Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Urban Bolta
Location: Seebronn / Baden-Württemberg / Germany
Concert date: 28.07.2012
Attendance: 10,000
Ticket price: €75 (two-day ticket)
Europe, Bob Geldof, Fish and the rest of the bill made for a pleasant welcome on the opening day of Germany’s Rock of Ages festival, easing us into the climate of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The organizers did put a bit of a damper on the mood, though: they offer journalists no special camping zone, so I pitched my tent among the rest of the visitors, about a ten-minute walk from the action. At the sister festival Bang Your Head!!!, held every year a few dozen kilometers away, we journalists are put up right next to the entrance to the grounds. But never mind, you really shouldn’t complain about every little thing!
Good spirits were then restored, even before the gigs of day two kicked off, by an old concert buddy, Alen a.k.a. Štorklja, a legend of Slovenian venues who has been living abroad for the past two years, so running into him again was a big surprise! The reunion obviously called for a beer or two, and our chat about the current gig scene and all the other pores of life stretched right through the opening set of Saturday, when young Swiss hard rockers MAXXWELL started rousing the festival crowd. An hour-long set of punchy riffs with plenty of melodic licks rumbled like thunder across the windy wheat fields surrounding the whole site in the quiet early Saturday afternoon, and from what people who were there told me, the young Swiss did their job damn well.
Second on the main (well, the only) festival stage were REGGATTA DE BLANC. As their name, borrowed from one of The Police’s albums, already gives away, this is a band that plays songs by those former new wave / rock giants. I’m not a fan of »cover« bands myself, since I think they eat up space in the music world that belongs to plenty of creative bands. That said, I have to admit that Reggatta De Blanc, whose members have German blood running through their veins, did well and put together a pleasant trip through The Police’s hits. The central figure was naturally the frontman, who had, and this is truly breathtaking, a voice colored identically to Sting’s! The good-humored trio on stage visibly enjoyed the set, so with those bouncy Police rhythms it wasn’t hard to get even the crowd below the stage dancing. Roxanne, So Lonely, Walking in the Moon and the other hits, of which this British trio, despite its relatively short career, has quite a few, went down well and proved that the spirit of The Police is still very much alive among the rock crowd.
When the early-afternoon sun stretched its tentacles harder over the festival grounds, PRAYING MANTIS took the stage, English heavy metal elder statesmen that few people even know are still moving. They’re a seriously interesting band, one that has had the most idiosyncratic development of all the representatives of the so-called NWOBHM wave. Over the years and a steady stream of releases they strove for ever more melody in heavy metal, survived a shipwreck into obscurity and in recent years turned into a seriously tight outfit, in fact the strongest lineup in the band’s now more-than-thirty-year history. It’s precisely the frequent lineup changes over the years that are to blame for the decline of this once-promising band, but in recent years brothers Tino and Chris Troy finally managed to build a strong bond within the group, which paid off with the albums »Sanctuary« and »Metamorphosis«. Their Rock of Ages set was thus marked by newer songs that represent the current optimistic spirit within the band, with the (very) latest tracks Children of the Earth, Panic in the Streets, Highway and Captured City all present, of course with a few glances back to the nineties in between. The five-piece on stage got thoroughly into it! Praying Mantis devoted themselves entirely to a perfectionist performance, both in the vocal harmonies and in the instrumental dialogues themselves. At times it seemed that, caught up in their own immersion, they had lost touch with the crowd, but the likeable guitarist Tino Troy knew how to dispel those moments with two short addresses to the audience. A real treat for the ears of all the fans of the band, those of us who know how insanely hard it is to catch them on stage. As Tino Troy told me later in a short chat at the »signing«, it’s not because of them, but because of the market’s lack of interest that they can’t play more often. Sadly, Praying Mantis have become a forgotten NWOBHM gem, despite all the quality they have.
Next up was JEFF SCOTT SOTO, the would-be first voice of AOR champions Journey, who lasted only a year and a half alongside Neil Schon and co., but is otherwise devoted heart and soul to the legacy of melodic hard rock. The year before, Soto played the main stage of the sister festival Bang Your Head!!!, and the organizers then invited him to Seebronn as well. Just like in Balingen, though, the show didn’t quite come together for Soto this time either. It’s hard to say whether it was a mutual lack of chemistry or some other communication hiccup between the stage and the sound desk, but the backing vocal lines of his guitarists, one of the central building blocks of Soto’s mighty melodic sound, weren’t a hundred percent, so understandably the crowd wasn’t eating out of his hand either. The frontman tried hard to get the masses going by running around the stage like mad and making use of the »cat walk«, but loud ovations just weren’t in the cards for him that day. During the set Soto touched on the presentation of his current album »Damage Control«, and the close of the one-hour get-together, just like in Balingen, went to a walk through Talisman hits, with an everlasting closing mix of the song I’ll Be Waiting with Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer.
For all the rock lovers, the show by American band Y&T was one of the most interesting acts of this year’s edition of the festival. And not because Y&T would be some huge exclusive, since in the last decade there’s hardly been a year when they haven’t played around Europe, but simply because of what they are. This is an exceptional band that started playing in the second half of the seventies, when heavy metal was intensively developing out of hard rock, so with their unique style they’re a kind of fossil proof of musical evolution. Y&T built their set from their hits, mostly from the first half of the eighties, and for the fans they threw in a couple of gems from the album »Ten« (1990), Hard Times and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Everything on stage was just as it should be! Frontman and leader Dave Meniketti, in his recognizable manner, filled the music with feeling through a heartfelt performance, and that peaked with the song Shine On, a tribute to the late longtime Y&T bassist Phil Kennemore, who lost his battle with cancer two years ago. The intensity of the show was high the whole time, as Y&T spread their most recognizable songs evenly across the set: Open Fire, Mean Streak and Winds Of Change rang out over the fields of Baden-Württemberg well before the end, for which the Americans saved the songs Hurricane and Forever. A great showcase of primal heavy metal sound, and after several encounters with the band in club dives in front of a hundred or two hundred heads, a weight fell off my shoulders too when I finally caught them at a show in front of several thousand people. If anyone deserves crowds in front of the stage, it’s Y&T!
The second headliner of day two was AXEL RUDI PELL, one of the finest German heavy metal guitarists, who enjoys cult status on home soil. After we photographers had shot each band from below the stage first, security kept us out of the photo pit before his set, explaining that Pell’s pyrotechnic show made it unsafe to watch the gig from right next to the stage. And it really did start with a bang! Already during the opener Ghost in the Black the pyro cannons erupted and topped the epic punch of Pell’s sound with a visual spectacle that, thanks to the evening dusk, shone in all its primal glory! Watching an Axel Rudi Pell show is definitely an unforgettable experience, since his band is made up of musicians of the highest pedigree, and the well-oiled machine shines effortlessly in delivering the mighty design of the technically demanding symphonic songs. The »German Blackmore«, as some call Pell, cool as a cucumber, in his manner occasionally stretched the songs out in jam style, and Mike Terrana on drums was there too, showing off a rich palette of his skills in the middle of the set. With the long instrumental passages that seemed to have no end and that mostly the fans of metal rhapsodies enjoyed, vocalist Johny Gioeli stayed in the background, as he somehow unfortunately does with Pell despite his innate frontman and vocal predispositions, relegated to the second line of battle. One of the highlights of the evening came with the song The Masquerade Ball – a thousand raised hands in the air and simultaneous singing confirmed the guitarist’s extraordinary popularity, even though it felt as if the band on stage was saving a bit of its strength. They gave the crowd just as much as it demanded – the heartfelt intensity was missing, even though that very virtue is the main ingredient of Pell’s musical self.
If the weather during Axel Rudi Pell’s set still held to conditions worthy of a modern, spoiled human being, the very moment ALICE COOPER and his sizable posse of musicians stormed the stage, it started pouring buckets! While the stage was being prepared behind a huge curtain covering Cooper’s concert set in the making, the festival crowd was glancing at the sky and begging for a dry end to the evening. We photographers below the stage were probably the loudest in the begging, since the sky opened up right during the opening song of the final festival act, Black Widow, as we were stretched somewhere between chasing the best possible frame and running for dry ground, which would do each of our dear pieces of gear a nice favor.
It looked as if Alice Cooper were the master of heaven and earth! Heavy drops of rain fell from the sky, lightning flashed somewhere in the background, and on stage Alice Cooper was staging his own death – as if we were in the middle of Judgment Day! The opener was followed by Brutal Planet and I’m Eighteen, for which Cooper strutted onto the stage with a cane that he toyed with for the next few minutes in his signature style. Alice Cooper played Seebronn as part of the long-running »No More Mr. Nice Guy« tour, with which he celebrated his early lineup’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and for it he once again thoroughly shuffled his backing band: we met bassist Chuck Garrick and guitarist Damon Johnson two years ago in Italy (report here), while guitarists Tommy Henriksen and Orianthi and drummer Glen Sobel still smelled of fresh blood.
Since the tour was dedicated to the memory of his early career, all the fans of his classic sound got their money’s worth. If at solo shows he still squeezes individual songs from his latest album »Welcome 2 My Nightmare« into the packed schedule, the jam-packed setlist adapted to the festival hustle didn’t allow it here, which is a big shame, given that the album from 2011 is his best in a very, very long time. The old fox knows exactly how to please a crowd! A huge part of his show rests on building atmosphere by weaving several stories into one connected whole, during which the audience loses its breath. It was no different this time, when he wowed even me with a few tricks, even though I was watching him for the fourth time and was convinced he couldn’t surprise me anymore. Early in the show it looked like a young woman had managed to slip past security onto the stage, and she then pestered bassist Garrick while he played, but when mid-show another unnamed young woman repeated the stunt and, to the horror of the crowd, attacked Cooper himself, he simply stabbed her with a medieval sword! The rain, which despite the phenomenal stage show managed to thin out the crowd, started to let up in the middle of the set. The theatrical fun tipped over, via the sweets Halo of Flies (with an extended instrumental showcase), Muscle of Love and the obligatory Poison, into the closing stretch, which held the most anticipated moment of the night. During Wicked Young Man the executioners managed to overpower Cooper and lead him to the guillotine, where he met his end in front of a ten-thousand-head crowd. As usual, the next few minutes then went to the self-promotion of the other musicians, who gave it their all with I Love the Dead, before the final reprise, when their boss came back on stage and together they played School’s Out and Elected.
With yet another fantastic show, Alice Cooper lived up to his billing as headliner of the likeable German festival, putting the cherry on top of a full day of varied action on the main stage. Even though from tour to tour he persistently sticks to his steel-clad repertoire, Alice Cooper still knows how to surprise the more regular visitors with long-unplayed songs, this time for example two each from the albums »Hey Stoopid« (1991) and »Brutal Planet« (2000). Together with the awareness that this is an exceptional icon and a musician who influenced the whole next generation of young rockers, that’s more than enough for me to attend his gala shock show again sometime.
Setlist
PRAYING MANTIS:
1. Children of the Earth
2. Panic in the Streets
3. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
4. Turn the Tide
5. Borderline
6. Highway
7. Turn the Tables
8. Captured City
JEFF SCOTT SOTO:
1. Take U Down
2. 21st Century
3. Damage Control
4. One Love
(W.E.T. cover)
5. Look Inside Your Heart
6. Eyes of Love
7. Soul Divine
8. Break Your Chains / Day By Day / Give Me a Sign / Dangerous / Just Between Us / Mysterious (This Time It’s Serious)
9. I’ll Be Waiting
——————
10. Stand Up
11. Livin’ the Life
Y&T:
1. From the Moon / Open Fire
2. Hard Times
3. Black Tiger
4. Mean Streak
5. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
6. Shine On
7. Blind Patriot
8. Winds of Change
9. Don’t Bring Me Down
10. I’m Coming Home
11. I’ll Cry for You
12. Rescue Me
13. Hurricane
14. Forever
AXEL RUDI PELL:
1. Ghost in the Black
2. Strong as a Rock
3. Before I Die
4. The Masquerade Ball / Casbah / Dreaming Dead
5. Drum Solo
6. Mystica
7. Oceans of Time
8. Circle of the Oath
9. Tear Down the Walls / Nasty Reputation
10. Rock the Nation
ALICE COOPER:
1. The Black Widow
2. Brutal Planet
3. I’m Eighteen
4. Under My Wheels
5. Billion Dollar Babies
6. No More Mr. Nice Guy
7. Hey Stoopid
8. Is It My Body
9. Halo of Flies (including bass/drum jam/solo)
10. Muscle of Love
Guitar Solo (Orianthi)
11. Feed My Frankenstein
12. Poison
13. Wicked Young Man
14. I Love the Dead (excerpt)
15. School’s Out (with parts of Another Brick … more)
—————-
16. Elected
Photo gallery
