Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ternitz / Stadthalle Ternitz / Austria
Concert date: May 13, 2011
Attendance: 1300
Ticket price: €30.90
That’s what happens when Uriah Heep set off on a new European tour and lock in at least three dates relatively close to Slovenia. You’ve just got to hit all three shows. After all the cranked-up driving, the razor-sharp nights full of adrenaline rush and boundless joy of the kind only the kingdom of rock n’ roll partying knows, and after the RockLine crew had already dropped in on Uriah Heep in Vienna on May 12, 2011 and a day later in Leoben, the third act followed. A lightning raid on Ternitz, Austria!
Ternitz is a small industrial town near the larger city of Neunkirchen in Lower Austria. After the night in Leoben came a morning of knocking around Austria. Nothing earth-shattering. Back to Graz and a visit to the local Media Markt, a store seriously stocked with CDs, where, unlike the threadbare CD selection in Slovenia (which, remarks aside, is rigged against customers), prices at least come down drastically over time.
Arrival in Ternitz. We were greeted by a violent downpour that cooled off the muggy air and chased the pesky flies from the sky. The blue bus with a trailer that carries Uriah Heep around this tour was already neatly parked in the Stadthalle yard! The kebab (such as it was) went down fine too, and of course we couldn’t pretend to be indifferent to mugs of beer either. Time flew, it’s eight o’clock and we’re inside the hall. Parquet floor, a fairly low ceiling, a balcony above the floor. A small hall, you could probably squeeze 1500 people in, chairs and all. It promised a more intimate vibe. And that’s exactly what we got.
Not as densely and powerfully packed as in Vienna and Leoben, but we still got a solid turnout. About 1200 heads. The crowd was quite different from Vienna. People looked a lot more alike, which meant they’d rolled in from around Ternitz. A less fancy, less polished bunch, none of the well-heeled faces we saw in Vienna. And accordingly a crowd that’s that much more receptive to tilting mugs of beer. Even before the show a good number of legs were wobbling under the weight of alcoholic derivatives, which was undoubtedly hugely entertaining to watch. The local support act once again left no impression. With unconvincing Led Zeppelin covers like Black Dog and Rock N’ Roll, it was clear the singer still doesn’t quite know what singing “from the balls” means. However I twist it, I shouldn’t sound negative. The lads need encouragement. But this time probably only a few relatives who’d come to cheer them on and some close friends were crossing their fingers for them. For everyone else they were just eating up time.
For a Slovenian observer finding themselves in such a setting, there’s something else interesting in all this. Unlike the Slovenian audience, which goes to gigs according to the efficiency of media manipulation in the pretentious salvation of individual acts, Austrians are much more like Germans. Rock music is something they identify with far more genuinely than Slovenes, who are ashamed to show up at rock shows unless the president of the Republic of Slovenia is a die-hard rocker. We’re more Catholic than the Pope. That’s just how we are. And sadly Danilo Türk is no rocker either! When Uriah Heep come to Austria “to the village,” the whole “village” turns up. Old and young. From toddlers just learning to walk to elderly ladies. You run into everyone. And everyone’s having a blast! That’s called loyalty. And the Austrian audience has shown time and again that it has stayed loyal to Uriah Heep’s music all along. And that loyalty lasts.
Okay, enough of my pontificating. It’s half past nine in the evening and Uriah Heep hit the stage. The ceiling is lower this time, so the stage is lower too, and the photographers in the pit between stage and crowd get an earful of incomprehension from the feverish, red-hot heads in the front row. A warm feeling, the band brought up close in an intimate way. Mick Box was in a black shirt with a cross pendant this time, which recalled the stage get-up he wore when he visited Ljubljana’s Tivoli Hall on December 13, 2008, only this time he wasn’t wearing “Crocs” but sporty Adidas slippers.
The song from the new album “Into The Wild” called I’m Ready is an excellent choice for an opener. It’s solid, catchy, and strikes a real balance between typical Heep melodic songwriting and rock punch. A truly positive energy vibe clings to this song. It also doesn’t demand heavy vocal stretching, so it serves Bernie as a great starting point for warming up the vocal cords. Right behind it comes the classic Return To Fantasy, and the guys seem even more uplifted performing the demanding multi-part vocal lines that form the stirring, well-known harmonic Uriah Heep “ring” around Bernie’s vocals. Then there’s the unforgettable classic Rainbow Demon once more, sending tingles down your spine, so well do Uriah Heep nail it even in 2011, even though of the “Demons And Wizards” era members only Mick Box remains in today’s lineup. After this gorgeous episode comes a jump to the new album and the cheeky Money Talk, while a bridging drum solo spot from the extremely loud Russell Gilbrook serves as an overture to the sarcastic rocker Nail on the Head, incidentally the first single and video from the new album.
The sound in the hall was once again excellent. As always, the classics Gypsy, July Morning and Look At Yourself delivered the peaks of the show. The exceptional power and value of compositions born in the early seventies simply sparkles through this fact. It’s unbelievable how, even after more than four decades, they still sound fresh, unique, predatory, real in all their essence and stage magic.
Full effect again. The band in top form and great spirits, and the result is yet another unforgettable get-together with their magic and the unique essence of their music. Mick Box with his Hindu-guru gestures, turquoise rings and bracelets, his obligatory kazachok step during the solo in July Morning, and the moment he blows out an imaginary flame on the guitar neck at the end of the solo in that furiously chiseled song built on the chunky Heep riff, Look At Yourself.
No retreat! With the Ternitz show Heep wrapped up a three-day mini Austrian run, part of an extensive new European tour focused mostly on Germany. Only a few hops to the Benelux countries sneak in here and there, there’s Pratteln in Switzerland, and in the summer the venerable gentlemen are already planning to continue promoting the new album “Into The Wild” on North American soil. No worries. They’ll be back on the old European continent soon. If not sooner, then late this fall. Uriah Heep are enjoying a real bloom. The album “Into the Wild” is a manifesto of exceptional maturity, which, even after more than forty years, radiates through its very essence an untamed creative hunger, boyish enthusiasm and genuine passion, true devotion to the music and above all, exceptional heart! Uriah Heep remain a one-of-a-kind stage attraction that knows no corrosion!
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Intro 2. I’m Ready 3. Return To Fantasy 4. Stealin’ 5. Rainbow Demon 6. Money Talk 7. Drum solo 8. Nail On The Head 9. The Wizard 10. Into The Wild 11. Gypsy 12. Look At Yourself 13. Kiss Of Freedom 14. July Morning 15. Lady In Black —encore— 16. Free N’ Easy 17. Bird Of Prey 18. Easy Livin’
Photo Gallery
