Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Velden am Woerthersee / Austria
Concert date: 05.12.2011
Attendance: 70
The “super quartet” that half-jokingly calls itself by the telling acronym I.M.F.s. is slowly earning the nickname “Bluesiana’s house band”! The guys gladly “decode” that acronym for any curious soul as “(the) International Mother Fuckers”. Stevie Salas on guitar, Bernard Fowler on vocals, Dave Abruzzese (Pearl Jam) on drums and Jara Harris on bass. These guys really don’t need many lines to introduce them. And yet this time around the show came with a few changes. Abruzzese wasn’t behind the kit. So Jara Harris, the IMFs’ regular bass player (Slapback, he’s also worked with Alicia Keys), took over the drums, and the bassist for this I.M.F.s appearance at Bluesiana was Dorian Heartsong.
Salas (Mick Jagger, Buddy Miles, Rod Stewart, Steve Vai, Zakk Wilde, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Duran Duran, Terence Trent d’Arby, Jordin Sparks,…) and Fowler (The Rolling Stones, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Gill Scott-Heron, Sly & Robbie, Material, Bootsy Collins, Duran Duran, Herb Alpert, Paul Carrack, Yoko Ono, Living Colour, Herbie Hancock,…) go way back, all the way to the days of Nickelbag. Worth mentioning that the one-and-only T.M. Stevens has also played bass with the guys on occasion. Dorian Heartsong is no rookie in the music business, either. He’s played on Salas’s studio albums “Shapeshifter” and “Be What It Is”, on the studio album “Out of Nowhere” by current U.F.O. guitarist Vinnie Moore, and on the Roadsaw album “One Million Dollars”, and until 2001 he was, as “Dorian 27”, the bassist in the wild metal outfit Powerman 5000. Heartsong is also a huge fan and a master at playing Led Zeppelin classics, which is why Bonzo’s son Jason Bonham recruited him for his project Jason Bonhnam’s Led Zeppelin Experience.
This was the fourth time Salas and Fowler have teamed up at Bluesiana. The I.M.F.s are usually booked at Bluesiana at the end of the concert season. That’s the time of year when people tend to forget about gigs for a couple of months and focus on splurging on holiday presents, New Year getaways and the like. It’s harder to drag them out in front of the stage. And this time too, Bluesiana couldn’t boast a particularly big crowd gathered to greet these eminent musicians.
The guys kicked off the show before ten in the evening! Even though the lineup was a bit shuffled and Harris on drums is cut from a totally different cloth than Abruzzese (Harris didn’t use any rack toms at all), there was no fear that we wouldn’t get the full dose of the intense vibes created by this lineup and the chemistry of these insatiable funk blues fusionists. You could feel that Harris isn’t a drummer by trade, but he’s obviously got rhythm in his blood. Salas turned to him several times during the show to guide him, telling him when to send the fortress into a rhythmic gallop and/or when to pull up. These exchanges were most intense especially on the way into and out of individual songs in the set. Aware of the situation, which had clearly come about for Salas and Fowler at the last minute and completely unplanned, the quartet cracked a few colorful jokes at their own expense during the show.
For two numbers the stage was also joined by special guest of the night Sugar Blue on harmonica, who played with Fowler on The Rolling Stones’ records. His harp is the signature of the Stones’ evergreen Miss You, so the band went for a live version of that song too. They did it as an encore, right at the end of the show. Salas warned the crowd beforehand that the band was playing this song for the first time, and asked for a bit of patience while the guys got in sync before launching into it. Only in this song did Harris move over to bass, with Dorian Heartsong taking the drum seat.
The set also included the pulsating funk standard Pump It Up from Salas’s album “Shapeshifter”, The Red Rooster, Are The Gods Smiling On Me, Bring It Easy and, near the end, the expected I Don’t Know Why I Love You (played in the encore), where the subtle side of Fowler as a vocalist really sparkled, along with his power to string together a whole range of moods convincingly.
The funk ritual was over in a blink. An hour and 40 minutes. The Fowler / Salas combo remains a dream team! Because of the lineup rotation, the IMFs surely didn’t conjure their stage maximum this time, but given their routine, know-how and rich experience, that didn’t derail them one bit. Once again the club was flooded with the real feeling of riding a giant wave of unique musical magic, something only Stevie Salas and his companions can create. Once again, that one-of-a-kind funk potency confirmed that Bluesiana is its second home!
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
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