Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Vienna / Simm City / Austria
Concert date: February 16, 2017
Attendance: 350
Ticket price: €31.50
The legendary Glenn Hughes is the man who long ago earned the flattering nickname »The Voice Of Rock«. After a good while, and especially after his stint in Black Country Communion and a short detour with California Breed, he’s back on the road in less than two years for his second solo tour of the old continent. We last marveled at Glenn a year and a half ago in Salzburg, when he played the Rockhouse club in the middle of Austria’s Salzburg. This time the famed songwriter, singer and bassist returned to Europe for yet another tour, and with a new album to boot, the excellent »Resonate«, on which he went all the way back to his rocker roots.
Hughes came back to European stages with three sidemen. On the previous tour he also played as a trio, with Doug Aldrich, a guitarist anyone would want in their band today, and Swedish drummer Pontus Engborg. This time he wanted to take the experienced and highly regarded Danish guitarist Soren Andersen along, whom we got to see at The Dead Daisies show on November 21, 2015, at the KC Dražen Petrovič hall in Zagreb, where they opened the evening for Whitesnake. Back then Soren was filling in for the band’s boss David Lowy in The Dead Daisies. Soren also played guitars on and produced Resonate, but he couldn’t join the tour. His countryman, the excellent Anders Bo, took his place. The quartet also still has the superb drummer Pontus Engborg, plus Hammond organist Lachey Doley. Yes, Hughes has brought the organ back into the lineup, which is a hugely welcome move, since it opens up room for an even better recapturing, or recultivation, of those rock-history sounds he wrote long ago as a member of Deep Purple and Trapeze.
As an overture to the evening with Glenn Hughes, we got two opening acts. The first was a “surprise”, and such a surprise that we didn’t even manage to catch their name. Nobody had announced them beforehand. So the schedule shifted, and the band started playing a full fifteen minutes before eight in the evening. Stone Broken, who accompany Hughes as special guests on the entire new tour, were supposed to go on at eight, and their set got pushed back as a result. That confused absolutely everyone, from the fans arriving late at the venue to the media people. All I managed to pick up was that the band on stage is a quintet from France, that they play seriously fired-up melodic hard rock, and that they do it with real confidence and no brakes, vocals included. Surprise or not, the set passed as a nice opening rocker’s greeting and a lovable warm-up.
At half past eight the young British hard rock rascals and cheeky short-pants troublemakers Stone Broken finally took the stage. The quartet is young in terms of tenure, active since 2013, but Hughes and his management knew exactly who deserved a shot on his new tour. Stone Broken showed, almost as a joke, that rock’n’roll is far from dead. They served up a mix of dynamic play with a fat, frothing wall of guitars, confident and active riffing, the piercing, ignited vocals of Rich Moss, and nonstop stage running and crowd-baiting. And I mustn’t forget drummer Robyn Haycock, whose heart brought the pull of a steam locomotive to the band’s sound. A truly convincing encounter with an up-and-coming bunch of youngsters who will surely show plenty more good things in the future and deliver a fine crop of original music. Even though Stone Broken play riffs we’ve heard before, they approach them with great heart, theatrical fighting spirit and an incredible youthful drive. Professional.
Glenn Hughes remains one of the best-preserved musicians of that generation of uncut diamonds from rock’s pioneering days, the ones who stood rock’n’roll tall in the seventies and, with their musical insight, vision and sheer genius, opened up countless new genre horizons for rock and metal. I can say that even in his mid-sixties, a number that will be piling up on his shoulders any moment now, Glenn stays an eternal youth. Both in looks and in stage delivery.
His voice still knocks you out of your pants as it vibrates with incredible resonance. He remains a passionate, soulful soul-awakener and a vocal acrobat who has no equal. In expression and vocal power, in his incredible chameleon-like range and feel for improvisational softness, the label that Hughes is a black musician trapped in a white man’s body still stands, and I’ll say it right here. From the first second to the last, the show was an experience that left you instantly speechless and stunned. Hughes stays brilliant in performance, and just as convincing as a born entertainer for whom the stage is a second home, if not the first. Nobody could have expected so many funny, relived stories in the breaks between songs as he told tonight. I can’t remember Glenn ever being this talkative.
The spacious stage of Simm City, which looks like it holds around a thousand people, turned into a one-man show. That man was, of course, the extraordinary Hughes, who moved soulfully now left, now right, keeping eye contact with the crowd the whole time, especially with the women in the front rows. Many times he asked the lighting guy to aim the white lights at the audience so he could communicate with them more easily, telling them that his love always flows from the stage into the hall. His supporting trio held the role of absolute extras, but as strict professionals the guys gave Glenn a superb backbone. Bo alternated between a cream-colored Fender Stratocaster and a gold Gibson Les Paul (a similar model of electric guitar was used by Doug Aldrich on the previous tour). It was clear he played the Deep Purple classics on the Stratocaster, while the Gibson always roared fat whenever we nodded to Hughes’ solo career and/or the moves of Joe Bonamassa (the Black Country Communion songs). Bo was placed in the back line and wasn’t allowed to approach Hughes at the edge of the stage during the show. That bothered a bit, since we’re used to the guitar riff, as the core of rock’s elemental force, always being front and center.
As expected, the undisputed rock guru and sorcerer showed up on his new visit to the Austrian capital with songs from the new album »Heavy«. The stuffed Flow rang out right at the start, followed in the first part by Stumble And Go, and in the encore topped off by Heavy, one of the best songs on »Resonate«. Hughes didn’t skip the part of his career marked by his work with Pat Thrall either. So, as a very interesting spice for the evening, Muscle And Blood echoed through the hall. Master Hughes touched on his Trapeze days again with the expected Medusa, while the Deep Purple classic Mistreated, which the whole hall had been quietly but eagerly waiting for all night, was almost shockingly missing from the set. Instead, Glenn stretched his excellent original You Keep On Movin’, which he contributed to the Deep Purple album »Come Taste The Band«, out to a good fourteen minutes. He introduced the song as one he and David Coverdale had written back before the album »Burn«, only for someone to show up who wouldn’t allow it onto that album. That same »someone« also insisted the very same song stay off the album »Stormbringer«. Well, it finally made it onto »Come Taste The Band«. When he thanked Tommy Bolin, it became clear that the »someone« was none other than, of course, Richie Blackmore. We also heard the excellent originals and Hughes concert staples Can’t Stop The Flood (from the album »Building the Machine«) and the phenomenal funk and hard rock blend Soul Mover (from the album »Soul Mover«, 2005). Glenn didn’t forget his time with Black Country Communion either. So the quartet played a superb One Last Soul and, to wrap up, a venomously ruffled Black Country. For the grand finale, only one question remained. Stormbringer or Burn? We got the latter, and the crowd at Simm City lost it and went completely wild one last time!
This was one of those shows that ended unbelievably fast, almost in an instant. Only the extraordinary Glenn Hughes could be “to blame” for an hour and three quarters flying by like that. A one-of-a-kind rock preacher who, at a good sixty-plus years old, radiates the potency of a twenty-year-old stallion, without a speck of let-up in energy or vibe. Flawless execution and vocal acrobatics you can’t get anywhere near. On top of that, he delivered outstanding bass playing, full of demanding figures. There are few who reach his rank. Well, there are some, and there were some, but they’re cut from a different cloth. For example the late John Wetton, Sting and Geddy Lee (Rush). Glenn Hughes remains a venomous rock’n’roll sorcerer who leaves concertgoers and fans of his music comforted and charged with energy after his shows. And as he said, he came among us to share love. The positive vibes seemed endless, and they kept filling us for a long time after hanging out with the famous rock legend. Let’s hope we meet Glenn again very soon! We got to live through yet another unforgettable and unique experience with a rock legend!
Setlist
GLENN HUGHES:
1. Intro
2. Flow
3. Muscle And Blood
4. Gettin’ Tighter
5. Stumble & Go
6. Medusa
7. Can’t Stop the Flood
8. One Last Soul
9. You Keep On Movin’
10. Might Just Take Your Life
11. Soul Mover
12. Black Country
—encore—
13. Heavy
14. Burn
STONE BROKEN:
1. Intro
2. Stay All Night
3. Better
4. Be There
5. Wait For You
6. Just A Memory
7. This Life
8. Not Your Eney
Photo Gallery
