Heavy Mellow is an incredibly cool musical concept.  Imagine Al DiMeola playing an Ozzy tune.   Or Paco de Lucia playing a Judas Priest song.    Luis Villegas and Benjamin Woods are both marvelous guitar players.   These two flamenco guitar masters were accompanied by monster percussionist Mike Bennett  as they proceeded to play flamenco renditions of familiar heavy metal tunes at this show.   And what a great show it was…

 

            

Over the course of an hour, they tore through nine heavy metal classics.

They covered songs from Ozzy, Motley Crue, Dio, Kiss, Judas Priest, Metallica, Iron Maiden, along with a great rendition of “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol.

People upstairs in the bar area were playing name that tune as the songs started out. It was quite amusing to see an older couple get excited and start filming on their cell phones when “Wasted Years” started playing.

 

 

The music is very relaxing (it’s fun to hum along to the melodies of the songs), yet it’s very complex in nature. It’s definitely a good exercise in listening to good tunes.   You don’t necessarily have to be a fan of heavy metal to enjoy and appreciate this music.   But, being a metal head is a huge bonus and makes these songs even more special and meaningful.

Every song was incredible and the highlights  were “Over The Mountain”, “Rainbow In The Dark”, “Wasted Years”, and “Rebel Yell”.

After the show, one of the employees from the kitchen came out and told the band they were really enjoying the music from the back and they heard some of their favorite metal tunes during the performance.

The only bummer was seeing the set list and realizing that the song they were planning for their encore (“Bark At The Moon”) was the one song they didn’t play.

That’s Richie Kotzen next to Ben: