Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Velden am Wörthersee (Vrba na Koroškem) / Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Austria
Concert date: 08.11.2013
Attendance: 40
Ticket price: €26.00 (advance) / €30.00 (day of show)
Pat Travers is a constant and a guarantee of big, richly expressive music. He’s a rock legend, forged on a titanic backbone of blues heat. A Pat Travers show is synonymous with a seriously loud experience brimming with electric voltage. Two guitars, both hot and ready to pounce, trading solos in jolts through a perfectly synced dialogue! Both spit out noisy phrases, backed by a dynamic, cannon-loaded rhythm section. Out front, commanding the whole instrumental setup, is the quartet’s one-of-a-kind vocal character: the manly, rugged frame, throaty, desperado approach of Pat Travers. Travers also stays loyal to his signature P.R.S. guitar model, the same one Carlos Santana uses. Just like our own guitar ace Franci Zabukovec.
After two years the man came back to Velden in Carinthia and its by now almost legendary club, the Bluesiana Rock Cafe. This time, though, Pat and his crew ran into half the crowd we saw on his previous visit to Bluesiana. Hence the unfortunate fact that he and his bandmates didn’t hit the stage until after ten in the evening. The lineup remains unchanged. Alongside Pat Travers, the crew still includes the brilliant drummer Sandy Gennaro, bassist Rodney O’Quinn and the no less phenomenal guitarist Kirk McKim.
In the two years since our last meeting with the legendary Canadian musician, Pat Travers hasn’t exactly been sitting on his hands. First, in 2012, he released a covers album dedicated to the blues legends, titled »Blues On Fire«, and then in the middle of this year came a brand-new studio album from the Pat Travers Band, titled »Can Do«. Being so fresh, it got a proper “pick-me-up” presentation at the Bluesiana show.
The start of our new get-together with Pat Travers sounded downright dreamy. It opened with the sinful rock ‘n’ roll teaser from his second studio album »Making Magic« (1977), Rock ‘N’ Roll Susie, and the magic only kept growing through two more legendary singles from this venerable music veteran, delivered back to back: Heat and The Streat from the self-titled studio album (1978), followed by the fiercely original standard Crash and Burn, also from the self-titled album (1980).
The quartet once again disarmed the handful of people in the room with incredible tightness and fantastic stage chemistry. Pat and Kirk especially shone with nitpicky precision, strolling with feather-light ease through some of the more demanding passages and guitar ornaments, which they (also) occasionally doubled in thirds, and above all impressed each with their own top-notch solo spots. The two are cut from completely different cloth. Travers is a representative of the old school who has inspiredly worked through every genius who ever stood the blues on its feet, while the few-years-younger McKim stunned with the precision of his ultrasonic-fast solo escapades, which he shook out all through the Bluesiana show, all the while demonstrating exceptional control over every single note he combed along the guitar neck. Travers’ famous rough-hewn voice rattled the walls and windows of Bluesiana as he lived out his passions and emotions through the verses. He kept the excellent mini epic suite Stevie from »Making Magic« in the set, where the hair-splitting coordination of the two guitarists described above really came into its own. That song conjured up definitely one of the highlights of the night. It offers an ideal middle path between elements of blues music and the melodies of neo-classicism (of the new songs, the title track of the album, »Can Do«, would qualify as such). A mini epic suite that can stand toe to toe with similarly arranged suites from the classic story of rock ‘n’ roll like Love To Love (UFO) or Stairway To Heaven (Led Zeppelin). A herald of the golden age of the seventies.
Pat loaded the set with plenty of new songs, among which the lighter and richly melodic Diamond Girl (built on G major) and the slightly gloomy but furiously embellished title track of the album pleasantly “aired out” the set. As expected, Pat also included covers of other artists. So he once again played his two personal favorites, namely Hendrix’s famous Red House, a wonderfully apt take on the original, Ray Charles’ I’ve Got News For Ya, and Blind Willie McTell’s Statesboro Blues, which Travers had already recorded for his solo studio album »Making Magic« (1977).
When the crew of four masters launched into Travers’ all-embracing, much-awaited hit Snortin’ Whiskey, Drinkin’ Cocaine, it was clear the concert was sliding toward its end. With the famous Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights) from the debut »Pat Travers« (1976), a cover of the Little Walter original, the quartet said goodbye to the stage. After an hour and ten minutes. The quartet rolled out track after track. Without much talking. In fact, Travers hardly had anyone to talk to, since the turnout was sadly truly dismal. After some fervent reactions and a few lonely calls for an encore, the quartet appeared on stage once more, and Pat announced a song from his covers compilation »Blues On Fire«, the superbly reinterpreted Black Dog Blues (orig. Blind Blake).
And just like that, the concert was over. An hour and twenty minutes. No more. Maybe that’s simply the standard length on this tour, or maybe he shortened the set on purpose because the turnout was truly beneath all criticism. Either way, the boys are still blazing at full strength. Pat Travers, who shouldered his 59th year this year, may be a few kilos heavier, which comes naturally with age, but his voice, his stage charisma, his sturdy and imposing stage stance full of self-confidence and fantastic focus show no sign of fading. The trademark of damn loud blues rock punch remains blessed and unblemished in the hands of this top-class musician. So we hope for many more meetings with the one-and-only Pat Travers and his select, seasoned crew of three backing musical matadors. With Travers it’s always the same: with the incredible blasting noise he serves up at club shows, you can’t help getting the feeling that by the end of the night he’s wrapped the club in thick smoke, if he hasn’t already burned it to the ground. The master remains the master. May his creative spirit and joy of performing never leave him, even in his artistic maturity!
Setlist
1. Rock ‘n’ Roll Susie
2. Heat in the Street
3. Crash and Burn
4. I’ve Got News for You
5. Black Betty
6. As Long As I’m With You
7. Diamond Girl
8. Can Do
9. Stevie
10. Statesboro Blues
11. Red House
12. Long Time Gone
13. Wanted (That Was Then / This is Now)
14. Snortin’ Whiskey, Drinkin’ Cocaine
15. Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)
—encore—
16. Black Dog Blues
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