Location: Velden am Wörthersee (Vrba na Koroškem) / Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Austria
Concert date: November 22, 2012
Attendance: 200
Ticket price: €36.00 (advance) / €39.00 (day of show)
Eight months have passed and Richie is back at Bluesiana. Well, if you count his visit to the Eric Martin show (RockLine report HERE ), it’s been barely 5 days since he was last at Bluesiana. Over the years he’s undoubtedly become a kind of fixture of the club, and by now Richie has surely already christened the club’s owner Gudrun Kofler his adoptive mother.
The drive to Velden went off without any major hiccups or surprises, though I hope that was the last time we had to wait in front of the Karawanks tunnel and that they finish the repairs this year. When we arrived a few minutes past eight in the evening, Bluesiana was already filling up nicely. This time there was no tour bus out front, and given that Richie was sitting back by the last table in the place, relaxed, with his buddies Mike and Dylan, it was clear he’d figured out that the VIP package thing back in March was pointless. The guys were chatting casually with a few fans in the back of the club, while we slowly made our way to the stage, looking for a spot with a good view for the show.
This time the front row at Bluesiana was, surprisingly, taken over mostly by Slovenes (us included), which is very commendable. It happens pretty often that we’re among the few lone specimens with Slovenian »lingo« in the whole Bluesiana crowd, so it’s great to see more and more Slovenes visiting this wonderful club, which is just a stone’s throw from our border with Austria. Plenty of words have already been spent on Bluesiana on this site – you simply have to visit it and experience it.
Kotzen has also been talked about here plenty, and loyal readers surely know him well by now. At least once a year – twice in a good year – the guy heads out on a European tour and usually ends up in places near Slovenia (but rarely, sadly, in Slovenia itself). For the last few tours he’s been joined on stage by Mike Bennett on drums and Dylan Wilson on bass. It’s been a good year since the release of the excellent latest album 24 Hours, so we can reasonably expect that ideas for a new record are already taking shape on this tour – Richie is extremely productive when it comes to his music: in 24 years of music-making he’s put out 25 solo albums, and in that time he’s also worked with plenty of other musicians and bands. And of course, we’re also eagerly awaiting the project Kotzen worked on this year with Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan.
The Kotzen-Bennett-Wilson trio left us waiting below the stage for quite a while – the show only kicked off around ten in the evening. I should say that Richie Kotzen’s concert isn’t exactly the best pick for fans of flying guitar picks – in recent years Richie has used only his fingers to strum his Fenders. This time he brought along his gorgeous sunburst Telecaster, and who knows who he has to thank for the luck that it wasn’t stolen from him the day before in Prague, like what happened to Dylan Wilson and his bass, which vanished straight out of the van in front of the club where they played. The Czech Republic probably left a slightly bitter taste for the band, but you couldn’t feel that on Bluesiana’s stage, and of course Dylan was given a replacement instrument to play the show.
The guys opened the show by warming up the crowd with four songs from the excellent latest album 24 Hours. Just as the audience had settled into the groove and the slick solos, Kotzen decided to mellow things out with the song Fear. It was followed by the equally mellow and excellent Doing what the devil says to do. There’s no better feeling with this music than closing your eyes and letting yourself sway gently to the gorgeous sounds of the guitar, catching the rhythm of the drums and bass, letting the velvety voice from Kotzen’s throat seduce you, and thanking every deity out there that Kotzen didn’t listen to his mom when she told him he couldn’t sing and should stop doing it. Next came the livelier Losing my mind and then the much older A love divine. They continued with the concert staple High and with Fooled again. For those of us who caught the Eric Martin show 5 days earlier, where the two of them joined forces to sing Shine, Richie showed how he sings that song with his two companions on instruments – this time in an electric version. Next came a song that, judging by the singing along, the crowd knows well from Kotzen’s days with Poison – Stand. The audience greeted the sing-along track with loud applause. To close out the main set they played Paying dues, after which the trio left the stage for a few minutes, only to return soon and treat us to the timeless Remember, which fired up the vocal cords in the crowd once again. They wrapped up the encore with the fast Go faster, then, just as fast, took their thanks and cleared off the stage, and Kotzen’s evening was over.
Richie Kotzen offered the audience what he does best – quality vocals and guitar, more than ably backed by Dylan on bass and Mike on drums. No show-offery, no rambling or chatter between songs, and no stand-up comedy bits. Richie is simply Richie, and that’s what you have to accept when you go to one of his shows. And if you accept musical quality as the main condition for a good concert, Richie and company never disappoint – at least not at Bluesiana. Next time, go see for yourself – live, on the spot.
Setlist
1. Bad Situation
2. Help Me
3. 24 hours
4. Love Is Blind
5. Fear
6. Doing What the Devil Says To Do
7. Losing My Mind
8. A Love Divine
9. High
10. Fooled Again
11. Shine
12. Stand
13. Paying Dues
—encore—
14.Remember
15. Go Faster
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