Venue: Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Velden am Wörthersee / Austria
Concert date: August 22, 2013
Attendance: 60
Ticket price: €37.00 (advance) / €41.00 (day of show), €31.00 (students) / €21.00 (under 21).
»Unbelievable – but true!« is about all you could say when Bluesiana owner Gudrun Kofler announced an Eric Sardinas show for the third time this year – and just a month after his last gig at the club. But Eric’s shows are a real feast for the eyes and a gentle balm for the nerve endings in your ears every single time, so of course there was no way we were missing this one – even though, counting the Montraker festival in Vrsar, we were seeing him for the fourth time this year.
Once again, Bluesiana wasn’t exactly packed, as expected – about as many people showed up as for the July gig. But the small crowd gave the show a much more intimate vibe, which is by no means a bad thing for those of us in the room. Streets full of tourists apparently haven’t sniffed out this cozy club on the edge of town yet, which is surely bad for business, but all the nicer for us regulars, who get to enjoy a friendlier atmosphere precisely because there are no random walk-ins.
Eric Sardinas started plucking strings at the age of six. Although he’s left-handed, he learned to play guitar right-handed, which surely wasn’t an easy task, but that’s probably exactly what added some special sparks to his playing. Even as a kid he looked up to the legends of blues and r’n’b, and he’s stayed true to those sounds throughout his whole career. He’s best known as the king of the resonator (slide) guitar, which gives his songs a distinctive sou
At ten in the evening, the great king finally appeared on stage with his trusty guitar, accompanied as always by Big Motor. After a solo intro of strumming and tuning up, Sardinas said he was happy to be back in Bluesiana after a little over a month, a place where people who love good music come together. He said none of this would be possible if owner Gudrun Kofler didn’t have an ear for good music, and loud cheers and a big round of applause rang out across the club. Then Eric got straight down to business and kicked things off with I’m worried.
Eric didn’t make many changes to the setlist. And that’s just fine – why fix what isn’t broken? The show itself wasn’t all that different from the July one either. Eric is Eric. On stage, he tells the story of his life and his experiences through his songs. It’s truly gripping to watch Eric from the front row and see his facial expressions shift with the lyrics and the melody. His interpretation of the songs is incredible. You can read every bit of the pain on his face at losing a loved one or missing home, and a few moments later the pure joy of happiness washing over him. After each song he comes back to reality, asks if we’re feeling good, and then dives into the next one with body and soul. Of course, Eric doesn’t do it all alone – he’s tirelessly backed by the bearded Levell Price on bass and the young Bryan Keeling on drums. The trio’s chemistry borders on perfection, even though Eric is not exactly the kind of musician who plays his songs statically and the same way every time. Every show is its own story, demanding a fresh interpretation of the melody and lyrics, so it’s hard to sing along with Eric, even when you know the words. He always changes something in the rhythm, in the tones, in the verses… clearly he feels every show differently. And that’s why he’s interesting to listen to and watch again and again.
The first part of the show brought quite a few tracks, from I can’t be satisfied through Get down to whiskey to Road to ruin. Even though the hellish heat was gone, Sardinas was sweating all over, and at one point his trusty metal slide slipped right off his pinky – but he deftly picked it up mid-song, tossed it in the air, slipped it back on his finger and carried on without missing a beat. After an hour of playing, Eric took a 10-minute break again, which stretched into half an hour. After the break, when we’d all had a bit of refreshment and some fresh air, Eric, backed by Big Motor, stepped back on stage full of energy. When he plays, Eric relies on all things analog – besides the amp, the only electronics he uses is a wah wah pedal – and everything around him comes in handy for his guitar playing, from metal slides to a bottle and even the mic stand, which he elegantly grinds against his greatest love while strumming. In the second part, Eric gave us County line and It’s nothing new, and he also gave Levell and Bryan a chance to shine on their own, handing them a solo spot. That slowly lifted the warm-hearted Bluesiana crowd to ecstasy, and by the end of the number we were all swaying to the beat and filling the space in front of the stage with our energy. When Eric came back out, he felt it and fired the crowd up even more with Full tilt mama, and then everybody played the indispensable Texola together. After the closing track Eric said goodbye, but the crowd screamed at the top of their lungs as he left, and it sounded like the club was jam-packed. Eric couldn’t miss that, of course, and all three of them came back on stage, thanked everyone once more, especially hostess Gudrun, and together with the audience played and sang If you don’t love me. The trio said goodnight again, and the crowd once more broke out in shouts and screams, stomping on the floor and banging bottles on the tables, and for a moment it truly seemed like the club wouldn’t survive such a fan onslaught for another encore. We had to hold out quite a while, but it paid off – the trio returned to the stage, thanked us, visibly moved, and together we got Behind the 8. This time Eric didn’t set his guitar on fire at the end of the show, like he did at that festival in Vrsar, but nobody missed it – either way, we got far more than we expected.
Fourth Eric Sardinas show of the year: done. Would we go see and hear him a fifth time? Absolutely. If anyone wonders why, they should go to one of his shows themselves, give in to it with body and soul, and they’ll have the answer right in front of them. Who knows – maybe we’ll catch him again late in the fall. Where else but at the best club under the sun – Bluesiana in Velden.
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