Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Zagreb / Dom sportova (small hall) / Croatia
Concert date: 04.03.2014
Attendance: 3500
Ticket price: 200,00HRK / 230,00HRK
Simple Minds! The elder statesmen of the eighties new wave sound, out on a new European tour with a »Greatest Hits + 2014« set that makes sense as an »extension« of the celebration of (the first) 35 years since the band’s debut »Life In A Day« (1979). An extension, because this very same tour kicked off way back last year! Two years ago the band conquered European stages with a set built on the »5×5« principle! They picked five songs from each of the first five albums, making a set of 25 mandatory numbers for every concert night. It was a unique, wild and unforgettable adventure. No surprise there, because Simple Minds are simply a special band in every respect.
The band still enjoys an incredible reputation, and there are few heroes on this planet who don’t carry, somewhere deep under their skin, memories of these ultimate evergreen tunes, which keeps the band timelessly relevant and in demand live, even in their later years. The »Greatest Hits + 2014« tour was a move that was somehow quietly expected. The band has been promising a new studio album for a good three years now – the last one, »Graffiti Soul«, came out in 2009, but they’re obviously in no rush with a new studio effort – and they added a show in the Croatian capital Zagreb to the dates of the new European tour. That of course set many Slovenian music lovers in motion southward too, and together with the crowds from Croatia and Hungary, they filled every last corner of the completely sold-out small hall of Dom Sportova!
The air was charged with that crackling, spark-filled energy that doesn’t happen every day when you go to a gig. Simple Minds were greeted by an audience that grew up through the eighties and grew old along with the band, but never forgot them. They came to Zagreb to relive those years of big hopes and carefree innocence one more time. Perhaps even more determined than they would have been, say, 25 years ago.
Simple Minds split the night into two parts with a 15-minute break in between. The lineup of Jim Kerr (vocals), Charlie Burchill (guitar), Mel Gaynor (drums), Andy Gillespie (keys) and Ged Grimes (bass), joined by the lovely dark-skinned gazelle and backing vocalist Sarah Brown, who already helped Simple Minds out on the tour promoting the album »Graffiti Soul« (2009), took the stage a little after nine in the evening. No need to guess that the hall exploded. Some three thousand heads were spinning. The view was incredible. A packed floor and packed stands in a semicircle, left and right above the stage. As far as the eye could see. Everyone in the air! Everyone singing along. Jim Kerr, who arrived on stage once again with the help of injections and was once again patched back together happily enough for this show, instantly took all the attention, and the crowd was eating out of his hand. In a trance. Every move, every gesture, everything. The typical, chiseled stage act dictated by the stature and voice of this exceptional singer is of course the core of Simple Minds’ musical character, and nobody can take that away from them. Sure, the years have left more than a few marks on Kerr’s face and he’s not in the best shape health-wise right now, but his performance remains a flawless execution of the most famous pieces of Simple Minds »prose«. This time Kerr could definitely use the crowd’s help, as they fanatically knew every verse and kept the singer on his feet. The man did lean theatrically a few times on the pillars of the stage structure on the left and right, which hinted that he was saving his strength, but he also cooked himself, mostly by his own doing, since he spent a good part of the show in a coat and scarf.
The band is so damn experienced and so »drilled« that they hardly ever slip up. Everything is just as it should be. Everyone in the right place at the right moment. Everyone pulling the strings on time to build that unique musical foldout brochure of Simple Minds’ musical culture. Charlie Burchill remains a subtle grandmaster of laying down his famous hypnotic guitar lines, backed by an extraordinary sustain effect. The tremolo arm work, the filigree twisting of the guitar knobs and the footwork across the giant »pedal board« all work to perfection. In that, Burchill remains a one-of-a-kind guitarist and, alongside Kerr’s unique voice, the second important pillar breathing the core substance of Simple Minds’ great musical peculiarities into the band.
The rhythm section, of course, is the framework that gives Kerr and Burchill the chance to live out their musical dreams as artists and interpreters. Ged Grimes laid down an outstanding bass line that rattled and ripped through the air, and together with Gaynor’s famous cannon-shot strokes he built that celebrated contrast carried by the arrangements of Simple Minds’ music, one of the foundations that makes the band’s music so dramatically contrasting. To the point that live, meaning on concert stages, it constantly sends the hair standing up and gives you goosebumps! Magic on the stages of Zagreb! When the band tackles a song like the superb Hypnotised in that way, you know you’re sharing a concert dinner with the greatest masters of their trade.
The band actually makes small »corrections« to the setlist for every concert night. Zagreb in particular got the nice bonus that, for this extension of the tour, the band brought Mandela Day back into the setlist for the Zagreb show, a song they hadn’t played at earlier concerts on this same tour. Another pleasant twist in the setlist was the first song of the encore, the mellow Let It All Come Down. After a cover of The Call, cut of course according to the famous Simple Minds recipe and called Let The Day Begin, came the 15-minute break, and the band returned to the stage with the dance-step-ready Speed Your Love To me, with Sarah Brown herself on lead vocals. That got especially the male part of the audience on their feet at the end, when Sarah theatrically took her high heels off her feet and with that act basically announced the continuation of the show. Kerr’s break thus stretched by another five minutes. The man comes back on vocals for the mossy Patti Smith cover Dancing Barefoot. From there Simple Minds start lifting the crowd toward the concert’s peak through She’s A River, Someone Somewhere in Summertime, The American, Love Song and of course the song that the vast majority were most hungrily waiting for! Don’t You (Forget About Me)! With this song the band carried the night to its peak and closed the regular part of the show.
In the encore Simple Minds took almost a full half hour and added the »cherry on top« to the new outstanding concert performance with the beloved evergreens Sanctify Yourself, Alive And Kicking and the almost expected closing medley Ghost Dancing, which flowed into the Irish folk wake-up call Gloria. Hypnosis! From the first moment, when they opened the night with the excellent Broken Glass Park, which instantly defined the band’s famous expressive power, to the closing »rodeo« on the way out. The eighties were back in full color! For two and a half hours. And Simple Minds? Like wine. The older they get, the better they are. They play fantastically. A concert night of huge peaks and superlatives. No less, no more!
Setlist
—first half—
1. Broken Glass Park
2. Waterfront
3. Stars Will Lead the Way
4. Hypnotised
5. Once Upon a Time
6. One Step Closer
7. Let There Be Love
8. Promised You a Miracle
9. Glittering Prize
10. Mandela Day
11. Let the Day Begin (The Call cover)
—second half—
12. Speed Your Love To Me
13. Dancing Barefoot (Patti Smith cover)
14. She’s a River
15. Someone Somewhere in Summertime
16. This Is Your Land
17. Hunter and the Hunted
18. The American
19. Love Song
20. See the Lights
21. Don’t You (Forget About Me)
—encore—
22. Let It All Come Down
23. Sanctify Yourself
24. Alive and Kicking
25. Ghostdancing / Gloria
Photo Gallery
