Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Trezzo sull'Adda (Milan) / Live Club / Italy
Concert date: May 2, 2014
Attendance: 2000
Ticket price: €157.00 (three-day pass) / €59.00 (single-day ticket)
Day two of Frontiers Rock festival brought the rain! Right from the morning and through the late-morning hours, which the whole crew spent wandering around a gigantic shopping mall a few kilometers outside the little town of Trezzo Sull’Adda. In an even littler town. Called Basiano. First stop was obviously Mediamarkt and its discounted CDs, where of course we didn’t leave empty-handed. With a bagful of great music bought at €4.99 a pop, we swung by a discount store for some cheap bottles of Paulaner wheat beer and, thus stocked up, headed for the venue.
Besides a killer lineup, day one of the festival also treated us to outstanding organization. Everything ran like clockwork. Bands went on exactly at their scheduled times. No complaints about the organization whatsoever. If anything, praise. So we stumbled up to the hall entrance a little before three in the afternoon! And at exactly three o’clock, the Swedes Adrenaline Rush took the stage. The band signed with Frontiers Records at the end of January this year and has already released a first teaser single, Changes, which will of course land on the upcoming debut album. Given the gloomy weather, the view of the stage offered plenty of reasons to cheer up. All eyes were on a hot little flirty cutie by the name of Tave Wannig! She swung that mic around like a pro and ran wildly all over the stage. Before joining Adrenaline Rush, the singer was half of the teen-pop duo Peaches, but there’s obviously no room for pop in Adrenaline Rush. The lineup is rounded out by Ludvig Turner (lead guitar), Alexander Hagman (rhythm guitar), Soufian Ma’Aoui (bass) and Marcus Johansson (drums). The band delivered exemplary tightness and cohesion. Musically, Adrenaline Rush don’t bring anything new to the table, but you can definitely feel the Scandinavian school in how they approach melodic rock. On one side you hear the influence of older Scandinavian rock acts like Treat, Dalton, Renegade and 220 Volt, and on the other they add a pinch of sleazy naughtiness, which should perk up the ears of Crazzy Lixx or Hardcore Superstar fans. The band will release its studio debut this summer, produced by the excellent Erik Martensson (W.E.T., Eclipse). Let’s be surprised.
What followed was no less sweet. The next act also put a lovely lady up front on lead vocals. Estonian Lennaa Kuurmaa, who’s now trying her hand at the melodic rock outfit Moon Land. Behind it, of course, is the A&R staff at Frontiers Records, and the label’s attempt to serve the crowd a fresh, hot, crunchy bun and squeeze a few extra coins out of their pockets. The songs were written by Alessandro Del Vecchio, for example, and sent to Lenna to try out her vocals on them. The thing evidently worked and both sides were happy. Lenaa Kuurmaa has plenty of mileage under her belt. You may know her from the all-girl pop trio Vanilla Ninja, who represented Estonia twice at the Eurovision Song Contest. Both times with limited success, though the girls had their breakthrough in 2005, when they represented Switzerland at Eurovision with the song Cool Vibes. At the halfway point of the voting they were still leading ahead of all the participating countries, but in the end they finished in a still excellent eighth place. Lenna was backed on stage by a quartet on guitar, bass, drums and keyboards. In a solid half hour the band presented songs from the upcoming debut, due out at the end of this year, including Open Your Heart, Heaven Is Close To You and Live And Let Go. You can tell the band is still in its infancy and that, for Lenna, everything is only just unfolding. Correctly played, solid, tight enough, but, just like with Adrenaline Rush before, Lenna stood above it all with her talents and charm as an excellent vocalist and stage presence, someone who knows how to spin on her heels so you fall for her instantly! The girl lists The Beatles and Queen as her role models and likes to listen to Heart. You could definitely hear traces of the latter in the material her new band Moon Land performed.
Back in the summer of last year, three extremely seasoned musicians joined forces under the name L.R.S. Singer Tommy La Verdi (21 Guns), Josh Ramos (Hardline, The Storm) and Michael Shotton (Von Groove). The project’s studio debut, »Down To The Core«, came out this March under the watchful production guidance of Frontiers Records’ go-to guy Alessandro Del Vecchio, who also served as the keyboardist on stage during the set. A logical choice, since he knows Josh Ramos well enough. The two are both part of today’s Hardline lineup. You could tell this was the trio’s very first show together. This time around it was experience and mileage that drove the musicians, and they filled out the set with 21 Guns’ Knee Deep (right at the tail end of the set), the Von Groove hit Once Is Not Enough, with drummer Michael Shotton taking over vocals (just like on the original), and The Storm classic I’ve Got a Lot to Learn About Love. All three were rolled into a »medley«. Songs from the album »Down To The Core«, like the title track, plus Our Love To Stay, Living 4 A Dream and Universal City (interestingly, the single Almost Over You dropped out of the set), warmed the hearts of anyone devoted to melodic rock. Especially Journey fans. The crowd enjoyed it no less than Moon Land and Adrenaline Rush before them, and all eyes tended to land on Josh Ramos’ incredible guitar acrobatics. The night before, during the Hardline set, he’d already shown he’d studied Neal Schon down to the last detail. Barefoot La Verdi lost the thread a few times during the show, but that’s all down to a long absence from the stage. La Verdi naturally thanked the bosses at Frontiers Recodrs deeply during the show for getting him back on stage and into the company of two other exceptional musical partners. A set without any real highlights, but also an exclusive one, since it’s questionable whether this project will ever make it out on any kind of tour. A similar story, then, to Three Lions, who played the festival the day before.
The course of the second day shot up to a higher level of quality with the set by the superb Swedish melodic rock revivalists Eclipse, who, with two albums in their pocket, were together with Denmark’s Pretty Maids actually the freshest band of the festival’s second day. The essential difference between Eclipse and the other three acts who’d played before them is that Eclipse are a real band, one that breathes and grows as a unit around a polished, clear musical vision, and has done so a little longer. The reins are held by the outstanding vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Erik Martensson, who, together with his buddy, guitarist Magnus Henriksson, had already played the festival’s first day with W.E.T. In a three-quarter-hour set, the quartet put together a fantastic show built from the only two albums Eclipse had released up to that day, with the emphasis on the latest, »Bleed And Scream« (2012). A song like Wake Me Up, for example, is composed absolutely perfectly and has already become a beloved evergreen among melodic rock fans. A good part of the hall sang the lyrics from memory during it. The choruses at the very least. Eclipse are an incredibly infectious band! Martensson is a magnet. An exceptional vocalist, stage performer, actor. And the quintet plays brilliantly. Henriksson also blew us away with some solo wizardry! The band closed the set with Breaking My Heart Again and raised the day’s quality bar to a higher level. For many in the hall, Eclipse were one of the nicest surprises of the festival’s second day. They actually put on such a strong show that, in terms of quality, it towered for many at the venue over all the other performances of the day. Even over the main headliners of day two, the Americans Stryper!
Red Dragon Cartel is the band that, after a 15-year break, brought one of the most talented and accomplished hard rock guitarists of the eighties, Jake E. Lee, back on stage. For vocals, Lee picked Darren J. Smith, the former drummer of Canada’s Harem Scarem, who handled his new role with great distinction. The lineup was rounded out by bassist Ronnie Mancuso and drummer Jonas Fairley. The »guitar nightingale«, who etched himself into the hearts of heavy metal and hard rock fans with Badlands and especially as Ozzy Osbourne’s lead guitarist on the albums »Bark At The Moon« and »The Ultimate Sin«, kicked off his show in grand style. Straight in with a crusher, Ozzy’s The Ultimate Sin. It blew the roof off the hall. The crowd went wild and the pricey beer (0.4 L for €5.00) was sloshing in all directions across the hall in an instant. Jake E. Lee was in great spirits. He mercilessly fired off and flashed salvos of improvisational acrobatics, his own trademark. He’s a truly unique guitarist with a recognizable style. Jake E. Lee decided to devote a substantial chunk of the show’s running time to some Badlands classics that have grown especially close to his heart over the years. So we got High Wire, Shine On, In a Dream, Rumblin’ Train and Sun Red Sun . In between, the band slipped in songs from the self-titled studio debut, namely Deciever, War Machine, Feeder and Shout it Out. For the big finale, Jake E. Lee and crew came back for an encore and cut loose with Ozzy’s Bark At The Moon, making the thoroughly »oiled« crowd in the hall deliriously happy! A bomb of a show! If Red Dragon Cartel are anywhere near you, do yourself a favor and catch their gig. They’ll bury you in pure energy voltage! And Jake E. Lee is hungry and thirsty for blood and live shows. His festival show proved it! Red Dragon Cartel will surely put out another album or two in the future! Given how focused they are, definitely.
Pretty Maids were the only band at the festival that day to roll in on their own »nightliner«. Not because of this festival, since the trip from Horsens in Denmark would have cost them too much, but because they dropped by the festival more or less in passing. During their headlining tour, on which they’re still presenting their current studio album »Motherland« as well as the just-released album of re-recorded classics and four brand-new songs, »Louder Than Ever«. Pretty Maids have been touring regularly in recent years. Just last fall they were out on an extensive tour of the old continent with Pink Cream 69 and Bonfire, and they already have a new tour announced for this May.
Pretty Maids are known as one of the most experienced live bands, as well as one of the strongest when it comes to interpreting their repertoire. When it came to seasoned pros, they had no equal among the performers that day. The band, formed way back in 1981, took up more stage space than the acts before them. The drums stood considerably raised on a special riser, a giant banner with the cover of the current studio album »Motherland« and the band’s logo loomed in the background. As expected, Pretty Maids gave it everything again that night. They always play full throttle. No brakes. Right from the start, singer Ronnie Atkins, with his proven rock-solid focus and charismatic magnetism, had the hall on its feet as the new Mother Of All Lies came up, followed by I See Ghosts, and the »Pandemonium« track Final Day of Innocence, back in the set list again. Alongside the high-spirited Atkins, bassist Rene Shades happily ran around, now to keyboardist Morten Sandager, now to guitarist Ken Hammer, while the »drumming animal« Alan Tschikaja dealt out merciless slaps to the drum skins and handed out a whole pile of drumsticks to the crowd at the same time. The brand-new My Soul To Take also works great, with a slight whiff of Little Drops Of Heaven, which of course was played in the second half of the show, as was, a little later, the equally new Nuclear Boomerang, which exposed some vocal fraying in Ronnie’s voice, something you simply have to accept, since the voice is the only organic instrument. And it can’t be fully replaced. The band also tackled Phil Lynnot’s Please Don’t Leave Me, and squeezed the last atoms of energy out of the crowd with the expected closing run of iron-clad repertoire staples Red Hot And Heavy, Future World and Back To Back.
It was a bit of a surprise that Pretty Maids didn’t include any of the newly recorded classics from the album »Louder Than Ever«, which they haven’t played live for quite some time. Maybe we’ll hear them on May 15, 2014, when the band plays in Velden, Carinthia, at the club Bluesiana Rock Cafe. They’ll be playing a two-hour show there. Pretty Maids put on one of the strongest stage performances of the day, so Stryper had a seriously tough job ahead of them!
Shows by the »white«, or in other words »Christian rockers«, Stryper aren’t exactly an everyday thing in Europe. Even though the band released a new studio album last November, »No More Hell To Pay«, it hasn’t had a chance to properly present it in Europe yet. The first real opportunity came at Frontiers Rock Festival. Stryper do have a few more confirmed festival appearances in Europe this summer, including Bang Your Head!! in Balingen, Germany, but a fact is still a fact. Stryper don’t play Europe much, so they were definitely a special attraction of the festival. Right on arriving on stage, Michael Sweet tossed a few »Stryper Bibles« out into the crowd as the band came out to a taped intro of Battle Hymn of the Republic. Sing Along Song immediately woke the crowd up with its pompous catchiness, and they jumped right in singing. The ultimate leader and boss of the band, singer and guitarist Michael Sweet, is holding up well vocally. Even so, he saved energy in places and dodged the extremely high registers he’s still capable of hitting (at least the latest studio album proves it), otherwise he wouldn’t have sung with Boston a few years back as one of their lead vocalists. Stryper built the set from their hits, devoted part of the show to presenting the new studio album »No More Hell To Pay« (just three songs), and for a while even to the covers album »The Covering« (2011), from which they played Judas Priest’s »evergreen chestnut« Breaking The Law and the Kiss standard Shout It Out Loud.
A Stryper show is a special kind of experience. Michael Sweet’s preacher ritual is woven right into it. It was in the last part of the show that the ballad Honestly came up. Even before it, he’d »diligently« talked and talked. No big deal. It’s a classic, a standard. Expected stuff. However, Sweet sang this song in the ballad section completely alone on stage, with taped keyboards (the band also relied on backing vocal tracks throughout the show), which somewhat killed the charge and voltage of the show. Before the part where the whole band joins the song, he vanished from the stage for a moment, the stage went completely dark, and then the band played the song to the end. Likewise, the longer speeches between songs might have mildly annoyed some people, especially anyone who came for an uncompromising dose of rock ‘n’ roll partying. You just have to accept that. Stryper are simply a special band. Quite a hefty bundle of Stryper Bibles got handed out, but we came mainly for the music, and the band definitely redeemed itself with excellent riff structures that rang out in All For One, The Way and, as expected, at the tail end of the regular set, Soldiers Under Command. The encore was expected too. What wasn’t expected was just how short it was. A taped intro (Abyss), then straight into To Hell With The Devil, and goodbye.
Otherwise, the band comes across as tight, coordinated and superbly well-rehearsed. The experience is there. The maturity that comes with the years, no less. Oz Fox and Michael Sweet complement each other beautifully in their solos, and in the harmonies too, while Michael’s beastly brother Robert Sweet was of course once again turned with his face away from the audience, which is the band’s standard since time immemorial, yet it still never fails to cause quite a bit of wonder. Few drummers make such a decision, not facing the audience with their drums during a show. Maybe what was missing was the cherry on top, some blazing Stryper shrapnel, to make the measure full, but no nitpicking here. The band plays great and that’s what counts. Definitely a must for all true fans of the band. Stryper justified their role as headliner, despite the outstanding Pretty Maids and Eclipse before them, who for many were the peak of the second day’s festival performances.
Fulfilled by the enjoyment of fresh concert experiences, we headed toward the car. The rain had stopped. But the devil wouldn’t leave us alone! Jernej ran into Brad Gillis (Night Ranger) in the hall! Apparently Night Ranger had arrived in Trezzo sull’Adda the day before their show! We turned back toward the hall. First we ran into guitarist Joel Hoekstra, who kindly exchanged a few words and, at the request of those present, posed for a few cameras, followed by an encounter with original founding member of Night Ranger, guitarist Brad Gillis, who was outside the hall receiving a bunch of fired-up fans swarming around him like flies. A beautiful wrap-up to the festival day and a prelude to its closing, third day!
Setlists
ADRENALINE RUSH:
1. Black N Blue
2. Change
3. Mellansnack
4. No No No
5. mellansnack
6. When We’re Gone
7. Want It All
8. Generation Left Behind
9. Oh Yeah!
10. Hit You Like A Rock
11. Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll (Rainbow)
L.R.S.:
1. Our Love to Stay
2. Livin 4 a Dream
3. Down to the Core
4. Universal Cry
5. I’ve Got a Lot to Learn About Love (The Storm)
6. Once Is Not Enough (Von Groove)
7. Knee Deep (21 Guns)
ECLIPSE:
1. Wylde One
2. Wake Me Up
3. Battlegrounds
4. A Bitter Taste
5. Bleed & Scream
6. Under the Gun
7. S.O.S.
8. About to Break
9. Breaking My Heart Again
RED DRAGON CARTEL:
1. The Ultimate Sin (Ozzy Osbourne)
2. Deceived
3. War Machine
4. High Wire (Badlands)
5. Shine On (Badlands)
6. Shout It Out
7. In a Dream (Badlands)
8. Rumblin’ Train (Badlands)
9. Sun Red Sun (Badlands)
10. Feeder
—encore—
11. Bark at the Moon (Ozzy Osbourne)
PRETTY MAIDS:
1. Mother of All Lies
2. I See Ghosts
3. Final Day of Innocence
4. My Soul to Take
5. Yellow Rain
6. Rodeo
7. Please Don’t Leave Me (Phil Lynnot)
8. Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (Pink Floyd)
9. I.N.V.U.
10. Nuclear Boomerang
11. Little Drops of Heaven
12. Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Carmina Burana)
13. Back to Back
14. Red, Hot and Heavy
—encore—
15. Future World
16. Outro (Sit on My Face – Monty Python)
STRYPER:
1. Intro (Battle Hymn of the Republic)
2. Sing-Along Song
3. Loud ‘N’ Clear
4. Reach Out
5. Calling on You
6. Free
7. More Than a Man
8. Legacy
9. No More Hell to Pay
10. Marching Into Battle
11. Breaking the Law (Judas Priest)
12. Shout It Out Loud (KISS)
13. All for One
14. Honestly
15. The Way
16. Soldiers Under Command
—encore—
17. Intro (Abyss)
18. To Hell With the Devil
Photo Gallery
