Author: Urban Bolta
Location: Seebronn / Baden-Württemberg / Germany
Concert date: 29.07.2011
Attendance: 8000
Ticket price: two-day ticket: 75€ (presale) / 90€ (day of the show)
After the heavy rain the day before, it took the morning light to reveal the full extent of the weather damage. Puddles, lakes and mud everywhere, forcing you to watch every single step as you ran around the festival grounds. The organizers laid pallets and dumped sawdust on the most critical spots (the entrance to the festival zone, the exit from the parking lot…), at least softening the aftermath of the storm a little.
The day was kicked off by German heavy rockers Voodoo Circle, with Mat Sinner on bass. After a solid hard rock show in front of a sparse crowd, Circle II Circle took the stage, American heavy metallers led by former Savatage vocalist Zak Stevens. The band mixed Savatage classics with their own material, with an emphasis on the current album “Consequence of Power”. During those first two sets the Rockline crew was busy getting to know the festival stalls and expanding our personal collection of sound carriers, so there was no time for anything more than a quick “peek”. The first band we caught in full was Girlschool, a veteran all-female heavy metal outfit from England.
GIRLSCHOOL
Girlschool are a legendary female quartet who were an important piece in the mosaic of the British NWOBHM movement, and at the same time the first all-female heavy metal band to reach the ears of countless listeners around the world. Today the band consists of longtime friends Kim McAuliffe (guitar), Enid Williams (vocals, bass), Denise Dufort (drums) and Jackie Chambers (guitar), who joined in 2000 to replace the original guitarist and former driving force of the band, the late Kelly Johnson. The girls (well, ladies) came across as a seriously interesting act that doesn’t fuss too much over their long-gone teenage days. An energetic set of catchy, simple heavy metal riffs and Motörhead-style rock’n’roll rhythms was this year’s Rock of Ages festival’s only nod to the early days of heavy metal, and it brought back the golden years of the early eighties. Sure, a few wrinkles have piled up over the years, but Girlschool are holding up well! Decked out in mostly old-school leather and striking poses on stage even in their golden years, they keep diligently nurturing their stage presence and image, and the male eye is especially kind to the redheaded frontwoman Williams. Girlschool raced through their repertoire, heavily focused on the classic albums “Demolition”, “Hit and Run” and “Screaming Blue Murder”. The Brits closed the regular part of the set with the hit Emergency, which they ran out of time for two years ago at Wacken Rock South, where I caught them for the first time, and the stage techs literally chased them off the stage. A perfect ending to a decent show!
TREAT
Treat are representatives of the Swedish hard rock school of the eighties, who lost the will to create when grunge took off in the early nineties and called it quits – a story similar to the fate of many an eighties hard rock band. They came back to the scene five years ago and rose like a phoenix from the ashes with last year’s record “Coup Da Grace”, an album of exceptional melodic perfection that finally put Treat back on Europe’s rock map. Since the Swedes cultivate a slightly more modern approach than most of the other bands at the festival, a few less fans gathered in front of the stage, but that didn’t stop the blondes on stage from marching toward another live triumph! In a set of just over an hour, Treat served up a colorful selection of their eighties hits, which were confidently matched by the newest tracks like The War Is Over, We Own The Night or, just before the end, Skies of Mongolia. In the dynamic structure of the songs, Treat wove together razor-sharp, metallized guitar lines with delicate keyboard touches and layered vocal harmonies, delivering that always welcome erotic ingredient of hard rock. Treat are good like wine! The stage chemistry works all by itself, and the constant flirting and sharing of smiles between the five on stage and the audience clearly proves that these guys are completely genuine and honest in what they do. The choruses were practically competing with each other in their sing-along catchiness, so the hour-long set, ending with World of Promises, flew by much too quickly. The Swedes impressed me once again, though, to be honest, this experience can’t quite match last year’s at Sweden Rock festival, where the intensity and the interaction with the crowd were a notch higher thanks to the home turf.
MOLLY HATCHET
From chilly Scandinavia we jumped to the endless plantations of the American South, back to the days when the whiskey flowed and the cowboys roamed! Molly Hathcet are typical representatives of the patriotic rock of the American South, who spent the summer on a short tour of Europe. After the Rock of Ages gig the old boys were heading to the studio in Bad Arolsen, and then hop, back across the pond for new live adventures. Molly Hatchet aren’t slowing down even after almost forty years of career! Even though guitarist Dave Hlubek is the only remaining original member, they’re all seasoned musicians who know how to get things done. Standing rock-solid on stage and greased with every trick in the book, they leave the stage antics to the flow of the moment, with plenty of joking around between them, led by the talkative frontman Phil McCormack, a broad-built fella, always equipped with sunglasses and a hat over his bald head. In recent years Molly Hatchet have been diligently stringing together new studio albums, and understandably their songs take up a good chunk of the setlist. A set of simple-rhetoric hard rock boogie rhythms, stylistically much grittier than the country-flavored Skynyrd, was closed by the only American band at this year’s edition of the festival with Flirtin’ With Disaster, the title track of their most successful album from 1979. Molly Hatchet proved in true fatherly fashion that Southern rock can still be plenty manly!
ERIC BURDON & The ANIMALS
Eric Burdon is a musician of venerable reputation who has been creatively active in blues music of one kind or another for a good half a century. Long ago Burdon was the leader of The Animals, a name whose rights he owns outright, so these days he performs under the recognizable brand of Eric Burdon & The Animals.
Eric Burdon is a man of great charisma, which he proved every minute of the set. Over the years he’s picked up plenty of belly rolls, which he hid under a simple shirt with Caribbean motifs. His voice has survived the test of time and still keeps its recognizable raspiness and raw power, with barely any atrophy to speak of, something every singer his age could envy. Burdon enjoyed vocal excursions away from the originals on a hit-oriented setlist, which can’t be said for his buddies on stage. The backing musicians stuck pedantically to the boss’s instructions and passed on the chance for jam-style experimenting that the wide range of instruments was practically serving up on a platter. So everything revolved around Burdon’s heartfelt approach and the energetic, at times sonically reshaped highlights of his long career. The first brush with the psychedelic heritage of the sixties came with the opener When I Was Young, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood put the old-school sound of the Hammond organ front and center, and the loudest ovations were of course reserved for the evergreen House of the Rising Sun, performed in a somewhat slower version than we’re used to from the radio waves. The evening trip through the distant musical past ended with We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place, and it cemented Burdon and his band as an evening attraction we’ll be sorely missing before long.
THIN LIZZY
Thin Lizzy, the immortal promoters of Irish rock heritage, are still going full steam in 2011, even though they lost their heart and soul a long time ago. This very year marks the 25th anniversary of the passing of Phil Lynott, who died far too early at the start of 1986. The great son of rock music was also remembered this year by his hometown of Dublin, which dedicated various street commemorations and exhibitions to him in the anniversary year. But let’s get back to Thin Lizzy in the present. Today the band consists of Lynott’s contemporaries Scott Gorham (guitar), Brian Downey (drums) and Darren Wharton (keyboards), plus newly added Ricky Warwick (vocals, guitar), Marco Mendoza (bass) and Richard Fortus (guitar).
This assembled crew of more or less big-name musicians of course knows very well how to get things done. A professional approach without a shred of hesitation and a carefully crafted hit-packed setlist proved to be a nail hit right on the head. The tattooed frontman Warwick, whom some might also know as the leader of The Almighty, relaxedly burned off kinetic energy and made good use of the width and size of the stage, unlike the guitar duo Gorham / Fortus, who keep to a slightly less temperamental stage approach. The left side of the stage belonged to the Latin-rooted joker Marco Mendoza, who entertained the crowd by throwing picks into the audience and with other gestures, while keyboardist Wharton kept watch almost unnoticed at the back right, his share in the sound picture (once again) minimalistic. The Irish players strolled through the biggest highlights of their career, and once again there was no skipping Waiting For an Alibi, Jailbreak, Whiskey In The Jar and The Boys Are Back In Town, and to wrap up the evening they came back on and played the little hit Black Rose in memory of Gary Moore, who passed away this year. Amid the evergreen tunes the evening slid imperceptibly into night, and the seasoned musicians showed themselves to be a well-oiled machine, though, to be honest, I’m not a fan of this kind of reviving old glory with new faces – least of all in the case of Thin Lizzy. Guys – I hope Phil won’t hold it against you.
After an honest dose of classic rock in the form of Lizzy, it was time for the evening’s headliners – The BossHoss! Boss…who?, many probably wondered. Me too. It’s yet another musical name that’s hugely popular in German-speaking countries while remaining completely anonymous in international waters. The band bets on fun, bouncy punk rock with a heavy dose of country and Elvis Presley-style rock’n’roll, and their simple musical rhetoric appeals first and foremost to the teenage crowd. You can hardly question the BossHoss’s competence or approach, but the organizer deserves a big scolding for handing the band the role of the evening’s main stars. What’s more, the band doesn’t really fit the Rock of Ages festival concept at all, since their target audience goes to festivals like Sziget, Frequency, Nova Rock and the like… A little cranky, I quickly vanished in the direction of the tents.
The organization was top-notch, and there’s of course nothing to complain about regarding the pleasant atmosphere of the mostly mature crowd, so the festival weekend was spoiled only by the moody weather. Two days of musical indulgence flew by in a flash, and it was already time to start thinking about the trip back home. The festival, quite far from Slovenia (we’re talking a good 700 kilometers), left us with positive feelings, though I personally wouldn’t mind, say, a second festival stage that would add breadth to the event and maybe draw in a few more visitors – a more varied lineup would of course also make it easier to justify the grueling drive to such a distant festival.
Photos: Martin Prezelj
Setlist
12:00 — 12:50 VOODOO CIRCLE 13:00 — 14 :00 CIRCLE II CIRCLE 14:15 — 15:15 GIRLSCHOOL 15:30 — 16:40 TREAT 17:00 — 18:10 MOLLY HATCHET 18:30 — 19:50 ERIC BURDON & The Animals 20:15 — 21:35 THIN LIZZY 22:05 — 23:50 THE BOSSHOSS
GIRLSCHOOL setlist: 1. Demolition 2. C’mon Let’s Go 3. Not For Sale 4. Hit And Run 5. I Spy 6. Screaming Blue Murder 7. Future Flash 8. Everything’s The Same 9. Yeah Right 10. Race With The Devil 11. Emergency 12. Take It All Away
ERIC BURDON & The Animals setlist: 1. When I Was Young 2. Don’t Bring Me Down 3. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood 4. San Franciscan Nights 5. Red Cross Store 6. I Believe to My Soul 7. Invitation To The Whitehouse (It Was A Dream) 8. Boom Boom 9. Spill The Wine 10. It’s My Life 11. The House of the Rising Sun 12. I’m Cryin’ 13. We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place
Photo Gallery
