Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Salzburg / Rockhouse / Austria
Concert date: 26.09.2013
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: 25.00€
Gigs come, tours come. Must-sees. Pretty Maids and Pink Cream 69 together in Salzburg! Close? Far? It doesn’t get any closer to Slovenia. We’ve always gone abroad for our »hard rock« and we always will. Pretty Maids, who have been on the road all year promoting their new album »Motherland«, released in March 2013 on Frontiers Records, picked German hard rockers Pink Cream 69 from Karlsruhe as support for the first leg of their autumn European tour. Just like Pretty Maids, the Germans can boast a long track record of standing their ground on the scene. Their self-titled debut came out back in 1989.
This Salzburg stop was especially tempting, because the crowd got warmed up for both headliners by local hard rock veterans Speed Limit, who have been around since 1979, believe it or not. Salzburgers. Between 1986 and 1992 Speed Limit put out three studio albums and were a highly respected, in-demand act on home turf. But in November 1994 they played their last show, right here at Rockhouse, which had only just opened its doors back then. The band reunited in 2008 and released two more studio albums, “Moneyshot” (2010) and “Unchained / Prophecy” (2011). It was great to catch them in Salzburg. Seriously quality stuff. From the confident command of the English lyrics to the solid, flirty guitar phrases riding on the tight gears of an active, dynamic rhythm section, all topped off with vocals delivered with swagger and at full blast. The first 40 minutes were hot and tremendous fun, and the crowd let loose a nice bunch of piercing screams in support of a band that has by no means forgotten its own people.
Now, a whole other story, of course, was Pink Cream 69. They hit the stage at nine o’clock with exactly one hour to prove themselves. And they used it down to the second. Tracks rolled from one into the next, almost without a break. This is a band in unbelievable live form. Hungry and thirsty for gigs, as if the guys had 20 fewer years on their shoulders on average. The key figure on stage is definitely vocalist David Readman, one of the best hard rock singers in Europe right now. The man jumped into the Pink Cream 69 camp back in 1994, replacing Andy Deris, today’s Helloween singer. Readman was still singing on stages across Europe this June and July, when he toured with Voodoo Circle. So the man is in great vocal shape. A fantastic rapport with the crowd. Constantly urging, firing people up… Next to David, of course, stands the unbreakable guitar duo of founding member Alfred Koffler and the slightly younger Uwe Reitenauer. Aggressive, loud, sharp and in full resonance. The rhythm section is indispensable. There’s Dennis Ward on bass. The famous American with a German passport, whose work keeps »half« of Europe’s hard rock bands at the top today, as he has remained one of the most sought-after producers for years. Not just sought-after but highly respected, too. A perfect example of a workaholic for whom music means everything. The lineup also gave the live debut of new drummer Chris Schmidt, who recently stepped into the shoes of founding member Kosta Zafiriou. Zafiriou had to leave Pink Cream 69 because of other commitments. Mostly family ones, while he’s found a new love of drumming in Unisonic. Pink Cream 69 impressed with an excellent setlist. The new The Spirit was played somewhere in the middle of the set by just Uwe and David together, to give the rest of the band a little breather. What really got the crowd going were the classics like Talk to the Moon, Do You Like It Like That, and then No Way Out, which flowed into the bombastic peak of the Pink Cream 69 set via Livin’ My Life for You, Wasted Years, Welcome the Night and one more ultra-melodic, sing-along track, Shame, taken from the album »Electrified« (1998). A bomb! Pink Cream 69 are at the peak of their powers: seasoned, hardened, tight. Excellent sound, outstanding performance. Pretty Maids would have to work awfully hard from here on, not to say that Pink Cream 69 may have accidentally stolen their show that night.
The somewhat longer break, a good half hour, we used for a walk in the fresh air and a quick beer, while the stage in the meantime »grew« a bit in depth. Allan Tschicaj’s drums sprawled across it in all their vast dimensions. About fifteen minutes before eleven p.m., he was the first to greet the crowd as he came onstage. As expected, Pretty Maids came crashing down on the crowd with the new album »Motherland«, represented right at the start by the aggressive Mother Of All Lies and, after it, the more melodic I See Ghosts. The first classic rang out already at number three, Needles in the Dark, a fantastic one from the album »Future World« (1987). The setlist leaned heavily on the new album, with detours to its predecessor »Pandemonium«, from which came Here Comes the Night, the phenomenal I.N.V.U, and, in the encore, the quietly anticipated Little Drops of Heaven, which has obviously picked up the label of a mandatory inclusion in the band’s iron repertoire. The rest of the setlist was mostly made up of the famous crushers from the first two albums. Including classics like Queen of Dreams was surely one of the main guilty pleasures for all the diehard fans in Rockhouse that night.
And the band is superb. Everything clicks, an exceptional mix of aggression and melodic payoff. Hard rock cranked to hell, cranked to the edge of heavy metal! Ronnie Atkins, in his venerable maturity, years-wise, has lost a few of the highs and at times only barely managed to catch the chorus melodies, especially in tracks like the newest Why So Serious. But when Please Don’t Leave Me This Way (orig. Thin Lizzy) rang out, and especially the notorious, eagerly awaited Red Hot And Heavy, then Back To Back, and the famous crusher at the tail end of the setlist, Future World, it was clear that a tornado of total devastation had torn through Rockhouse, leaving heads flashing long after the show ended.
Pretty Maids were in great spirits. Especially pleasing was the outstanding synthesis of keyboards and guitar, which together built a bombastic wall of sound as backing, plus Allan’s cannon-like swings and the lively rattling of the constantly jumping Rene Shades. The crowd was entertained above all by charismatic guitarist Ken Hammer, who this time allowed himself a bit more nonchalance and, suspecting nothing, hit the odd half-tone »miss« in the high-flying solos. Well, he made up for it by constantly making sure the people didn’t go thirsty. Ken generously handed out water to the crowd and, you won’t believe it, the luckiest ones got a beer or two as well. Bottled!
Ronnie took it a bit easy during the set. He’s well aware that his voice no longer allows the vocal gymnastics of 20-plus years ago, but at the singer’s »orders« the crowd thoroughly filled the room with participation. So nobody forgot the lyrics! The show turned around in an instant!
Great energy. The Austrian crowd properly packed Rockhouse. A good 500 people showed up and the club was just right: it looked full but not jam-packed, so the bands felt great while we in the crowd could breathe normally. Definitely one of those one-of-a-kind hard rock nights that charge you up, lift you off the ground, and leave you with nothing to do but bow deeply to the bands for their musical legacy and, of course, for still tirelessly chasing around concert stages. Even if every year they pack on a few more kilos and pick up a gray hair or two (if it doesn’t fall out along the way). But like I said. A true rocker’s heart is impossible to break. And Pretty Maids, like Pink Cream 69, showed that with vehemence, in the most primal and sincere light. Exactly as the magic of the European hard rock Bible knows it.
Setlist
PINK CREAM 69:
1. Keep Your Eye on the Twisted
2. Hell’s Gone Crazy
3. Special
4. Lost In Illusions
5. Talk to the Moon
6. Break the Silence
7. Do You Like It Like That
8. The Tide
9. The Spirit (acoustic version)
10. No Way Out
11. Livin’ My Life for You
12. Wasted Years
13. Welcome the Night
14. Shame
PRETTY MAIDS:
1. Mother of All Lies
2. I See Ghosts
3. Needles in the Dark
4. Love Games
5. Sad to See You Suffer
6. Why So Serious
7. Yellow Rain
8. Queen of Dreams
9. It Comes at Night
10. Rodeo
11. Please Don’t Leave Me
12. I.N.V.U.
13. Red, Hot and Heavy
—encore—
14. Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Carmina Burana – intro)
15. Back to Back
16. Little Drops of Heaven
17. Future World
Sit on My Face (taped outro Monty Python)
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