Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Trezzo sull'Adda (Milan) / Live Club / Italy
Concert date: 03.05.2014
Attendance: 2000
Ticket price: €157.00 (three-day ticket) / €59.00 (one-day ticket)
Day three of Frontiers Rock festival, where the author of these »humble lines«, thanks to the outrageously tasty »line up«, keeps unluckily but unintentionally swapping the festival’s name for »RockLine festival«, served up the festival’s peak. For our crew, the third day began the »Italian« way. Leisurely, that is. With a typical breakfast loaded with »sugar«. Biscuits, spoonfuls of Nutella, unwrapping jam packets, rusks, sipping tea, strong coffee pulled out of the moka pot, crunching chocolate croissants and so on…. The weather was sunny and freshly washed. We took a trip to the old town center. Trezzo Sull’Adda is a gorgeous little town. It has ancient walls and the remains of a former fortress. It’s nicely kept, without a single scrap of litter on the ground. By eleven we were already prowling around the festival grounds, because when we met Brad Gillis the day before, he had let slip that Night Ranger had their soundcheck then and that we could meet again. And yet. The soundcheck was already done, Night Ranger were definitely there. Only the iron gate through which they were ferrying the musicians in on vans stayed stubbornly bolted. Meanwhile we got chatting with two guys from Rijeka, who had, even before eleven, left a swig of whiskey in a bottle of Jack Daniel’s that wasn’t worth wetting your throat with anymore. They were also chronically out of beer and frantically asking where the nearest discount supermarket with decent prices might be. They’d come all the way from Rijeka to »lose it« at the Winger show.
Even the most stubborn among us lost patience, and around one we decided to head off to a pizzeria and refuel. But lo and behold. We’re just pulling out of the parking lot when the iron gate opens and a smallish BMW pops out to pick up a little cluster of people. Standing among them, head and beard, was Jack Blades (Night Ranger), whom we of course instantly ambushed with cameras and Night Ranger album props. Blades revealed that his roots also come from somewhere in Serbia, since his grandmother supposedly had the surname Petrov (did he mix Serbia up with Bulgaria or Russia? Well, these days anything goes). And when he genuinely breathed out »Dober dan!« (that’s »good day«), we almost passed out. The rest is history.
It’s past three. The organizers’ punctuality worked again. Crazy Lixx hop on stage. Young, excellent Swedes who are nonetheless no rookies. Even though their current album »Riot Avenue« is two years old and they’re working on a new one, they took exclusive time out to hop down to Trezzo for this gig and, for a moment, forget about studio business. The band is superbly tight and knows exactly what each of them has to do on stage at any given moment. Use of the stage, movement, »teasing« the crowd, posing. They’re not short on testosterone. Rock ‘n’ roll straight to the forehead, goofy style. Maybe the genericness pokes you in the nose a bit, since the band is clearly steeped in awe for the look and the work of glam bands of the recent past, even though their songs hold up credibly in terms of arrangement. It just feels like you’ve heard all of this somewhere before. A good half hour of condensed playing. The guys rolled one song straight into the next and made the best possible use of the time they were given at the festival.
It was clear early in the afternoon that the third day would be the best attended of the festival. Already during the Crazy Lixx set it was hard to walk through the hall, it was that packed! And it only got worse when Issa took the stage. The band is led by the Norwegian singer Isabell “Issa” Øversveen. Besides her good looks, the girl has a well-built voice to match, one that instantly won people over during her show. Especially in how she builds power and carries it from the middle of her range up to the very highest registers. An excellent singer. Songs like I’m Alive and Angels Crying carry a contagious melodic rock macramé, and what pulls the music away from genre typicality is of course Issa’s recognizable vocal approach. On keyboards, Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline) helped out again, having also saved the L.R.S. (La Verdi – Shotton – Ramos) project’s set at the festival in this role the day before!
The third act then actually lifted the level of the whole event up a few notches. Given his reputation and enormous experience in a long-lived music career, that’s hardly a surprise. The name? Jeff Scott Soto with his backing band. A man of exceptional vocal gifts, which have taken him into the league of the more important performers of the rock era, including Yngwie J Malmsteen, Journey, Talisman, Soul Sirkus, Eyes, Takara, Kuni and Axel Rudi Pell. On top of that, Jeff also works with the new melodic rock outfit W.E.T., which is supposed to, to some extent, take over the musical legacy of Talisman, and with one of the two American versions of Trans Siberian Orchestra. Soto bounded on stage accompanied by four musicians. On first guitar was the young but exceptionally talented and hair-splittingly sharp Spanish musician Jorge Salan, then two Brazilian musicians, BJ (guitar and keyboards) and drummer Edu Cominato, and New Yorker David Z on bass. Jeff was literally unstoppable that day. The very good impression he left two days earlier with W.E.T. he upgraded even further with this set. He completely immersed himself, switched off from everything and squeezed out the best he had. Among the original material, Believe in Me and Holding On were thrilling, as was the performance of Look Inside Your Heart, for which Jeff invited a special guest on stage! Night Ranger guitarist Joel Hoekstra! A bravura, polished tightness from the quintet’s outstanding playing. Relentless and full throttle. Of course a »ladder« of Talisman classics was included, which Jeff spiced up with a quick fly-by of two hits from pop stars Madonna (Frozen) and Seal (Crazy). Toward the end we did get a Talisman song played in full by the whole band (I’ll Be Waiting). At the close, Jeff a bit melodramatically wrangled another five minutes of stage time out of the organizers, and the band cut loose for a big finale with the Steel Dragon song Stand Up, which once more sent everyone present into ecstasy.
The legendary John Waite, whom you probably all remember for his mega hit Missing You, fell into a thankless role. He had to follow the extraordinary live experience that Jeff Scott Soto had put on just before him. Genre-wise, Waite stood out a bit, sticking out of the festival’s context, especially if we take into account the last few years of his career, when he started flirting more intensely again with his blues days and his early career. While the rhythm section stays unchanged, still represented by Tim Hogan (bass) and Rodger Carter (drums), former Matchbox Twenty guitarist Kyle Cook has left Waite, and the spot has been taken by none other than the former Alice Coooper and Pretty Boy Floyd guitarist Keri Keli. During John Waite’s set we were convinced once more of what a polished and charismatic vocal approach this exceptional singer has. A slightly singed voice, immensely soft and sensitive when it’s time to bring out emotion and passion. Waite is aging like good old wine. The repertoire was of course enriched by The Babys numbers (Back On My Feet Again, Every Time I Think of You, Head First) and, somewhat as expected, two Bad English hits (Best Of What I Got, When I See You Smile). Missing You properly woke up the crowd, while for the closer Waite decided to cover the Led Zeppelin original Whole Lotta Love, which wasn’t the wisest move. Even though it entertained the audience, Waite’s own catalog is wide enough that he wouldn’t have needed to play a song that every kid on the planet who can grab two basic chords on a guitar has already played to death. But here comes that »but«. The song is a real vocal challenge and John knows it. So right there he amazed once again with his finesse and tenderness. An outstanding rendition, one our old grump Robert Plant, who no longer wants to hear about a Led Zeppelin reunion, should definitely have heard. A set that stayed, a bit unfairly, in the shadow of Jeff Scott Soto’s.
The arrival of Danger Danger brought a hefty troop of melodic rock fans to Frontiers Rock festival. Danger Danger have been playing Europe very rarely lately, if at all. A solid five years have passed since their last studio album »Revolve«, and it’s high time Danger Danger put together another studio album. The rhythm section stays original, with Steve West on drums and Bruno Ravel on bass, while vocal duties are once again handled by the »hyper little cocker-spaniel of a guy« Ted Poley. On guitar, since 2003, when he replaced the excellent Andy Timmons in the lineup, is the Swedish guitar alien Rob Marcello. The very same Rob Marcello stepped into the boots of House Of Lords guitarist Jimi Bell for the House Of Lords autumn tour in 2009, so already at the House Of Lords show in Ronchi dei Legionari near Trieste we could see for ourselves how versatile and accomplished this guitar heavyweight is. Precise and fast as the devil himself! Danger Danger threw an outstanding party. In fact they barely had to try at all. The expectations from the fired-up audience were simply so strong that they carried the band high on their hands the whole time. Over the years Ted Poley has lost a good chunk of his vocal range and routinely dodged the higher registers. The classics Bang Bang, Naughty Naughty (in the closing stretch), I Still Think About You and Monkey Business« were enough to make the crowd tear itself apart with all that lust. In fact the hall was shaking from the very first moment, with the opening pair of firecrackers from the studio debut, Rock America and Boys Will Be Boys, from all the adrenaline fever. The crowd finally got its big heroes At the end Poley shouted a farewell to the audience: »Stay horny Italy!« which, given all the debauchery the crowd showed during the show, couldn’t have fit the context of this performance much better.
One of the most eagerly awaited moments of Frontiers Rock festival was definitely the set by the Americans Winger. »Better Days Comin’« is the band’s freshly released studio album, out only about a week before Winger’s appearance at this festival. When the band came on stage, it was a surprise right off the bat that guitarist John Roth wasn’t in the lineup. In his spot one of the band’s guitar techs was apparently swinging the guitar. He didn’t fit the picture at all, even though Kip had clearly told him to imitate John Roth’s stage playing as best he could. Judging by his getup alone the guy didn’t fit, never mind his »trucker« look. Despite the big expectations for Winger, they had a pile of constant technical problems throughout the show. The sound was downright awful. Kip Winger’s bass got a »leg« and started rattling only somewhere in the middle of the set. Not only that. Winger were also plagued by problems with being in sync. Even before the new Rat Race, the band had a worse blunder. Morgenstein had already counted in the opening bar, but not everyone was on the same wavelength at that moment and they immediately »fell apart«. They had to restart the intro, and then the song finally ran on. Although the feeling of unease radiated off both Kip Winger and Reb Beach on his left, Winger, especially in the last third of the show, somehow got things back into their usual place and, in the manner of big professionals, brought the show safely home. People didn’t worry much about the band’s troubles. Their heroes delivered a whole bag of classic Winger evergreens from the stage: Hungry, Pull Me Under, Madelaine, Miles Away (with Kip on keyboards and an opening spent hunting for the pedal under his feet, read: tech gremlins), then Headed For A Heartbreak (with an extended outro, where Beach stretched his fingers along the guitar neck most picturesquely), Cant’ Get Enough, Easy Come, Easy Go and of course the closing Seventeen. Some guy in the third row, who had come to the festival from Brazil, knew every single song by the band by heart, which Kip Winger noticed from the stage too. He pointed at him a few times and threw him a pick, but the guy didn’t even care. He was in his own world. Thrilled to be enjoying the songs of one of his favorite bands.
Kip Winger and company didn’t deliver the best they’re capable of, but because they so rarely appear on European stages, Winger’s set was still a real little sensation, with the hall bursting at the seams from all that raw energy. Reb Beach finally showed why he’s such a respected guitarist. In Winger he comes through far more than in Whitesnake, where his genius is »deliberately suppressed«. It’s precisely in Winger’s songs that all his musical versatility shines. Let’s just hope that, to promote the album »Better Days Comin’«, they put together an autumn European tour and that gives us a chance to catch at least one date where Winger will of course play a full hour and three quarters.
Night Ranger had the great honor of closing Frontiers Rcok festival as the main headliner of the third day. The legendary rockers, sworn to the famous West Coast AOR craft from San Francisco, are today considered a band with exceptional mileage, musical experience and musical routine. If in 2011 we watched them as Journey’s opening act for a mere half hour, this time the story was quite different. The Night Ranger lineup remains unchanged: original members drummer and vocalist Kelly Keagy, bassist and vocalist Jack Blades, guitarist Brad Gillis, and the later additions, guitarist Joel Hoekstra and keyboardist Eric Levy. The latter joined the band three years ago.
With Nigt Ranger the stage setup is always a special thing. All the amps get pushed right to the back, the way Status Quo do it these days, and Kelly Keagy’s drums get moved to the front right, since Kelly takes over lead vocals on several songs. That frees up an enormous amount of space for running left and right and up and down. And Night Ranger know how to use it damn well. Despite the tooth of time gnawing at Blades and Gillis with maturity, the years don’t show on their shoulders for a second. They’re still two incredibly agile guys who, together with the younger Joel Hoekstra, pulled off a pile of stage acrobatics; all that was missing was some »sword« and the measure would have been full. Playing the guitar behind his back and similar crazy stunts from Gillis, who plays absolutely everything he can dream up with feather-light ease and without a single mistake. With bravura precision. Astonishing. Together with Hoekstra they’re an extraordinary guitar pair. Surely the guitar pair of the whole festival. And by a hefty margin. Even ahead of Tesla. We can say of the entire set that Night Ranger definitely (and deservedly) took first place by a mile over the other performers. They ate them alive.
The band immediately got the hall on its feet right at the start with two well-known standards, the opening Touch Of Madness and the evergreen Sing Me Away, then, via the excellent newer Lay It On Me (»Somewhere In California«, 2011) and the ironclad ballad Sentimental Street, delighted the audience with a performance of Coming Of Age, their cover of the Damn Yankees song. The first surprise is behind us, time for the rest. The first generous helping was The Secret Of My Success from the album »Big Life« (1987). The song was released as a single and also used as the musical backdrop for the comedy TV series of the same name, starring Michael J. Fox. That was followed by the brand-new song High Roiad. That will also be the name of the band’s upcoming studio album, due out this June. Blades fired up the crowd to shout »Yeah!!, Yeah!!!, Yeah!!!« three times in a row in the chorus, and the crowd was once again eagerly eating out of his hand. The new song works great with the rest of the material, which means we’re apparently getting another classically conceived Night Ranger album, and that’s very good. Another sweet treat followed. A jump back to the first album »Dawn Patrol« (1982) and the song Eddie’s Comin’ Out Tonight, about whose origin Blades told a funny anecdote, about a guy named Eddie who used to come to their shows back when Night Ranger were a club band. As for Damn Yankees, whose songs you don’t hear on stages anymore, Night Ranger were of a different mind this time and played one more song by that band (High Enough). That way they kept the mood at an outstanding level the whole time, and the festival had certainly never radiated as much positive energy as during their set. Another reason to celebrate followed, with two songs in a row from the album »Seven Wishes« (1985), Goodbye and Four in the Morning. The minutes of the show flew by extremely fast. With the hit When You Close Your Eyes from the album »Midnight Madness« (1983), Night Ranger signaled that the show was slowly approaching its end, and that was confirmed right after by Don’t Tell Me You Love Me from the debut »Dawn Patrol«, which Night Ranger mischievously stretched by weaving in a piece of the Deep Purple classic Highway Star. In the closing stretch, where Gillis and Hoekstra once again astonished with a guitar superiority that seemed to have no end, Night Ranger ended the regular part of their set right at the boiling point.
The encore wasn’t hard to predict when Kelly Keagy stepped to the edge of the stage with a tambourine and, in a duet with Jack Blades, started singing the verses of the famous Sister Christian. Unlike the modest encores of the first and second days from the headliners, when both Tesla and Stryper played just a single song, Night Ranger, after sending the crowd into delirium with Sister Christian, stayed on stage and tackled the song that really is last on the list of those that must be played at every Night Ranger show. They stayed with the album »Midnight Madness« and hit the finale with (You Can Still) Rock In America, which Blades renamed several times during the performance to (You Can Still) Rock in Italy.
The Nigt Ranger set really proved to be the highlight of the whole festival! In the right place. At its end, that is. The band radiated extraordinary joy, cheerful spirits and a positive attitude the whole way through, carefree and with feather-light ease stringing one song after another with the hallmark of great routine and incredible experience. The sound of the set was killer! And unlike other bands, Night Ranger also didn’t use canned backing vocal tracks. They’re bursting with energy! And that’s an extremely good sign, since the new studio album »High Road« is coming out, and let’s hope a European tour follows soon too.
From all the leftover adrenaline and positive feelings, we just didn’t want to say goodbye to the venue, even though the festival was over. The hanging out with the many festival-goers, who had come even from Bydgoszcz in Poland, as well as from the Serbian capital Belgrade, and further from Great Britain, Greece, even Brazil, France, the Netherlands, seemed to have no end. The clock struck deep into the early morning, when the post-festival good cheer was kept going, down to the last open can of beer, by a gang of six Slovenian festival-goers (two from Ajdovščina, one from Prekmurje and three from the Ljubljana area), devoted to a genre where there weren’t many deviations. Melodic rock, AOR, hard rock. A plethora of exceptional musicians, vocalists, guitar superheroes, as well as a whole bag of excellent bands living under the »contractual protection« of the label Frontiers Records. Music that chases melodic perfection, clean and polished singing, and where growling, semitone combinations that »swallow« the melody and sloppy three-chord thrashing are strictly forbidden at the door. If you’re a fan of melodic rock and AOR, you absolutely must visit this festival next year. Even if your favorite band isn’t playing on stage, there are almost no genre deviations among the performers, so this is a festival that just keeps filling you up with energy the whole time. Of course I’m speaking on behalf of fans of the melodic rock genre and AOR.
Great company, great music, great sets, great food, great energy. No complaints. Feelings like this are rare after a festival ends. Fronters Rock festival was simply a bullseye »right in the center« of the target! Let me close this »humble piece« with the hope that we’ll see each other at the same venue next year and that Frontiers Rock festival grows into a fixture!
Setlist
CRAZY LIXX:
1. Rock and a Hard Place
2. Sympathy
3. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
4. Lock Up Your Daughter
5. Riot Avenue
6. Blame It on Love
7. 21 Til I Die
ISSA:
1. Dream On
2. Looking for Love
3. Angels Crying
4. Invincible
5. I’m Alive
6. Can’t Stop
JEFF SCOTT SOTO:
1. Intro
2. Take U Down
3. 21st Century
4. Damage Control
5. Believe in Me
6. Look Inside Your Heart (with Joel Hoekstra)
7. Soul Divine
8. Holding On
9. Eyes of Love
10. Medley:
– Break Your Chains
– Day By Day
– Give Me a Sign
– Dangerous
– Just Between Us
– Mysterious (This Time It’s Serious)
– Frozen
– Crazy
I1. ‘ll Be Waiting (Talisman)
12. Stand Up (Steel Dragon)
JOHN WAITE:
1. Change
2. Back On My Feet Again (The Babys)
3. Rough & Tumble
4. When I See You Smile (Bad English)
5. Saturday Night
6. Every Time I Think of You (The Babys)
7. Best of What I Got (Bad English)
8. Missing You
9. Head First (The Babys)
10. Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)
DANGER DANGER:
1. Rock America
2. Boys Will Be Boys
3. Hearts on the Highway
4. Don’t Blame It on Love
5. Bang Bang
6. Beat the Bullet
7. I Still Think About You
8. Crazy Nites
9. Monkey Business
10. Naughty Naughty
WINGER:
1. Midnight Driver of a Love Machine
2. Madalaine
3. Hungry
4. Pull Me Under
5. Blind Revolution Mad
6. Down Incognito
7. Guitar Solo
8. Rat Race
9. Deal With the Devil
10. Stone Cold Killer
11. Miles Away
12. Headed for a Heartbreak (Reb Beach guitar solo in the outro)
13. Can’t Get Enuff
14. Easy Come Easy Go
15. Guitar Solo (Reb Beach)
16. You Are the Saint, I Am the Sinner
17. Seventeen
NIGHT RANGER:
1. intro (You Shook Me All Night Long)
2. Touch of Madness
3. Sing Me Away
4. Lay It On Me
5. Sentimental Street
6. Coming of Age (Damn Yankees)
7. The Secret of My Success
8. High Road
9. Eddie’s Comin’ Out Tonight
10. High Enough (Damn Yankees)
11. Goodbye
12. Four in the Morning
13. When You Close Your Eyes
14. Don’t Tell Me You Love Me
—encore—
15. Sister Christian
16. (You Can Still) Rock in America
Photo Gallery
