Having been a HUGE metal fan, and Accept fan
for many years, this being my first time seeing the German Metal legends LIVE
filled me with a lot of anticipation and excitement. I arrived at the venue
early enough to meet up with the Accept Fans Worldwide group outside of Rolling
Thunder, an RV owned by Stephan Soto, the group founder. Peter, Wolf, Stefan,
Wolf and Herman all stopped by to visit the fans, and say hi. This pleased
all of the members who were there!
We headed
inside prior to Accept taking the stage, and host of That Metal Show, Eddie
Trunk warmed up the crowd! Accept hit the stage right at 10:30pm and from the
beginning notes of Hung Drawn and Quartered from their latest release,
Stalingrad…through their closing encore song…Balls to the Wall from their fifth
studio album of the same name…Accept had this large New Jersey crowd in the
palm of their hands. This was a headlining show where te band had the
opportunity to perform a full TWO HOUR set packed with 20 songs from their
lengthy career!
This was a
high energy show with these rockers who have been together fo decades,
performing as if they were still in their teens…full of energy, excitement, and
happiness! They followed up Hung Drawn and Quartered with Hellfire, my personal
favorite from Stalingrad…and went into Restless and Wild from the album of the
same title, the 4th in their recording career. This 20 song concert with songs
spanning their lengthy career disappointed no one. This was a crowd filled with
fans old and new, and many of whom were there to see the return of Mark
Tornillo, former T.T. Quick vocalist.
You could
not escape the infectious jubilation that the band had with each other
performing on stage, and looking around the crowd, you saw the same. Accept has
a way of engaging with their fans in the crowd, that makes you feel like they
are performing those songs for YOU, as an individual.
Around
1230am, the band finished their performance with an awesome version of Balls to
the Wall, the lights came up, and all in attendance were in agreement that this
was one amazing night.
Having been
my first Accept concert, I certainly was blown away by their energy, diversity
in their set list that spanned their career, the amazing light show and sound,
and engagement with the crowd.
I have
Accepted the fact, that this will not be my last Accept show.
