Location: Trieste / Naima Club / Italy
Date: Sunday, March 22, 2015
Greek guitarist Gus G. has taken his solo career pretty seriously. He wants to promote last year’s album I Am The Fire (review HERE) everywhere he can. So Gus G. and his touring crew hit the road across Europe, and they also stopped close to Slovenia, specifically at the Naima club in Trieste.
Gus was accompanied on tour by the Italian band Arthemis, who’ve got some 15 years of mileage behind them. In that time the band could probably have achieved a lot, but somehow they never broke through. The reason is probably the music, which is nothing special and comes across as just another generic heavy/power band, with nothing particularly interesting to hear, sadly. You can tell the band has miles on the clock, though, they were tight, and the communication with the crowd was solid. The whole Arthemis situation was at times downright comical, with a posing bassist who wanted to be the star of the night with his playing. You could expect more from Arthemis, but on the other hand, it’s good that bands exist that you can go have a beer to with a clear conscience.
Things picked up with Gus G.’s set, who wrapped up his European We Are The Fire tour at this very show. Gus and his backing band played almost the entire current record I Am The Fire. On vocals he was joined by the seasoned Henning Basse, who already worked with Gus as a touring singer for Firewind back in 2006 and who was most active in the band Metalium. Gus G. more than proved himself over the course of an hour and a half or so. He definitely knew how to steer the attention toward his skills. There’s no doubt he’s a top-notch guitarist, and he showed it with excellent, razor-precise soloing. Not even the rhythm section threw him off, though it probably struggled because of the bad sound on stage. The weak link was definitely the bassist, who had lousy sound and also simplified the guitar lines of crazy Gus quite a bit, which mostly reflects badly on Gus. Bassists like that would be better off going to pose and plunk away on a single string in some glam rock band. On drums, young Johan Nunez gave it his all, having previously played with Gus in Firewind. Nunez did his job way better than the bassist.
Gus of course didn’t forget his past, so he also served up the song Break the Chains by Dream Evil, plus World on Fire and the instrumental The Fire and the Fury by Firewind, a band that supposedly is still active today, though when Gus will revive it is anyone’s guess. Of course there was also a moment when only Gus was left on stage, proving once again that his fast fingers are dead accurate. The band included almost the whole I Am The Fire record in the set, which hasn’t really caught on yet, but the music itself, with its catchy choruses, is clearly made for a sing along crowd, which didn’t really join in this time. After a break, Gus G. invited the singer and guitarist of Arthemis on stage, and together they played a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. Here you couldn’t shake the feeling that Gus wanted to get the crowd on its feet one last time with a worn-out cover, which gave the whole thing a pub-party vibe. For the grand finale he threw in Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne, which was a logical choice given that Gus played on Ozzy’s latest album, and it showed his loyalty to Ozzy himself.
Despite the lousy sound and monotonous lighting, Gus G. pulled off more than a solid show, though we could definitely have used one more Firewind song. Looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer for a Firewind revival, since Gus recently announced that he’s already working on a new solo album.
author: Primož Novak
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
