Performers: Kiss Of The Dolls / Red Partizan / U.D.O.
Location: Parma / Campus Industry Music / Italy
Date: Thursday, 04.04.2019
“Only one thing counts here. Either you’re in, or you’re not. Metal knows no wavering, no softness, no indecision. If your heart beats for it and for the bands you’ve chosen, there are no obstacles. None at all. No excuses that you couldn’t make this one or that one. No retreat. Everything else is a lie, or a game of putting on a “nice impression” for the crowd.”
So this was the last day of the three-month Steelfactory tour by U.D.O., fronted by the one and only man who is, no exaggeration, a legend, a myth, and the voice that defines metal. Udo Dirkschneider. We caught U.D.O. at two shows on this tour. In the Czech Republic this past February. The album “Steelfacory” is one of the best achievements to come out last year in classic metal and beyond. It’s also one of the best achievements of Dirkschneider’s entire career, speaking with a freshness and sharpness, or rather a consistency, that he hadn’t managed since the album “Holy” (1999), or, to be more modest, since “Thunderball” (2004) at the very least. The man has never made a bad album, quite the opposite. But after “Holy”, he didn’t manage to repeat that level of quality and stability across the songs until “Steelfactory”. Okay, let me add this too: “Steelfactory” was recorded with a single guitarist, and I can safely say Udo had been missing one ever since the legendary Matthias Dieth played with him. That’s the Russian guitar hero Andrey Smirnov, who with his performance on Steelfactory, alongside the indestructible vocals of Udo Dirkschneider, is the cornerstone of this overall artistic upgrade, this newfound artistic bloom, of a completely rejuvenated Udo Dirkschneider and his new crew.
So let’s jump ahead to a mercilessly rainy Thursday, the fourth of April, in Italian Parma. As you may well know yourselves, German metal has never been all that highly regarded in Italy, which our past concert trips to Italy confirm. In 2014, for instance, we hopped over to see Primal Fear, who played Brescia in front of a good 100 people. Well, the Parma show also met with the worst advance ticket sales of the whole U.D.O. tour.
We got to Campus Industry Music, the venue where U.D.O. played the very last night of their Steelfactory tour in Italian Parma, after some getting lost and blind wandering through the streets, because the author of this piece can’t stand modern-day junk, that is, the “beefed-up” crutches in the form of electronic navigation. Kiss Of The Dolls were already on stage in the hall, Latvian hard rockers trying to glue together the musical levers from the legacy of old rock bands who defined rock pioneering partly through the Hammond sound. A band with a ton of work ahead to distill their own identity, a band with quite a few flubs, which proves they’ll need to roll up their sleeves. Second up were Romania’s Red Partizan. A name that’s becoming topical again in today’s times. Power metal with a female vocalist and a rasping, hoarse male one, likewise with a rather predictable, generic musical trail where everything had already been said, somehow didn’t win us over with any sense that it offered anything original or memorable. But they gave it a go. That counts. Heart.
U.D.O. kicked off their last show at exactly half past nine in the evening. Steelfactory backdrop, a decent stage, just right for the band to stretch out and fly all over it. The small crowd, a good hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty people, first greeted Udo’s son Sven Dirkschneider, who was the first of the quintet to climb on stage and rise above his drum fortress to salute the audience. Right after him the other three youngsters jumped up: guitarists Andrey Smirnov and Fabian “Dee” Dammers, and of course our own Tilen Hudrap on bass. Not long after, the famous, legendary silhouette of the charismatic Udo Dirkschneider emerged through the haze and the band attacked with all guns blazing in the catchy Tongue Reaper. It’s one of the leading wreckers on the new album “Steelfactory”.
As we’re used to with U.D.O., they always play flat out. Whether in front of a handful or a crowd of many thousands. That’s the rule, and the great commander Udo Dirkschneider doesn’t budge from that postulate by an inch.
First of all, it has to be said that Udo Dirkschneider has played the entire tour with an injured left knee, which put the whole tour in question, but the brave and bulletproof man once again proved he’s carved from the noblest steel when he put off surgery on the knee so as not to let his fans down. Then there’s the chemistry the new lineup radiates. Udo seems cheerful, and an exceptionally good mood shines through at the shows. Looseness. We tasted that in the Czech Republic in February in Prague and Zlin, and the band’s show in Parma confirmed it once again. Even though the handful of people seemed very reserved, with a few wild heads shaking sporadically in an otherwise calm auditorium, and of course three crazy Slovenes on top of that, which for the land of eternal “bowing” to Parni valjak and the rest of the southern guard is a completely unimaginable realization. Clearly the formula of integrating four youngsters around Udo has paid off big time. The crew reads each other perfectly, already knows the well-worn gags and tricks, and keeps constant close contact. Udo’s ear is alert and watchful and lets no flubs slide, which Bill Hudson found out very quickly before getting booted from the band. The quintet is incredibly agile. Udo standing still because of his knee isn’t noticeable at all, since Tilen, Fabian and Andrey are constantly full of mischief and take up different positions on stage. And anyway, Udo’s voice is the basic element that grabs all the attention. There’s a huge amount of dynamics throughout the show, running back and forth, standing shoulder to shoulder, and Udo sounds like an air-raid siren in its prime. His voice hasn’t lost a speck of power or charisma. It remains a sharpened chainsaw that gratefully lodged itself in his throat at birth and, in its operation, never lets the singer down. His unique, piercing and incredibly penetrating, high-screeching vocals remain flawless, distinctive and, as always, inspire a measure of awe. In front of the man you feel, along with total fascination and devotion, only a great deal of respect.
Here comes Make the Move, played under the impressions of the Accept classic Living For Tonight, from the era of the Dirkschneider tours, when U.D.O. performed strictly Accept material under the name Dirkschneider, proving they deliver it more convincingly than the current Accept lineup. You’ll say “Obviously!”, if only because Udo is singing, but the instrumental performance itself is more convincing too, especially thanks to the “crazy” Russian Andrey Smirnov.
Anyway. “Steelfactory” was favored at the show, which is the only right thing. Whether it was the catchy, anthemic Raising High, the especially excellent, melancholic In The Heat Of The Night with its utterly fascinating chorus, then in the second half a proper party with Hungry And Angry, which was once again opened by an entertaining solo duel between Sven and our brilliant Tilen Hudrap, or, closing the regular set, one of the catchiest tracks on the new album, One Heart, One Soul, they kept up an extremely vibrant, atmospheric intensity. Damn it, we’re talking about new songs here, not cult classics. The ones that stood out first and foremost were the insanely destructive Timebomb, the surprise of the “Faceless World” track Heart Of The Gold, then absolute highlights from the debut “Animal House”, namely the excellent mellow In The Darkness, and in the big encore the long-awaited Animal House and the closing They Want War. The band didn’t forget to play one of the best-arranged ballads of the later era, I Give As Good As I Get (“Rev-Raptor”, 2011), didn’t forget the fascinating “Holy”, tackling the title track in the first encore, and of course one of the best songs of Udo’s career had to ring out again, Independence Day from the album “Solid”, where Tilen dug in more heavily on bass, and then the fun 24/7 from the “Mission Nr. X” album. A great set list with a catchy, primordial heavy metal philosophy that couldn’t be more German, a show carried on its back that simply takes you away and away and away and is over before it began. The band played the full set list and didn’t trim the repertoire, given that the turnout was rather dismal and recalled the half-empty VPK Mediapark hall in 2004, when U.D.O. showed up in the Slovenian capital for the one and only time (sadly probably the first, last and never again). In short. An original German sin of heavy metal phrasing combined with a voice that is one of those that defined metal (add Dio, Halford, Lemmy, and Ozzy to Udo).
Another unforgettable and priceless get-together with the legendary vocalist and his rebuilt crew of four untamed youngsters, hungry to prove themselves. Extraordinary vibe!
On the day RockLine publishes its review of the final U.D.O. concert on the Steelfactory tour, the great Udo Dirkschneider celebrates his 67th birthday. The editorial team of our online music magazine wishes the legend a jubilee full of every good thing!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Tongue Reaper
2. Make the Move
3. 24/7
4. Mastercutor
5. A Cry of a Nation
6. Metal Machine
7. Independence Day
8. In the Heat of the Night
9. Vendetta
10. Rising High
11. Guitar Solo (Dee Dammers)
12. In the Darkness
13. I Give as Good as I Get
14. Timebomb
15. Bass/Drum Solo
16. Hungry and Angry
17. Heart of Gold
18. One Heart One Soul
—encore I—
19. Holy
20. Animal House
—encore II—
21. Man and Machine
22. They Want War
