Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Seebronn (Rottenburg am Neckar) / Festplatz / Germany
Concert date: July 30, 2016
Attendance: 8,000
Ticket price: €109.00 (three-day presale ticket) / €135.00 (on the day of the festival)
The second day of the German festival of rock pioneering and »legendariness« known as Rock of Ages was billed as the centerpiece of this year’s edition. The day’s program started as early as 11:30 in the morning and ran until midnight, delivering nine bands in total.
This time, since we had to split our forces, we skipped the first two acts. At 11:30 the German hard rockers Cucumber, formed in 1991, took the stage and no doubt served up a nice opening warm-up, followed by the much younger Blackslash, who brought forty minutes of hearty heavy metal revivalism to the stage, taking their cues from the legacy of the bands of the famous New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, and presented their current and second studio album »Sinister Lightning« (2015).
The RockLine crew arrived at the grounds at 1:30 p.m., just as the big rock veterans Lucifer’s Friend were up on stage. It’s a German-British outfit formed in 1970 that put out the bulk of its albums during the seventies. Their discography was shut down for a long stretch by the album »Mean Machine« in 1981, after which Lucifer’s Friend sank into a multi-year slumber of creative inactivity. The wake-up call came with »The Awakening«, a sort of compilation with new songs, released last year. Three original members are still in Lucifer’s Friend today: the famous vocalist John Lawton, who in the second half of the seventies also sang on three Uriah Heep records, bassist Dieter Horns, whom Lawton introduced during the show as »… and Mr. Rock’n’roll himself…«, and guitarist Peter Hesslein. The lineup is rounded out by keyboardist Jogi Weismann, who joined in 1994, and drummer Stephan Eggert, a member since 2014. The band put together an excellent hour-long show. As expected, they dug into the new songs from »The Awakening«, but they also played a nice helping of classics, led by Keep Goin’ and Ride the Sky (both from »Lucifer’s Friend«, 1970), then Burning Ships (»Where Groupies Killed the Blues«, 1972), the excellent Moonshine Rider (»Mind Exploding«, 1976), and Fire And Rain and Hey Driver (from the album »Mean Machine«, 1981). The band nailed a superb sound right from the start, with just the right balance between Peter’s guitar and Jogi’s chunky Hammond organ tone. Classic hard rock, wonderfully weighed down with psychedelic moments, prog-rock touches and a tangible helping of musicality, crowned above all by catchy choruses. John Lawton remains an excellent frontman, still brimming with charisma well into his later years. A great gentleman with unsuspected vocal chops, he quickly built a bridge to the crowd, especially with his excellent command of German. Of all the »non-German« vocalists who tried to win the crowd over with a bit of German during their sets at the festival, Lawton definitely took first place. He also dosed his banter with a heaping measure of brilliant humor, which goes hand in hand with proper English rock’n’roll culture. Backed by Lawton’s polished and still unbelievably well-preserved velvety voice, the band delivered one of the best performances of the entire festival. At moments it did show that they hadn’t played together in a long, long time, since when Peter picked up the acoustic guitar for Burning Ships, the chords didn’t always ring out perfectly clean. But those are trifles next to the sonic authenticity that shot us straight back to the golden seventies.
For the next hour, the veterans of Swedish melodic rock Treat took care of a hefty dose of feel-good hard rock climacteric on stage. They’re awfully hard to catch live. In April this year, for example, they played the Frontiers Rock festival. This March Treat released an excellent new studio record called »Ghost of Graceland«, and they naturally loaded their set with songs from it. A lot of young people had gathered down front, especially girls, who were more than a little smitten with the likeable Swedes, led by the incredibly charismatic Robert Ernlund. Sadly, one big problem dogged the Treat show from start to finish. The sound. Tuning troubles hit both original members of the band. Andreas Wickström’s guitar crackled and fizzled through the whole show, and somewhere in the middle Robert Ernlund’s mic died on him too, so the performance will be remembered as an event full of nervous tension, even anger and bad vibes, where Ernlund and Wickström, despite the proverbial Swedish calm and patience, shot a fair amount of daggers and poison arrows at the techs with their eyes during the gig. However much the crew fought with the sound mishaps, the show still had acceptable sound throughout, and although the quintet’s usual looseness was sacrificed, they delivered a thoroughly decent and confident performance. Why wouldn’t they? Experience is experience. In the situation they ran into, Treat squeezed out the maximum. They could have thrown in the towel and called off the show, or one of the guys could have lost his cool, and the whole performance would have fallen apart in a pit of despair. The band hit hard with material from the new album »Ghost of Graceland«, opening with Ghost of Graceland, Better the Devil You Know and Nonstop Madness, joined later by Do Your Own Stunts. The band didn’t overlook the no less excellent predecessor »Coup De Grace« either, from which Paper Tiger and Roar rang out. In the second half of the set the guys switched tracks and tackled the classic material (Ready for the Taking, Get You on the Run, Conspiracy and the closing World of Promises), which of course hit plenty of hearts in the crowd with a wave of nostalgia.
Next up on stage, with his backing band, was Chris Thompson. Chris is the former lead voice of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. And yes, he played a repertoire entirely tied to his time with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. The one exception was the big hit You’re the Voice (orig. John Farnham), which gave him the most vocal trouble. Thompson opened the show with For You (orig. Bruce Springsteen). Guitar in hand. It was followed by Davy’s on the Road Again (orig John Simon), Demolition Man (orig. The Police), Father of Day, Father of Night (orig. Bob Dylan), Don’t Kill It Carol (orig Mike Heron), Marha’s Madman (an original Manfred Mann’s Earth Band song), Blinded By The Light (Bruce Springsteen) and, as expected, the big finale Mighty Quinn (orig. Bob Dylan). In short, the most recognizable songs that MMEB have always played and still play. Chris Thompson still has that recognizable velvety, throaty sheen that adorns his vocal performance. An agile vocalist who filled the whole stage, but toward the end of the show he found it harder and harder to keep up with the vocal lines, and you could feel that Chris was running a bit out of breath. But years are years. Regardless, Thompson is surrounded by a crew of top-notch musicians who put on a top-notch show. Incredible tightness and chemistry. And perfect sound. Standing out most on Thompson’s right was the brilliant Norwegian guitarist Mads Eriksen. He gave a real little guitar clinic and enchanted with stellar solo spots in which he showed off all his softness and filigree finesse. The rest of the quintet was actually made up of the musicians who otherwise form the Mads Eriksen Band: the silver-haired organist Gunnar Bjelland, bassist Frank Hovland and drummer Zsolt Meszaros. Unlike the sound of MMEB themselves, in these MMEB classics under Chris Thompson there’s more emphasis on guitar, which can even push the Hammond organ into the background. Mads Eriksen’s solos filled most of the space in the middle »mid-eight« passages, often in exactly those parts of the songs where you’d »by standard MMEB custom« expect Mann’s mini moog. Yet another great show, then.
A minor disappointment came to the festival in the form of the former Uriah Heep keyboardist and chief composer of the bulk of that band’s unforgettable seventies material, Ken Hensley. Once again he recruited cheap Italian musicians to serve as his backing band. The band accompanying Hensley this time was called Our Propaganda. Hensley decided right off the bat to get the crowd to boiling point, starting with the Uriah Heep heavyweight Gypsy, immediately followed by one of the biggest Uriah Heep hits, Easy Livin’. As expected, the band justified its role, even though the guitar sounds and plays nothing even remotely like Mick Box’s, since the »touch« is completely different. The feel, and with it the technique and everything that follows. Things ran along nicely through the set, right until Hensley stepped to the front of the stage and decided to close the show by taking everything into his own hands. So he took over lead vocals on the »Magician’s Birthday« classic Tales, followed, as expected, by the finale with Lady in Black. With Tales, though, Hensley retuned his acoustic guitar half a step lower. To make the song easier to sing, of course. The rest of the band wasn’t properly briefed on this, so two thirds of the song was played in a »tonal clash«, until Our Propaganda finally »found the right combination of chords«. Because of these unfortunate circumstances, plenty of listeners’ ears hurt badly, and a sharp whistle of »feeling cheated« even rang out from the crowd. What’s more, Tales was (in my opinion) tuned too low even for Hensley’s voice. Hensley also showed a lot of vocal wear when he took lead vocals on The Wizard and shared the vocal duties on July Morning. He should have left all the lead vocals to the young Italian singer, who tackles the vocal heights with feather-light ease, and the show would have come across on a whole different level. The set was filled out by the worn-out hit Stealin’ and the sweetest candy off the album »Demons And Wizards«, called Circle of Hands. A hyped-up and not exactly successful show from a legend, who in this way failed to justify his high slot on the bill.
Luckily that performance was quickly forgotten, because the stage was taken over by a thoroughly well-oiled art rock machine from England! The famous Magnum. They once again have a pile of shows behind them, having recently presented their current studio album »Sacred Blood `Divine` Lies« (2016) on a new headlining tour. So they count as a supremely well-rehearsed outfit that simply can’t and won’t fake it on stage. Since Bob Catley’s vocal power has started to wane with the years, Magnum have also tuned lower in recent years. Catley, who given how gaunt he’d gotten has put back on some much-needed pounds in recent years, pulled off a thoroughly decent show. Only toward the end, when he took on Vigilante, could you sense some vocal fatigue. Otherwise it was a concert full of bubbling dynamics and excellent atmosphere. Catley, dressed in white jeans for the occasion, who also thoroughly exploited the catwalk position, and bassist Al Barrow had by far the most kinetic energy. Tony Clarkin still stands like a »cold statue« during the show. Motionless. But with guitar playing and a tone you can only wish for. The band surprised right at the start with the »Chase the Dragon« classic Soldier of the Line, and the hour of revelry with Magnum began instantly, bathed in a highly atmospheric glow. As expected. Excellent sound, excellent show. If anything, given the limited time, the one thing that bugged us was that the band played four new songs, so the crowd was shortchanged on a few more classics. From one of the band’s most beloved albums, »On A Storyteller’s Night«, we got only the title track and All England’s Eyes, from the album »Vigilante« only the aforementioned title track, plus the gorgeous »Chase the Dragon« classic The Spirit and the expected Kingdom of Madness (»Kingdom Of Madness«), with which the band closed the show. The album »Sacred Blood `Divine`Lies« was represented by Your Dreams Wont Die, Princess in Rags (The Cult), the title track and the single Crazy Old Mothers. You could definitely miss a number or two from the excellent album »Wings of Heaven« as well.
A special kind of attraction, not just of the second day but of the whole festival edition, arrived with the famous American rockers Blue Öyster Cult. They’ve rarely performed in Europe since 2003, when they did their last noteworthy European tour with Uriah Heep, promoting their then-current album »The Curse of Hidden Mirror«, and today they show up on the old continent almost only as an exception. Just here and there at a summer European festival. But this summer they lined up quite a few appearances on European festival stages, which is commendable. Their set at Rock of Ages was an absolute highlight of the program. Blue Öyster Cult are down to just two original members in today’s lineup. Luckily, they’re the two who handle all the vocal duties. They’re also the two guitarists! Eric Bloom and of course Donald Roeser, known by the acronym »Buck Dharma«. The rest of today’s Blue Öyster Cult quintet is made up of the lesser-known drummer Jules Radino, the seasoned bassist Kasim Sulton (known for his work in Utopia) and the excellent multi-instrumentalist Richie Castellano, who, going by tenure, is also a considerably younger musician. So, classics expected! And that’s exactly what we got. Starting with the opening »Agents of Fortune« classic This Ain’t the Summer of Love, followed by Golden Age of Leather. With the latter, the opening line »Raise your can of beer on high« fit the overall festival mood more than perfectly! Bloom and Dharma remain the band’s vocalists, holding on to that special sheen of charisma and musical uniqueness. Two great voices. Along with them, Blue Öyster Cult keep all their performing credibility well into their later years. Bloom stays venomously sharp-tongued when he takes the verses. Stone-faced, icy. Black sunglasses on all the time. Unlike his colleague Bloom, Buck Dharma smiles throughout and brings much more approachability and warmth to the stage. Richie Castellano is a special discovery. From his shy opening »hiding« behind the keyboards (This Ain’t the Summer of Love), in the last third of the show he literally exploded in a solo spot within Then Came The Last Days of May. That song, the only one taken from the band’s debut album, featured an especially »stretched-out« instrumental middle section, where Castellano shone first with his mastery, followed in turn by Buck Dharma. The latter had already warmed up nicely with a solo in the famous instrumental Buck’s Boogie. The solo duel between Castellano and Buck was in itself one of the concert’s peaks. Blue Öyster Cult, the famous agents in black, conspirators and downright wicked uncles of rock’n’roll, did leave us a bit shortchanged through all this, though. They had an hour and twenty minutes available but played a set of less than an hour. The band, which apart from the hugely popular Burning For You and the »Cultosaurus Erectus« bonbon Lips in the Hills remained a big debtor on the eighties front, also cut in ODD’d on Life Itself, Me262, Harvest Moon (an unnecessary pick from the album »Heaven Forbid«, 1998), and closed the show with the classic Godzilla and the universally expected Don’t Fear the Reaper. For all the professionalism the great gentlemen of rock’n’roll served up, you couldn’t shake the feeling that the band could have played a longer set, with at least three, if not four, more songs.
To close out the second day, the organizer, as on the day before, again picked a German act. That way, for the second day in a row, the camp was totally »emptied out«, moving entirely to the festival grounds, and it also drew in many more visitors who had come just to enjoy the second day’s program. We’re talking about the project Avantasia. It’s a super rock, or rather superpower metal, outfit conceived as a »rock opera«, where the music is fully conceptualized and the interpretation is therefore split across many roles. The project’s hallmark is its heap of guest singers who rotate across the albums. »Ghostlights« is the project’s current studio album, which again offers a bunch of guests. Besides the ever-present Tobias Sammet, who is the father of the project and its main mastermind, the album didn’t bring all of its guest vocalists to the stage. Sammet decided not to perform it in full, so there was no need for that. But Tobias was joined on stage by Michael Kiske (Unisonic, ex-Helloween), Bob Catley (Magnum), Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids) and Eric Martin (Mr. Big). The core of the current Avantasia crew alongside Tobias Sammet is made up of guitarists Sascha Paeth (ex-Heaven’s Gate) and Oliver Hartmann (At Vance, Hartmann), keyboardist Michael Rodenberg »Miro« and Sammet’s Edguy bandmate, drummer Felix Bohnke (I didn’t manage to catch the names of the bassist and the additional female and male backing vocalists). Avantasia played a repertoire spanning all of their released albums. Keeping the mood bright and good through the two-hour show was, of course, Tobias Sammet himself with his famous humor, and the proceedings were, as mentioned, spiced up by the arrival of four additional vocalists on stage, among whom the indestructible Michael Kiske once again blew the crowd away with his performance. He’s put on a nice helping of pounds and will have to be damn careful in the future not to spread past the limits of good taste. The duet of Martin and Atkins in Twisted Mind was also endearing, while at the end of the duet in Invoke the Machine, Atkins presented Sammet with a red rose, which Sammet tucked into his coat (a parody of the opening Mystery of a Bloody Red Rose). Atkins stayed on stage for the next song too, Ghostlights, while the legendary Bob Catley, who had warmed up the grounds in the mid-afternoon with his Magnum set, got a duet on The Great Mistery and later The Story Ain’ Over Yet. Given the spectacle, though, something was missing. Lights. Too few spotlights were sending beams of white light onto the stage. There was only one main beam. It mostly chased just Tobias Sammet, while the guitarists stayed in the shadows during their solos, unlit. A shame, especially because the show itself featured an extremely elaborate (and certainly not cheap) stage set, based on the story of the album »Ghostlights«. The performance, of course, was perfect. Professional. A lineup of excellent, seasoned musicians who on top of that are big perfectionists and big gurus, or masters, of their craft. Huge self-confidence, literally bulletproof execution. An approach with big, unbridled vehemence. Rock of Ages became entirely Sammet’s, and the energy was extraordinary. The crowd got what it came for. A big closing finale with a musical hero of the home country! Avantasia is a special kind of story, and if you’re a fan of power metal with hypersensitive musicality pumped full of symphonic elements and bombast, it’s a must-see. At least once in your life.
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