Why we need fantasy: Some thoughts from a Blind Guardian concert, May 11, 2024 at the Worcester Palladium

I'm in there! Somewhere back left...
No one ever dares to speakIt's nothing else but fantasyIt's make believe,Make believeNo one ever dares to speakIt's nothing else but fantasyBut One day it will all come to life
--Blind Guardian, Fly
How did you spend your Saturday night? I was in a hall you might know, called … VALHALLA!
Or maybe it was the Worcester Palladium. 
Either way, I was somewhere else. And that’s a good thing. 
We need fantasy in our lives.
Blind Guardian lead singer Hansi Kuersch screams at the end of “Valhalla,” No, we can’t live without gods! He and his bandmates put to powerful music what many of us who breathe deeply of this type of thing have come to know: 
We can’t live without fantasy. It is indispensable as air or water:
Songs I will sing of tribes and kingsThe carrion bird and the hall of the slainNothing seems realYou soon will feelThe world we live in is another Skald’sDream in the shadows
--Skalds and Shadows
We’re all just telling stories. Reality is what we make of it. 
Blind Guardian knows this, and takes us to other places, fair and perilous lands where magic is real. Lands we once knew, but have forgotten. As we age our fantasies wither. We prioritize work and money, and embrace conformity and dull routine. 
Stranded in the real worldLeft in the worldNo place for daydreamsSerious lifeI fall intoI fall into a dark holeAnd I can't come outDo you know if Merlin did existOr Frodo wore the ringDid Corum kill the godsOr where's the wonderlandWhich young Alice had seenOr was it just a dreamI knew the answersNow they're lost for me
--Imaginations From the Other Side
But fantasy calls, from the other side.
We might be lost, but Blind Guardian knows there is another world. Which can break down the walls around your heart. For a short time on Saturday at least.
Blind Guardian delivered on this stop on The God Machine tour. They were great. The setlist is below.
As always it’s a privilege to see a band of their magnitude in a place like The Palladium, which has a listed capacity of 2660. Blind Guardian plays to much larger crowds overseas.
Take a bow, dudes. Maybe you don’t need German power metal bands in your life. That’s OK, with a good book or a well-done movie you can get (some) of what Blind Guardian offers. Enchantment, to restore a disenchanted world.
What you don’t get in a book or a movie however is the power of being in a big group of like-minded people, all experiencing the same powerful call. Chanting, “Valhalla, Deliverance!” like Viking warriors of old.
Where was I Saturday night? The lands of Faerie, or Worcester? 
Both my friends.
Setlist
Imaginations from the Other SideBlood of the ElvesNightfallThe Script for My RequiemViolent ShadowsSkalds and ShadowsDeliver us from EvilSecrets of the American GodsThe Bard’s SongMajestyTraveler in TimeSacred WorldsTime Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)ValhallaMirror Mirror
Here's a bit of "Nightfall" from my cell phone: