House Of Lords’ Bangin’ World Tour Brushes Past Slovenia Too (2009)

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Rock Club / Ronchi Dei Legionari / Italy
Date of show: 13.11.2009
Attendance: 120
Ticket price: €20.00

Finally, even if it had to be on Friday the 13th! Six years after House Of Lords came back and four albums later, RockLine has at last managed to catch the band on stage. This time it was on the tour supporting their current studio album “Cartesian Dreams” (2009, Frontiers Records) – RockLine review HERE. The years when House Of Lords left their mark on the international scene are long gone, but still, the band is kicking around. With the so-so “The Power And The Myth” (2004) they broke a 12-year stretch without a new album, and the last three records that followed sound thoroughly thrilling and right up the alley of die-hard fans of their first three albums. In fact, the one name tied to House Of Lords all the way through their career is, today, just singer James Christian, who hasn’t missed a single studio album. In the rhythm section, young Chris McCarvill grinds away on bass these days while B.J. Zampa pounds the drums. Before the tour there was another shake-up: Danger Danger guitarist Rob Marcello had to step into Jimmy Bell’s shoes. James Christian’s official website didn’t go into detail about why the change happened, but on the promo posters for the “Bangin’ World Tour 2009” it’s already Rob Marcello in the band photo.

This time the tour luckily literally “brushed past” Slovenia, so catching the band didn’t take any big effort. All it took was a drive to the vicinity of the Trieste airport, to be exact the Rock Club in the little town of Ronchi Dei Legionari (Ronke in Slovenian), to relive the new album and a few immortal classics from this superb melodic hard rock outfit from Los Angeles.

As is the habit with our western neighbors, gigs there always start very late. At the Rock Club, the first opener, promising British hard rockers Kane’d, started rumbling around 9 p.m. It’s a septet with three sisters on lead vocals. They drew quite a bit of attention, especially with their flirty, teasing stage antics. That was entirely justified, since the girls had the situation firmly under control with their vocal harmonies. It’s not pure hard rock, though the material carries a hefty dose of melodic catchiness. The band likes to let the riff ride on a rhythmic gallop often marked by punk, and even in the simple transitions you can feel a bit of a modern alternative bent. Of course, just the sight of the band in their bolero jackets hints that this isn’t thoroughbred hard rock. The band tried to fire up the crowd right from the start with Idol’s classic Rebel Yell, but it wasn’t even necessary, since their own material proved they’re ambitious young rockers who may well make a bigger splash on the scene down the line.

The last show of the Trieste-based “tribute to Uriah Heep” band Sweet Loraine with Slovenian singer Davor Žorž, who is, sadly, leaving the band for good after this gig because of other pressing commitments, came at just the right time. A lot of encouraging words had already been said about Sweet Loraine, but I hadn’t managed to catch them on stage yet. The lineup is rounded out by keyboard virtuoso Alex Falcone, armed with a Hammond and a moog, as befits playing Uriah Heep, bassist Alberto Zuccato, and newcomers Paollo Millo on guitar and Sergio Sigoni on drums.

Regardless of the fact that the reproduction of that seventies retro sound was less successful at the Rock Club this time, which comes down to the characteristics of the room itself and probably too little time to calibrate all the details needed for a satisfying approximation of the Uriah Heep sound, the band surprised with a seriously interesting setlist that gave real Uriah Heep fans in the club exactly what they came for. They slipped in a few classics that Uriah Heep stopped playing at their own shows long, long ago, or will never play again at all. They even snuck in the excellent The Dance (Uriah Heep album “Innocent Victim”, 1978), which Uriah Heep never played live in their entire career.

The band, whose lineup went through a few changes this June, began its set with Look At Yourself a bit shyly and reservedly. What was missing above all was more rhythm-dictating from the snare drum, as they somehow couldn’t replicate the original’s recognizable gallop-march satisfactorily. Davor was also still warming up his voice, but already with the surprising Seven Stars he showed why he’s Sweet Loraine’s singer. The guy has that warm intonation with which you can quite objectively chase the energy and reproduce approximations of the charismatic Uriah Heep vocals of David Byron and John Lawton. The type of song like Stealin’ is tailor-made for him, and Žorž nailed it especially well. He was most convincing in the numbers where he had the lyrics down completely (Stealin’, Gypsy, Easy Livin’), but in most of the other songs that potential wasn’t tapped enough, since Davor had to concentrate on the scribbled-over sheets of paper under the monitor instead of building on a polished stage performance and an even better interpretation of the originals. So of the five players on stage, the most assured was maestro Alex Falcone, who reproduced Hensley’s sound more successfully with his keyboards. It also has to be added that the guitar still carries quite a few reservations in places, especially in creating a bigger sonic punch on individual numbers. For that the guitarist will have to dig deeper into Mick Box’s retro effects, maybe use a Gibson Les Paul, and above all start using a thumb pick on Tears In My Eyes. Still, Sweet Loraine were a more than decent and welcome warm-up, and with the repertoire of the mighty Uriah Heep they stirred up plenty of nostalgic sympathy for bygone days, when rock was still young and innocent, in a time when absolutely every band that appeared on the scene was good and absolutely every album that came out was good.

Žorž was assured in following in the footsteps of the elusive and unique John Lawton, too. The Dance and Hanging Tree came out sounding very pleasing in his hands, though the closing repetition of the chorus of the demanding Do You Know gave him some trouble. Along with The Dance, it was one of the bigger surprises of the Sweet Loraine setlist.

With help from the Kane’d members, McCarvill, Marcello and Zampa set up their own gear. That left only James Christian, who, escorted by the tour manager, made his way through the floor to the stage. House Of Lords fired off right away with probably the most anticipated song of the night, Sahara. We also got answers to a few questions about sound and delivery. The drums were way too loud at first and Christian’s vocal mixed too quietly, so it wasn’t hard to figure out right away that House Of Lords rely on backing vocals from tape. As for whether Jimmy Bell is replaceable, the answer was a resounding yes, since Rob Marcello proved he’s one of the most polished guitarists around when it comes to crystal-clear, flowing, lightning-speed playing that doesn’t miss a single note. What simply sets this guitarist apart is the ease with which he picks out those devilish note sequences and the mind-boggling speed at which he does it. I probably won’t be far off in calling Rob one of the fastest guitarists in the world right now (not counting the “Dragonforce Super Nintendo principle”).

House Of Lords pulled about 100 guests up front with two classics from the band, and during the new song Cartesian Dreams they dialed the sound into a pleasing picture that sounded best somewhere in the middle of the club for the rest of the show. James Christian is still an excellent singer who got through most of the material with the strengths of his distinctively velvety voice, which at times unintentionally recalls Joe Lynn Turner. Of course, even James shows fatigue and wear at moments, which he tried to patch up with two longer breaks during the drum and guitar solos and frequent sips of water.

The band’s playing is thrilling and the musicians backing James Christian are excellent, and the band really didn’t make a single mistake worth mentioning. James is a very approachable and charismatic singer who did a great job warming up and egging on the small audience, which this time also included a good dozen fans from Slovenia. The sad fact that they have no keyboardist in the lineup shows how frugal House Of Lords are these days and how closely they watch every hard-earned penny. It’s all the sadder because House Of Lords grew out of a band founded by a keyboardist. It’s not so bad that Gregg Giuffria hasn’t been in the band for a long time, but what’s truly depressing is that a keyboardist (any keyboardist) is physically absent from the band today, so House Of Lords have to perform their original material on stage with backing tracks of keyboards. They’d rather do that than pay a fifth member. Too bad. The other thing suggesting that the frugal House Of Lords made very little from the night in Ronke is that, encore included, they played a show of just an hour and twenty minutes.

What mostly pulled the audience’s attention away from the band’s “cosmetic fixes” was the out-of-this-world Rob Marcello, who simply put a spell on everyone present with some of his “otherworldly” solos! But overall that isn’t enough to avoid leaving at least a mildly bitter aftertaste that House Of Lords like to cheat a little these days. House Of Lords drew most from their older three albums on their first, “House Of Lords” (1988) – four songs – while “Sahara” (1990) and “Demons Down” (1992) were represented only by Sahara and Talkin’ ‘Bout Love respectively, which was a rather sorry haul for fans of classic House Of Lords. Luckily, the material from the last three albums fits very nicely with the first three. Despite the somewhat unwise move of including (otherwise excellent) These Are The Times (“World Upside Down”, 2006), which in the encore slot should have been replaced by an older classic like Edge Of Your Life, Shoot or Demons Down, given that the reserve ammo of Sahara had already been fired off right at the start of the show, concertgoers still got what they came for despite a few annoyances. House Of Lords are, quite simply, still a compact, tightly drilled quartet of four excellent musicians today. House Of Lords are worth seeing live in any case. Even in the new millennium. But given what they’re offering at the moment, seeing the band once is quite enough.

photos: Robi Lipej

Setlist

KANE’D: 1. Intro 2. Playing With Devil 3. Rebel Yell 4. Don’t Be Stupid 5. Rock Against DJ 6. Frozen 7. It Hurts 8. Fuck U 9. Don’t Turn On The Lights 10. Fallin’ 11. Lonely SWEET LORAINE (tribute to Uriah Heep): 1. Look At Yourself 2. Seven Stars 3. Sweet Loraine 4. Something Or Nothing 5. Stealin’ 6. The Dance 7. The Hanging Tree 8. Do You Know 9. Traveller In Time 10. Tears In My Eyes 11. Easy Livin’ 12. Gypsy HOUSE OF LORDS: 1. Sahara 2. Talkin’ ‘Bout Love 3. S.O.S. in America 4. Carthesian Dreams 5. I Don’t Wanna Wait All Night 6. I’m Free 7. Born To Be Your Baby 8. Love Don’t Lie 9. I Wanna Be Loved 10. Come To My Kingdom 11. Rock Bottom 12. Drum solo 13. Never Never Look Back 14. Bangin’ 15. Pleasure Palace 16. Guitar solo/Little Wing 17. Slip Of The Tongue —encore— 18. These Are The Times

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