Location: Zagreb / Dom sportova / Croatia
Date: Saturday, June 15, 2013
A year and a half ago Whitesnake played Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana, and crowds of their fans poured in from all over the former shared country. This time the situation was flipped. On their new European tour, Whitesnake played Belgrade and then Zagreb the following day, in the big hall of Dom Sportove, where the Medveščak hockey players and the Cibona basketball team play their games, among others. Whitesnake tour Europe practically every year, so no endless horde of gig-goers made the trip from Slovenia to Zagreb. Even so, you could still catch a Slovenian word here and there in the sea of black.
Even before going to see Whitesnake, you have to be aware of what the band can actually offer in 2013. One of the biggest rock institutions on the planet in the second half of the eighties, they’re still incredibly prolific in the studio and on stage a quarter of a century later. Sadly, years of intense musical career and the age that comes with it have taken their toll on the band’s number-one voice, the legendary David Coverdale, who can no longer match his golden years vocally. Still, bolstered by a squad of excellent musicians around him, he continues to credibly represent the greatness of the Whitesnake name. So when their Zagreb show was announced, there was only one logical decision: I (we) couldn’t miss it.
Opening the night were Ivan Mihaljevic and his Side Effects. The band builds its career on the guitar genius of founder Mihaljevic, whose playing style vaguely recalls Paul Gilbert or Richie Kotzen. In a half-hour set, the power trio tore through a cross-section of original ambient hard rock, and despite being short on personnel, they filled out the sound well the whole way. The band has serious potential, and despite a lack of wider media exposure they put up a dignified fight in the thankless job of opening for an act like Whitesnake.
After the stage was set and a twenty-minute break, Whitesnake charged out to the edge of the stage from rolling clouds of smoke and kicked off the show with Give Me All Your Love. From the very first moment Coverdale was saving his vocal strength, using the crafty tactic of sharing the chorus with the guitarists right from the start. He also loaded a big chunk of the work onto the crowd’s shoulders, and he gladly put them to work through the rest of the evening, especially on the band’s best-known songs.
Whitesnake are marking the band’s 35th anniversary on this tour, so they gave the setlist a festive airing-out and slipped in a few gems that rarely make it into their live repertoire. Ready an’ Willing surprised everyone who loves their early blues era, and Don’t Break My Heart Again stretched the smiles on the crowd’s faces even wider. But watch out! The stage execution of the White Snake in 2013 is clearly subordinate to the metalized sound that Whitesnake have meekly followed more or less since the notorious album »1987«. There isn’t much room left in their expression for maneuvering around bluesy charm. Instead, the Reb Beach / Doug Aldrich guitar duo these days bets less on old-school soulfulness and more on technical finesse and straight-up punch. The older hits are therefore greased with sharp guitar language, which is why the difference in vibe between, say, the live versions of Gambler (which Coverdale dedicated to fallen heroes – Mel Galley, Cozy Powell and Jon Lord) and Can You Hear the Wind Blow is barely noticeable.
A big magnet for the eyes is drummer Tommy Aldridge. At 62, the man keeps his vitality and pounds the kit like it’s a joke, all while looking utterly relaxed, even playful. He’s a real showman, as he proved with his trademark drum spot in Steal Your Heart Away, finishing it off by playing with his bare hands, no sticks. Because of his smashing style, where all you can see from below the stage is his mane whipping around, Aldridge somehow crept into my frontal lobe as a lookalike of another drumming giant, Mikkey Dee (Motörhead). Of course, Aldrich on the right and Beach on the left side of the stage didn’t skimp on showing off their colorful palette of skills either. Their tight teamwork peaked with an alternating solo spot. Even though they repeat it every single night, their technical perfection and emotional weight let them deliver some listenable machine-gunning from their six-string weapons every time, giving the boss a few minutes of rest, during which he’s probably clutching an oxygen tank with both hands. A few crumbs in the second half of the show also went to bassist Michael Devin, whose organ excursion served as the intro to Fool for Your Loving.
Despite his worn-down vocal form, David Coverdale still counts among the very top of rock frontmen when it comes to sheer stage presence. Dressed in skin-tight pants and a shirt from his own brand that didn’t hide his chest hair, he still draws lustful glances from the gentler sex in the crowd despite his years. In the front rows there was even a pretty young woman who, wearing nothing but a bra up top, was offering him her fresh meat. Throughout the show Coverdale played sexily with the mic stand, and with well-rehearsed moves and his huge charisma he kept the Zagreb crowd in check with ease. His worn-out voice remains the weakest point of Whitesnake shows, but thanks to the magic of every other building block of a Whitesnake concert, the fans obviously forgive the charming gentleman on the fly. This time, one of the good reasons for the forgiving verdict was the already mentioned attractive selection of songs. In the encore he served up the acoustic ballad Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City, which Coverdale (just like two years ago in Ljubljana) stretched out at the end with a vocal take on the Purple-esque Soldier of Fortune. For the farewell, Whitesnake offered a gallop along well-worn tracks – a monumental rendition of Still of the Night, where the crowd, luckily, drowned out the frontman, who was visibly flagging after a good hour and a half together.
“The White Snake” proved itself a well-oiled machine in Zagreb, putting on a show a notch more alive than the one we recently saw in Ljubljana. The material from the last two albums, which still clings tightly to the setlist, has had plenty of time since release to burrow into listeners’ ears, so together with the band’s older standards, Whitesnake put together a pleasant retrospective stroll through their 35-year-long tour. Coverdale’s form aside, folks, years from now we (lovers of old-school rock) will be hiccuping with longing for gigs like this one!
author: Urban Bolta
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
My Generation (taped intro)
1. Give Me All Your Love
2. Ready an’ Willing
3. Can You Hear the Wind Blow
4. Don’t Break My Heart Again
5. Is This Love
6. Gambler
7. Love Will Set You Free
8. “Pistols at Dawn” (guitar duel: Doug Aldrich & Reb Beach)
9. Steal Your Heart Away (plus drum solo: Tommy Aldridge)
10. Forevermore
11. Best Years / Bad Boys / Children of the Night
12. Fool for Your Loving
13. Here I Go Again
—encore—
14. Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City
15. Soldier of Fortune (“a capella” version)
16. Still of the Night
We Wish You Well (taped outro)
