I was surprised that they stuck with a very old school “classics” set. Aside from the tracks from Call To Arms, they only performed “Battalions Of Steel” from the last two decades. Everything else was from 1985 or sooner. This surprised me a bit because the crowd was packed with die-hard fans that knew the whole catalogue. There were no casual fans in attendance. In fact, after the show, a couple of fans I spoke to said they were a little disappointed with the lack of newer material. A band like Saxon has a rich background and if they were to do a set picked by the fans, they would be up there for four hours. Aside from those few comments, everyone walked away happy. How could you not? They played “Heavy Metal Thunder,” “Strong Arm Of The Law, “Motorcycle Man” and “And The Bands Played On.” The latter tunes haven’t been played in Illinois in a long time (if ever). I have seen the band many times over the years and those tracks have been absent from the set lists. Saxon also squeezed in “Rock ‘N’ Roll Gypsy” from the criminally overlooked Innocence Is No Excuse album. The set was rounded off by some of the usual suspect like “Power And The Glory,” “Wheels Of Steel” and “Crusader”. |