Earlier this month, Mats Levén performed two shows at Otsuka Hearts Plus in Tokyo, Japan that focused heavily on the material from the sole Yngwie Malmsteen album he appeared on, 1997's "Facing The Animal".
Backing Mats at the gigs were Jien Takahashi (guitar), Ollie Bernstein (bass), Kohta (keyboards) and Kouta Mikawa (drums).
A fan-filmed video of the second concert can be seen below.
According to Setlist.fm, the setlist for the show was as follows: 01.
Braveheart (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 02.
Sacrifice (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 03.
Heathens From The North (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 04.
Enemy (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 05.
End Of My Rope (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 06.
Alone In Paradise (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 07.
My Resurrection (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 08.
Playing With Fire (Yngwie Malmsteen song) ("Facing the Animal" demo track) 09.
Poison In Your Veins (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 10.
Air On A Theme (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 11.
Like An Angel (For April) (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 12.
Only The Strong (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 13.
Casting Pearls Before The Swine (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 14.
Another Time (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 15.
Facing The Animal (Yngwie Malmsteen song) 16.
Hit The Ground Running (VANDENBERG song) 17.
Rock 'N' Roll City (SWEDISH EROTICA song) 18.
Fallen Angel (AT VANCE song) In a backstage interview with Stefan Nilsson of Roppongi Rocks, Mats stated about his decision to revisit the "Facing The Animal" material nearly three decades later: “Well, it kind of felt like they wanted me to do Yngwie stuff, so we said, ‘Okay, let's do the whole album,’ “cause it’s a pretty cool album.
It was, like, ridiculous to do it, because it’s so much work to learn all the lyrics again, because I refuse to look at monitors or anything, so… But it was cool.
I made it.
I remembered the lyrics.
And it’s cool to play it 28 years later in the original keys, so it’s like a challenge.
But we did it really well.
The guys played really well… It [was] awesome.
We just had a really good show.
I’m happy.” Asked if these will be the only two shows featuring a performance of "Facing The Animal" in its entirety, Mats said: “Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, I might do it somewhere else.
I had some requests, but I have to wait and see.
I’ve got a lot of shows with VANDENBERG for the rest of the year.” Last December, Yngwie blasted some of the singers he worked with early in his solo career for allegedly “trying to capitalize from [his] brand.“ The 62-year-old musician has worked with a number of acclaimed vocalists over the years, including Jeff Scott Soto, Mark Boals, Joe Lynn Turner, Göran Edman, Michael Vescera, Mats Levén and Tim “Ripper” Owens.