Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Vienna / Gasometer / Austria
Concert date: March 6, 2017
Attendance: 2,500
Ticket price: €36.00 (advance) / €39.00 (day of show)
After a good two years, the one and only Swiss hard rockers Gotthard returned to Vienna’s Gasometer. Switzerland’s best-known and most successful hard rock export hit the road for a new, extensive European tour to promote their new studio album, which Gotthard gave the fitting title »Silver«. This year marks twenty-five years since the band was formed in Lugano, Switzerland. For this tour Gotthard also made sure another big name from the European hard rock scene joined them as special guests: Denmark’s Pretty Maids. They too have just put out a new studio album. The two bands have known each other forever, though Pretty Maids, who are ten years older, were of course role models for the Gotthard guys at the start. In short, for a Slovenian fan of top-shelf classic hard rock, a trip to Vienna felt like an absolute must. Even though the venue didn’t yet look like a massive turnout at eight in the evening, when Pretty Maids took the stage as special guests, there were plenty of fans from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I can also confirm the presence of three Slovenians, plus another reunion with our Zagreb colleagues, who show up at this kind of gig all over Europe.
Pretty Maids had just played a perfect club show a week earlier in Villach, Carinthia, at Bluesiana Rock Cafe on February 28, 2017, and this time they stepped onto the spacious stage of Vienna’s Gasometer, which was a bit shallower than usual, since Gotthard’s drums on a riser and stage set were already standing at the back, ready for their set. As expected, the experienced and incredibly self-assured Danes, whose lineup is led by icons Ronnie Atkins on vocals and Ken Hammer on guitar, served up an hour-long show mixing tracks from their current album »Kingmaker« with some of the newer songs from their career that have really caught on with the crowd, especially the single Little Drops of Heaven and the ultra-catchy chorus of I.N.V.U. from the other »Pandemonium« track. They wrapped up the set with a run of must-play classics from the older era of their career (Back To Back, Red, Hot And Heavy, Love Games, Future World). Although the hall was still filling up, the front rows got properly packed, and the crowd showed that Pretty Maids got a lot of love that night, with people belting out at least the choruses of most songs. Kim Olesen, the touring guitarist and keyboardist, is becoming more and more integrated. He came across even more confident and assured than at the Bluesiana show, and the band gives him an equal spot on stage, so the guy really got to stretch out during the gig. In short: the charismatic Ronnie had to tweak his vocal lines a little, as expected, since he can’t effectively hit the highest notes anymore, while Kenneth shone again with his precision and top-class guitar execution. The famous riffs of the cult Danish rock’n’roll outfit once again lit up with full intensity. A great warm-up with a big stylistic match, then!
Next came almost two hours with Gotthard! At least two thousand people in the hall. Not as jam-packed as two years ago, when you couldn’t breathe in the Gasometer, but still a hefty crowd. Gotthard radiated serious cheer and good vibes. Everything clicked, from the start of the show to the end. The sound was excellent, the execution no less so. An unbelievably well-oiled and seasoned crew with enormous mileage! The band commanded the big stage of the hall brilliantly. They didn’t let the crowd get bored or indifferent for a second. In their banter they mixed German and English, and when Leo Leoni piped up now and then, the crowd answered him right back in Italian.
A Gotthard show is like an unwritten fairy-tale rock’n’roll adventure. In the classic, old-school sense of the word. The band takes care of everything. They lift the crowd instantly and keep it in a firm grip until the very last note fired off. The crowd was incredibly into it. You could feel the fanaticism of the Hungarians and Czechs, who are catching Gotthard at least for the second time on this tour, and the great sing-along on the lead melodies. Nick Maeder was excellent on vocals, at moments coming within a hair’s breadth of the vocal style of the late, unforgettable Steve Lee, to whom Leo Leoni dedicated an acoustic version of Heaven, saying: »This one is for someone who isn’t with us anymore, but who’d want us to play it for him tonight!« Maeder delivered an excellent vocal performance in which he doesn’t necessarily sound like his great predecessor, yet imitates him with feather-light ease. Any time he wants.
Since Gotthard turn twenty-five this year, they didn’t play only tracks from the new »silver« album, but tailored the set so that it includes plenty of older songs in particular. They even sprang a surprise by including Standing in the Light, which they hadn’t played live in a long time. The show opened as expected. With material from the album »Silver«, then the by-now »folk-anthem« Hush quickly poured oil on the fire, followed soon after the excellent new Stay With Me by none other than Mountain Mama. Then came the obligatory acoustic set of four of Gotthard’s most artistically powerful moments (One Life One Soul, Leti It Be, Angel, Heaven), which the ladies in particular visibly enjoyed, and they also stirred up the most noise in return. A large share of the audience at Gotthard shows is women, girls and ladies alike, so the band never has to worry about their huge popularity on European stages.
Simple. If it can’t be Whitesnake, Bon Jovi or Scorpions, then Gotthard are of course the perfect stand-in for those wet dreams. Always, and Vienna was no different. The band saved three »Lipservice« marches for the hot closing stretch of the show, which properly shook the entire underground part of the Gasometer, and surely made the roof of this famous multipurpose center sway too. Gotthard remain great masters of their business and the rock’n’roll craft. No joking around, no saving of energy. The incredible form and amazing camaraderie of these tough, hard-driving Swiss hard rock gurus is, in a word, not just noble but downright enchanting!
One more thing. On Gotthard’s current European tour, the permanent drummer Hena Habegger is being replaced by former Helloween drummer Dani Löble, who is also a Swiss citizen.
Setlist
GOTTHARD:
1. Silver River
2. Electrified
3. Hush (orig. Joe South)
4. Stay With Me
5. Mountain Mama
6. Remember It’s Me
7. Feel What I Feel
8. (bass intro) Sister Moon
9. What You Get
10. One Life, One Soul (acoustic)
11. Let It Be (acoustic)
12. Angel (acoustic)
13. Heaven (acoustic)
14. Miss Me
15. Firedance
16. Top Of The World
17. drum solo
18. Lift U Up
—encore—
19. Standing In The Light
20. Come Together (orig. The Beatles)
21. All We Are
22. Anytime Anywhere
PRETTY MAIDS:
1. Mother of All Lies
2. Kingmaker
3. Face the World
4. Rodeo
5. I.N.V.U.
6. Bull’s Eye
7. Little Drops of Heaven
8. Back to Back
9. Red, Hot And Heavy
10. Love Games
11. Future World
Photo Gallery
