Date: Tuesday, 8/8/2017
Location: Majano / Area Concerti Festival / Italy
On day two of the summer festival in the Friulian town of Majano, the stage belonged to red-hot Los Angeles retro hard rock revivalists Rival Sons. This hugely popular band, active since 2009 and already sitting on a full five studio records, has rocketed to worldwide fame. And that’s down to the unmistakable quality they deliver, not just on record but in their seriously energetic, adrenaline-fueled live shows. The latter simply showcase the strong, unified focus of this very sharply defined American quartet. So Rival Sons found themselves headlining right next to the Slovenian border, where they presented their current studio album “Hollow Bones” (2016).
Last year the band toured together with hard rock “forefathers” Deep Purple, and Rival Sons also opened shows on the final, retirement tour of rock giants Black Sabbath (this year across the US). So there’s no shortage of buzz around them, and they keep getting outstanding reviews, even from the world’s most prominent music media.
So. Kicking things off at ten in the evening, Milan rockers MotelNoire took the stage. This seasoned quintet of respected, established Italian musicians has just one studio release to its name, the self-titled album from 2014, and that’s where most of the set came from. The band is remarkably tight and sings mostly in English. Forty pleasant minutes of warm-up, with more than decent sound (considering their support-act status), proved that the band has plenty of sympathy and loyal devotion among the crowd.
This time the turnout at the Majano concert meadow was noticeably more modest than the day before, when Amon Amarth and Arch Enemy played the venue. Barely 400 people showed up. Mostly an older crowd, too, some of them charmingly graying and beyond. Even so, soon after Rival Sons hit the stage, a modest but seriously loud bunch of fans packed into the middle and the first few rows in front of the stage. They knew the verses damn well and cheered the band on wholeheartedly throughout the show. Jay Buchanan and the crew picked up on this quickly, so they mostly talked to the middle of the audience.
Rival Sons put together a set list that leaned a bit toward showcasing the current studio album, while also tacking on songs from all the older records, led by the favorites Keep On Swinging (from the album “Head Down”), Open My Eyey and Electrivc Man (both from the album “Great Western Vakirye”).
The quartet (plus bearded touring keyboardist Todd Ögren-Brooks) delivered a show that built up minute by minute, both in performance and atmosphere. The final crescendo came right at the tail end, as the band wrapped up a feverish and very elegant show with a mighty, long-awaited Keep On Swinging.
The crew is incredibly tight. Above all, of course, Jay Buchanan blew everyone away, building up his unbelievably charismatic, predatory vocal performance and saving the most vocal power for the closing stretch. Right at the end he literally enchanted the room with an incredible intensity of emotion and passion, topped off with a masterfully crafted vocal performance full of heartfelt devotion. The other musicians didn’t lag far behind, if at all. The sound was brilliant, the performance no less so. There could only have been a few more people. Before playing the song Jordan, he asked the crowd whether they’d rather hear Where I’ve Been.
A devilish blend of good old-school rock and roll, drenched in a healthy dose of blues testosterone and cleverly packaged for the musical sensibilities of a new generation, kept circling and cruising through phrases that reminded you now of the hooliganism of The Who or Cheap Trick, now of Led Zeppelin, Free, Bad Company, in places even The Beatles (especially musically, in the calmer passages), and also of The Doors (Buchanan owes his stage moves to them for inspiration, a small tribute to the late Morrison). You can also catch hints of surf and rockabilly, something guitarist Scott Holiday’s stage “outfit” pointed to as well (as if our Magnifico had tried to dress up as Ginger Wildheart).
An excellent gig, then, and let’s hope the band shows up near our neck of the woods again real soon. The performance quality is top-notch, and in situations like this you absolutely must not overlook or skip it. Catching a Rival Sons show remains a must and a show worth sinning for. Even for the purists who swear only by the originality of the pioneering sixties and seventies.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Hollow Bones Pt. 1
2. Tied Up
3. Electric Man
4. You Want To
5. Memphis Sun
6. Jordan
7. Face of Light
8. Torture
9. Soul
10. Open My Eyes
11. Hollow Bones Pt. 2
12. Keep On Swinging
