Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: April 27, 2009
Attendance: 50
Ticket price: €8.00 / €12.00
Just like last year, the indestructible bomb n’ roller Adam Bomb once again graced the Slovenian scene with a visit. Almost exactly on the same day, just a year later. For those of you who don’t know who this Mr. Adam Bomb is, let me toss out a few quick facts: he’s a legend who has worked over his career with some big names in the noisy world of rock, like Kiss, Guns N’ Roses (Steven Adler), Queensryche singer Geoff Tate, Johnny Thunderstorm, Black N’ Blue and Michael Monroe (singer of Hanoi Rocks). On top of that, at the start of his career, the young and promising Adam got a send-off from none other than Eddie Van Halen himself, with a few encouraging tips on guitar playing.
This year, too, the promoter Dirty Skunks invited Adam Bomb to play Orto Bar, and the package also included, alongside the star of the sleaze/glam rock “underground”, the Italian rock n’ rollers Fuel From Hell. They hit the Orto Bar stage around 8:30 PM. They’re no strangers to Slovenian stages, and you may remember them especially from their set at Metal Mania Open Air 2007 in Komen, Slovenia. Since then they’ve taken on a new singer, Ricky D. They opened the show with the hit Vampira. Apparently, though, this Monday evening of Ortofest 2009, which on top of everything was also a public holiday, supposedly called Day of the Struggle Against the Occupier (it used to be Liberation Front Day), was fatal for the turnout. If you remember last year’s Adam Bomb gig, Orto was packed with young glam sleaze rock fans. Clearly the Ljubljana student crowd bolted back to Mom’s to stock up on ham and potica over the May Day holidays.
Whatever I whine and moan about, 50 real music lovers gathered below the stage, quickly made excellent contact with the band and tuned in to its frequency. This is playing on the first beat, the first “drive” of perception. Hit and shoot. Raw rock n’ roll with a strong riff foundation on two guitars, excellent soloing and, convincing throughout, the vocals. Hefty and solid. You can even catch a bit of Motorhead filth on top of it all. In just under an hour, or rather 50 minutes, Fuel From Hell fired the crowd up nicely and were visibly pleasantly surprised by the noise coming back from the masses. The Italian rockers were so convincing that they even got the Slovenian audience, a jaded bunch that’s seen it all, to sing along to the choruses. With the show heated to boiling point, they closed with the song House Of Love. The band, which turned 11 this year, impressed with confidence across the board, with its direct approach and its grasp of the rock n’ roll tradition. Party and full throttle to the extreme, and it worked every which way!
Adam Bomb, who had been wandering around Orto Bar during Fuel From Hell’s set, sizing up the opening act, maybe pondering a tactic for delivering a bricklayer’s slap to the bold challenger from Italy, looked relaxed (as part of the crowd below the stage), but with that familiar “slightly offended” look from under his brow that’s simply part of his big charisma. The man made his way onto the stage with two companions (bass, drums) a little after 10:30 and, without a second thought, fired straight into the crowd.
Adam Bomb is from New York, he’s spent plenty of moments over his career in the company of some hugely famous performers, and the guy could easily put on airs and play the princess and the pea, all “ooh, how fancy!” But it’s anything but. He’s an incredibly approachable guy who likes to chat a word or two with curious passersby, and below the stage he really relishes every bit of feedback energy the crowd sends back into the room whenever the stage is his world. It feels like his heart skips a beat when he sees bodies wriggling under the wild rock n’ roll lever of his own approach. Adam spilled out songs with straight-up confidence, like the excellent glam march I Want My Heavy Metal, then the naughtily scandalous Je T’aime Bebe, which finally won the crowd over, and DWI On the info – Super Highway (from the Get Animal project), which delivered one of the fastest rock n’ roll charges of the show, where Adam left us stunned by his perfect command of the guitar and his wildly all-in performance at the same time. His punk-ish, happily amateur vocals didn’t fail him at a single point, and with all that energy the guy sweated out a nice quantity of sweat drops during the set. The gentleman didn’t have to strain much to show what he’s made of. Already in the first half of the set he tackled Van Halen’s Erruption and? Oh la, la, la,…. The look Adam gives off can be deceiving. He didn’t come onto the scene just to work the girls more easily, no way. He’s a truly excellent instrumentalist with melody in his blood, and a sense for coaxing out the erogenous zones of rock is priceless in this musician.
Adam definitely couldn’t have been so relaxed without two excellent musicians at his side holding the whole framework of this hot rock n’ roll show together. A punk accent certainly can’t be ruled out, if only because of Adam’s vocals. Compared to last year, this time the whole thing didn’t quite catch fire. Not so much because of the trio, who galloped at full swing, but because of the shortage of heated heads below the stage. Besides the fiery originals, Adam kept the mood high with covers too. He fired off Got To Choose by Kiss, made fun of New York, New York by Frank S(l)ina-tre, struck with a punkoid version of The Beatles classic Day Tripper, and closed the show in grand style with an excellent take on the The Who classic Won’t Get Fooled Again, where the drummer, obviously a big Keith Moon fan, especially cut loose. Of course Adam Bomb didn’t forget his own Rock Like Fuck (“Rock Like Fuck”, 2005), which he always puts at the end of the regular set.
All in all, a phenomenal night of rock that offered an avalanche of genuine energy, though this time only a handful of attendees, mostly from the younger crowd, got their fill. Mostly twenty-somethings, maybe a year or two less. Proof that glam sleaze is only slowly coming back to our parts. Sadly, as I said, the holiday and a Monday on top of it meant that most people in Slovenia overlooked this truly lovely evening, spiced with genuine voodoo conjured up from the unique sleeve of the legendary king of the glam/sleaze rock “underground”, Adam Bomb! All of you who missed this event, a rare one by Slovenian standards, celebrating the glam/sleaze rock genre, have every reason to be truly sorry!
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
FUEL FROM HELL: 1. Vampira 2. Poison Whiskey 3. 17 And Wasted 4. Hard Times 5. Sweet Dirty Addiction 6. Love Injection 7. Badj Jane 8. Ain’t Nobody 9. Midnight 10. She’s Like A Drug 11. Heartbreaker 12. Get It Back 13. House Of Love
Photo Gallery
