Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Sölvesborg / Sweden
Concert date: June 8, 2010
Attendance: 10,000
Ticket price: €240 (4-day ticket)
Our yearly ritual of combing through the lineup of the prestigious Sweden Rock festival has finally paid off. The decision was made a good while ago – this festival was finally going to get stormed by us too! Five of the bravest among us set off on the more than 1,500-kilometer trek two days before the festival kicked off, which, after a grueling journey, meant rolling into the festival campsite and setting up the evening before the music program began. Through Wednesday our little crew gathered strength for the punishing schedule of the days ahead: we did some shopping for this and that music merch, got to know the festival grounds, eyed up the lovely Swedish blondes and, of course, sampled the goodies of Scandinavian breweries. Meanwhile the music had started too. We wisely saved our energy for the first few performances by local acts, so the baptism of fire for Sweden Rock 2010 went to Michael Monroe and his band.
This year the festival came to life in its expanded four-day form for the fourth year in a row. The first day serves as a warm-up day: the grounds aren’t open in their full extent yet, the headliners are far less recognizable than on the other three days, and the number of tickets is capped at a “modest” ten thousand. After an afternoon of recharging, evening finally arrived, and with it a run of interesting acts from all kinds of backgrounds.
MICHAEL MONROE (Sweden stage)
Right on schedule, Michael Monroe, the vocalist of the once hugely influential Finnish glam rockers Hanoi Rocks, took his place on the festival’s third-largest stage. Hanoi Rocks called it quits last year, so catching Monroe live is now the closest thing to a Hanoi Rocks show for fans of the Finnish glam legends. A sea of devotees with big hair, shredded clothes and sunglasses of every shape and size gathered in front of the stage. Even though the golden eighties are long gone, Monroe still knows exactly how to run things. The playful frontman kept in touch with the crowd the whole time, and they followed him every step of the way with loud singing. Once again Monroe couldn’t help being himself: he climbed the stage structure itself and belted out a few choruses from right under the roof, hoisted half a dozen meters above the sea of hands beneath him. The sound was clean and the guitars crisp, which bodes well for the shows on this stage in the coming days. One of the more interesting moments came when Michael marched out with a saxophone, spicing up the sonic picture of the show. Monroe and his band, which includes bassist Sami Yaffa (Hanoi Rocks), the guitar duo of Ginger and Steve Conte (New York Dolls) and drummer Karl Rockfist, mixed solo material with Hanoi Rocks classics. It was the latter, especially “Back To Mystery City” and “Malibu Beach Nightmare”, that put all the gathered glam fans in a wild mood at the close of the show. Michael Monroe proved that entertaining and owning a crowd is still no trouble for him in 2010.
THE QUIREBOYS (Dio Stage)
Last year marked 20 years since The Quireboys classic “A Bit of What You Fancy”, which the “London boys” celebrated with a reissue of the album and, of course, a run of shows this summer. Besides the Swedish gig, the Brits will play a few more big festival stages across Europe this summer, including Bang Your Head in Germany. Sweden greeted the Quireboys in the spirit of their debut’s message, which, as expected, was firmly planted in the performance itself.
There was no sign of life from The Quireboys for a long time, so a comeback in the form of live shows means winning back a crowd they had once already conquered. With a heartfelt performance on the stage named in memory of Ronnie James Dio, who had passed away a month earlier, they nailed the task, at least in Sweden, down to the last detail. The stage show is built around the grinning frontman Spike, who with his dreamy vocals and infectious bluesy melody easily hypnotizes the crowd and takes them off to another world. The guitar duo of Griffin and Guerin holds the strings the whole time, and the set runs from slow but steamy blues treats like “Hey You” to party-ready, blues-rock marches like “7 O’Clock” or “Sex Party”. The keyboards under Keith Weir’s fingers and the occasional harmonica from the aforementioned Spike are also a big part of their musical expression, and it’s exactly these extras that bring the authenticity and honesty so typical of The Quireboys to the overall sound. For the Brits, the Sweden Rock gig was a successful return to Swedish stages, and it will surely stay in the memory of all fans of bands like Tesla or Great White, whose music is always filled with a cheeky, romantic mood.
U.D.O. (Sweden Stage)
This year the honor of headlining the Sweden Rock warm-up day went to U.D.O., a band led by the tireless little man Udo Dirkschneider, former Accept vocalist and one of the icons of German heavy metal. U.D.O. never sit still. They put out records and play shows nonstop, so chances to catch the Germans on stage keep piling up. Last year they released their latest studio album “Dominator” (review here), which they’re now presenting to fans all across Europe. A record-sized pack of longhairs gathered in front of the stage that night, and the firing of classic riffs in every direction could begin!
The evening was opened by two songs from the new album, The Bogeyman and the title track Dominator. U.D.O. hit with full force, and the heavy riffs and power metal anthems sent the front rows into a trance in no time. Let’s be honest, the newer songs are less familiar to the metal masses, so Udo and company quickly slipped some better-known Accept classics into the set – “Fleash Rockin’ Man”, “Midnight Mover” and the cult “Princess Of The Dawn”. On the latter, all the energy of the guitar partnership of Stefan Kaufmann & Igor Gianola, together for over a decade now and by this point a byword for stage reliability, explodes into the open. In between the crushing riffing, the guitarists Iron Maiden-style metalize together shoulder to shoulder at the edge of the stage, and with a bit of fog for support the sight becomes truly majestic. Udo Dirkschneider remains a frontman from head to toe: a man of unenviable stature who still has that unmistakably raspy voice, so even there, despite the years, U.D.O. can’t let you down.
In a set just shy of two hours, U.D.O. treated us to two encores, mostly seasoned with the most recognizable Accept melodies. The relatively predictable setlist reflects the fact that the Germans played in front of a huge crowd, and they adapted by playing a “best of” of Udo’s career. The only thing that dented the confident performance was the painful, endless stretching of the “Balls To The Wall” and “Princess Of The Dawn” choruses. With all that constant repetition and monotonous crowd-baiting, they could easily have treated the fans to another candy or two.
The opening day of the festival flew by at the speed of light, and the usual post-gig festival routine kicked in – some people partied deep into the night, while the rest of us, after swapping opinions on the sets and putting away a small beer (the Swedes don’t even know what a big one is!), quickly slipped into our sleeping bags.
Photos: Urban Bolta
Setlists
15:30 — 16:15 HEARTATTACK (Dio) 16:15 — 17:15 SATOR (Sweden) 17:15 — 18:00 KITTO (Rockklassiker) 17:30 — 18:15 F.K.Ãœ (Dio) 18:30 — 19:30 ALESTORM (Sweden) 19:30 — 20:00 NALLE & HIS CRAZY IVANS (Rockklassiker) 19:45 — 20:45 STEELWING (Dio) 21:00 — 22:15 MICHAEL MONROE (Sweden) 22:30 — 23:00 WARRIOR SOUL (Rockklassiker) 22:30 — 23:45 THE QUIREBOYS (Dio) 24:00 — 02:00 U.D.O. (Sweden) MICHAEL MONROE set list: 1. Nothin’s Alright 2. Motorvatin’ 3. Hammersmith Palais 4. You’re Next 5. Not Fakin’ It 6. Dysfunctional 7. Another Night In The Sun 8. I Wanna Be Loved 9. The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams 10. Love Song 11. Motorheaded For A Fall 12. Back To Mystery City 13. Malibu Beach Nightmare 14. Dead, Jail or Rock ‘n’ Roll ———————- 15. Ain’t Nothin’ To Do 16. 1970/Radar Love THE QUIREBOYS set list: 1. Don’t Bite The Hand 2. Misled 3. Finer Stuff 4. Tramps & Thieves 5. There She Goes Again 6. Roses & Rings 7. Dirty Town 8. Whipping Boy 9. Mona Lisa Smiled 10. Man On The Loose 11. Hey You 12. Sweet Mary Ann 13. 7 0′ Clock ———————- 14. I Don’t Love You Anymore 15. Sex Party U.D.O. set list: 1. The Bogeyman 2. Dominator 3. Independence Day 4. The Bullet And The Bomb 5. Flash Rockin’ Man 6. Thunderball 7. Vendetta 8. Princess Of The Dawn 9. Midnight Mover 10. Infected 11. Man And Machine 12. Mastercutor 13. Animal House 14. Metal Heart ——————- 15. Holy 16. Balls To The Wall ——————- 17. I’m A Rebel 18. Burning 19. Fast As A Shark
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