Venue: Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Velden am Woerthersee (Vrba na Koroškem) / Austria
Concert date: November 15, 2011
Attendance: 180
Ticket price: €36.00 (reserved) / €39.00 (day of show)
It would have been almost unthinkable for Sardinas to tour Europe without stopping in Velden at Bluesiana. There was a time he’d drop by two or three times a year, and these days the little town gets one obligatory stop a year, usually in the fall.
Velden, a small town on Lake Wörthersee in Austrian Carinthia, isn’t exactly a hot destination in the fall. Most of the hotels are shut, the bars and restaurants too, and the streets are dead. The only sign of life is the first Christmas decorations and lights, a teaser for the lavish decorating the town does over the holidays, or sometimes all winter long. But Velden has one more little gem tucked away: the Bluesiana club, which in its 25 years has drawn musicians from all over the world, and listeners along with them. The cozy, homey feel of the place makes sure everybody knows they’ll want to come back, whether as a performer or as a fan.
The November weather didn’t exactly promise an easy drive to Austria. As the announcer on the sweet old cartoon Palček Smuk used to say, “…fog so thick you could cut it…”, and we could barely see a thing through it. As if that weren’t enough, we hit a huge line of every kind of vehicle in front of the famous Karawanks tunnel, where roadwork has traffic running one lane at a time in alternating directions. After about 15 minutes of waiting we finally got moving, and the rest of the trip went without any major trouble.
The show was officially billed for 8:30 PM, but anyone who has ever been to Bluesiana knows that nothing usually happens on stage before 9:30. That time goes to relaxed chatting with friends and looking over the photos on the walls. Photographer Tiger immediately pointed out that the walls now featured new Sardinas pictures, shot just a few days earlier at his gig in Trieste (RockLine report HERE).
The club slowly filled up, but I couldn’t shake a bitter aftertaste: with a ridiculously expensive ticket (€39 on the day of the show), Bluesiana wasn’t going to be packed to the rafters like we’re used to at Sardinas shows. And sure enough, the club wasn’t completely full, but there was still a crowd of enthusiastic fans of the great black American bluesman.
The crowd in front of the stage was getting restless when, around half past nine, Eric Sardinas finally walked on with the members of Big Motor. Sardinas showed up like a black god, in a dark, heavily bent hat that hid his eyes, his trademark bell-bottoms, and his constant companion in hand: the resonator guitar. Eric greeted the crowd, said it was great to be back at Bluesiana, where he feels right at home, asked “Do you feel allright tonight?”, and then raked across the strings of his well-worn, beat-up guitar. Bluesiana shook to the rhythms of I can’t be satisfied, Treat me right, Flames of love, It’s nothing new,… With his energy, Eric got the whole room swaying. It’s always a pleasure to watch his fingers glide, with the slide on the ring finger of his left hand and a thumb pick on his right. His left hand bends the strings the whole time, so it’s no surprise that even two capos on the neck can’t hold up against the force and the guitar often goes out of tune mid-song. But that’s no problem for Eric, who sometimes just turns the tuning pegs while he’s playing. His ear is unbelievable. His dancing around the stage and stomping of heavy cowboy boots on the floor spice up the acoustic version of Hellhound on my trail. Of course, he sings the whole thing without a microphone. The audience cheered Eric on with shouts of delight, but he doesn’t let it throw him. Head bowed and eyes closed, he keeps sliding his fingers over the strings undisturbed, and even his breathing is in sync with the rhythm of his playing. At times it seems like he doesn’t even notice the audience. After each song he comes back to reality to thunderous applause and shouting from the crowd, which he always invites to join in on Get down to whiskey. During the show Eric introduced the members of Big Motor: bassist Lavelle Price, who has followed Eric on his endless travels for years, and drummer Chris Frazier, a newcomer who was making his first appearance for the Bluesiana crowd. Chris is no stranger to the stage, having played with several well-known bands and honed his drumming chops to perfection, which he got to show off at Bluesiana in a drum solo that was more than excellent. The audience rewarded his technical mastery with generous applause. For the finale Eric saved a staple of his shows, Taxomo, and then he left the fired-up, fully alive Bluesiana crowd with a thank-you and a promise that he’d surely be back soon to his home.
The blues show, which ran a good hour and a half, wrapped up, but it surely left nobody indifferent. The way Eric Sardinas plays and conveys experiences from the depths of his heart is something unique. His expressive face and movement deepen the message of the performance, which is why Eric Sardinas’s music is something you simply have to hear and see live. Listening through speakers alone loses a big part of what Eric really wants to tell people with his songs.
photos: Greg Žagar
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