Author: Peter Podbrežnik, Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Inzell (Chiemgau, Bavaria) / Max-Aicher-Arena / Germany
Concert date: 01.06.2013
Attendance: 5000
Ticket price: €95.00
No two ways about it. When a festival gets announced with Toto, Journey, Rick Springfield, etc… the temptation can turn into a real little trauma. Anyone with a soft spot for melody in rock instantly pricks up their ears. Throw in Europe, Whitesnake, Black Star Riders (Thin Lizzy reborn), H.E.A.T. as the newer torchbearers of the style and glam rockers, and the German hard rock veterans Voodoo Circle and then cap off the list with the AOR champions of the US and Britain, Survivor and FM, and the temptation is honestly impossible to resist. Two days of dreams on the horizon.
And yet? The hotter our hearts burned and the closer the date of the Hi-Rock festival (announced for June 1 and 02) crept, the louder the ominous rumors got about heavy, multi-day downpours across the old continent, with most of the rain heading straight for the Chiemgau region in southern Bavaria. That’s where the little town of Inzell sits, living off tourism, since this region full of natural beauty counts as part of the Alpine area. And in that very Inzell, about the size of Slovenia’s Trzin, stands the immodest Max Aicher Arena. Besides tourism, Inzell is also one of the region’s sports hubs. The arena is bigger than the one in Stožice. Unbelievable. It’s like comparing the level of the Slovenian capital with some quick-to-miss tourist village in Germany.
So here we were. Our rocker stubbornness smoldered on, unyielding. Let the sky fall on the Earth if it has to. No big deal! Once we reached the Salzburg area, the last blue scraps of torn-up sky left us for good, and we sank into the maw of grayness, dripping. It dripped, dripped and kept on dripping. It got cold. Like early March, not June. But it still felt totally »painless«. It was getting clearer and clearer, though, that we’d have to leave the tents in the car, forget about camping and look for an apartment.
The clock struck three in the afternoon. We’re in Inzell and in front of the Max Aicher Arena! It’s pouring outside. We’re soaked and we couldn’t care less. People get let into the hall through a narrow funnel-like bottleneck, where once again nobody escapes the groping hands of security. Even the line for picking up accreditations creaks and jams. The minutes tick by. Precious minutes. The set by H.E.A.T. is already half over. As I walk into the hall, the band is just treating itself to a cover of the famous Led Zeppelin classic Rock N’ Roll, and a negative thought shoots through me: »Did I drive all this way just to listen for the millionth time to one of Led Zeppelin’s most worn-out songs? Brrr…«
The Swedes, mostly using stage names, with a lineup of Erik Grönwall (vocals) – who joined in August 2010, replacing his predecessor Kenny Leckremo, plus Dave Dalone (guitar), Eric Rivers (guitar), Jona Tee (keyboards), Jimmy Jay (bass) and Cash (drums), presented their current studio album »Address the Nation« (2012) and in a 40-minute set also played three hit singles (Beg, Beg, Beg, 1000 Miles, Living On the Run) – only Keep On Dreaming was missing. The band can boast an innate perfectionism. Both in the performance, where the crew was practically bursting off the stage with untamed, unbridled kinetic energy, and above all in the infectious charisma of singer Erik Grönwall, who had everyone buzzing. Glam rock revival, sure, but with an exceptional feel for the plasma of melody. The band understands how to use eighties synths, which gives its sound a clear AOR streak (take the anthemic Downtown in the middle of the set). They’re remarkably tight, and the multi-part vocal harmonies backing Erik’s lead confirmed that above all else. The sound also settled nicely into the room for H.E.A.T. We listened from farther back, and the sound during their set was solid.
Voodoo Circle are really a crew of seasoned German rock (and metal) musicians with English singer David Readman up front. He’s a naturalized German one way or another, since he’s been at home in the German hard rock band Pink Cream 69 since the mid-nineties. Voodoo Circle grew out of a concept project by guitarist Alex Beyrodt into a band that has by now put out three studio albums. Besides Beyrodt, whose guitar technique recalls his own obsessions with the playing of Y.J. Malmsteen and R. Blackmore, and the aforementioned vocalist David Readman, the lineup is filled out by a true legend of the German rock and metal scene, bassist Matt Sinner (Sinner, Primal Fear), keyboardist Jimmy Kresic and drummer Markus Kullmann, who joined in 2010 after it became clear that original drummer Mel Gaynor (otherwise the drummer of Simple Minds) couldn’t fit one more obligation into his packed schedule. The band presented its freshly released album »More Than One Way Home« (2013) on stage. You can’t fault the performance. Only the fact that Voodoo Circle were the festival’s »black sheep« among the bands, playing the role of timeline »filler«. Nobody would have missed them if they hadn’t been on the line-up. The German promoter could have put his own Bonfire on stage instead. Swiss Krokus or Denmark’s Pretty Maids would have been handier too, if Gotthard simply got too expensive. Simply because Voodoo Circle remind you a bit too much of Whitesnake one moment and Rainbow the next, and where those two come close together, Deep Purple aren’t far off either, even though Voodoo Circle play very nicely. Singer David Readman is phenomenal, by the way. Songs like Graveyard City and King Of Your Dreams, among others, were played with confidence and conviction, but there are far too many stylistic quips calling out the genericness of established standards, which keeps Voodoo Circle in the shadow of older bands. Still, it’s an outstanding combination of top-notch musicians, as confirmed by a few escapades of solos traded back and forth between keyboardist Jimmy Kresic (which also brought to mind aces like Derek Sherinian) and the »baroquely ornamented« guitar master Alex Beyrodt. There were problems with the sound, and Beyrodt got the worst of it. Over 40 minutes he showed off an enviable collection of guitar beauties, which he clearly had to keep swapping in his hands. As I said: solid, but instantly forgettable.
The first of the festival’s concert attractions to start drawing visitors to the front of the stage in somewhat bigger numbers were the American hard rockers Black Star Riders. To a layperson who doesn’t follow the classic rock scene regularly, the name surely means nothing concrete. In reality, though, it’s a sly and well-thought-out rebranding for a group that, until recently, appeared on concert stages under the legendary name Thin Lizzy. Their commander these days is the by now properly gray but still agile Scott Gorham, longtime Thin Lizzy guitarist and member of the classic lineup of this originally Irish band, whose place among the legends was secured above all by the unforgettable, sadly long-departed singer and bassist Phil Lynott.
After Lynott’s death, Gorham, with the help of former singer and guitarist John Sykes, kept Thin Lizzy alive as a live attraction from 1996 onward, but most longtime fans could never come to terms with this ‘sacrilege’. Thin Lizzy without Phil Lynott are, just like Queen without Freddie or, God forbid, Motorhead without Lemmy – a band without a soul. Gorham, of course, thought differently and was convinced that Phil would have looked approvingly on keeping the memory of his famous legacy alive on stage. And many who weren’t even born at the height of their success got the chance to hear some of the greatest classics from the story of this legendary Irish outfit live for the first time, which gave Gorham’s band at least some legitimacy.
A somewhat bigger problem appeared after Sykes left, when Gorham suddenly wanted to make new music that would sound at least roughly the way Thin Lizzy sounded with Lynott in the golden days. To that end he ‘drummed up’ some of his old Thin Lizzy pals, of whom only longtime touring bassist Marco Mendoza was left in the end, since original Lizzy drummer Brian Downey and former keyboardist Darren Wharton had, for various reasons, declined to continue. Around then the band, which took the name Black Star Riders from the gang of outcasts in the film Tombstone, was rounded out by singer and occasional guitarist Ricky Warwick, who took on the toughest job of replacing Lynott’s vocals, guitarist Damon Johnson, who joined Gorham in weaving the famous dual guitar and vocal harmonies, and drummer Jimmy DeGrasso. With this lineup, Black Star Riders recorded their debut »All Hell Breaks Loose« this year, which sounds strongly like classic Thin Lizzy in style and from which they played most of their set.
The guys, of various age groups and looking a lot like drifters from the American Midwest, with the exception of the charismatic Gorham, who in his old age is the only real gentleman among them, opened their set with the title track of the new album, which with its energy and quickly likable chorus warmed up the crowd pretty fast, but real enthusiasm took over the hall, as expected, when the indispensable Thin Lizzy classics came up, like »Jailbreak«, »Massacre«, »Cowboy Song«, »Suicide« and »Emerald«. The guitar partnership between Gorham and Johnson worked like a well-oiled machine, while Warwick filled Lynott’s vocal shoes convincingly enough that the real Thin Lizzy magic took hold more than once. The high point of Black Star Riders’ set was, as expected, an excellent rendition of the biggest Thin Lizzy hit, »The Boys Are Back In Town«. On this more or less melodic rock evening, Black Star Riders were definitely the rawest and sonically dirtiest band, and it has to be said they bowed to Lynott’s memory surprisingly successfully and delivered a very dignified show.
After Black Star Riders’ excellent performance, the stage was taken by one of the most important Scandinavian representatives of the eighties hard rock school, Europe. However much Europe, since reactivating at the start of the millennium, have been chasing a new sound and style with their albums (in a deliberate experiment), the latest, »Bag Of Bones«, is, of their four new-millennium albums, a kind of return to the language of rock roots, one their debut »Europe« never even spoke. Does it even make sense to compare two stylistically separate eras of this otherwise highly respected, influential but often overlooked band? »Bag Of Bones« is the album that put the band back on the UK best-seller charts after more than twenty years. Incidentally, an album that, thanks to its bluesy “heaviness”, would surely please Europe’s big buddy and their employer in the mid-nineties, Mr. Glenn Hughes.
As for the Europe set, the stage becomes one man. Joey Tempest. It would be hard for me to find a more ideal textbook example of a polished stage performance than the stage presence, stature and voice of Joey Tempest. He’s a stage actor who has worked out most of what the charisma of every band’s frontman demands, optimized down to the last detail. Movements, communication, flirting, firing up the crowd. Brilliant. Everything works flawlessly as Tempest strolls across the stage, twirling the mic stand in his hands… The other guys stay reserved with the exception of bassist John Levin. And reserved or not, they go about their business with great dedication. Scandinavian perfectionism, what can you do. A full-blooded set in just under an hour. Europe were also the first to use the “upper floor” of the stage lighting. That is, rows of spotlights mounted higher on the stage construction. They also gathered by far the most people in front of the stage up to that point in the festival. The crowd enjoyed their biggest hits, among which the evergreen Cherokee, somewhat surprisingly, was left out.
With Europe, though, an interesting phenomenon stands out. It can be a modern-day curse for them, or a salvation. Depends on which angle you approach it from. As mentioned, Europe have two eras of creativity. The historic one, which engraved their name in big golden letters on the facade of rock, and the other, stylistically different one, when Europe changed their approach to arranging. So the contrasts in mood within the repertoire are stark. A typical example came midway through the show, right after Europe had been carrying the audience on their hands. The ultimate ballad Carrie, the surprise historic Seven Doors Hotel and the hot-blooded hit Rock the Night followed one after another. Then came Norum’s instrumental intro to the newer Last Look At Eden. As if one world had been cut off and another drawn in. The guitar sound deliberately muffled, muddied, distorted as much as possible. Instantly. Not by accident. On purpose. On Norum’s orders to the techs at the mixing desk. In line with the band’s new studio cosmetics, which became the norm in the new millennium. To the uninitiated, that injected “grittiness” felt eerie! And hand on heart. It is eerie. In every respect. Whatever Norum’s sacred conviction that this is great, it actually isn’t okay. Through Last Look At Eden the atmosphere took on a completely different dimension, almost the dimension of another band. The new songs simply can’t measure up to the old ones. Their arrangements are just weaker. The closing part of the show confirmed it, when the band, as expected, followed Last Look At Eden with The Final Countdown, one of the best hard rock standards of the entire rock era. Bottom line. Even in 2013 this band digs in with extreme infectiousness, drive and stage character. Tempest remains a big stage magnet, even though his highest vocal registers haven’t obeyed him for a long time. Europe are seasoned and experienced hard rock gurus who simply can’t leave a visitor to their shows disappointed or indifferent. The HiRock festival set at least confirmed that. Apparently, though, they can “bring you down” with the set list. If it happens that there are too many new songs in it. This time the set list was nicely “weighed down”.
Just before the troop of ‘white snakes’ marched onto the stage, led by their ever more furrowed but still shamelessly untamable singing charmer David Coverdale, the hall had filled up noticeably, in anticipation of the first of the two main attractions of this concert evening. Whitesnake had been announced as the headliners of the first day of the festival, but at the last minute they swapped places in the running order with Journey, which made happy everyone who had come to the festival mainly to live out their melodic rock concert dreams. Cult hard rockers, which Whitesnake still are despite numerous lineup shake-ups, naturally have hordes of faithful concertgoers who couldn’t care less that Coverdale’s voice is already pretty badly worn. That was again plain to hear right from the start of the opening evergreen »Give Me All Your Love«. Many were glad to hear that one again on the setlist after so long. The legendary singer fairly successfully compensated for the awkward fact that his voice is long past what it once was with backing vocals directed by the two longtime guitarists, Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach, who later in the evening delighted lovers of guitar virtuosity above all with numerous improvised duets.
For the rest of the vocal help, especially on the choruses, the loyal crowd took care, knowing all the lyrics by heart. Grandpa David, even past sixty, remains a charismatic patron of a special kind, meaning that despite his unbuttoned Italian shirts and narcissistic-adolescent gestures, which include flirting with members of the fairer sex and grabbing at his crotch, he has not yet become a complete caricature of himself, as has happened to many of his musical peers. His voice, despite the wear, which at its worst resembles guttural strangling, is still recognizable and authoritative enough that the longtime classics, with the help of his exceptional instrumental comrades, among whom the drumming ‘beast’, returnee Tommy Aldridge, thrilled the most by far this evening, come off as decent and listenable, but not much more than that.
That very Aldridge, with his astonishing solo spot during »Steal Your Heart Away«, which, as usual, later included pounding the drum kit with his bare hands, drew by far the loudest applause from the crowd. The reaction to his turn drowned out even the performances of the beloved Whitesnake classics. Aldrich’s and Beach’s guitar antics were diligently complemented with keyboard lines by Brian Ruedy, while young bassist Michael Devin has apparently become Coverdale’s newest favorite, since he pulled him by his bushy beard at the first opportunity and invited the young female fans to a special baptism that Devin would carry out in the wading pool backstage.
Of the newer work, meaning stuff released in the last few years, they luckily played the better achievements, such as the extremely solid »Love Will Set You Free« and »Forevermore«, while they delivered quite a surprise with a more than welcome performance of »Gambler« from the »Slide It In« album. With it Coverdale paid tribute to two departed friends who played on the “Slide It In” record: guitarist Mel Galley and drummer Cozy Powell. Of course he couldn’t forget the creative force behind Whitesnake’s early work either, keyboardist Jon Lord. We older ones had some seriously dewy eyes. As expected, the crowd got most fired up during the big hits like »Is This Love«, »Fool For Your Loving« and »Here I Go Again«, even though most of the choruses had to be sung in place of the vocally quite winded Mr. Coverdale. To close, Whitesnake, as expected, played their ‘heavy metal highlight’ »Still Of The Night«, where David, as expected, received plenty of generous vocal help from his comrades and the crowd, especially on the choruses. After thunderous applause and the taped, traditional farewell with the song »We Wish You Well«, Coverdale’s crew left the stage and made room for the main attraction of the first (and sadly only) day of this festival. The ‘white snakes’ set could be rated as satisfactory and more or less in line with expectations.
The performance of the melodic rock champions Journey could be summed up with the famous old Roman saying – they came, they saw, they conquered. Nothing less than sonic perfection and a complete realization of AOR greatness in every possible shade was to be expected from them. Their faithful followers are used to the greatest possible melodic rock pampering, where they have few competitors. Ever since the album »Revelation« (2008), when Filipino singer Arnel Pineda joined them, Journey have been going through a veritable renaissance. The charismatic Steve Perry was one of a kind, and his successor is well aware of that, but Arnel’s vocal approach is still a very good approximation and as such the best possible replacement for Perry. The American AOR heroes opened their set in the best possible way with the epic classic »Separate Ways (World Apart)«. That was followed by a series of their biggest hits like »Any Way You Want It«, »Only The Young«, »Stone In Love«, »Lights in »Open Arms«. A very nice change of pace came with the title track from the legendary album »Escape« (1981), as well as the song »Keep On Runnin’« with drummer Deen Castronovo as lead singer.
The individual members, especially guitar virtuoso Neal Schon and keyboardist/guitarist Jonathan Cain, who repeatedly pointed their sound techs to the need for corrective action, are incorrigible sonic perfectionists, which is also right in its own way. Pineda introduced Schon’s guitar solo as ‘our new song’, and there were quite a few similar humorous bits during the set. Schon, in the style of his former boss Carlos Santana, wore sunglasses for most of the show, which didn’t stop him from playing some breathtaking guitar improvisations at almost the speed of light. Bassist Ross Valory, the only original member besides Schon, meanwhile provided exceptional rhythmic stability the whole time with his dynamic bass lines and calm.
The engine of the band, though, was the whole time the ‘little man with a big voice’, Pineda, who, besides magnificently singing the evergreens and newer material, diligently made sure with his vocal and other acrobatics that the crowd didn’t nod off for even a moment. Overall, the members of Journey gave off extremely positive vibes the whole time, so the atmosphere in the hall was positively electrified throughout their set. You could feel it especially during the almost flawless renditions of »Wheel In the Sky« and »Be Good To Yourself«, where the crowd breathed as one with the band while singing along to both AOR anthems.
During the love ballad »Faithfully«, two funny, almost bizarre incidents happened in the front rows. First, a young guy who had probably ‘fallen into’ the song a bit too much, since he was nowhere near looking like some kind of maniac, started hugging a playful, unsuspecting young woman in front of him. She angrily pushed him away and told him off, after which he left her in peace for the rest of the show. An even more tragicomic scene unfolded a bit further to the right, when a gray-haired man in his later years started pawing at a woman his own age standing next to him. She furiously shoved him off, and he bolted in fear far back to the last rows. Apparently the lyrics of »Faithfully« fell on fertile ground, in case both of those women had real but ‘hidden’ partners who weren’t among the festival attendees. For the big finale, Journey, as expected, played their biggest hit »Don’t Stop Believin’«, one of those hits played often on the radio that, even after more than three decades, never come off as overchewed. They spiced it up with a heap of instrumental improvisations before leaving the stage to the crowd’s roaring applause. Journey were in every respect the undisputed winners of the first and sadly only day of the festival.
After the Journey concert, the first day of the festival came to an end. Not knowing that the Hi-Rock festival had in fact ended together with Journey’s set, we fought our way through the downpour to the car, which called for nearly full use of our knowledge of Einstein’s theory of relativity and MacGyver’s wilderness survival tricks. It was eerie.
And the eeriness escalated into the scale of a watery apocalypse. Good morning to a new day! A wet morning. Allegedly the campsite where we had wanted to utopianly spend the night was long since completely underwater. The downpour is even heavier. A proper evacuation follows. The access road to the apartment, along the pedestrian walking areas, is already lined with sandbags to keep water from spilling from the road onto the private grounds of the surrounding homes. The roads are slowly turning into drainage channels. Still, at half past two in the afternoon we were at the venue for the second day of the festival. FM should have been on stage at three. Instead, the local Hurricans started entertaining (as much as there was any room left for entertainment) the handful of people present in the middle of the gigantic Max Aicher Arena, and before that the organizers’ announcer had warned us that the course of the festival day was unpredictable and that he couldn’t confirm exactly how and when the bands would play. Things were supposed to get a clear outcome around four o’clock. Even though a »Nightliner« was parked outside (where the hell are all the other buses?), which had obviously managed to fight its way from the northern Loreley to Inzell, and even though the official festival merchandise stand served up Toto souvenirs, the mood was anything but approving. And sure enough. Around half past four in the afternoon the festival’s official program director stepped on stage and announced that the festival was over because of the catastrophic proportions of the flood.
EPILOGUE:
The core of the downpours was concentrated right over southern Bavaria. The connecting route via Bad Reichenhall to the Salzburg – Munich motorway was shut right away, and you couldn’t continue via Lofer over Innsbrück either. Only one last lifeline remained, back to Inzell and north to the junction near the town of Traunstein. It worked. We’re on the motorway heading for Salzburg. Opposite us, a motionless column of traffic stands in the direction of München. Lake Chiemsee has flooded the motorway. Luckily Inzell is located well south of the lake. So we were able to slip out of getting trapped. Germany declared a state of emergency over the natural disaster, which later, with the Danube (and the Vltava) swelling, also hit Austria in the Vienna area, then the Czech Republic and afterwards Slovakia.
You drive along the roads and watch rescuers entering the houses of residents and leading entire families to safety. The evacuation was already in full swing. It was no miracle either if you had to swerve around some fallen tree lying across a local road, drive through »lake-ified parts« of the road, and cross patches of sand dumped by the raging flood. The not-at-all-appealing view painted the faces of wild rivers and streams that menacingly swallowed up the land in front of them. The riverbeds became too small, and the water began to spill over. Laws of nature! It came for what we had taken from it. Its own space. And developed Western European civilization masterfully scored yet another own goal!
The Hi-Rock festival thus proved to be an ill-fated project. Basically, there weren’t many visitors even on the first day. The hall wasn’t even fully open. The stage was set up in the middle, and half the hall stayed unused. At most a good 4000 people were in it, which handed the organizer a hefty loss right from the start. The next day there weren’t even 500 people in the hall. So the bulk of the first day’s visitors had already scattered home in anticipation of the forecast cataclysm. Now will come the visitors’ demands for refunds, on top of all the money invested in not-cheap performers and all the other logistics. HiRock festival will probably be no more. At least not in Inzell. We missed Toto, who had prepared a top-notch set list. And even though we missed Toto this time, the worse loss is that we were deprived of the sets by FM, Survivor and Rick Springfield. Those are real musical »exotics« on European stages. We’ll have to catch them some other time. And there will surely be very few such chances in the future.
Photos: Mitja Groznik & Jernej Vene
Setlist
JOURNEY:
1. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
2. Any Way You Want It
3. Chain Reaction
4. Only the Young
5. Stone in Love
6. Keep on Runnin’ (drummer Dean Castronovo on vocals)
7. Edge of the Blade
8. Lights
9. keyboard solo – Jonathan Cain
10. Open Arms
11. Escape
12. Dead or Alive
13. guitar solo – Neal Schon (Pineda introduces the piece as “our new song”)
14. Wheel in the Sky
15. Faithfully
16. Be Good to Yourself
17. Don’t Stop Believin’
WHITESNAKE;
taped intro: My Generation (The Who song)
1. Give Me All Your Love
2. Ready an’ Willing
3. Can You Hear the Wind Blow
4. Don’t Break My Heart Again
5. Is This Love
6. Gambler
7. Love Will Set You Free
8. Pistols at Dawn
9. Guitar Duel (Doug Aldrich & Reb Beach)
10 Steal Your Heart Away (plus drum solo by Tommy Aldridge)
11. Forevermore
12. Best Years / Bad Boys
13. Fool for Your Loving
14. Here I Go Again
15. Still of the Night
taped outro: We Wish You Well
EUROPE:
1. Riches to Rags
2. Firebox
3. Not Supposed to Sing the Blues
4. Scream of Anger
6. Superstitious
6. Love Is Not the Enemy
7. Carrie
8- Seven Doors Hotel
9. Rock the Night
10. Prelude
11. Last Look at Eden
12. The Final Countdown
BLACK STAR RIDERS:
1. All Hell Breaks Loose
2. Jailbreak
3. Bloodshot
4. Waiting For An Alibi
5. Hey Judas
6. Massacre
7. Kingdom Of The Lost
8. Kissin’ The Ground
9. Suicide
10. Valley Of The Stones
11. Before The War
12. Emerald
13. Bound For Glory
14. Cowboy Song
15. The Boys Are Back In Town
H.E.A.T.:
1. Breaking the Silence
2. Better Off Alone
3. 1000 Miles
4. Late Night Lady
5. Straight For Your Heart
6. Beg Beg Beg
7. Downtown
8. Falling Down
9. Heartbreaker
10. Danger Road
11. Living on the Run
12. It’s All About Tonight
Photo Gallery
