Venue: Graz (Austria), Kassemattenbühne
Concert date: 03.08.2004
Attendance: 900
Ticket price: 34,00€
If Jethro Tull slipped through my fingers in Zagreb at the end of May (yes, that was that unlucky-and-lucky day when German heavy metallers U.D.O. were tearing up the VPK hall in Ljubljana, where I nearly lost my head in hell), there was no way I was letting a second chance to see Jethro Tull go. This year it’s the second, very similar story for me. In March I had to choose between Hughes Turner Project and UFO, picked the former, and promptly landed in a financial pinch. So the March trip to Munich (or Salzburg) for UFO was off. And then, as if UFO had heard the whimpering of a poor soul in the realm of total darkness, chaos and unbearable suffering, they made me happy two months later with a June show, where else but in Graz.
Another interesting anniversary was ticking by on this day and year of our Lord. It was exactly ten years since I’d been at a truly big concert by a truly big rock band. Back in my dilettante student years, on 04.08.1994 in Munich, it was Pink Floyd. Incredible how fatefully some of us are tied to certain number combinations for life. For a few years now I’ve been haunted especially by fours, elevens and twenty-twos.
Graz at 19:00, right in the center. Not a spot to park anywhere, hmmm? Ah, yes, of course, I forgot to add. First we got lost, but that’s pretty much a given by now and hardly needs singling out in a report, right? Anyway, a parking garage (damn, more cursed carbon monoxide, heh… one of those legal but sadly disgusting drugs), the only sensible option. We picked the garage that was seemingly closest to the castle hill (Schlossberg), where the evening get-together was supposed to happen with legends, let’s call them, as the analytical rock experts say, representatives of the unique “folk progressive rock”. Now, several paths lead to the top of the hill. We chose the adrenaline route up steep steps carved into a sheer cliff face (strange that nobody paraglides off it), rising above the old town center. That’s basically the side where the hill is also drilled through vertically, just in case, since it has one lone lift that helps the frail especially to reach the summit of a proper mini-Himalaya. From the east side a nice wide, gently sloping paved path leads to the top, but I also know people who, after dragging themselves up to the summit, nearly expired from the muscle fibers they’d earned.
Good thing Eventim opened an office here, so we bought the tickets in the middle of July in Ljubljana. Finally, at least one of the (few) perks of Slovenia’s EU membership. By the time we arrived at the fields of glory and eternity, the show was pleasantly sold out. Kasemattenbühne (does anyone know an exact translation?) takes around 1000 people, and the best seats (first-category tickets, “meager” 40€) in the stalls were sold out in advance soon after the European tour was officially announced, so we sat on the stands behind the stalls, a good 30 m or so from the stage, for a measly 34,50€ (that’s what you call real “eurology”). In other words, at a distance where you can no longer make out faces on stage. Equipped with beer and a fantastic view (and the simultaneous feeling of being “raised above it all”) over the mystical, atmospheric castle theater surrounded by stone walls, wall lamps and side boxes, I stretched out (anything but) comfortably in the pleasantly soft aluminum “emergency” seats the stands were fitted with. The theater has a retractable roof, similar to our Križanke. They folded it back before Jethro Tull’s set.
20:20 gone! Time for the buzzing to begin, or what? Judge for yourself! Well, I’m judging already…hmm,… I’d rather have seen only Jethro Tull. But objectivity always takes priority over personal egoism. Well, ahem,… back to business. The warm-up was handled by a local act called Mr. Voice. As a total layman, going by the name, I expected some notorious spoiled, wet-behind-the-ears rap “musician”. Wrong. Obviously this is a very well-known band among the locals, and obviously these were proper legends of Austrian hard rock. They opened their show with a doom-style slowed-down White Wedding (part 1.), a Billy Idol cover. The repertoire included three Mr. Voice “classics” that I sadly don’t know, but the audience knew them very well, joining in on the choruses together (lyrics all in English, phew, at least that). Especially witty covers were Help (The Beatles), where the singer/rhythm guitarist and band leader choked out a vocal that leaned heavily toward Meat Loaf, grotesque, yet on an excellent level at least as far as sarcasm goes, a quirky cover that at times sounded like a total piss-take. And that grotesqueness peaked with the cover of Chris Isaak and that biggest ballad hit of his (I can’t name it off the top of my head, I’m no great pop expert). In general the guys bizarrely amplified the sobbing vocal of the original chorus through a phantom, almost piggish squeal. I laughed till I cried. They should treat themselves to a few Pet Shop Boys numbers on a platter too. All of it rock-riffed up, theatrically witty. They did, no joke, blast through an excellent version of the Thin Lizzy song Whiskey In The Jar, Metallica can just go hide, no kidding! The three of us were having endless fun watching the dad roar like he was being flayed alive, like that clown from Murderdolls 30 years his junior, respect. However, Mr. Voice (luckily for the three of us, generally) were forced to cut their repertoire short, and the set lasted only 25 minutes. Well, why am I crying over 25 minutes. In the end I had time to take a good look around the audience, which featured quite a few fatal beauties, which is striking for Austrian standards, or maybe it’s just me rapidly aging in that department without noticing. It seems that, thanks to an overdose of heavy metal gigs in the past, I’d gotten a totally wrong picture of the female presence in concert halls. Apparently I can finally say goodbye to nightmares of spiked metal chicks slathered in Globin and decked out in dog collars. Well, I know. There are exceptions.
At 21:00 everything was ready for the man especially revered in farming circles to appear on stage. We were expecting the arrival of the inventor of the seed drill. Of course, that’s a figure of speech courtesy of the name Jethro Tull, one of the most idiosyncratic bands ever to crawl across the planet called Rock. Aqua intro, the crowd is gripped by adrenaline fever and we jump straight to the first song off their first studio record “This Was”, straight back to 1968, and here come Jethro Tull with My Sunday Feeling, even though it was a Tuesday. A bomb of a surprise. At the end of the song Ian Anderson explained how glad they are to be playing here tonight, in front of us (“…in front of such lovely audience…”,…hmmm he probably says that at every concert), once again after a long, long time back in Austria. Hats off to the promoter. He couldn’t have picked a more fitting rock band for this setting. Flute, harmonica, mandolin and stone castle walls, brrrrr… madness!!! A perfect combination. Anderson also explained that on the last days of the tour (Spain, Malta) before coming to Austria they’d had quite a few unpleasant mishaps with concert organization, and wrapped up his confession with: “It is so good to be back in civilization!” The crowd was visibly thrilled, of course. The band went straight on with Cross- Eyed Mary from “Aqualung” (1971). Unbelievable, and of all songs, this one! Well, at least for me, since it was the only JT song I knew (unknowingly, of course) back when I wasn’t interested in Jethro Tull at all. I got to know the track through Iron Maiden’s version (an excellent one), as the B-side of the Iron Maiden single “The Trooper” (1983).
Then came a song about the modern European trend we all know, so pleasingly named Eurolology, taken from Anderson’s excellent new solo album “Rupi’s Dance” (2003). After that Ian paused and announced the next song: “This is a song from times, when Jethro Tull used to be a little blues band!” And the guys fired up Beggar’s Farm (“This Was”, 1968). Live, this song carried a special deeper mystical touch this time, not to say it evoked quite a bit of an eerie aftertaste. Perhaps partly because Jethro Tull tuned their instruments a half tone lower. A half tone lower than you can hear on their studio releases. The reason is clear: it makes it easier for Anderson to sing the whole repertoire. It does make the flute lines a bit nastier to play, but what am I babbling about, especially as I’m no flute expert. It’s undoubtedly a welcome refresher for the musicians, so they don’t constantly stroll through one and the same registers. Agriculture and its politics came up again with a phenomenal rendition of Farm On A Freeway. On this occasion Ian explained that in 1987 (the “Crest Of A Knave” era) Jethro Tull won a Grammy for best heavy metal band of the year. He remarked that he never dared to even think Jethro Tull would one day beat Metallica. Now, the next sentence is for the uninformed. Of course Jethro Tull have absolutely nothing to do with metal, except that the members of Iron Maiden obviously like their music. Then a mood shift into the world of the baroque with the instrumental Pavane and on with a repertoire from what is, for my taste, the best Jethro Tull era. The late seventies, the records “Heavy Horses” (1978), “Songs From The Wood” (1977) and the unbeatable live record “Bursting Out” (1978), and they opened that “thing” with Weathercock. Mmmm, so fragile and so lofty, a song built so that the more you give in to the feeling and the softer you play it, the stronger it comes across. And Jethro Tull have quite a few of those. Later Ian announces: “We will play three songs which are actually title tracks from three different Jethro Tull albums. So, starting with Songs From The Woods, it’ll be Songs From The Wood, from To Old To Rock’N’Roll & To Young To Die, comes Too Old To Rock’N’Roll & To Young To Die and finally from Heavy Horses, we’ll play Smoke On The Water!” We enjoyed it endlessly, the atmosphere caught fire, the magic was with us. Bourée again changed the mood, an excellent moody instrumental interlude, and then came one of the peaks. Mother Goose from “Aqualung” (1971) in an extended version, Jethro Tull staged a proper delirium. Exceptional tightness combined with the explosiveness of an all-in approach, Anderson magnificent throughout and in his element. In one word, perfect! Extraordinary wit adorns this band.
Empty Café is a track from one of Martin Barre’s solo records (I can’t recall off the top of my head, the release year is, I think, 1994). For this one only Martin, drummer Doane Perry and bassist Jonathan Noyce stayed on stage. Doane sat up front, closer to the people, at a mini set of two little snares, took up the brushes and started caressing the heads. It was funny when Martin walked up to him. The hulking drummer, sitting behind his kit, was even “sitting down” almost as tall as Martin, who was playing guitar standing up. A troubadour instrumental with a gorgeous neoclassical main motif that fit the set list perfectly.
And then a jump back into blues rhythms! To the end of the sixties, to one of Anderson’s personal favorite “Tull records” called “Stand Up” (1969), to the times when Anglo white blues, with representatives like Cream, John Mayall, Ten Years After and Fleetwood Mac, was becoming less and less visible on the popular music scene, and JT’s style, compared to their debut, was picking up more and more neoclassical and folk rock contours. An explosive, compact motif and the guys are already in the middle of the harder, riff-driven A New Day Yesterday.
We also got a track played in the version from Jethro Tull’s latest record “Christmas Album” (2003), namely God Rest Ye Marry Gentleman, sly, sly and devilishly tasty. One of the evening’s treats followed. The track Budapest, which in its original form clocked in at a good 20 minutes. Jethro Tull had to cut it in half for the studio record “Crest Of A Knave” (1987). Live they rattled off an unbelievable weave of the juiciest solos imaginable, lying together in the most beautiful possible combinations of melodic perfection. I had goosebumps all over, so much that I didn’t know exactly whether I was in a theater seat or floating somewhere above the clouds, toward my hidden planet. Absolute fantasy on this Earth. A jump to the relaxing Holly Herald from “Christmas Album” and a finish with the classic Locomotive Breath (“Aqualung”, 1971), the crowd was sparklingly happy and people were especially drooling, as they started moving their limbs more intensely to the rhythm of the legendary song.
People were ecstatic. Jethro Tull said goodbye, bowed five and a half times, thanked us ten times and strutted off the stage. The crowd stomped, clapped, loudly demanded an encore. The whole theater was literally shaking, the three of us in the stands thought the mighty vibrations would knock us off our chairs and the whole stand would collapse, people were literally jumping while chanting “Jethro Tull, Jethro Tull,…!!!” and of course the all-too-familiar German coinage “Zu-ga-be, zu-ga-be,…!” Anderson and company soon came back and opened the encore much like the regular part itself. Once again they took us to the era when they loved writing compositions under the influence of blues and R&B. They fired up their very first released single in history, called Living In The Past. Yes, yes, a real must, and generally a staple that can’t be missing from any Jethro Tull live set, Aqualung of course, and on top of that they seasoned the encore with one more first-class surprise. This time a red-hot rendition of Protect And Survive from the record “A” (1980), which was originally meant as an Ian Anderson solo album, hence the title. Bombastic, extremely tight, melodically perfect. After the song a roadie came on stage and “launched” two huge white balloons into the sky, which landed on the heated heads of the crowd in the stalls. Obviously people didn’t know what to do with the balloons, so during the song Cherrio, the balloons floated back to the stage and the roadie had to bat them back toward the stalls with his last strength (these were huge, extremely heavy white balloons and not some low-budget inflatables, which the roadies, in their boundless self-sacrifice, had blown up together all day long), so that neither of them would accidentally sweep away or permanently maim Anderson or one of his companions, or knock some expensive instrument off the stage.
At 23:00 the concert was over. I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to add. Does it even make sense? The set list was fantastic, and with it Jethro Tull perfectly captured their historical development over, let’s say, 40 years of existence. Exceptional musicians, a truly genuine band in their sermon. Brilliant, I can’t find the words. Unbelievable, I haven’t had goosebumps like this since Yes in Budapest last June, definitely the best concert since Yes in Budapest, Yes in Munich this June didn’t move me nearly as much as Jethro Tull here at the castle above Graz. The sound was phenomenal from the first beat to the last. During Aquadiddley something did go off with a loud bang, then in Aqualung Anderson sang the first three verses through a distorted effect, and I’m not entirely sure whether the main monitors weren’t acting up a bit then, because for the rest of the song Anderson’s vocal sounded once again up to the (required) Jethro Tull norms. Otherwise, Ian Anderson, a legend, a strapping stag in tight stretch pants and specially made shoes for his authentic trademark, the one-legged hopping dance, without 1 mm of excess fat, incredible for his age, really. What biceps on the arms and legs, and what energy. Truly a real wizard with the flute, like the god Pan (Greek mythology), what playing, what acrobatics, truly a man in exceptional shape, the stage is his home, the guy left his soul on that stage. And it’s incredible how down-to-earth Jethro Tull are, how they know how to get close to the people, and what exceptional positive energy adorns their concert. Ian showered us constantly with juicy jokes (first-class English black humor of the “Only For Fulls And Horses” sitcom type), and Martin was once again Sir Lancelot while Ian was addressing him. Of the many excellent Ian gags, this one comes to mind, probably not much of a one compared to the rest, but it’s the one I happened to remember. After Martin and keyboardist Andrew Giddings each took a recorder in hand and slowly drew breath for a new track, Anderson described both recorders to the audience in detail and noted that Andrew’s instrument is a bit shorter than Martin’s. But, he added: “But they say, size does not matter! Well, or maybe does it… Ladies?” Of course none of them dared to say aloud what’s true, whereupon Anderson concluded that the mysterious silence was supposed to confirm his thesis, although in the spirit of sarcasm he left this delicate question open for future generations.
Martin Barre was also in exceptionally good spirits, playing with a refined feel throughout, the real opposite of the slightly reserved guitarist from four years ago at Ljubljana’s Tivoli hall. The chemistry in the band is perfect. The band is extremely tight, in sync, completely well-oiled, relaxed, smiling, and all through the concert they showered us with witty and splendid inserts of exceptional improvisation, real switches of phenomenal collision between exceptional Celtic melodies and rock-charged riff motifs. Uniquely “Tull-ish”.
“It was a new day yesterday, but it is old day now!” Ah, and yet the euphoria just won’t let up. I can’t wait for us to meet again. How they charged my batteries with energy. They’re nothing but positive energy. There are bands that actually drain and squeeze you dry, but I’d rather not go into that, because nobody would believe me and it would look like I’m totally “sawed up” in the head lengthwise and crosswise. Jethro Tull, thank you for a unique experience, I hope someone invites you some day – well, as soon as possible and again to “little” Slovenia as well. Little, in the sense that we’re only just learning the culture of rock music. Hello? Well, of course, and undoubtedly! We’re gonna grew! Even if it takes a whole generational “switch”. Heads up! Stand up (and be counted) and as the good old, sadly late Paul Samson would say: “Don’t get mad, get even!”
Setlist
1. Aqua-intro
2. My Sunday Feeling
3. Cross-Eyed Mary
4. Eurology
5. Beggar’s Farm
6. Farm On The Freeway
7. Pavane
8. Weathercock
9. Medley:
Songs From The Wood/
/Too Old To Rock’N’Roll & To Young To Die/
Heavy Horses/
10. Bourée
11. Mother Goose (extended version)
12. Empty Café
13. A New Day Yesterday (incl. Kelpie)
14. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
15. Budapest
16. Holly Herald
17. Locomotive Breath
—encore
18. Living In The Past
19. Aquadiddley/Aqualung
20. Protect And Survive
21. Cheerio
