I thought the jam was excellent, but like many of you, I thought it ran a bit too long. They could easily have shaved off about 45 minutes and still had an excellent jam to remember.
Stuff to dump:
The erotic dance. I wasn't that offended by it, but it was distracting from what was otherwise a good song.
The AC/DC stuff. AC/DC has been done to death and by far better bands that the drunk guy from Freak's kitchen.
King Diamond material. Maybe I'm in the minority on this, but I cannot stand KD in any way shape or form. It was a very good cover, but KD's singing style just annoys the hell out of me.
Flight of Icarus: Waaaay too chaotic for what is normally a decent song. And hell, if they were gonna do Maiden, why not Trooper?
STuff that killed:
Heart's Alone: That was a very good cover, with just the right emotion. A pretty bold choice to play that late at night, especially coming off the drunken chaos of the AC/DC covers and the pure chaos of the Maiden cover.
Final Countdown: Unfortunately they had to do it twice because of the mic foul-up (they couldn't have realized this midway through the song), but once they got it working, it was a great cover.
Strutter: Not the best Kiss song or the best cover out there, but it was worth it to see Zak in Paul Stanley makeup.
THe Real Thing: That was an incredibly intense cover of a FNM song that isn't normally thought of. Kudos to the bold choice.
Metal Gods: You knew that Ralf had to be involved in a Priest cover, and since Primal Fear had been doing that on stage, this was a gimmi. It would have been great to see something slightly different, but this was still a pretty damn good cover.
But without a doubt the highlight of the entire jam has to be the Ralf/Floor duet of Who Wants to Live Forever. This is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and the duet really showed Ralf's tender side. The performance was so stunning, it even brought a tear to my eyes.
All in all, a very good jam and indeed a great weekend all the way around.