Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Trezzo sull'Adda / Live Club / Italy
Concert date: May 1, 2014
Attendance: 2,000
Ticket price: €157.00 (three-day pass) / €59.00 (single-day ticket)
After months of dithering over whether to go to the festival or not, the first day of May 2014 turned into a five-hour trip to Lombardy, specifically to the ancient Italian town of Trezzo sull’Adda, a stone’s throw from Milan, where Frontiers Rock festival was calling us. It’s a three-day event that, modeled on Britain’s Firefest, gathered some of the hottest names in melodic rock, AOR and hard rock in one place in the heart of the Old Continent.
With such a specific lineup, the festival drew connoisseurs from near and far. In the parking lot in front of the club you could spot license plates from France, Switzerland, Germany, even Poland and the Netherlands. And of course it wouldn’t have been the real deal without running into our friendly crew from Croatia, whom we’ve been bumping into all over Europe for years: whether it’s Y&T in Munich, Accept in Vienna or the Scorpions in Bratislava! Concert addiction is a serious thing. You see the same faces again and again, no matter how many hundreds of kilometers you’ve driven in one direction or another, and despite the hefty financial bite, in the end every worry and hassle is paid off, every single time, by the rediscovered fact that musical romance is still alive. Right here, right now. Frontiers Rock festival was packed!
After checking in at a nearby private guesthouse, our four-strong Rockline crew quickly made a beeline for the club, which holds a good thousand people and was already nicely filled by three in the afternoon. In fact, one of the pleasant things I noticed over all three days of the festival was how faithfully the crowd followed every act (not just the biggest names) from the afternoon on.
As we walked into the hall, State of Salazar were already warming up the stage, a young Swedish band that became an instant underground sensation among melodic rock fans with their EP »Lost My Way« (2012). State of Salazar bet on classic AOR language with plenty of vocal harmonies and light guitar and keyboard accompaniment, so comparisons to the classic Survivor or Toto are more than fitting. Vocalist Marcus Nygren actually named the latter as his big musical idols in one of his stage announcements. Like Toto, State of Salazar are more of a studio-minded outfit: unlike most similar younger Scandinavian bands, they’d rather pour their energy into a flawless performance than into explosive stage antics, and in the textbook-perfect choruses there were even a few goosebumps here and there! The opening act of the festival already delivered a pleasant surprise. No doubt about it, a home under the Frontiers label is evidently proof in itself that you don’t have to worry about quality, even with the lesser-known names!
Next up were Dalton, another representative of the Swedish rock school, but cut from entirely different cloth than the guys who played before them. The band’s history goes back three decades, to the mid-eighties, when drummer Mats Dahlberg left Treat and gathered a new crew around him. Dalton were born! In the second half of the eighties they put out two albums that are now considered classics, before disappearing onto the scrapheap of history. They only got back together recently, when they played as support for the Scorpions in Sandviken, Sweden, after two decades of inactivity. They’re now working on their third album, so a gig in front of a nicely packed club of melodic rock fans in Italy came in more than handy as a motivation boost during the grueling process of making a record. Dalton served up their classic material, including their biggest hit You’re Not My Lover (But You Were Last Night), which was gifted to the band by songwriters Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child. The long absence from the stage showed, as the performance didn’t follow ideal lines, but the Swedish veterans still pulled off the set compactly and confidently enough to get the hall to join in and cheer them on without any trouble. Dalton shows are a real rarity, so for most of those present, catching them was like slotting one more missing piece into the mosaic of half-forgotten melodic rock legacy acts they’d already seen.
Sports fans hear the name Three Lions and first think of the English national football team, which has carried that nickname for decades, but it’s also the name taken by a new British band made up of AOR scene veterans. Guitarist Vinny Burns (Dare, Ten, Asia), drummer Greg Morgan (Dare, Ten) and newcomer to the big stage, vocalist and bassist Nigel Bailey, played the very first gig of their career at the festival. Their knees were still shaking at the start, but their wealth of experience helped them catch their breath quickly. In a forty-minute set, Three Lions ran through their debut, released two weeks before the festival, which treads a fine line between the sound of classic eighties British AOR (Ten, Airrace) and the classic guitar leverage you’d get from Thin Lizzy or the legendary UFO. Despite the minimalist approach of the basic trio, Three Lions filled out the sound nicely and squeezed as much as they could out of the melodic placements even in the verses, mostly thanks to Nigel Bailey’s velvety vocals. A solid show, but for an even higher grade the trio of British Lions needed a bit more heart.
Snakecharmer is a band recommended above all to fans of the classic Whitesnake sound, meaning their legacy up to and including the album »Slide It In« (1984), before the Whitesnake camp got swept up in the wind of big hair and the California rock tradition of the eighties. And how could it not be, with the core of the band made up of two musical eminences, former Whitesnake guitarist Micky Moody and bassist Neil Murray (ex-Whitesnake, ex-Black Sabbath), joined by keyboardist Adam Wakeman (son of Yes man Rick Wakeman), vocalist Chris Ousey, guitarist Laurie Wisefield and drummer Harry James. Snakecharmer released their self-titled debut last year, and presenting it was the central thread of the set. Snakecharmer wade through a classic rock sound, driven mainly by Mr. Wakeman’s fingers gliding over the Hammond keys, while the clean vocal passages of former Heartland frontman Ousey, who also reaches for the higher registers, are what mark the band as part of the melodic rock crowd. So Snakecharmer is a fusion of two different schools of rock, and the result is a hearty serving of rock goodness, more than worthy of the eminent names on stage. Snakecharmer built most of the set from their own material, with Guilty as Charged, the punchy single Accident Prone and My Angel all making the cut. But since Snakecharmer can’t possibly escape the reputation of the past, a few Whitesnake hits had to be in there too. If Slow an’ Easy was a nice treat, especially since David Coverdale and company haven’t played it on a Whitesnake tour in years, the pick of the pop hit Here I Go Again was anything but. But that’s how it goes: satisfying the appetites of the wider crowd has always taken priority over gourmet taste as such. Despite that quibble, Snakecharmer fully and credibly lived up to their eminent name that afternoon.
One of the more interesting names on the first day of the festival was W.E.T., a kind of Swedish melodic rock supergroup, as its core is made up of members of Work of Art, Eclipse and Talisman (the band’s name comes from the initials of those three). Creative leaders Robert Sall and Eric Martensson founded the project because they wanted to merge their individual takes on 21st-century AOR. In 2008, their two parent bands’ debuts had made both of them prominent figures in the Scandinavian melodic revival, and they lured in the famous vocalist Jeff Scott Soto as well. W.E.T. made great use of the favorable late-afternoon slot and proved they weren’t put there for nothing! The Swedes cultivate a sophisticated approach with guitars and keyboards working together all the way through, and the lead vocal adapts to the overall lines instead of coming to life in all its glory. That’s why Soto, too, couldn’t really slip into his recognizable persona of the energetic, kinetically hyperactive frontman on stage. So W.E.T. come across on stage as an equal team, keeping the audience in check for the entire set with dynamic arrangements. On top of that, this young crew of Swedish musicians swears by perfectionism in the performance, so they effortlessly pulled the maximum out of every song. In the middle of the show, Soto paid tribute with a stretched-out banner to his good friend Marcel Jacob, the founder of Talisman, who died too young. A pleasant and polished set, even though it later turned out that both Martensson (Eclipse) and Soto were still hiding their biggest aces up their sleeves!
The story of Hardline is incredibly interesting. After only a pale shadow of the old lineup was left, and even the third album »Leaving The End Open« (2009) failed to satisfy demanding appetites, the band was clinically dead. It was pulled out of its slumber by Italian keyboardist and one of Frontiers’ star workhorses, Alessandro Del Vecchio. Del Vecchio wrote a few songs and offered them to Johnny Gioeli, the vocalist and the only remaining original member of Hardline. Gioeli was thrilled with them, the album »Danger Zone« (review here) was born, and Hardline stepped into a new chapter of their existence, even if many people (rightly) wonder about the credibility of today’s version of the band.
Even though Gioeli is surrounded by a seasoned crew of musicians who know exactly what they’re doing on stage, given the circumstances Hardline these days are more of a project kept alive by Frontiers than a compact unit breathing for one another. That didn’t spoil the fact that Hardline delivered one of the most energetic sets of the entire festival, resting mainly on the shoulders of frontman Johnny Gioeli. With Axel Rudi Pell, where Gioeli has been working for more than fifteen years, his vocal and stage performance remain underused, but with Hardline the story is completely different! Gioeli put on a high-octane show and took complete command of the huge stage. There wasn’t a moment when he held back on energy, even on the vocally demanding numbers like the classic Everything or the closing Rhythm from a Red Car. Gioeli also gave plenty of room to maneuver to his bandmates: in the solo spots, keyboardist Del Vecchio, Puerto Rican-born guitarist Josh Ramos and drummer Francesco Jovino all showed off their varied skills. Hardline, lubricated by loads of experience, ran through all four studio albums with remarkable ease and at full tilt, and the loudest ovations understandably went to the songs from the legendary debut »Double Eclipse«. On stage, everyone was breathing with full lungs, and in front of it heartbeats shot sky-high during the hit Hot Cherie. The charm and essence of the band are still there, despite the bitter aftertaste of the credibility question. The question is whether you’ll ever get to see Hardline live again!
The role of headliners on the first day of the festival fell to the Americans Tesla, who came thundering into Europe solely for the Frontiers festival gig! Their desire to please the label responsible for their return to the hard rock map was huge, and judging by what we saw, so was the joy of the organizers. They were dancing at the far right side of the stage, trading playful gestures and smiles with the band members throughout their time up there. A bit too conspicuous for my taste, even.
Tesla played in Italy just before the release of their long-awaited new album »Simplicity«, so alongside the older hits, two brand-new songs, MP3 (Too Much Technology) and Ricochet, came to life in a live version for the first time ever on European soil. This is a band that has never feared new challenges! Tesla know no concert breaks, and regular gigging (mostly across their homeland) has carved them into a real live machine whose salvos come at you from every direction. First and foremost, there’s the likable frontman Jeff Keith, with his unique voice color and gritty vocals, which can be the biggest annoyance when it comes to getting into Tesla. But if you fall for Keith’s vocal performance, a Tesla show becomes one big pleasure, because on stage his vocals trade blows with the powerful riffing without losing a speck of sharpness compared to the studio originals! The guitar acrobatics of the band’s first string, Frank Hannon, added Tesla’s recognizable punch to the songs in the live setting, and his moves (including playing the guitar behind his back) drew deafeningly loud ovations in the hall. Even though in recent years he’s been flirting with blues and country as a solo artist, his hard rock vein is still pulsing with full awareness.
After the opening classics Hang Tough and Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out), the Americans tossed in Mama’s Fool from the album »Bust a Nut« (1994). The very next song, Into The Now, with its trademark catchy chorus, judging by the reactions had long since earned a place among the band’s audience favorites despite being a newer tune. Second guitarist Dave Rude, a member of the band since 2006, also showed off a few solo expeditions, taking over the stage spotlight for at least a few moments, though most of it rested on Jeff Keith’s fiery stage presence. Tesla’s endless mileage gave the five on stage a confident swagger, one that, compared with, say, Stryper a day later, had none of the empty or even cheesy banter that so often “adorns” rock giants used to regular touring. The mighty ballad Love Song announced that the show was tipping into its final phase, in which Tesla served up two more hard-hitters from the debut »Mechanical Resonance« (1986), Modern Day Cowboy and Little Suzi. The sound was crystal clear, the guitar and vocal harmonies plainly audible, the volume cranked up to ear-splitting heights, so the last concert experience of the night shook every last bit of my body. The minutes flew by in a flash, and Tesla wrapped up the set with the obligatory encore, Cumin’ Atcha Live.
If I may add a personal note: after years of waiting, seeing Tesla again finally paid off, even though I’d have loved to hear at least a few more songs than the “modest” thirteen. Tesla, Rockline is already looking forward to the next European club tour!
Setlist
THREE LIONS:
1. Hold Me Down
2. Twisted Soul
3. Kathmandu
4. Don’t Let Me Fall
5. Hellfire Highway
6. Trouble In A Red Dress
SNAKECHARMER:
1. Guilty as Charged
2. A Little Rock & Roll
3. Accident Prone
4. Falling Leaves
5. Moody’s Blues
6. Slow an’ Easy (Whitesnake)
7. My Angel
8. Here I Go Again (Whitesnake)
9. Fool for Your Loving (Whitesnake)
W.E.T.:
1. Walk Away
2. Learn to Live Again
3. Invincible
4. Love Heals
5. Rise Up
6. Bad Boy
7. Still Unbroken
8. Broken Wings
9. If I Fall
10. Comes Down Like Rain
11. Brothers in Arms
12. One Love
HARDLINE:
1. Danger Zone
2. Takin’ Me Down
3. Everything
4. Fever Dreams
5. Dr. Love
6. In This Moment
7. Keyboard Solo
8. Voices
9. Drum Solo
10. Life’s a Bitch
11. In the Hands of Time
12. Guitar Solo
13. Hot Cherie
14. Rhythm from a Red Car
TESLA:
1. I Wanna Live
2. Hang Tough
3. Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)
4. Mama’s Fool
5. Into the Now
6. MP3 (Too Much Technology)
7. Ricochet
8. What You Give
9. Love Song
10. Signs (Five Man Electrical Band)
11. Modern Day Cowboy
12. Little Suzi (Ph.D.)
—encore—
13. Cumin’ Atcha Live
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