The Gilberts Cast Their Spell on Trieste (2013)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Location: Trieste / Port Workers’ House (Teatro Miela) / Italy
Concert date: 06.04.2013
Attendance: 450
Ticket price: €22.00 / €25.00

Three years ago the king of shred guitar paid a visit to Slovenia, but this time we Gilbert fans had to head west to Trieste if we wanted to hear and see him live. The virtuoso and his crew stopped by Teatro Miela (the Port Workers’ House) on the first weekend of April.

The weather hasn’t been doing us any favors this spring, and Saturday was no different, but our hearts were already warmed in the car at the very thought of heading to the Littoral and seeing the sea for the first time this year. We slowly wound our way through the narrow streets from Opčine down into Trieste and rolled right up to the waterfront, where Teatro Miela stands. Finding parking gave us a bit more trouble than the drive itself, so to all future visitors of the Teatro: leave home early, because the parking lots in Trieste fill up fast in the evening.

To everyone’s surprise, Teatro Miela turned out to be a proper theater – stage up front, a standing area right below it, seats behind that (where you probably can’t see much), and above the seats a gallery with more seats. Of course, not one of us thought for even a second about sitting down. We planted ourselves up front and waited patiently for the guitar master.

At ten past nine in the evening, the stage was first taken by a local hero with an acoustic guitar, AbbaZabba, who otherwise goes by the name Alessandro Giorgiutti. The Trieste native was presenting his new album The Alphabet to the home crowd. There’s nothing to complain about with the kid’s vocals, but his mostly sad little tunes killed the mood a bit, and by the second song his guitar gave out too, or at least the cable did, causing a momentary electric blackout of Alessandro’s axe. But AbbaZabba wasn’t thrown off: he fiddled with his cable a bit, found the connection again and carried on. Sadly, a similar mishap soon repeated itself, and during the last song, after another electric blackout, AbbaZabba simply unplugged the guitar, stepped away from the mic and sang and played the song literally unplugged to the end. That of course won over even the part of the crowd that hadn’t exactly been glowing with enthusiasm during his set. AbbaZabba took his leave to a big, encouraging round of applause, and we waited with even more impatience for the real star of the night.

Paul Gilbert started messing around with the guitar as a preschool kid, and by his mid-teens he was already making a name for himself as a musician. He still kept up his academic music education and progressed very quickly. In the music world he’s known as one of the fastest pickers on the planet, while the wider public knows him mostly from the supergroup Mr.Big.

The great king of the guitar finally hit the stage a few minutes after ten, after the organizer warned us beforehand that the virtuoso demands no smoking in the hall during the show. Once everyone in the crowd had put out their cigarettes, we first spotted drummer Thomas Lang, then bassist Kelly Lemieux, and last of all the Gilbert couple strode onto the stage. This time it wasn’t only Paul who wore big headphones – the entire front row of the stage had them on. Emi took the keyboards, Paul grabbed his guitar, and together they kicked off with »Enemies (In Jail)«. But the fun didn’t last long – the band stopped the first song because of a roaring, rumbling bass on stage. After things calmed down the band carried on, but soon had to stop the song again as the quaking and booming came back. Well, third time’s the charm: the shaking stopped and the concert could roll on undisturbed.

With a few exceptions, the first part of the show was pure Vibrato. Paul devoted most of the original material in the set to the new album he put out in 2012. For me, not exactly overly thrilled with Gilbert’s new record, that was of course a letdown. Gilbert’s fingers deftly worked the strings and glided from one track to the next without any big breaks or unnecessary chatter. Emi faithfully followed her husband on her keyboards, and the eye of the observer often caught the antics of bassist Lemieux, who took great delight in messing with drummer Lang. After »Atmosphere on the Moon« the trio at the front of the stage left for a few moments, giving Thomas Lang a chance to be properly showcased in a drum solo. Lang showed off some skills twirling his sticks, which the crowd received with enthusiasm. After a short break the trio returned to the stage and a wave of covers followed. Maybe we, the most devoted fans, were hoping for more original songs and a Mr.Big cover or two, but we didn’t get them. What we did get was Paul yanking a mobile phone out of a front-row fan’s hands and throwing it backstage, for which he apologized later, but it became clear that the great guitarist doesn’t like being filmed – at least not from up close. We also got a round-robin swap of instruments on stage – Paul sat behind the drums, Lang took over the bass, Lemieux strapped on a guitar, and Emi grabbed the mic and sang »Sin City«. Paul’s voice wasn’t exactly at its best that night, and Emi’s vocals made it clear she should stick to what she’s good at, which is keyboards. Still, the Italian crowd proved to be a grateful audience and rewarded Emi with a generous round of applause – then again, with a woman on stage you can hardly go wrong with our western neighbors. Next came »C.O.D.« and »Man on the Silver Mountain«, where Emi and Paul traded a few musical duels and showed that both are masters of their instruments, and then the gang on stage slowly said goodbye. But not for long – they all came back, played and sang one more track, then took a bow together and wrapped up the musical evening.

I just couldn’t shake the feeling that the 2010 show at Cvetličarna in Ljubljana sounded quite a bit better, maybe precisely thanks to the excellent Tony Spinner on guitar, who also took over all the main vocals at that gig with flying colors. Still, we’ll gladly go see Paul again sometime, if he keeps coming back to our neck of the woods.