Venue: Bluesiana, Velden, Austrian Carinthia
Concert date: 28.02.2008
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: 27,00€
A show by the British blues-rock warriors Nine Below Zero was reason enough to hop over the recently fallen borders of the “Reich”, just left of Klagenfurt, and into the cozy embrace of Velden’s Bluesiana. Waiting for us there was a lineup of four polished gentlemen, all superb musicians, and the thing that jumps out most at the ears and eyes of the average music buff is the former Rory Gallagher rhythm section, a tight duo in the shape of Gerry McAvoy and Brendan O’Neill. But of course Nine Below Zero have far more to offer than that. Ever since the band formed back in 1977, a kind of cult image has clung to them all over Europe as one of the most compelling blues-rock outfits around, a reputation the gentlemen fully justified with Thursday night’s show.
The Bluesiana regulars Nine Below Zero put on a show worth every euro cent of the admittedly not-so-friendly ticket price, though you couldn’t tell that from the meager crowd who, as it first seemed, had scattered around the bar mainly to sample some hoppy beverages that Thursday evening. Even at a quarter to nine, Bluesiana felt rather sleepy, and incomparably gloomier than during the visits of the obviously far more attractive Eric Sardinas or the buxom Serbian queen Ana Popović. So Nine Below Zero were able to take over the stage almost unnoticed, carefully slaloming between the cheerfully chatting crowd. Soon after, the well-known riff of On The Road Again started echoing from the “podium”, and the gents sailed through it half-joking, half-serious, but confident enough that the first real signs of life could be spotted in the audience, lined up in a semicircle like schoolkids. It should be stressed that this old Canned Heat classic was by no means delivered as a conventional ice-breaker to stir up the crowd and boost confidence along the way. It has long been famous as a special kind of connective tissue in Nine Below Zero’s ironclad repertoire. What followed left no room for a breather, which of course feels perfectly understandable. With the exception of the humorously reworked Walking By My Self, Rockin’ Robin and Can I Get A Witness soon boldly channeled the passion and emotion of those thrilling opening minutes into the band’s classic material. Uncompromising, with simple bluesy turns, and above all with the astonishing harmonica playing of Mark Feltham, whose aggressive approach makes even the great Little Walter look like a pitiful apprentice, well, sort of, of course!
After the explosive start, Nine Below Zero took their foot off the gas like professors, calmly and with the routine of great masters, cooling things down and serving up a more sedative set of songs. I Can’t Quit You Baby rang out in majestic style, going all in, with a clear feel for melody as well as dynamics. Emotional moments, as that old Willie Dixon classic took on new dimensions, practically growing before our eyes, from a little-known original through the versatile Led Zeppelin version into an unstoppable torrent of emotion. A similar, though slightly more tangled story went down around Tore Down. The song carried the darkness typical of Howlin’ Wolf’s expressive power. Fantastic stuff, as “guitar hero” Dennis Greaves tirelessly tames familiar blues phrases, stacks them up effectively, and lovingly bends them to his own musical voice. Dennis boldly, and in the simplest way possible, adapted the legacy of the Delta blues to an urban setting, through some very effective electric guitar work, of course.
The “sobering up” came quickly. Treat Her Right brought us right back to the familiar frame of boogie rock, this time wrapped up with a playful finish in Steppin’ Out. Overall, Dennis seemed in just the right mood that Thursday night for some often hard-to-follow noodling around evergreen blues themes, assorted Albatrosses, Black Dog-inspired excursions, and a whole heap of Sonny Boy Williamson motifs, shoehorned in next to their often incompatible original material. Fun, sure, but maybe a bit too predictable. A shame, since most of Nine Below Zero’s brilliance comes from their own songs. A fine example of that greatness was Don’t Point Your Finger At The Guitar Man, which attacked hard and head-on, with a heaping helping of modulating climbs and descents, and above all with the thrilling interplay between vocals, guitar and harmonica, which didn’t shy away from flexing its muscles in Three Times Enough either.
The good two dozen songs flew by in the blink of an eye, thanks of course to the wildly exciting action, and probably also to a set that was cut off abruptly. I just couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that the old boys were at times in quite a hurry to get off the Bluesiana stage. Of course, it would be naive to expect Nine Below Zero to be immune to the whims of human nature just because of their universally respected musical status. So any grumbling here is totally out of place, since the gentlemen proved to be a remarkably tight-knit band of bluesy dreamers who, on top of everything else, are in superb shape at their age. Full of life, full of energy, and, most importantly, full of love for the blues.
Text: Daniel Pavlica
Photos: Mojca Perdih
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