate a Brummie trying (badly) to pretend to be an American baffles me. Made me realise that I hadn't actually seen Judas Priest why I first saw Lizzy Borden as well, which just makes it feel even longer and me even older. They did have the bright idea of getting the attention of the fat, balding middle aged Belgian audience by employing a buxom young lady in a stars and stripes bikini to jump up and down and do the splits. Obviously this didn't apply to me - I'm not Belgian.
This was at the Alcatraz festival, which as usual for the continent, was pretty well organised and ran smoothly. It was only small, 2500 - 3000 I reckon, but it was enthusiastically attended. Fortunately it was indoors, as it bucketed down most of the afternoon, but it did give me a chance to see some bands who were new to me, including a couple I have been interested in for a while. Chief among these were Moonspell, who I have slowly picked up a few back catalogue albums by. Imagine a far less poppy Him with a less charismatic but coherent frontman mixed with a slight hint of the Cure and you're in the right sort of area. Very impressive and a band I want to see again in a headlining environment. Also high on my curiosity list were Raven, who started off a bit dodgily (courtesy of poor sound), but ended up being quite impressive - although 45 minutes or so was probably enough for me. Surprised to quite enjoy what I heard by the Gunslingers, a pretty decent Hawkwind spin off.
Band of the day for me though, oddly enough, was Epica. First time I've seen them outside of the Netherlands, even if this was virtually a home gig in Flemish speaking territory, and it was very impressive indeed - Unleashed, Resign to Oblivion, Obsessive Devotion et al. Judging by the size of the queue for their autograph session, they were also drawing a bigger crowd than the alleged headliners (Kreator). As they seem to be garnering a reasonable American fan base due to constant touring they may just end up becoming reasonably big - and much do they deserve it.