Location: Seebronn (Rottenburg a.d. Neckar) / Festivalgelände / Germany
Date: 30.07.2017
And that’s a wrap. The last day of this year’s Rock of Ages festival has arrived, held near the German village of Seebronn, in the authentic rural setting of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The weather held up. In fact, we got incredibly lucky again this year. The front moved toward the Alps as we arrived, meaning southern and southeastern Germany, so we spent all three festival days in dry weather, although on the third day the sky did occasionally (and harmlessly) threaten a little “wetting.”
On the third day the program kicked off at 15.45h. Since it was Sunday, the program was “family-friendly.” So at one o’clock the family gathers at mom’s, says an Our Father or two, slurps down some soup, and instead of heading to a Severina gig, makes its way to the Rock Of Ages festival, where among other things they catch Gotthard and Thunder. Germans are a rock nation, after all. The organizer had been cooking up a surprise for the opening slot of the festival’s third day the whole time. Actually, it wasn’t even a surprise, since when I picked up my festival wristband I got an autograph card, and who did I see on it, if not… Killcode again. Horst, wasn’t that enough already? Last year at Bang your Head, this year too, and on top of that here, at Rock of Ages? Okay, okay. I don’t know, but over the years the agency Coallier Entertainment has become very much at home both at Rock Of Ages and at Bang your Head, and of course it’s all tied to the name Twisted Sister. Never mind my concert-spoiled state, Killcode proved with their new show what a superb crew they are. They cultivate a special flavor of hard rock, blending a little southern, desert melos into the vocabulary, a bit of punk mockery, plenty of catchiness, especially in the choruses, which are often backed by wildly flirty, infectious rhythms. That’s the third time we’ve met the band in two years, and once again I had to admit there’s absolutely nothing to fault. A polished show, superb tightness, dynamic use of the stage, constant communication with the crowd, and sweat and blood poured all over the stage. These guys really burst themselves to the outer limits of performance, with vocalist Tom Morrisey commanding it all with total authority. The band has an EP out and a self-titled studio debut, and they fired off pretty much the same repertoire as at Bang Your Head, since the running time was about the same. The set went Show Me, Shot , Hammer, The Answer, Kickin’ and Screamin’, Hands Up , Opium Dogs, the Twisted Sister cover You Can’t Stop Rock n’ Roll, and the mellow, incredibly infectious song with a pinch of pop charisma called The Wrong Side, which the organizer played over the fireworks ceremony at the close of last year’s BYH and ROA editions. In short, Killcode are a band with a polished look, sharp outfits, and a sharp, focused performance. The guitars work superbly and grab you. They build a fat, garage-y sound, while both guitarists fill the songs with an incredibly fine dose of soloing. A bomb to the forehead for an early-afternoon rock’n’roll lunch.
Next on stage were true rock’n’roll jokers and a German comedy circus called Spider Murphy Gang. In the lineup they took over the role filled last year by similar Austrian clowns Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung. What can I say? The German crowd was clutching their bellies and rolling on the ground. Maybe the Slovenian crowd of the nineties reacted somewhat similarly when Slovenia’s Agropop played for them. I can’t even explain the phenomenon. In short, this is one of those bands only Germans and Austrians get. The humor, the costumes, the style, the delivery, the theater itself. Musically, though, wickedly boring and instantly forgettable. They make up for the musical dryness with parody. This band really did bring to the stage a goofy hour of full-blooded humor “German-style,” and that was the foundation of their visit, but hand on heart, as a rock’n’roll enthusiast who arrived at ROA from a completely different geographic region, I don’t get bands like this. They did play properly, no blunders, and drenched their predictably arranged little songs in enormous amounts of gags, which is also the band’s basic compensation for the otherwise “ringa-raja rock’n’roll” cheapness, a generally infantilized way of addressing the crowd musically.
Things got back into a healthy rock mold with the arrival of the Brits Thunder. This year they released a superb new studio album, “Rip It Up,” and the band’s festival visit was of course part of the tour promoting it. Thunder remain exceptional. Danny Bowes keeps all his charisma and is a contagious humorist who constantly adds a touch of cynicism to his generally dark humor. British humor. Most of the solos on stage were handled by Luke Morley, while the rhythmic drive and backbone were flawlessly held down by the seasoned, incredibly experienced Chris Childs and Gary “Harry” James, who recently left Magnum. Of course, Ben Matthews has to be mentioned. He mostly held down rhythm on guitar. The man was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and beat it successfully. What’s new about him is a shorter haircut. Thunder gave most of the setlist to newer songs, taken from the albums “Wonder Days” and “Rip It Up,” but they didn’t shortchange the crowd on their most prominent career moments from the early nineties either. So the title track Backstreet Symphony and Higher Ground rang out from the debut, there was also Low Life in High Places from the second studio album “Laughing On Judgement Day” and River Of Pain (album “Behind Closed Doors”), while for the closing stretch they saved the incendiary I Love You More Than Rock ‘n’ Roll from the album “The Magnificent Seventh!” (2005). Thunder are an exceptional stage fortress and few can match them. A hard rock stronghold, British to the bone. Their deeply insightful, elemental fusion of blues rhetoric crossed with musical infectiousness and catchiness remains unique, as does the stage show itself, with which Thunder bewitched the crowd. Without a doubt one of the strongest performances, in both expression and execution, of the entire festival lineup at this year’s Rock Of Ages. One of Thunder’s rare summer stage appearances, even so. A gig that was over before it started, building with that kind of fire and momentum. Truly a band you need to catch on a proper standalone headline tour. Let’s hope there’ll be another chance for something like that,
The fourth act, or rather the fourth female performer, also traveled from Great Britain. With her backing band, no less. She still owed the festival a big one from last year, when, right during her flight from London to Stuttgart, Stuttgart airport was shut down for a few hours for security reasons. So she couldn’t make it to the festival on time. Well, this year she finally pulled it off. Ladies and gentlemen. Kim Wilde. The pop rock diva of the eighties! In her mature years, after diving into gardening and even publishing two books on the subject, Kim Wilde has transformed into a full-on rocker. And she dressed accordingly for her stage entrance. Black leather! After the second song she took off her sunglasses. Kim remains a charismatic and incredibly infectious presence. That goes at the very least for her smile, which she shared with the crowd. True, the singer has put on some weight over the years, but through it all she still keeps remarkable stage energy and dynamics. She knows the stage like the back of her hand. With a sextet backing band, in which her brother Ricky Wilde has long been working as guitarist and backing vocalist, Kim held the crowd tight for an hour and a half as they enjoyed a rundown of her classic hits.
The band opened its set with a hit from the first record, “Kim Wilde.” It could only be Water On Glass, Kids In America or? Chequered Love, of course. Next came Lights Down Low, View From a Bridge, Nena’s Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime, the previously mentioned second hit from the debut “Kim WIdle,” Water on Glass, then the songs Stone, The Second Time, Get Out, King of the World, If I Can’t Have You in an acoustic version (a duet with Ricky on acoustic guitar), Never Trust a Stranger, the big hit from the second album “Select,” Cambodia, a cover of Republica called Ready to Go, the newer You Came, and then the expected cover of The Supremes, You Keep Me Hangin’ On, with which the crew closed the show. Kim Wilde came back out and at first surprised by throwing in You Spin Me Round (Like a Record), originally by Dead Or Alive, and closed the concert with what was really the only hit of hers missed that evening, Kids in America. In between it started raining, but it calmed down. It wet the grounds a little, but it was by no means a serious downpour, so it didn’t drive anyone away from the front of the stage. Kim more than made up for last year with her visit to the Rock Of Ages festival. She was never known as a particularly technically gifted singer. But she has incredible appeal, charisma, charm and that recognizable vocal “vibe” that brought her evergreens to life that evening. Of course, in her backing crew, Kim made sure to add an extra female vocalist, who harmonized excellently and contrasted in tone with Kim Wilde’s lead vocal, and above all gave her strong support on the more demanding vocal lines. Sound and performance excellent! If it keeps going like this, let’s hope Horst brings Tears For Fears or Thompson Twins to the festival next year, if Talk Talk are no longer active (the author’s wet dream, of course).
For the big finale, the superb Swiss hard rockers Gotthard took the stage. The band is celebrating a whopping 25 years of existence this year and has been promoting its new, current studio album “Silver” since early this spring. As expected, the opening of the Gotthard get-together followed suit, with them warming up the crowd with an a cappella intro to the song Silver River. About as many people packed in as the day before, when they watched Saga here. So the grounds got a bit denser still after Kim Wilde finished. Gotthard are a Swiss story of total rock’n’roll triumph, there’s no messing around with them, they’re a guarantee of outstanding quality and, in that fact, a great constant. They backed up the stage picturesquely with scenery tied to the cover and essence of the new album. The band in its standard lineup, represented alongside Maeder by band boss and guitarist Leo Leoni, bassist Marc Lynn, drummer Henna Habegger, guitarist Freddy Scherer and touring keyboardist Nicolo Fragile. A winning formula. Really a brilliant, if not flawless, performance, superb singing from Nic Maeder, and Mountain Mama with the obligatory talk box moment from Leo Leoni. The latter, along with Maeder, made the most use of the catwalk.
The band didn’t forget to include an acoustic medley, rounded out by the “folk-song-ified” One Life, One Soul, Let It Be, Angel and Heaven , which the crowd (with some urging from Maeder, too) joined in on more actively by singing. From the new stuff they hit us with the expected hit Stay With Me and the bristling Electrified, and otherwise properly covered every era of their career. The main ammunition, meaning the songs from the album “Lipservice,” they saved for the fiery ending, the concert crescendo, when they first closed the regular part of their convincing new show with Lift U Up, and then, after the Beatles cover Come Together, set the grounds ablaze with All We Are and the closing Anytime Anywhere. During the Gotthard show, too, the weather misbehaved a little and dropped a few raindrops, but things calmed down and we made it to the end in dry weather. Gotthard remain the candy of hard rock, which always delivers the best. This time was no different, and in every way they lived up to the role of headliner on the festival’s third day. After a marathon tour that has been running since this February, you could feel only a mild fatigue in the band, hence somewhat more routine and reserve. It was one of the last shows of the long “Silvr” tour and the band could hardly wait to get back to their families. That’s why this year’s March celebration with the band at Vienna’s Gasometer remains an experience that, quality-wise, still ranks higher than the meeting at Rock of Ages.
And so Rock of Ages festival 2017 came to a close. This year’s edition once again brought a pile of excellent performances, with the second day of the festival particularly strong and also stylistically “divergent.” For the grand finale, in the very closing stretch of this three-day spectacle, organizer Horst Franz shared a few words with the crowd as usual, and it was all once again seen off by a lavish fireworks display that keeps up the tradition of the Bang Your Head and Rock Of Ages festivals. With the obligatory repeated replays of We Are Not Gonna Take It, of course. It can’t be any other way. So it was another gorgeous rock celebration, and we’ll head back for it again next year.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
