Location: Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Velden Am Woerthersee / Austria
Concert date: March 10, 2008
Attendance: 200
Ticket price: €30.00
Some things never change. Take the stubbornly wrinkled face of the RockLine editor-in-chief, or Jernej’s tireless but still pretty pale Buster Keaton impression. Anyway, in the category of constants in an ever-changing universe, we can also file a gentleman by the name of Richie Kotzen. The exceptional musician is clearly turning into one of Bluesiana’s regulars. He last stopped by not long ago, on October 30, 2007 to be exact (RockLine report here), and the buzz that the legendary guitarist’s visit left behind among the people at that show was enough, with the help of certain therapeutic methods, to justify itself well into 2008.
The Richie Kotzen concept is so simple that it’s brilliant all by itself. Take a musician at the peak of his creative powers, who, with both his presence and the sheer sensational breadth of his playing, has successfully steered a pair of no less dangerous players, Johnny Griparić and the indestructible Pat Torpey, onto the more or less well-worn tracks of heavy rock. Phenomenal! Three mischievous uncles make up one extremely tight musical unit, a dynamite power trio that, following the well-known formula of similarly built projects, shakes the pants off every random passerby in earshot. There’s probably no need to waste words, or time, stressing that Kotzen has long since stopped needing the favors of his rep as an ex-Poison or Mr. Big guitarist, at least where decently filling a room the size of Bluesiana is concerned. Last night it once again gave itself over to intense soaking-up, with a respectable share of Slovenian sweat too, which we can ultimately take as a pleasant boost to the always soul-crushing enlightenment of Alpine-foothills folk.
Kotzen “stormed” the stage at exactly half past nine. He was armed with an alternative repertoire, stripped of last time’s nicely delivered Shapes Of Things, but with a fine mix of the obvious, namely the standard Stand, and the shine of newer material from the latest record The Return Of The Mother Head’s Family Reunion. Interestingly, his pale face first gave the impression of a rather bored guy, but there was no trace of that in the funk rock explosiveness of the opener Losing My Mind. From there, things soon headed in the typical direction of a Richie live show. With the fiery A Love Divine the night just kept gaining character and intensity, and with the two undeniable peaks, Feed My Head and the apparently already universal Go Faster, Kotzen won us over again on every front. Richie basically repeated last night what we’d already seen, in routine style. His crew worked its way through the set in a totally disciplined, school-drilled fashion, without any real deviation from the course. The only rare exception was a phenomenal showcase of Pat’s drumming chops, which bombarded our already battered eardrums even further.
Of course, the reasons for the magic of Kotzen’s shows can’t be found only in the hard-rocking mince delivered straight to your face, however tasty it may be. The superbly performed Fooled Again and Faith once again drew a clear line that jealously fences Richie Kotzen’s expression off from the countless “fast food” equivalents among modern musical experiments. Proof of the guitarist’s finely honed sense of sentiment, and of dynamics too, is yet another in the series of Richie’s aces, and we can count ourselves lucky to have witnessed them once more. With his trademark melancholy, Richie again moved close to the well-known ballad forms of the late eighties, but with a mysterious undertone, a fantastic richness of sound and ideas that grows more appealing with the years of intense musical activity, if not downright essential for every true lover of rock & roll, or hard rock if you like.
So Richie Kotzen delivered one more in a long line of unforgettable Bluesiana nights, and let’s be honest, nothing else was expected from him. Two hours of spitting blood, which, as the price of its own intensity, also took a good chunk of the guitarist’s voice, passed in the blink of an eye. An outstanding show that once again cemented Kotzen’s reputation as a music fanatic, fully in line with the standards of the world’s biggest rock stars!
Words: Daniel Pavlica
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Losing My Mind 2. A Love Divine 3. Fooled Again 4. Faith 5. Dust 6. So Cold 7. Chase It 8. High 9. You Can’t Save Me 10. Doing What The Devil Says To Do 11. Feed My Head 12. Go Faster 13. Shine 14. Stand —encore— 15. Remember 16. I’m Losing You 17. Mother Head’s Family Reunion
Photo Gallery
