Markthalle
Hamburg, 1995

     "...we arrived at the Markthalle at 8pm and felt a bit uncomfortable when we didn't see the Waltz bus anywhere.  Opening act 'Soulbrother' said they had 'lost' the Psychotics somewhere on the road and had no idea where they were.  The fans waited patiently, Torino (Italy) to Hamburg IS quite a long way after all.
     Whether it was the amount of coffee, or the fear that they might have had an accident, we all got a bit nervous. The relief came at 10pm in the form a f a phone call.  Held up at the Italian border, they should be here by 11pm!!!!
      Fans began to doubt they would play even if they showed up in time.   We were so sure they would play we promised it...and honestly, I can't imagine Psychotic Waltz to cancel a show just because they had a hard day, and it's "a bit" late.
     But at 11:30, the club manager canceled the show.  I couldn't believe it! That should be the end of such a glorious tour?  No way!  Some people started to get their money back, but many stayed.
      Then I looked out the window, and could hardly believe my eyes, the Psychotic bus was just arriving before the club!!!  They looked at us wide-eyed, that was when I realized they hadn't believed anyone would be here still.
     PW entered the stage around 2:30.  Imagine you spent 6 hours really hoping with all your heart for something to happen, and then after a minute of total disappointment it  does happen after all.
       Now imagine 200 and 5 people feeling the same and enjoying together what they had so much wished...It was a party, and what a party!  The band gave everything there was left after such a tour and such a drive. I really don't know where they got the energy, but this show put every concert I've seen in the shade.
     They played their whole set and didn't drop a single song.  They played until 5 in the morning!!  Everybody was in high spirits, even the tramp who had dropped in only by chance obviously enjoyed the show, and Buddy dedicated a song to him ("This one's for Aqualung over there!").

                                                   -  Sandra Kallmeyer, Psychotic Association

Hamburg
Markthalle, 1995

     "...what Psychotic Waltz brought on stage in Hamburg was once more music from another planet.  When the instrumentalists built a spontaneous jam session on the simple tune "Brother John" (Frehre-Jacque?) the typical "waltzesque flair of mystique and magic appeared.  As incredibly melodic, hypnotic, psychedelic, enchanting, and technically above all earthly measures as no one else knows how to play music.
     The many hobby-guitarists didn't know whether to fall into a collective speechlessness or just to join in the enthusiastic moshing in view of the double barreled guitar sorcery of dream team McAlpin/Rock.
      Vocal God/flute-magician/philosopher Buddy Lackey, in the meantime, mutated into a bald headed snake-charmer, proved to be the only worthy successor of Freddie Mercury, played flute solos like only Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson once did, and wound himself with a weird stage show in the incomparable instrumental rollercoaster rides of his comrades who sent the audience into a musical trance, so tremendously intense and gloriously colorful that it was frightening.
     Songs like 'Mosquito', or 'Voices' are nothing but perfect works of art, and when the prog-gods reproduced '...And the Devil Cried', 'Spiral Tower', and ' I Remember' off their not-of-this world-debut as gripping as on the longplayer, it left me speechless and I could no longer think of any words to describe the emotions surging up within me.
     Without any further thoughts of such primitive things as language I let the overpowering music carry me away and did no longer rack my brains about how to describe 'Into the Everflow' and Butterfly', the two climaxes of the Psychotic Waltz repertoire.
     You have to see this exceptional band yourself to understand what happened that night in that inconspicuous little hall in Hamburg.  I bow down before the best band in the universe.  I will never again speak too euphoric of Dream Theater and I can hardly wait for the next sign of life from Psychotic Waltz."

                                     - Michael Renson, Rock Hard
     

FM Station
Hollywood, 1989

    
"...here comes Psychotic Waltz, a group from El Cajon.  The crowd is curious, checking them out, seeing if they measure up to the standards of hard rock. They do.  
      Their lyrics are inaudible, and their guitar riffs threaten to bring down the establishment.  Nobody dances of course, how can you dance to this music?  You don't know where it's going!"

                           - L.A. Times