LEE AARON – Sweden Rock 2022 (Spotlight Review)

June 21, 2022 | Written by The Meister

LEE AARON – Sweden Rock 2022

Canada’s metal queen, Lee Aaron and her band played Sweden Rock 2022 on Thursday, June 8th at 2:30 in the afternoon. This began a little trend for the 🇨🇦 of CGCM, Meister, Shawn and Brian. We named it “🇨🇦 in the crowd watching 🇨🇦 on stage”.
This is the first time Lee Aaron has played Sweden Rock since her debut there in 2011. At that time, Lee had sort of moved away from the Hard Rock/Metal days, spending a couple of years releasing Jazz recordings. Since then Lee has returned to the Hard Rock arena also bringing with her a new bluesy flavour, especially noticed on 2018’s Diamond Baby Blues record. Lee also dialled into the CGCM Podcast for a chat about her latest release, Radio On! in episode #138. Having seen her several times in the past 10 years or so, I knew we were in for a great event.

LEE AARON at Sweden Rock 2022

LEE AARON – Sweden Rock 2022

With the brilliant Swedish sun beating down and a massive crowd in the audience, the set started off with “Vampin’” and flowed right into “Hands On“. Everything was sounding in top form! Lee pranced the stage back and forth, giving all her energy into the lyrics. Sean Kelly delivering the solid guitar and tasteful solos that he’s such a master of. This was already poised to go down into the books as one of, if not the, greatest Lee Aaron show I’d ever seen.

Enter the “gremlins!”. Before long, Lee joked about technical issues, saying that these things happen and the band had just lost the “front of house”. But we could still hear out in the crowd. That didn’t last too long until that “hearing” was also lost as the entire setup crashed. Several minutes later, with silence coming from the stage, we witnessed the band leave. OMG, this must be a bad problem. We all stood, held transfixed, hoping and praying the set wasn’t over before it got halfway.

The Show Must Go On As They Say…

LEE AARON – Sweden Rock 2022

To their credit, most I’m sure realizing this was not a band issue but a tech equipment/sound issue, the crowd hung on. Precious minutes ticked by, the dread mounting. Five minutes. 10 minutes. 15 minutes? Finally, the band was back in position. Lee, addressing the crowd with her mic said. “We still have no front monitors, but we’re here“! Or something to that effect. A little more fumbling on stage as they waited a minute for the monitors to return. Bass player, Dave Reimer spoke into his mic, “We just gotta play, man!“, he said to the soundboard. Lee also chimed in, “We’ve weathered worse tech issues than this!”

And the band ripped into “Some Girls Do“. Lee asked after a song or two “how are we sounding out there? We still have no monitors, so we have no idea. I think I’m singing in key at least“! Remaining so light-hearted throughout this tragedy of tech gremlin-ship must have been difficult. But Lee Aaron and her band were indeed sounding amazing as always, proving their unity and professionalism.

Bringing It All Home With The Metal Queen

LEE AARON – Sweden Rock 2022

Lee Aaron, as one might expect, wrapped up a little over time. I’m not sure if they ended up having to drop a song or not, but I was so glad they were awarded the stretch of set, presumably on account of the gremlins. The final song, Lee introduced by saying she had written this in her bedroom when she was about 16 years old. It was of course her signature song “Metal Queen“. Despite the gremlins, Lee Aaron persevered and delivered an awesome show here at Sweden Rock 2022. Now she’s booked on the next MORC (Monsters Of Rock Cruise) and so is the German Metal Queen, Doro. Who thinks (and hopes) there’s some kind of “Metal Queen Union” cooking there?

LEE AARON OFFICIAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK
SWEDEN ROCK OFFICIAL FESTIVAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK

Cheers,
The Meister

LEE AARON – Sweden Rock 2022 (Photo Gallery)

by Brian Ronald