Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Biker Bar / Scheifling / Austria
Concert date: 24.01.2009
Attendance: 130
Ticket price: 12,00€
Henny Wolter is the guitarist of German heavy metallers Primal Fear and of their countrymen Sinner, an equally hard-hitting and much older outfit. When he’s not roaming around on tour with the two bands, or when he’s free of studio duties, he spices up his life by playing Motorhead classics in smaller clubs all over Europe. Since the guy, in his love for the legendary band, favors the first five Motorhead albums, he needs a bass and drums on top of his guitar. A trio, then. On drums is his Sinner colleague Klaus Sperling (ex-Primal Fear), while bass and vocals belong to the likeable bearded guy Oimel Larcher.
But just so things wouldn’t look too rosy for the band, only a week or so before the gig in the idyllic Alpine-foothills town of Scheifling, about an hour’s drive north of Klagenfurt toward Zeltweg, famous for its racing, Klaus clumsily took a tumble while shoveling snow and broke his arm, so playing was out of the question. Bernd Heining jumped in on an emergency basis, an excellent studio drummer who had recently (interestingly, just like Sperling) helped out now and then at live shows for German metallers Chinchilla. According to Henny, Heining didn’t actually need any training at all. Out of the planned Bomber repertoire, a bundle of 18 songs, he only had to brush up on two before the show. Oimel, who also played in Gallon during his career, is a seasoned “motorhead”, having previously been part of the German Motorhead tribute band Bastards. The drums there were bashed by none other than the aforementioned Klaus Sperling, and the guitarist was Udo Gerstenmeyer (Chinchilla). Oimel left the band, and Udo is reportedly looking for a “new Lemmy”. Obviously the two guys must have had a falling-out. So Henny Wolter’s Bomber now fill the gap left by Bastards!
The band showed up at the venue around 6 PM. They had driven in from Stuttgart, and Henny had arrived in Stuttgart the day before from Hanover (700 km further north, in northern Germany), which means that all told he was a good 1,200 km from home in Scheifling. For one single show. Crazy, right?
Biker Bar is a great place, dedicated to all lovers of steel horses. Its owner Blasius Wieland really thought of everything. Next to the club there’s a ground for summer gatherings with a much bigger stage, big parking lots where you can carefully “tie up” your ponies, and the complex includes, besides the obligatory workshop, even a “party time” room for twisting your body under the spotlights and the batons of DJs (for all those who see music as nothing more than a workout accessory). The guy thought of absolutely everything. The inside of Biker Bar is superbly decked out, and among the decorative props a replica of the Alien welded together from scrap parts especially stood out. The guy proved to be an exceptional host, and it wasn’t long before we were in his company and that of the Bomber members, cheerfully “washing down” the get-together with some very drinkable whiskey. Let me also give our valiant RockLine medium a little pat on the back here, because Blasius was totally beside himself when we showed up. For the first time in Biker Bar’s history, journalists had visited his place!
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Around 10 PM the cozy Biker Bar was already merrily packed. It was filled mostly with young folks, hungry for a proper head-on collision with rock energy! Thick wisps of smoke curled through the place as the trio walked onto the stage, greeted the crowd and kicked things off with Please Don’t Touch (orig. Johnny Kid & The Pirates). The trio managed to conjure up an excellent miniature of the mighty Motorhead practically right away. The essence of it all was a catchy racket that crawled convincingly under your skin and raised goosebumps. Especially thanks to Oimel’s seriously decent approximation of the iron chancellor Lemmy’s vocals. You can tell these musicians are constantly on stage, that music is their daily bread, and that they’re therefore in outstanding playing form. The drums (with the obligatory double bass drums, diligently stocked with cymbals) towered on a one-meter riser, while Henny and Oimel were literally crammed together in front of them for lack of space, but that didn’t matter one bit, because we were witnessing a 100% execution. Stay Clean in the number 2 slot of the set, with its basic riff, was the ideal spot where the band doesn’t need to take a break, but instead effectively ties the end of the previous song into the intro of this daring rock ‘n’ roll wrecker, and the energy jumped up another notch. Motorhead used this trick liberally at their shows from 2006 to 2008!
From there on, Henny and Oimel mostly traded off on lead vocals. Oimel is mildly tormented by Lemmy’s higher registers (Love Me Like A Reptile, Going To Brasil, Killed BY Death). Henny offers a considerably thinner, sharp but more “punkish” voice, not as full and noisy as Oimel’s destructive one; he copes more easily in a somewhat higher range, and despite having less power he still decently justifies his role on vocals. The songs kept up a high level of convincing copying. By far the most igniting, though, were the songs with Oimel on lead vocals, like Metropolis, The Chase Is Better Than The Catch, Acce Of Spades, Back At The Funny Farm.
The most interesting part was that despite assurances the band would only play material from the first 5 albums, they broke that promise and stuck two “1916” songs into the setlist (I’m so Bad, Going To Brasil). Of course some people, merrily loaded up with alcohol, also demanded “Orgazmatron”, which this time was a pipe dream.
The guys threw an excellent little party packed with high-octane burning, which settled phenomenally into the idyllic Biker Bar club. The classically reserved Austrian youth visibly caught fire by the end, and that alone was sign enough that Bomber had justified their purpose. Henny also followed the originality of Eddie Fast Clark’s solos very decently, even though he can play even faster, even sharper and harder, since his membership in Primal Fear demands that of him.
Bomber are an excellent Motorhead approximation. What’s interesting is the incredible familiarity among the members, the seasoned professionalism, the capitalized know-how, the sharpened sense for the slightest sonic shift in the air. Earning a few extra coins on the side, stuffing the wallet with them and enjoying yourself immensely along the way. An excellent outlet. There will obviously be more and more tribute bands in our time. Still, we’ll have to learn all over again to tell the real ones from those that just eat up your time. Bomber belong to the first group, and believe me. If you happen to spot their gig anywhere near you, don’t think twice. You’ll be treating yourself to a great kind of fun. Squint with one eye and Motorhead become Bomber. We’d also like to thank the owner Blasius for his exceptional hospitality.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Please Don’t Touch 2. Stay Clean 3. I’ll Be Your Sister 4. (We Are) The Road Crew 5. Metropolis 6. Love Me Like A Reptile 7. Iron Fist 8. The Chase Is Better Than The Catch 9. Going To Brasil 10. Im So Bad (Baby I Don’t Care) 11. Stone Dead Forever 12. Killed By Death 13. Back At The Funny Farm 14. Bomber 15. Motorhead 16. Ace Of Spades —encore— 17. Overkill 18. Hound Dog
Photo gallery
