When Eric Comes to Bluesiana… (2012)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Location: Velden Am Wörthersee / Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Austria
Concert date: 17.11.2012
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €22.00 (advance) / €25.00 (day of show)

After a few months’ break, the road took the two of us back to Velden. As has been said many times before, Bluesiana is a club that gets under your skin. It sits in a small Carinthian town that, by the second half of November, had already started putting on its fairytale holiday look. The keenest light-hangers had of course already put their Christmas decorations on show around their houses, just in case anyone might forget that the holidays are slowly but steadily creeping up on us. But fear not – inside the club there’s no trace of fairy lights or any other sugary stuff. What greets you there is the cozy homeliness of a mixed-up interior, a fireplace, a piano, soft lighting and friendly staff. And above all – always good music.

Erik Martin, a mature man with a boyish look, is well known to anyone who listened to good music in the late eighties and early nineties. Together with Sheehan, Gilbert and Torpey, he makes up Mr. Big. After the release of their latest album, What if…, in 2009 and a world tour, the guys decided to take some time for themselves. One result of that is singer Erik Martin’s tour, on which he roams around Europe with nothing but his acoustic guitars for company. On Sunday he stopped in Trieste, Italy (report: http://en.rockline.si/podrobnosti-reportaze/akusticni-mr-big-maraton-2012-4525), and the day before that we got the chance to catch him at the aforementioned Bluesiana in Velden.

Erik greeted the gathered crowd for the first time shortly before ten o’clock. Despite being in his late fifties, you could still say he looks like a schoolboy. He earns the label of a classic teacher’s-pet type mostly thanks to his reading glasses, which, from his first greeting of »Hello, I’m Eric Martin and I wear glasses.« on, became the running topic of conversation between songs. Despite all the stage mileage Erik must have racked up over his years in the music world, he seemed quite nervous at first, especially at the start, with trembling hands and a seriously shaky voice. It settled down after the first notes, but kept creeping back after every song. To kick things off, he first knocked over his music stand with the lyrics and setlist, the sheets scattered all over the stage, and the folks in the front row eagerly helped him pick them up. Once he had the last sheet in his hands, he simply decided to use that one as the setlist, so there’d be no more clumsiness with searching. After the first chords it was of course immediately clear that Eric is a singer, and that Paul Gilbert is in Mr. Big for a good reason. Still, Eric’s strumming was perfectly listenable, though nobody expected anything beyond that anyway. His fingers seemed calmer on the guitar than once he stopped playing, though he also admitted himself that it gets harder for him whenever he has no band behind him and all the attention is on him. Despite the buckets of sweat – partly from severe stage fright, and partly because it’s generally pretty hot in Bluesiana – Eric made it through the first verses successfully. There’s nothing to criticize about his unmistakable voice, and Erik gave it everything here. The Bluesiana crowd took it well and knew how to appreciate it, rewarding Eric generously with applause and shouts of delight. In between they also yelled out what he should sing, and Eric happily obliged whenever possible (maybe also so he wouldn’t have to put on his reading glasses to read the setlist). After the opening stretch and a loud singalong to Promise her the moon, Eric decided we were finally ready for the surprise of the night – he called Richie Kotzen up on stage. Eric and Richie have known each other for quite a few years, since Richie replaced guitarist Gilbert in Mr. Big between 1999 and 2004. As luck would have it, Eric’s and Richie’s European tours crossed paths in Austria (Richie played Udine, Italy, the day before and Vienna the day after Eric’s show), and on Richie’s day off at that. Since he’d been told about Eric’s gig at Bluesiana, and since he’s very fond of the stage in this club (he’ll be playing it himself on Thursday, November 22, 2012), he decided to stop in Velden on his way to Vienna and join Eric on stage for a few songs. Richie, visibly under the weather with a cold but still in good spirits, stepped onto the stage, and after Eric told the story of how the two of them met, came a powwow about what to play. The front-row folks demanded Lost in America, Richie balked and said he doesn’t know how to play it even though he wrote it himself, and Eric then decided he’d play Crossroads while Richie would just strum along a bit. Richie shrugged, tuned his guitar and started playing. The song got a huge round of applause, and then at Richie’s request they played and sang Shine together, with the crowd joining in loudly, which the two of them clearly loved, and they really pushed out the last atoms of their vocals. When they brought the song home, Richie was already about to slip away, but Eric suggested they sing 30 days in the hole too. After the song Richie said thanks, hugged Eric and said his goodbyes, while Eric carried on with Going where the wind blows and the unforgettable Mr. Big classics Wild world and To be with you, with the whole crowd singing along loudly. He wrapped up with Electrified and The chain, said thanks and left the stage, but soon came back to sing Take a walk, said he feels good here, thanked the crowd for taking part and put his guitar down. But the crowd insisted that the soaked Eric sing just one more. Eric looked a bit lost at his guitar lying there, at the crowd and at himself, when a rescuing voice from the audience called out for him to sing Just take my heart. Eric pulled himself together in an instant, said we’d all sing just the chorus together, helped out with the first verse, then left the vocals to us, waved and walked off the stage.

Despite the huge success Eric has had and still has with Mr. Big, he has held on to that humanness, authenticity and touch of childlike charm that gives his solo show its great appeal. Let’s hope we get to see him on European stages like this again.