Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Escape-Metal Corner / Vienna / Austria
Concert date: 23.08.2010
Attendance: 250
Ticket price: €15.00
Does anyone out there happen to know who Lizzy Borden are? Does anyone still remember this band? Hardly, right? So let me present their message in the world of rock in the next few lines, as “juicily” as I can. The guys didn’t have to dig around the realm of imagination for long to pick a handy name. They grabbed onto reality. They named themselves after Lizzie Borden, the infamous young lady accused of murdering her father and stepmother. The young lady, who was among other things accused of being very fond of swinging an axe at thoroughly inappropriate moments of everyday life, was later acquitted for lack of tangible evidence. But whatever. That event from the end of the nineteenth century planted itself so deeply in American history that it remains a synonym for its most notorious chapter to this day. It even became, if I may use a slightly barbed turn of phrase, a mandatory item on the daily menu of “violent American folklore”.
The name gave the guys a perfect alibi to pick up the already established shock-act routine of performers like Kiss and Alice Cooper, and so help carry the element of shock in rock culture over to heavy metal as well. On their first two albums the band “chopped up” traditional American heavy metal. They played fast and melodic. The albums “Love You To Pieces” (1985) and “Menace To Society” (1986) are manifestos of the N.W.O.B.H.M. boom crossing the pond, which set off a phalanx of bands in the US who wanted to play even faster and even more aggressively than their European counterparts. At heart, Lizzy Borden belonged to the league of young bands like Metal Church, Crimson Glory, Riot (who are actually a band from the second half of the seventies), Liege Lord, early Fates Watrning and early Queensryche. Whatever different evolutionary paths those bands took later in their careers, Lizzy Borden held on to a firm figure of melodicism in their traditional concept of what heavy metal is. They crowned it most effectively with their third album “Visual Lies” (1987), where they ventured (with the help of their stage horror-show theatre) even into the territory of the then-rising glam metal. “Visual Lies” is Lizzy Borden’s finest moment as songwriters, where the band managed to strike an excellent balance between metallic punch and singable melody and to present both vividly through their “horror” show theatre. It was followed by the hard-rock-tinged but no less quality “Master Of Disguise” (1989), and then Lizzy Borden vanished from the scene altogether.
They only came back to the land of the living in 2000 with the excellent comeback album “Deal With The Devil”. Despite the warm reception of the new album, another creative pause followed, until 2007, when another excellent studio manifesto from the band came out, embodied in the album “Appointment With Death”. So Lizzy Borden are a band known for a modest “bouquet” of excellent but unjustly overlooked albums. Besides the “horror show” theatre, all of it is graced by the one-of-a-kind voice of singer Lizzy. He combines an authoritatively melodic approach with the maximum payoff from every available “horsepower” of his throat’s displacement whenever he swerves into the hardest-to-reach vocal lines. That’s Lizzy Borden the singer. If you’re familiar with the vocals of Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween), early Geoff Tate (Queensryche), the legacy of the poisonously high vocals of the (sadly) late Midnight (ex-Crimson Glory), Tony Moore (ex-Riot), whose raised falsetto is regularly accompanied by a special vibrato connotation, like the one that clings to Kingdom Come’s central figure Lenny Wolf, then you’re tuned to just the right wavelength!
Just how small and unnoticed Lizzy Borden are on the scene today is confirmed by their short August European tour. The few standalone shows the guys added to their festival appearances were aimed at visiting clubs of the truly “underground” trade. With the low fee of a self-booked offer, the most essential “personal” logistics, which includes guitars, microphones, guitar effects and a drum stool, the cheapest possible “rented” van, Lizzy’s “lipstick suitcases with personal cosmetics” and two “bunnies” of scandalous character, who by the standard criteria of Lizzy Borden concerts absolutely must not be missing from the stage, Lizzy Borden arrived at what is probably the darkest club hole the Austrian capital Vienna has to offer. A club with the supremely fitting name “Escape-Metal Corner”.
We’re on the scene. As a rule we check the beer prices first, which aren’t exactly wallet-friendly, but thirst and ambience tell us otherwise. We grab a mug, then two, and slowly roll down into the “underground”. The cellar. Pub upstairs, concert stage in the basement. Ticket price? Peanuts. €15.00! Where else on this planet can you experience something like that?
Before Lizzy Borden’s set, the sparse crowd in the club was warmed up by the Austrian metal bands Virtual Disease, High Healer and Katjusha. The playing and screaming of all three was solid enough, confirming that the members have the know-how and the power. Only the charisma and stage presence were nowhere to be found. Neither was anything unique or a recognizable songwriting identity in the music. Still, we could see right away that the club is in a very tough spot when it comes to proper sound settings. The inclusion of a trio of local bands, though, confirms that this is the only right approach for any concert promoter: to offer room, on home turf, in front of a bigger band, to local acts who badly need support for their breakthrough.
The clock reads five past eleven at night. The instrumental part of the crew is on stage and opens the show with Tomorrow Never Comes, off Lizzy Borden’s still-current studio album “Appointment With Death”. Two minutes later a figure wrapped in a dark cloak appears on stage, embodying our friendly aunt who asks each of us, fatefully, just once in a lifetime. The basement room fills up completely and some 200 heads are crammed in front of the stage. You can’t fit any more in. And what does the place look like? “Elongated”. An unusually narrow and deep stage. Good thing the band members aren’t as tall as Rašo Nesterovič, because their heads would be hidden among the water pipes sticking out of the ceiling.
So some 200 heads were sweating it out in the hole, condemned to battle the corrosive damp of the room, since the concert space is surrounded by the basement walls of a hundred-year-old (or older) building. Such buildings are known for drawing in moisture. Add to that the fact that smoking is allowed in the venue, and “victory” is yours! The band members on stage were nowhere near enjoying such an ambience, but as professionals they took it without visible strain and focused only on delivering the material.
As for the sound, it was that bad. The guitars were completely indistinct. At moments totally inaudible, or the riffs simply buried all the melodic passages of the single-string embellishments. Luckily, Lizzy Borden’s vocals came through that sonic mush clearly. The vocalist confirmed that he still has extraordinary power and energy in his vocal abilities. Without major effort he tamed everything, even the hardest-to-reach vocal sequences pushed up into the highest registers. Lizzy Borden put together an excellent setlist. Right after the opener they played the practically obligatory Red Rum from the debut “Love You To Pieces”, and spiced up the early part with one of the most beautifully finished melodic songs off “Visual Lies”, Voyeur (I’m Watching You). Right during the first song, Lizzy’s wireless microphone “croaked”, so he theatrically hurled it to the floor and unscrewed guitarist AC Alexander’s mic from its stand, instantly solving the unexpected hiccup.
The first part of the show presented Lizzy’s famous series of face masks and the wielding of the club and the axe, while the real atmospheric turning point of the night was a song off the album “Deal With The Devil” called There Will Be Blood Tonight. At that point the first of the two “bunnies” appears on stage. While she’s squirming, Lizzy (in a zombie face mask) sneaks up behind her, bares her neck and invites himself to a proper vampire feast. When the feasting is over, one of the techs dutifully brings him a skull with the top sawn off, full of “blood”. Lizzy takes a short “stroll” among the front rows, where he blesses the hottest heads with the red goo (read: girls in the splash zone!).
Lizzy Borden brought a refreshed crew to Vienna. Besides original members Lizzy Borden (vocals) and Joey Scott (drums), who by the way is reportedly Lizzy’s (biological) brother, there’s also Marten Anderson (bass), who has “served” in the band since 1992, and two brand-new faces. Two guitarists. The first is Dario Lorina (part of the former backing crew of Warrant singer Jani Lane, as well as the backing lineup of Mr. Big singer Eric Martin) , who last year replaced Iro K. Black (ex-Vicious Rumors, ex-Heathen) in the lineup, and the other is the guitarist of old-school American speed metallers Warrior, AC Alexander, who this year replaced Chris Sanders in Lizzy Borden.
Both guitarists, given their youth, quickly gained experience from being tempered in bands with older musicians, and showed absolute mastery of the classic Lizzy Borden material, and the Anderson-Scott rhythm section worked flawlessly. The only thing the guys had to watch throughout the show was not to trip over each other and not to fall off the stage. Well, it’s tough to function in three to four square meters at all, when a few days earlier you were standing on the stage of Wacken Open Air in front of tens of thousands of people… Lizzy Borden is an exceptional leader. Besides the charisma, he’s an incredible “showman” who held the audience tight so that they joined in wholeheartedly. The guys won the crowd over with total ease. The crowd proved, by nailing the verses and choruses especially in Me Against The World (“Visual Lies”, 1987), American Metal (“Love You To Pieces”, 1985) and generally in the closing Give ‘Em The Axe (the EP of the same name from 1984), that it hasn’t forgotten Lizzy Borden yet. It was definitely a handful of “horndogs” right under the stage, but they had a major effect on the endlessly fun vibe of the whole show.
Lizzy Borden simply squeezed out the optimum in difficult concert conditions, which you almost couldn’t enter without innate gills and a built-in air filter. Lizzy’s theatre was a complete success, and it also confirmed that he’s still an outstanding vocalist, one of those singers today who develop extraordinary power across a wide vocal range and keep it intact even at the highest points. So he’s one of the finest singers using a clean melodic vocal approach.
The clock turned fast. The guys dedicated their performance of the Rainbow song Long Live Rock And Roll to “the man from the silver mountain” (Ronnie James Dio), joining a concert gesture among rock and metal bands that will make 2010 long remembered. That was also the end of the regular set. The final stretch was especially intense, since the lineup brought the show to its peak right there. To get there, they worked into the repertoire the song Rod Of Iron from the studio debut, its follow-up Notorious, and the already mentioned Give ‘Em The Axe from the EP, which closed the show. They pulled Red Rum out of the encore and put it right at the start, spreading out the manifestation of their own repertoire’s concert energy that way, and they also spiced up the ending with Master Of Disguise (“Master Of Disguise”, 1989), which I wouldn’t have expected at this spot.
The voltage-charged show confirmed the band’s exceptional form. One could wish for only one thing: that a band like this always gets a big enough stage where it can develop its famous horror theatre to the max. So there were brakes on. In a suffocating hole like Escape-Metal Corner that’s completely normal. Sadly. The venues at Metelkova in the Slovenian capital are a real Las Vegas next to this club. After the show the band took time to meet the fans, which made our haul from the visit even more complete. In conversation, AC Alexander hinted that the band is coming back for a new European tour this December. Let’s hope somewhere closer to Slovenia, and let’s hope at a venue that actually resembles a concert hall rather than a bike shed. Until then, see you later.
photos: Martin Prezelj
p.s.: To read how Lizzy Borden’s show went at the Bang Your Head!!! festival on 28.06.2008, when the band played twice in the same day (the second time as a replacement for the cancelled Hardcore Superstar), click HERE. To read how Lizzy Borden guitarist AC Alexander fared with his Warrior at the Bang Your Head!!! festival a year later, on 27.06.2009 to be exact, click HERE.
Setlist
HIGH HEALER setlist: 1. Conquerors 2. Medea 3. The Touch 4. Iron Torpedo 5. Kalaschnikov 6. Power To The Cord 7. Metal Obsession 8. Bontempi Killers KATJUSHA setlist: 1. Born To Run 2. Eat Me Raw 3. The Devil’s Jester 4. Master Of The Hellion 5. Holy Spirit 7. Red Light Trip 8. Rude Attitude 9. Misery In Black 10. Lucky Parasite 11. Forever Love It Loud LIZZY BORDEN setlist: 1. Tomorrow Never Comes 2. Red Rum 3. Voyeur (I’m Watching You) 4. Live Forever 5. Eyes Of A Stranger 6. Under Your Skin 7. We Only Come Out At Night (intro) 8. There Will Be Blood Tonight 9. Me Against The World 10. American Metal 11. We Got The Power 12. Rod Of Iron 13. Long Live Rock And Roll —encore— 14. Notorious 15. Master Of Disguise 16. Give ’em the Axe
Photo Gallery
