Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: San Dona Di Piave / Revolver klub / Italy
Concert date: November 19, 2016
Attendance: 250
Ticket price: €15.00
It’s always worth paying attention to the legendary Canadian outfit Anvil, especially when their concert epics roll through at the right time in the right place, close enough to Slovenia, of course. The eternal roughnecks of piercingly rattling, boisterous speed metal and rock’n’roll filth have, after releasing their sixteenth album overall, »Anvil is Anvil«, once again taken over stages across Europe. In the first half of this year they opened for the notorious Dirkschneider, and this November they set off on the second leg of their European tour, this time as the headliners. They invited Rezet along as special guests, thrash metal revivalists from Schleswig, Germany (that is, from the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, way up north, almost at the Danish border), who are using the occasion to promote their third full-length, »Reality Is A Lie«.
Now that the New Age klub in Roncade near Treviso hasn’t been offering shows like it did years ago, its rightful replacement is the program of Revolver klub, located not far away in San Dona Di Piave, in the industrial zone there. It’s easily reachable from Ljubljana, since the venue is only 190km from the Slovenian capital. Revolver klub is a really lovely place. We’d already convinced ourselves of that on October 24, 2016, when Stu Hamm Band played here. It offers excellent acoustics, excellent logistics and gear, and excellent, varied stage lighting that accompanies the bands’ performances. The beer stays pricey, though, as everywhere in northern Italy. If you order a large, for an immodest €4.00 you get a measly 4 dl of hoppy liquor in a plastic cup, and the waitress will always ask whether you want »birra rossa« or »birra bionda«.
On the Italian leg of this tour, five shows also featured Italian symphonic power metallers from the Venetian town of Cazzago di Pianiga, called Teodasia. The band released their third studio album, »Metamorphosis«, this October. The title fits like it was made to order, since the band recently went through a lineup transformation and has been working with a male vocalist, Giacomo Voli, since 2015. The core of the crew is rounded out by guitarist Alberto Melinato, bassist Nicola Falsone and founding member and keyboardist Francesco Gozzo. For the live shows the quartet is joined on stage by drummer Jacopo Tini and backing vocalist Chiara Tricarico of Temperance. The band doesn’t really fit the genre-compatible frame of a bill with Anvil and Rezet, but on stage they came across as an extremely driven, fired-up fortress of polished performance, striving for perfectionism. The sound was excellent, except for the guitar (the guitar solos, to be precise) being a bit less audible, with the keyboards gobbling up their space. Giacomo Voli showed himself to be an extremely charismatic figure with an explosively operatic voice, so no wonder Rhapsody of Fire recently took him in, where he replaced the renowned Fabio Lione. Polished, active, dynamic playing. You really can’t fault the guys and the girl. Professional and confident. Giacomo also did well on the communication side, getting a handful of listeners to move right up to the stage during the set, happily swishing their hair. The approach to songwriting is generic and predictable, sure, but the delivery was heartfelt and focused. With the obligatory kitschy theater. A band that real fans of symphonic power metal need to check out.
The Germans of Rezet, cut from a totally different cloth, then wrapped the venue for a good forty minutes in a top-notch metal firestorm, commanded by a deliciously teasing revivalism that resurrects the old speed and thrash metal school, true heirs to the rich Teutonic legacy. There are possible parallels to Destruction, and also to musically more conciliatory detours in that sphere, such as Paradox or Vendetta, while the riffs and execution unmistakably carry the influence of the first two albums of mighty Metallica. Rezet are a superbly fired-up, well-oiled machine. A just-right annoying, snotty, sharp, higher-pitched, raging vocal, brilliant interplay between the two guitarists, with hair-splitting execution of the solos, and solid, precisely calibrated kinetics from the rhythm section. The band put the »dot on the i« on their show with a special moment of the evening, dedicated to all the departed members of Motörhead (Lemmy, Philty Animal and Wurzel), when they tore into No Class. Relentless, jagged, untamed, with an incredible fire of youthful fury. Rebel rage. Full of dirty witchcraft. If they keep up that zeal and stage conviction, this band will surely climb high on the European and global metal scenes. A superbly charged lead-in to Anvil’s set, then.
Anvil, the cult Canadian outfit that has been kicking around the planet since 1978, needs no proving. The name speaks for itself. This year the band shuffled the lineup so it’s once again »all-Canadian«. Famed frontman Steve Kudlow, the speed metal court jester known to everyone as »Lips«, and drummer Robb »Robbo« Reiner, the original Anvil members, brought in longtime studio helper and tech Chris Robertson as the permanent bassist, and with this lineup the band released the new studio album »Anvil is Anvil«. Frankly, it’s not exactly a shining achievement of their career, and Anvil have served up much better in the past, but luckily it doesn’t signal that the band has gotten lazy live. Even in terms of the performance itself!
So Lips took a proper run-up on stage already during the opening instrumental jam March of the Crabs, suddenly bolted off it in a quick dash and plunged straight into the crowd, where, in the company of 250 heads, he thoroughly stretched his fingers and warmed them up to proper working temperature. The party had begun, Lips climbed back on stage and up to the mic, and the band stayed with material from the cult »Metal On Metal« and hacked on with »666«, where instead of »Six, six, six!« Lips theatrically addressed the crowd with »Sex, sex, sex!« To bring this theater to an early peak, the band pulled another interesting move. For the third song of the set they picked the cult naughty number Oooh Baby from the debut album »Hard N’ Heavy« (1981). A cult start, then.
As is the band’s custom, Anvil complemented their bristling speed metal repertoire, marked by a hefty dose of flirting with the elementary filth of punk rock’n’roll, with stage-show shenanigans, whose main player was of course Lips. He went from pulling the most smashed-up grimaces the human imagination can conceive (which bassist Chris Robertson matched very well) to playing guitar in the most impossible positions and poses. Add a lucid measure of barbed remarks to the crowd between songs and the cup was full. Lips dedicated Free As a Wind to the late Lemmy (Motörhead), saying: »When Lemmy was looking for a replacement for Fast Eddie Clarke in 1983, he called me to join Motrhead«. You know I’d have accepted, but then I explained to Lemmy that I have my own band, Anvil!«. Believe it or not, this juicy »little story« bordering on invention sounded extremely theatrical and fun coming out of Lips’s mouth!
In their live sets Lips and company still persistently ignore the band’s middle era, even though they released some highly impressive studio works back then. The band certainly didn’t forget the two new songs from the current album »Anvil is Anvil«, joined by the not much older Badass Rock’N’roll from the previous album »Hope In Hell«, plus the songs Swing Thing (with an extended drum solo as its centerpiece) and On Fire, taken from the album »Juggernaut Of Justice« (2011). When the band launched into the obligatory Metal on Metal, it was clear the set was nearing its end.
Well, well. Something’s missing from this whole picture. Of course. The whole crowd was waiting for Mothra. In it, Lips performs his famous dildo ritual, sending the show toward its very peak. Lips is incredible when it comes to staying focused during a performance. Considering everything the man does while playing guitar, which is anything but easy, it’s downright fascinating that he manages to concentrate on his playing well enough not to commit some glaring blunder.
The band disappointed a bit in the obligatory encore, since instead of playing another classic from their rich discography, they reached for the thoroughly worn-out cover of Mars Bonfire’s Born To Be Wild, and that was the end of the get-together with Anvil.
Anyway. The mix of unbridled raw presence, crossing a primordially charged cannonade of speed metal with rock’n’roll perversions, left no one at the venue indifferent, and people called the band back on stage. Going to an Anvil show remains first-rate entertainment in 2016 too. You know the show will fill you with a real energy bomb and at the same time make you laugh till you cry. Lips is Lips and, as the band’s new album puts it, Anvil is still Anvil.
Setlist
ANVIL:
1. March of the Crabs
2. 666
3. Oooh Baby
4. Badass Rock ‘n’ Roll
5. Winged Assassins
6. Free as the Wind
7. On Fire
8. This Is Thirteen
9. Daggers and Rum
10. Mothra
11. Swing Thing
12. Die For a Lie
13. Metal on Metal
—encore—
14. Born to Be Wild
Photo Gallery
