Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Gasometer / Vienna / Austria
Concert date: November 14, 2014
Attendance: 3,600
Ticket price: €41.50
It would be hard to find a bigger name in the hard rock world of the last twenty years that was marked by tragedy the way Switzerland’s Gotthard were. After singer Steve Lee died four years ago, they took the pragmatic step of carrying on together, and ran into no small amount of doubtful criticism along the way. With the comeback album »Firebirth« they pulled off mission impossible, and the second full-length studio record since the band’s rebirth, »Bang« (review here), plus constant gigging, prove that Gotthard are continuing down the path they laid out two decades ago, fully credibly, in the new era too. Anyone who doubts that and still clings with both hands to the old Gotthard is doing themselves no favors!
As part of their autumn tour of the Old Continent, Gotthard stopped in Vienna, the closest they got to us. Gotthard are dealing with wildly uneven lines of popularity: in Spain or Germany they have no trouble selling out the biggest indoor halls, while in some other countries they remain a nearly anonymous club band. So catching them south of Vienna (northern Italy being the exception) is tough. The Rockline crew set off for the Austrian capital in the early afternoon, because a pleasant obligation was waiting for us backstage at the Gasometer: an interview with guitarist Freddy Scherer. We lingered in relaxed chat for a good half hour, then cooled our throats at a nearby pizzeria, and by then it was already time for the concert evening to kick off.
Austrians are considered a crowd of slightly odd tastes and habits; the best proof is the numerous mass festival events for the genre’s mainstream, or the pile of German-speaking acts that only they themselves understand and support. One of the children of the Austrian rock school is Ruben Dimitri, who had the honor of warming up for Gotthard. They’re a well-oiled outfit with decent stage presence, and how could they not be, having played big continental European festivals like Hungary’s Sziget last summer. Ruben Dimitri bet on a mix of punchy hard rock rhythms and slower, rolling, gloomier riffs, so flirting with the nineties rock trend isn’t foreign to them either. Frontman Ruben Gludovacz (vaguely reminiscent of Chris Cornell) carefully works the crowd with banter in his eagerness to please, but the technically well-executed show, lacking an identity of its own, slipped from memory soon after the Austrians left the stage.
The start of Gotthard’s set revealed a lovely stage set, full of lighting effects and a Cadillac nose in the middle of the stage (taken from the cover of the current album »Bang!«), with Hena Habegger’s drum kit towering over it. The lineup was completed by guitarists Leo Leoni and Freddy Scherer, bassist Mary Lynn, singer Nic Maeder and touring keyboardist Nicolo Fragile.
Spending the most time in the central spotlight was Nic Maeder, an Australian with Swiss roots, over whom, despite natural talent and all the effort he’s put in, the thankless shadow of the other Gotthard vocalist will hover for his entire career. The similarity of his vocal tone to Lee’s was obvious especially in the slower, more intimate songs, like The Call and Heaven. The guy fits the band’s image and build nicely, though the touch of fame is noticeable in his getup: in recent years the number of tattoos has been growing fast, and his hair has already caught a whiff of peroxide. But what matters is his vocal form and relaxed stage show. With Maeder, Gotthard found a needle in a haystack; fans took him in as one of their own despite initial doubts, so there’s no need to worry about the Swiss rockers’ future.
The punchy, guitar-driven opening of Get Up ‘n’ Move On, Sister Moon and Right On was followed mid-show by a trio of balladic numbers, aimed first and foremost at the fairer sex. A dash of romance with The Call, Heaven and Remember It’s Me led to plenty of hugs down in the pit, before they turned the atmosphere upside down with a party number in the style of Iggy Pop’s The Stooges. During Starlight, the first single from the current album, they invited singing fans up on stage and played the song surrounded by a dozen or two singing throats. One dad was especially endearing, singing and enjoying himself like his life depended on it, while his two sweet little sons looked rather lost on the big stage. As the song ended, Leo Leoni hung a guitar around the younger one’s neck and, to the delight of the packed auditorium, egged on the bewildered tot. Mom would be proud!
Next, Gotthard switched to acoustic, a regular fixture of their shows, and played The Train, C’est La Vie and One Life, One Soul, which brought the late Steve to many people’s minds. The minutes flew by, and the Swiss showed not a speck of fatigue! For Mountain Mama, the ever-smiling bandleader Leoni reached for their favorite sonic add-on, the talk box, popularized in the rock world by acts like Eagles, Aerosmith and Bon Jovi. The evergreen Hush woke the Austrian crowd up even more, though let’s be honest, the vibe of concert-sleepy Austrians doesn’t compare with the cauldrons of Balkan or Mediterranean venues, before the raw bite of the rock riff in Lift U Up closed out the main set with the best Gotthard have to offer! Total dedication to the crowd did its thing again: after the always-requested Anytime Anywhere (»Lipservice«, 2005), the Swiss made an exception and, unplanned, stretched the show well past two hours with a cover of Bob Dylan’s The Mighty Quinn. Austria is still a not fully conquered market for Gotthard, so calculations didn’t come into it! A well-oiled, professional performance, and on top of that they hid with feather-light ease the routine that every band sooner or later runs into with enough miles on the road.
Vienna’s Gasometer witnessed a flawless showcase of the formula that has carried Gotthard, over a quarter century of existence, to the status of one of the most beloved (younger) bands around, at least when we’re talking classically built rock. The pulse of that Friday evening won’t be forgotten anytime soon, though the question is whether, after the poor turnout at their 2005 show in Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna, we’ll ever get a taste of Gotthard’s pulse on our own soil again.
Setlist
1. Let Me in Katie (intro)
2. Bang!
3. Get Up ‘n’ Move On
4. Sister Moon
5. Right On
6. Master of Illusion
7. Fist in Your Face
8. Feel What I Feel
9. The Call
10. Heaven
11. Remember It’s Me
12. What You Get
13. Starlight
14. The Train
15. C’est La Vie
16. One Life, One Soul
17. Mountain Mama
18. Hush
19. Lift U Up
—encore I.—
20. Thank You
21. Anytime Anywhere
—encore II.—
23. Mighty Quinn
Photo Gallery
