Location: Vienna / Szene / Austria
Date: Thursday, March 24, 2016
Uriah Heep, the famous British rock pioneers, will this December clock up a solid 47 years in the game, to put it plainly. Yet they show no signs of aging. Their still-current studio album “Outsider” (2014) has this time taken them on yet another of their many spring tours of Europe. So they landed in Vienna once again, where they’ve played many, many times, most recently in November 2014. Years ago they were still playing the Gasometer hall, but times are changing fast when it comes to concert attendance, and this time the promoter booked them at the club venue Szene, which these days serves as a kind of “replacement” for the late Viennese club Planet Music, where we caught a whole heap of brilliant, unforgettable shows right up until 2007.
Before this new reunion with the band in Vienna, we’d seen Uriah Heep three times in a row at “open” festival venues. Those were Rock Batuje 2014, See Rock festival 2014 and a standalone show at the end of July in the middle of the Arena Alpe Adria in the Italian seaside resort of Lignano Sabbiadoro. Not one of them fully convinced, and the feeling was that the band was indeed slowly being gnawed at by the tooth of time. But it evidently still holds true that Uriah Heep are best seen in German-speaking countries, since that’s where they deliver their concert maximum. We came to the same conclusion this time. One more condition has to be met, though: the venue must be a club, i.e. an enclosed space. But more on all that a bit later.
At 8:00 p.m. The Weight took the stage. German rock revivalists. The quartet, in which the singer hopped onto keys/vocals when needed, made it clear they follow the trend of general revivalism that has recently swept Scandinavia, Germany and Britain too. The band cultivates a classic, retro-school rock sound, where you can feel a preoccupation in the guitar phrases especially with Led Zeppelin (above all visually, judging by the singer’s stage movement and delivery), and also Black Sabbath, all under a veil of psychedelia, while two songs, especially in the intros thanks to the Hammond sound of the keys and the interplay with the guitar line, even pulled toward early Uriah Heep. Nothing special, but all-round decent, credible and confident. The guys made optimal use of the opportunity, and it was especially nice to see that Uriah Heep treated the support act with respect, giving them a 45-minute set, excellent sound and decent stage lighting.
Szene was packed. To the last corner. You could barely breathe in the club. The temperature crept up minute by minute. The crowd was of course mostly on the older side, the generation that spent its teenage years in the seventies, when Uriah Heep were at their commercial peak and in the eyes of the whole rock’n’roll world. The clock struck half past nine! People come alive, a soft light first falls on Phil Lanzon at the keyboards, soon turning into a strong beam of blue, swirling light as the keyboardist draws out the opening notes of the Uriah Heep classic Gypsy. Hard riff, hard rock opener. Just what the fans like. A classic that can’t be missing from the set. Right from the start, as the band took the stage and spread out across it, it was clear this would be another excellent show from them. Everything clicked together beautifully. Bernie Shaw in superb vocal form on the day, the vocal harmonies – the elementary trademark of classic Uriah Heep compositions – brilliantly done. In that respect bassist Dave Rimmer, in his third year in the lineup, has finally taken over all of the late Trevor Bolder’s duties in full. Together with Phil Lanzon and Mick Box, the trio gave phenomenal support to Bernie’s lead vocal. The recap of the classic Uriah Heep sound elements, headed by the vocal harmonies, worked phenomenally this time. I’m thinking especially of the blend between the chunky Hammond keyboard sound and Mick Box’s razor-sharp guitar lines, while drummer Russell Gilbrook once again delivered a crazy drum performance.
That the paragraph above isn’t overdoing the praise is confirmed by the fact that Bernie nailed every single required vocal line. At full power. He passed two tougher tests with flying colors. The first awaited him at the end of the prog-rock mini-epic The Magician’s Birthday (along with Shadow of Grief, the main novelty in the set), where he successfully hit all of Hensley’s highest lines, the second at the close of the classic July Morning. Add to that the extraordinary feeling, the plasma of passion and emotion, which came through especially in the gorgeous ballad Rain, which Shaw and Lanzon performed entirely on their own, on piano. The set list also had room for the unforgettable The Wizard, where Bernie first properly introduced Mick Box, saying: “This is a song written by the man standing on my right and without whom there would be no Uriah Heep today, ladies and gentlemen, my best friend Mick Box!” After the finish of the super-epic and one of the concert’s highlights, The Magician’s Birthday, where Gilbrook, during the drum obligations, didn’t use a kazoo like the unforgettable Lee Kerslake before him, Bernie remarked: “Who the hell could have written a song like that back then?”, gesturing at the same time to hint that it was of course under the influence of intoxicating substances. The answer is simple, Bernie: “Ken Hensley, of course.”
In recent years the band has once again updated (refreshed) how it uses the stage, boosting the dynamics and the theatrics of the show. Dave Rimmer, who has completely relaxed and fit into the band superbly, joins Mick Box in duels, the two stepping up side by side between riffs; the bassist also often uses the riser where the drums and Lanzon’s Hammond stand, and runs around the stage actively the whole time.
Alongside the band’s excellent performance, the sound did its bit too: you could clearly hear every building block of it (I stood in the far right corner by the right-hand monitors up front, which, if only for the partly blocked view, is a thankless spot to watch a concert from), with phenomenally executed vocal harmonies, and great audience participation too, a crowd that didn’t hold back its feelings and relived it all together with the band. All in all. Evidently you need to go see Uriah Heep at enclosed shows, and at least in Germany or Austria. The power isn’t fading. Even the great rock’n’roll guru and band leader Mick Box seems full of freshness, verve and drive. Sure, there’s some routine; with all that mileage it’s definitely there. But this time it was pushed into the background. The quintet, as one unit, bewitched the crowd and delivered an excellent stage performance packed with the energy of a true rock spectacle. Experience, know-how, power and bulletproof self-confidence.
With the kind of playing and devilish rock’n’roll sorcery the legendary lineup delivered this time in Vienna, there’s no fear of the band thinking about retirement. Let’s hope material is piling up for a new studio album, which, hand on heart, Uriah Heep don’t even need, but it’s the kind of move that keeps you young after almost 50 years in the game. Set list excellent. With the exception of the tracks from “Outsider” (2014), the next youngest song on this set list was born in 1973. An hour and 40 minutes on stage could perhaps have squeezed in at least Bird of Prey as an encore, but never mind. The legends aren’t giving in, then, and they already have a fresh phalanx of confirmed summer festival shows lined up, where we’ll catch them again. This time at this year’s edition of the cult Bang Your Head!!! festival in Germany!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Gypsy
2. Look At Yourself
3. Shadow Of Grief
4. Stealin’
5. The Law
6. The Outsider
7. Sunrise
8. Magician’s Birthday
9. Rain
10. The Wizard
11. One Minute
12. Can’t Take That Away
13. July Morning
14. Lady In Black
—encore—
15. Easy Livin’
