They Should Have Been On A Bigger Stage!
Classic hard rockers Saracen took to Stage 3 mid-afternoon on the second day of Hard Rock Hell. With an army of fans exchanging stories of gigs spanning over 20 years, I was excited before the 6-piece band even played their first note.
The vocalist stepped on stage in skin-tight jeans closely followed by two seriously hot guitarists (excuse my hormones) - my eyes were fixated for much longer than they should’ve been on one guitarists’ biceps - bearing in mind these guys are well into middle age. I was very impressed!
Kicking off with classic track ‘We Have Arrived’, Saracen smashed any doubt I had about their talent - the crowd erupted and those lingering in the doorways immediately made a beeline for the stage. Performing tracks old and new, Saracen covered ‘Meet Me at Midnight’, ‘Follow the Piper’, ‘Red Sky’, ‘Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ (which had an incredible instrumental solo), crowd favourite ‘Heroes Saints and Fools’ and finally the mind-blowing ‘Crusader’.
Saracen is definitely a crowd-pleaser - we were bursting with excitement. The poor cleaner may have been the only person that wasn’t impressed as she battled an overenthusiastic fan to stop him from stealing her mop to use as a makeshift guitar. The band interacted well with their fans whom Saracen obviously value greatly - it almost felt like an emotional reunion at times.
My only criticism is not of the band but of the organisers - that is, they should have been on a bigger stage.
The Saracen guys have already been gigging for over twenty years and based on their performance at Hard Rock Hell, I would predict that they will be going for many more years to come - catch them while you can.