Location: Bratislava / Divadlo Arena / Slovakia
Date: 05/31/2008
Fortified with some noble Slovak hop liquor and Slovak sausages, we found ourselves face to face with the band at exactly 8:00 PM at the Divadlo Arena theater, a venue that holds 1,200 people at most. Much to our delight, there was no support act this time. The hall has tiered seating with chairs at the back, so the more laid-back souls get plenty of elbow room for some ear meditation too.
It was great to see these four venerable eminences again, guys who left an indelible mark on rock music and inspired hordes of young people around the world to follow them into making music. First to surprise was John Wetton. The man had three bypasses put in a year ago, yet he sang with unbelievable freshness and was full of life on stage. His voice was that famous John Wetton voice, the one every band would want to have. You could call it angelic to a degree, wondrously melodic, yet velvety and emotional at the same time. Wetton was expressive across his whole vocal range. Keyboardist Geoffrey Downes on his left, surrounded by nine keyboards, certainly a few noble kilograms richer, not only built the band’s famous dramatic, atmospheric essence but also handled the trademark vocoder backing harmonies, while “Mr. Owl” Steve Howe on Wetton’s right played almost the entire show on a Gibson ES-335 “sunburst” in his typical, instantly recognizable crouch. That brings with it a totally unique sound and, of course, a very particular kind of outfit, the kind worn by a teacher at a high academy of atomic physics (trousers pulled up high, shirt tucked in tight). For extra, mostly acoustic tones he used a technologically modern Line 6 guitar from the Variax series. All three are tied together by the resolutely tight drumming of the incredible Carl Palmer, whose demonstration of power, speed, wit, outstanding control and precision worked flawlessly all night in Bratislava too .
Asia, playing Bratislava as their very last show of the year, somewhat surprisingly opened the concert with the short song Daylight (“Alpha”, 1983). The audience itself proved that Slovakia doesn’t get many gigs like this: they were already unleashing a huge amount of decibels at the start, and the mood climbed even higher when the band moved on to Only Time Will Tell (“Asia”, 1982). The band delivered excellent sound. A few times Steve Howe’s guitar slightly drowned out Downes’ keyboards, but for most of the set the sound was incredibly dynamic, clean and balanced and, most importantly of all, it radiated that incredible “oomph” of this foursome’s charismatic one-of-a-kind identity, sending waves of shivers down your spine. There was practically no break between songs without one of the band members introducing the next song and singling out the colleague who contributed the most to it. British etiquette without equal.
The band added fuel to the fire with Wildest Dreams, and then Mr. Owl announced the first song from the new album “Phoenix”, called Never Again. Sure, the new record isn’t causing any meteor showers on Earth in artistic terms, but played live, the song, together with its little sister An Extraordinary Life, which came a bit later, showed that even the “Phoenix” material can grow in every attribute that those of us who can’t lower our standards from the Asia output of 1982 to 1983 so keenly look for and demand.
The band, which no longer acknowledges material from the album “Aqua” (1992) through “to Silent Nation” (2004), made up for this gap by conjuring up a proper little music encyclopedia for everyone present. It was a perfect reminder of its members’ musical roots. At the same time we set off on an adventure through rock history. As former (and current) members of Yes, King Crimson, ELP and The Buggles, Asia pointed out where their music actually comes from. They started off by riding the Yes classic Roundabout, where it was a surprise how phenomenally John Wetton’s vocals fit into the very essence of the classic. Steve Howe is of course trained beyond all limits and played the thing practically with his eyes closed. Here Downes’ keyboards were in a slightly too subordinate position, but the band quickly fixed that by tackling the fantastic classic Time Again, after which Downes stayed alone on stage and played the instrumental part of the classic Cutting It Fine, called Bolero.
Steve Howe wouldn’t find his personal satisfaction and peace of mind if he didn’t show off his famous Martin acoustic guitar at least once at a concert. After a short warm-up and a taste of jazz licks, the famous tones of the ragtime classic Clap rang out and the crowd went into pure ecstasy.
The most interesting moments came after charismatic John Wetton took the lead on stage. First he tackled an acoustic version of The Smile Has Left Your Eyes. For that, Howe took a good one into his lap and played around with a slide. Wetton’s typically melancholic, soulful voice really came into its own this time. This was supposed to be followed by Voice Of America, but in the second half of the European leg of the tour the band swapped it for the King Crimson classic Book Of Saturday. John Wetton was completely alone on stage, with only a 12-string acoustic guitar for company. An outstanding song that crawled deep under your skin, the touch of Wetton’s vocal color and approach is incredibly special and real, and Book Of Saturday was tailor-made for him.
Now things got serious. A tight, incredibly well-rehearsed, sonically perfectly balanced Open Your Eyes was followed by the probable high point of the concert, the ELP classic Fanfare For The Common Man, where Palmer, with his intense slapping of the drums, and Downes, with Emerson’s unforgettable main motif , staged a true paradise for all the nostalgic souls in the room. And that wasn’t all. After that, all four took a running start and, true to their progressive ethos, headed into an outstanding jam, dominated by incredible communication amid the crossfire of Howe’s and Downes’ solos. Real wizardry, which left everyone present stunned.
A new atmosphere was born on the horizon by sailing on the mellotron through the King Crimson classic In The Court Of The Crimson King, a song King Crimson haven’t played in ages, though they could. What King Crimson fail to do as their duty, Asia did masterfully, giving us that unforgettable experience. The grand finale was kicked off by The Buggles classic Video Killed The Radio Star, which Wetton wittily started with a megaphone, in keeping with Trevor Horn’s tradition, while Downes’ vocoder took over in the chorus . In keeping with the period the song came from, Downes dressed up in a shiny silver jacket and matching sunglasses.
A proper AOR rock treat rang out in the hall with The Heat Goes On, which included a fantastic Palmer drum solo, where the man conjured up some fierce rawness and incredible cymbal technique. At one point he grabbed a tambourine after distracting the crowd with hellish pounding on the double bass drum pedals, then, once he lost interest in it, hurled it high into the air behind his back, straight into the projection screen. A concert by Asia wouldn’t be a real concert without their evergreen hit Heat Of The Moment, where the hall caught fire in every dimension. The band stretched out the closing section of the song not only with the by now standard closing solo jam, but also by letting the extremely loud Slovak crowd take over for lots of repetitions of the chorus this time.
For the encore, the guys served up one more unforgettable Asia rock experience with a phenomenally tight performance of Soul Survivor and then, after two hours of truly brilliant concert, finally left us. These old seasoned foxes, with their endless musical mileage and experience, really brought to the hall what the people had come for. Bread and circuses. The crowd simply refused to accept that the show was over. The usual routine of such experiences in Austria, Italy and Germany is that people quickly bolt for home from the hall. This time, though, the crowd kept making noise and calling the band back to the stage for quite a while. Sadly, it didn’t happen.
Asia were a great surprise. Knowing that Wetton is clearly in excellent vocal form again, and in good shape as far as his health goes, is worth its weight in gold. The band has already announced a few concerts in Great Britain for 2009. Now comes a well-deserved rest, then a turn to solo projects, and then the circle will close and repeat again. That’s the business. At long last, the wait to see Asia in their original lineup was over once and for all.
That concertgoers in Slovakia are still “behind the times” was confirmed by an unpleasant experience, realization and fact regarding how media representatives are looked after while doing their job. You had to go to battle. What was it about? There was no special area for photographers in front of the stage in the hall. So none of the most fired-up heads in the front rows would let you into the front row to shoot two songs without flash and then, of course, vanish from there rapidly, as management had instructed. Our Slovak brothers are, in this respect, still awfully thick-headed. They just don’t get it, and maybe they don’t even know that music websites, print press and the like exist and try to bring music closer to their readers. So I’d suggest to the otherwise highly enterprising, agile and responsive organizers that in the future they seriously and thoroughly tackle this problem at such venues, because the audience’s attitude toward media representatives who want to take normal photos actually puts them in physical danger. It was the same during the Asia concert. And this is no joke.
.photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
text: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Intro
2. Daylight
3. Only Time Will Tell
4. Wildest Dreams
5. Never Again
6. Roundabout
7. Time Again / Bolero
8. Clap
9. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes
10. Book Of Saturday
11. Open Your Eyes
12. Fanfare For The Common Man
13. Without You
14. An Extraordinary Life
15. In The Court Of The Crimson King
16. Video Killed The Radio Star
17. The Heat Goes On
18. Heat Of The Moment
—encore—
19. Sole Survivor
