Location: Seebronn (Rottenbrg a. d. Neckar) / Festivalgelände / Germany
Date: 29.07.2011
After the heavy rain the day before, it took the morning to reveal just how bad the storm had been. Puddles, lakes and mud everywhere, forcing you to watch every single step as you ran around the festival grounds. The organizers laid down pallets and dumped sawdust on the most critical spots (the entrance to the festival zone, the exit from the parking lot…), at least softening the aftermath of the storm a little.
The day’s music kicked off with German heavy rockers Voodoo Circle with Mat Sinner on bass. After a pleasant hard rock show in front of a sparse crowd, the stage was taken over by Circle II Circle, American heavy metallers led by former Savatage vocalist Zak Stevens. The band mixed their own material in among the Savatage classics, with the emphasis on the current album “Consequence of Power”. During those first two sets the Rockline crew was getting acquainted with the festival stalls and expanding our own collection of music carriers, so there was no time for much more than a quick “look-see”. The first band we watched all the way through was Girlschool, a veteran all-female heavy metal outfit from England.
GIRLSCHOOL
Girlschool are a legendary female quartet who were an important piece in the mosaic of the British NWOBHM movement, and at the same time the first all-female heavy metal band to reach the ears of listeners all over the world. Today the band consists of longtime friends Kim McAuliffe (guitar), Enid Williams (vocals, bass), Denise Dufort (drums) and Jackie Chambers (guitar), who joined in 2000 to replace the original guitarist and former driving force of the band, the late Kelly Johnson. The girls (well, to be precise: the aunties) came across as a seriously interesting act that doesn’t dwell much on their long-gone teenage days. An energetic set of infectious, simple heavy metal riffs and Motörhead-style rock’n’roll rhythms was this year’s Rock of Ages festival’s only tribute to the early days of heavy metal, and it brought back the golden years of the early eighties. Even though a few wrinkles have piled up over the years, Girlschool are holding up well! Dressed mostly in old-school-looking leather and posing on stage, they still diligently nurture their stage presence and image in their old age, and the redheaded frontwoman Williams is especially easy on the male eye. Girlschool tore through their repertoire at breakneck speed, focused heavily on the classic albums “Demolition”, “Hit and Run” and “Screaming Blue Murder”. The Brits wrapped up the regular part of the set with the hit Emergency, which they ran out of time for two years ago at Wacken Rock South, where I saw them for the first time and the stage techs quite literally chased them off the stage. A perfect ending to a decent show!
TREAT
Treat are representatives of the Swedish hard rock school of the eighties, who lost the drive to create when grunge took off in the early nineties and stopped their activities – their story is similar to the fate of many an eighties hard rock band. They returned to the scene five years ago and rose like a phoenix from the ashes with last year’s record “Coup Da Grace”, an album of exceptional melodic polish that put Treat firmly back on Europe’s rock map. Since the Swedes take a slightly more modern approach than most of the other bands at the festival, a touch fewer fans gathered in front of the stage, but that didn’t stop the blondes on stage from marching toward another live triumph! In a set of a good hour, Treat served up a colorful array of their eighties hits, which were confidently matched by the newest tracks like The War Is Over, We Own The Night and, just before the end, Skies of Mongolia. In the dynamic structures of the songs, Treat wove together venomously sharp, metallized guitar lines with delicate keyboard touches and layered vocal harmonies, delivering that always welcome erotic component of hard rock. Treat are good like wine! The stage chemistry works all by itself, and the constant flirting and swapping of smiles between the five guys on stage and the crowd clearly proves they are completely genuine and honest in what they do. The choruses were practically competing with each other in melodic catchiness, so the good hour of the set, closed with World of Promises, flew by far too fast. The Swedes impressed me once again, although, hand on heart, this experience was still hard to compare with last year’s at Sweden Rock festival, where the intensity and interaction with the crowd were a notch higher thanks to the home turf.
MOLLY HATCHET
From cold Scandinavia we jumped to the endless plantations of the American South, back to the days when the whiskey flowed and the cowboys roamed! Molly Hathcet are typical representatives of the patriotic rock of the American South, who spent the summer on a short tour of Europe. After their set at the Rock of Ages festival, the old boys were heading off to a studio in Bad Arolsen, and then hop, back across the pond for new live adventures. Molly Hatchet aren’t fading even after almost forty years of career! Even though guitarist Dave Hlubek is the only original member left, they are all seasoned musicians who know how to handle business. Standing rock solid on stage and greased with every trick in the book, they leave the stage show to the flow of events, with plenty of joking and ribbing among themselves, led by the talkative frontman Phil McCormack, a broad-shouldered man, mandatorily equipped with sunglasses and a hat over his bandana. In recent years Molly Hatchet have been diligently stringing together new studio albums, and understandably their songs take up a good chunk of the setlist. The show, with its simple rhetoric of hard rock boogie rhythms, stylistically much harder than the country-flavored Skynyrd, was closed by the only American band at this year’s edition of the festival with Flirtin’ With Disaster, the title track of their most successful album from 1979. In true fatherly fashion, Molly Hatchet proved that Southern rock can still be plenty manly!
ERIC BURDON & The ANIMALS
Eric Burdon is a musician of venerable repute who has been creatively active in blues music of one subgenre or another for a good half century. Long ago Burdon was the leader of The Animals, a name whose rights he owns, so these days he performs under the recognizable brand name Eric Burdon & The Animals.
Eric Burdon is a man of great charisma, which he proved every single minute of the show. Over the years he has picked up a whole lot of belly rings, which he hid under a plain shirt with Caribbean motifs. His voice has survived the test of time and still keeps its recognizable raspiness and raw power, all with barely audible stiffness, something any singer his age would envy. Burdon enjoyed vocal excursions away from the originals on a hit-oriented setlist, which can’t be said of his buddies on stage. The backing musicians pedantically stuck to the boss’s instructions and didn’t take the chance at jam-style experimenting that the wide palette of instruments offered on a platter. So everything revolved around Burdon’s heartfelt approach and his energetic, at times sonically reworked biggest highlights of a long career. The first touch of the psychedelic heritage of the sixties came with the opening song When I Was Young, in Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood the old-school sound of the Hammond organ stepped into the foreground, and the loudest ovations naturally went to the evergreen House of the Rising Sun, played in a somewhat slower version than we’re used to from the radio waves. The pleasant trip through the distant musical past was closed by We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place, the song that made Burdon and the band famous, and an attraction we’ll be missing badly before long.
THIN LIZZY
Thin Lizzy, the immortal promoters of the Irish rock heritage, are still going full steam in 2011, even though they lost their heart and soul long ago. This very year marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Phil Lynott, who passed away far too early at the start of 1986. The great son of rock music was also remembered this year by his hometown of Dublin, which dedicated various street commemorations and exhibitions to him in the anniversary year. Anyway, let’s get back to Thin Lizzy in the present. Today the band consists of Lynott’s contemporaries Scott Gorham (guitar), Brian Downey (drums) and Darren Wharton (keyboards), plus newcomers Ricky Warwick (vocals, guitar), Marco Mendoza (bass) and Richard Fortus (guitar).
This gathering of more or less big-name musicians of course knows exactly how to handle business. A professional approach without a shred of hesitation and a carefully assembled hit-packed setlist proved to be a nail hit right on the head. The tattooed frontman Warwick, whom some may also know as the leader of The Almighty, diligently used the width and size of the stage to release his kinetic energy, unlike the guitar duo Gorham / Fortus, who keep a touch less temperamental stage approach. On the left side of the stage the Latin-rooted clown Marco Mendoza reigned, entertaining the crowd by throwing picks into the audience and with other gestures, while keyboardist Wharton watched almost unnoticed from the back on the right, his share in the sound picture (once again) minimalistic. The Irish players strolled through the biggest highlights of their career, and once again there was no getting around Waiting For an Alibi, Jailbreak, Whiskey In The Jar and The Boys Are Back In Town, and for the finale, after coming back on stage, they played the little hit Black Rose in memory of Gary Moore, who passed away this year. To the evergreen tunes the evening slipped unnoticed into night, and the seasoned musicians showed themselves to be a well-oiled machine, although, hand on heart, I’m personally not a fan of this kind of reviving of old glory with new faces – least of all in the case of Thin Lizzy. Guys – I hope Phil doesn’t hold this against you.
After a decent dose of classic rock in the form of Lizzy, it was time for the headliners of the evening – The BossHoss! Boss..who?, many probably wondered. Me too. Here’s yet another musical name that’s hugely popular in German-speaking countries while remaining completely anonymous in international waters. The band bets on party-style bouncy punk rock with a heavy dose of country and Elvis Presley-style rock’n’roll, and its simple musical rhetoric appeals first and foremost to the teenage population. You can hardly fault the BossHoss on their skill or approach, but the organizer deserves heavy criticism for handing the band the role of main stars of the evening. What’s more, the band doesn’t really fit the concept of the Rock of Ages festival at all, since their target audience goes to festivals like Sziget, Frequency, Nova Rock and the like,… A little annoyed, I quickly disappeared in the direction of the tents.
The organization was top-notch, and there’s of course nothing to complain about in the pleasant atmosphere of a mostly mature crowd, so the festival weekend was spoiled only by the moody weather. Two days of musical pampering passed in a flash, and it was already time to start thinking about the trip back home. So this festival, quite far from Slovenia (we’re talking about a good 700 kilometers), left a positive impression, although I personally wouldn’t mind a second festival stage, for example, to add some breadth to the event and maybe draw a few more visitors – a more varied program would of course also make it easier to justify the grueling drive to such a distant festival.
author: Urban Bolta
photos: Martin Prezelj
12:00 — 12:50 VOODOO CIRCLE
13:00 — 14 :00 CIRCLE II CIRCLE
14:15 — 15:15 GIRLSCHOOL
15:30 — 16:40 TREAT
17:00 — 18:10 MOLLY HATCHET
18:30 — 19:50 ERIC BURDON & The Animals
20:15 — 21:35 THIN LIZZY
22:05 — 23:50 THE BOSSHOSS
GIRLSCHOOL setlist:
1. Demolition
2. C’mon Let’s Go
3. Not For Sale
4. Hit And Run
5. I Spy
6. Screaming Blue Murder
7. Future Flash
8. Everything’s The Same
9. Yeah Right
10. Race With The Devil
11. Emergency
12. Take It All Away
ERIC BURDON & The Animals setlist:
1. When I Was Young
2. Don’t Bring Me Down
3. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
4. San Franciscan Nights
5. Red Cross Store
6. I Believe to My Soul
7. Invitation To The Whitehouse (It Was A Dream)
8. Boom Boom
9. Spill The Wine
10. It’s My Life
11. The House of the Rising Sun
12. I’m Cryin’
13. We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place
