Location: Lignano Sabbiadoro / Arena Alpe Adria / Italy
Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2017
Sure, they played nearby Zagreb last summer, and they’re back in mid-July for this year’s Pivo in cvetje festival in Laško, but a trip a whole month earlier to check out the stage form of those charismatic Australian rock’n’roll troublemakers in short pants, Airbourne, was an absolute must. They were playing an incredibly pleasant, charming little venue in the Italian resort town of Lignano Sabbiadoro, called Arena Alpe Adria. It was exactly fifteen years since the author of this gig story first saw Motörhead, on June 15, 2002, in Graz, Austria. By the way, Airbourne dedicate one of the songs on their current summer festival tour of Europe to the immortal legend, the magnificent and one and only Lemmy.
The band, which has been “on the job” for a good twelve years now, put out a new studio album, “Breakin’ Outta Hell”, in November 2016, and on it they remain faithful to the inspiration of their older countrymen, one of the pioneering rock’n’roll outfits, AC/DC. Well, wherever you find AC/DC, you’ll always find Rose Tattoo nearby too. To get to international success, Aibourne first had to work their asses off. A solid band-of-brothers bond helped too, and the lineup has barely changed over the band’s whole career. Still, this April the band officially announced that longtime rhythm guitarist David Roads had been replaced by new member Harri “The Riff Doctor” Harrison.
The Lignano show was one of the few this summer where Aribourne played outside a festival bill, as a proper standalone gig. Before Airbourne, though, the stage went to some Italian rock’n’roll stallions from the province of Pordenone (the town of Casarsa della Delizia), called Fake Idols. Yes, the same Fake Idols who’ll play this year’s Rock Camp Summer Music festival, a stone’s throw from Trieste (in Trebče near Opčine). They came across as an extremely tight, well-tuned quintet. Its sound is built on the lowered tuning of two fat, thundering Gibson Les Paul guitars, a piercing, rattling bass, hefty, solid rhythmic hits driving flirty lead rhythms, and a furious, throaty, arrogant vocal. The band released its self-titled studio debut in 2014 and used the Lignano show opening for Airbourne to present its current follow-up, “Witness”, released in 2016. From that one we heard a seriously well-chosen cover of the The Chemical Brothers original called Go, plus the originals I Am Fake and Mad Fall. You can tell that, despite a relatively short career, the band is superbly well-rehearsed and has played bigger stages before, including the Gods of Metal festival. The guitars could have been cranked up a bit more in the mix during the show, which showed mostly in the solos being harder to hear, but otherwise no complaints. Great kinetic energy, great dynamics, the band members constantly running left and right across the stage, and plenty of interaction with the crowd. The audience already knows the songs really well, and Fake Idols got quite a bit of support when the crowd joined them in singing the verses. A killer warm-up, then. Even the English lyrics were sung at a confidently high level, which has always been a headache for Italian bands.
At half past nine in the evening, Airbourne decided to tear the stage down. This band is not only a herald of the new rock’n’roll generation, but also a damn good band-aid (at least a partial consolation) for all of you who’d love to hear AC/DC live but (most likely) never will (ever again). A nice turnout from Slovenia too, especially from the Goriška area, greeted the sturdy Aussies as they walked on stage. Of course, all eyes were on the unbelievable Joel O’Keeffe. It came as no surprise that the main white spotlight chased only him through the whole show. He really is the main link holding the Airbourne crew upright. A true stage demon, he pours out incredible amounts of energy the whole time! He sweated through everything there was to sweat through. He delivered yet another show at an extremely high level, with featherweight ease and a piercing scream that manages to squeeze out only slightly more low-end than his idols Bon Scott and Brian Johnson. The raging, riled-up frontman soloed away and kept the crowd firmly in his grip with constant banter. Everything really did revolve around him. Arena Alpe Adria was barely half full that night, say around 700 people, but with a nice bunch of the most fired-up fans who got wildly involved with the band. The front rows shook accordingly, especially for the band’s unbreakable hits: the closing Runnin’ Wild, Live It Up, It’s All For Rock’N’Roll (which Joel dedicated to Lemmy – the man himself appeared in the video for that song), No Way But The Hard Way and Stand Up For Rock ‘N’ Roll. There was no shortage of theatrics either, with the giant spotlight Joel swept over the crowd, and the air-raid siren wailing at the start of the obligatory encore, courtesy of Joel’s brother and the band’s drummer, Ryan O’Keeffe .
No doubt about it! A superb gig. Ridden from start to finish on the crest of a giant wave, a volcanic eruption of primal rock’n’roll riffs, secondarily adapted, of course, and served up again with total confidence. Just the way the new generation of rock’n’roll revivalists does it, Airbourne among them. That’s that. You’d have liked a song or two more, sure, but still. Consider this an invitation to all of you: you absolutely have to catch Airbourne at the Pivo in cvetje festival in mid-July. In Laško, of course!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Ready To Rock
2. Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast
3. Rivalry
4. Down On You
5. Cheap Wine And Cheaper Women
6. Girls In Black
7. It’s All For Rock ‘N’ Roll
8. Breakin’ Outta Hell
9. No Way But The Hard Way
10. Stnd Up For Rock ‘N’ Roll
—encore—
11. Live It Up
12. Runnin’ Wild
