Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Gasometer / Vienna / Austria
Concert date: 11.05.2011
Attendance: 3500
Ticket price: €41.60
That’s how it goes. Every band out on the road. Money! If it’s not coming from record sales, at a time when the whole planet is busy “downloading” off the internet, touring is the only way to fill a hungry artist’s pocket. And if you’ve stuck with the business for more than 40 years, doing it grows into something more. It becomes part of your daily code of life, your sacred musical “Bible” that you believe in and have sworn yourself to. Love of music, obsession and an eternal fire burning inside you, one that only gets snuffed out the moment a skinny little lady, skin white as snow, comes knocking on the day that closes the circle of life.
Yep. No surrender. Not for Uriah Heep, not for Nazareth. Both bands, firmly in the saddle for over four full decades, aren’t letting up. Both Uriah Heep and Nazareth put out new studio albums this year, almost at the same time. Nazareth “Big Dogz”, Uriah Heep “Into The Wild”. A concert epic across Europe followed logically. For both bands. Since the tours overlap in time and place, the decision came naturally: merge some of the dates and share the stage.
Since Uriah Heep are the bigger band these days, and, given their past merits, really the bigger band than Nazareth overall, the headliner role on these joint dates goes to Uriah Heep. One such show was also on the books for Vienna, 12.05.2011.
Even the RockLine crew’s trip to a Nazareth headline show in Villach a week earlier confirmed that the Austrian crowd hasn’t forgotten the legends of rock, and they proved it with a great turnout of 2000 heads that filled the hall nicely. Gasometer is a great concert venue in Vienna, with outstanding acoustics, and RockLine has really fond memories of it, because this is where our outlet lost its “innocence” when it comes to covering gigs abroad, when on 20.03.2006 it went to a show abroad for the first time ever, to see British sarcastic rockers The Darkness! Well, that same Gasometer last hosted Uriah Heep on the “Wake The Sleeper” tour, on 06.11.2008
Back then the hall was half full; this time Gasometer was packed to the rafters. Somewhere between 3500 and 4000 heads. Worth mentioning, too, that this isn’t the first time Nazareth and Uriah Heep have joined forces like this. Remember the “The Double Trouble” tour from 2002.
Both bands were preceded by a local act that warmed up the crowd with a half-hour medley built from covers of bigger names like Van Halen, Bon Jovi, AC/DC,… but Urban and I didn’t manage to squeeze through the gigantic line of people waiting for tickets in front of the entrance in time. We didn’t miss much.
It’s 8:40 PM! The stage goes dark. The jam-packed Gasometer comes alive to the opening tickle of a traditional Scottish tune…. Thunderous ovations roll in as the band members take up their positions on stage. Murrison hammers out a riff, the lights come on, and the band pounces on Gasometer with the album “Rampant” (1974), to rustle up a few bucks with the song Silver Dollar Forger!
Nazareth got an hour and 15 minutes this time. So they trimmed and pruned the whole repertoire they’d played in Villach a week earlier. The opening and the finale stayed unchanged. Even the band’s stage outfits. Same T-shirts, same shirts. Everything’s the same. Only McCafferty’s facial hair has grown in a bit more, so that a casual observer with a pinch of vivid imagination could easily rechristen him a spare Moses, or a stand-in for Charlton Heston in the film “Judah Ben (me)Hur”. Not to ramble! This time once again more people than in Villach, no pest in the front row to irritate Murrison like in Villach, sound conditions optimal. Up to This Month’s Messiah the guitar was a bit louder, but with Dream On things balance out! That song confirms the excellent vocal interplay of the foursome; Dan still rips it up on vocals, even if he gets a huge helping hand from the mixing desk (the “echo” effect). Without Dan’s vocals there’d be nothing to Nazareth today. Basically very simply built rock n’ roll only gets its uniqueness and instant recognizability from his one-of-a-kind vocal character.
So we heard the obligatory evergreens including This Flight Tonight, the aforementioned Dream On, plus Love Hurts and Hair Of The Dog (with a shortened bagpipe bit) in the encore, and Razamanaz, which pulse and blaze at full strength in the new era too. With Changing Times (album “Hair Of The Dog”, 1975), which Dan “falsely” and wryly introduced as a “ballad”, it was the instrumental section especially that stretched its legs, with a longer improvised stretch that proved Nazareth are no terrific music professors. Murrison, for instance, wasn’t totally precise on the faster solo parts, so the odd note crept in that didn’t ring clear and distinct. Still, the rock n’ roll potency of the outstanding main riff and the cannon-fire bombardment of the drums cover up every little beauty flaw quite gloriously.
Nazareth did their job with flying colors. In the intensity of the moods they strung together, this was a much more successful show than the Villach one a week earlier. The band showed signs of good, cheerful spirits throughout, and above all that trademark of the legendary Scots shone through during the set, the one we read as a refined sense for a full measure of wit and sarcasm, as the roots of life on the British Isles dictate.
Uriah Heep took the stage at exactly 10:20 PM! An intro carved out of oriental melodies and rhythms was followed by a brand-new song, I’m Ready, from the new album “Into The Wild”. The stage grew even bigger once Nazareth’s drums were moved out of the way, and the backdrop was dedicated to the new album’s cover. Mick Box on the left, in his Sunday-best shirt, looking and styled like a white Gandalf; on his right and in the middle, the ever-approachable, charismatic vocalist Bernie Shaw, who’d put on a kilo or two; and on Bernie’s right the legendary former Bowie bassist Trevor Bolder, who has evidently handed Bernie a kilo or two (where on earth did your belly go, Trevor?). In the back, of course (as standard), Phil Lanzon on Hammond and keyboards and wild man Russell Gillbrook on drums. A well-oiled machine! New album, new tour. Just three years after the previous album “Wake The Sleeper” (2008).
The high energetic “output” that has adorned the band especially over the last three years was authentically embodied this evening in Vienna as well. An hour and a half of a mix of songs from the new album and the obligatory evergreen classics Uriah Heep simply have to play confirmed once more that these guys are getting hungrier and hungrier with the years. Uriah Heep have always been seen as grafters who had to work hard for every crust of bread. And although the show, after endless mileage, looks more or less like routine these days, the band’s performance is marked by exceptional tightness and a sense of one another among the members, as if they were in a trance playing together on stage.
The vocal harmonies are a tremendous support to Bernie Shaw, who sang superbly again throughout the concert. Only one slip was noticeable. In Nail on the Head Bernie wanted to come in for one more repeat of the chorus, but the band had already finished the riff. Russell really let loose especially in the solo section between the new Money Talk and Nail on the Head. A lovely addition to the repertoire was the classic Rainbow Demon (album “Demons And Wizards”, 1972), which the band played excellently, especially when it comes to the magic of the multi-part vocal harmonies. In that respect, surely the first highlight of the Uriah Heep show in Vienna.
“Into The Wild”, like “Wakte The Sleeper” before it, also confirmed, in terms of how its songs were performed, excellent linkage and compatibility with the older classic Heep repertoire. Simple as that. What saves the day is Lanzon’s Hammond, which the new album is full of, and so, of course, is every Uriah Heep concert. In 2011 too.
Excellent sound and excellent playing. Maybe in the new Kiss Of Freedom they could have given a bit more room to the acoustic sound and backed Bernie up with harmonies in the verse, since he was left rather alone and the song could have reached an even greater live effect, but otherwise no flubs. It all added up once again to an extraordinary cumulus of full-on, positive-energy rock n’ roll vibration, of the unique and unrepeatable Uriah Heep magic and authenticity.
In the obligatory encore, during Free N’ Easy (album “Firefly”, 1976), the guys treated themselves to a bit of stage comedy, inviting some of the most fired-up heads from the audience to “shake” their heads up on stage too. The view was utterly entertaining, watching a milk-toothed headbanger in an Iron Maiden shirt going wild, and right next to him an older bald guy with Brincelj-style specs and a prosperous Bavarian paunch, being whirled around by the cathartic feelings stirred up by the unrepeatable, urbanely tuned rock n’ roll tones of his youth.
To wrap up. A must for everyone. For fans and for those just easing into the healthy rock n’ roll environment. A concert by Uriah Heep and/or Nazarath in the new era. You walk out of the show charged with positive feelings that just won’t fade. Two classic bands, two new albums, two new tours. No brakes! No forcing it, no masking. Genuine, unique and at full power. Yes. Even after a solid forty years. We’ll be reporting back soon from the two bands’ show in Leoben, 13.05.2011, where yet another set of legends from this evening joins them, none other than Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in person. Until then, stay alert and blissful!
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
NAZARETH: 1. Intro 2. Silver Dollar Forger 3. Big Dogz Gonna Howl 4. This Month’s Messiah 5. Dream On 6. This Flight Tonight 7. Radio 8. When Jesus Comes To Save The World Again 9. Changing Times 10. Hair Of The Dog —encore— 11. Razamanaz 12. Love Hurts 13. Morning Dew URIAH HEEP: 1. Intro 2. I’m Ready 3. Return To Fantasy 4. Stealin’ 5. Rainbow Demon 6. Money Talk 7. Drum solo 8. Nail On The Head 9. The Wizard 10. Into The Wild 11. Gypsy 12. Look At Yourself 13. Kiss Of Freedom 14. July Morning 15. Lady In Black —encore— 16. Free N’ Easy 17. Bird Of Prey 18. Easy Livin’
Photo Gallery
