Location: Munich / Backstage (Halle) / Germany
Date: 08.10.2013
In the new millennium, any tour by a legendary rock band that got going in the seventies (or even earlier) could be the last one. You never know. The latest run by Oakland, California rockers Y&T, who have been tearing around our galaxy since 1974, is no different. When a tour like that is confirmed for Europe, it’s a gift, plain and simple! And if one of the confirmed dates happens to be Munich, then showing up is basically mandatory!
Y&T have been enjoying their revival years since around 2002 as a revered, legendary hard rock outfit, and since 2008 they’ve been visiting the old continent pretty much every year. Their last studio album came out three years ago. “Facemelter” was their first studio record after a 13-year “withdrawal crisis” from putting out new material. Time flies, and since 2011 the band has been marking the thirtieth anniversaries of its cult albums by tailoring the setlist to match. This year it’s 30 years since “Mean Streak” (1983), one of the band’s most recognizable albums to this day. Before landing on European soil, the band had already played a hell of a run of shows on the other side of the Atlantic, and came away with an important lesson: fans of their music prefer a setlist that spans a wider stretch of the band’s career rather than one album played in full, first track to last. So Y&T started the German leg of the tour with a setlist that, as expected, draws on material released between 1981 and 1990, sensibly mixed with new songs from “Facemelter” (2010), which is stylistically very close to the classics anyway.
Opening for Y&T in Munich were German hard rock quartet Hartmann, from Aschaffenburg. They’re led by Oliver Hartmann, a guy who, over the good decade of this fast-moving new millennium, has appeared in the studio on a pile of albums by various artists as a backing vocalist or part of the “choir” coloring the songs. Those artists include Edguy, Avantasia, Helloween, Primal Fear, Rhapsody, HammerFall and so on. Music nerds among you may also know him as a former member of German power metallers At Vance, with whom he recorded five studio albums. Under his own Hartmann banner, Oliver has put out 4 studio albums to date, the latest, “Balance”, in 2012. This year even brought his first compilation, “The Best Is Yet To Come”, collecting the best moments from all four of the band’s albums!
The quartet of Oliver Hartmann (vocals, guitar), Mario Reck (guitar), Armin Donderer (bass) and Dario Ciccioni (drums) turned out to be an excellent choice for the band that has to open for Y&T. I had no clue what to expect. And? Oliver proves to be a brilliant vocalist, and on top of that a brilliant guitarist too. The stage quickly became a one-man show, the show of charismatic Oliver. A vocal chameleon, he could summon an authoritative, clean, higher-pitched voice with real melodic payoff, which instantly answered why German power metal bands wanted him so badly in the past. But he can also flip that around and turn tenderly subtle, adding more or less grit to the color. On top of that, Oliver handled all the main guitar solos himself, plus the decorative lead passages. His three buddies followed him faithfully. That night Hartmann played the repertoire of the freshly released compilation “The Best Is Yet To Come” in full, which means all four of the band’s studio albums were represented equally. Oliver Hartmann has a remarkable feel for building gripping songs. The tight, dynamic performance of this superbly synced-up quartet delivered a great opening experience and, as mentioned, also created that quietly hoped-for sense of a good fit between support act and headliner. If you’re into melodic hard rock, definitely check out Hartmann. You won’t be disappointed.
Y&T are a different story. A separate entity. No other band is like them. A one-of-a-kind original. Y&T are best seen without a support act, even though Hartmann held their own as part of the package. Two years ago the band played a little dive near Munich’s temple of culture Kunstpark Öst, called Garage Deluxe. The club, about the size of Slovenia’s Orto bar, was bursting at the seams back then, and nobody could move inside. This time Backstage was at least half empty. What was even more interesting was that the crowd was quite different from the day before, when Pretty Maids played the same venue together with Bonfire. More or less pure hard rock veterans.
Dave Meniketti, who turns a round 60 on December 12th this year, stopped worrying about his gigs a long time ago. When he steps on stage, everything around him disappears. All that’s left is the music and him as part of it. He’s one of the most accomplished musicians out there, a man who embodies in one person the perfect combination of top-class guitar playing and vocal delivery! Sadly, as the leader of a band that sold an enviable 4 million records over its long career yet always stayed “on the fringes”, let’s say unfairly overlooked, they never got proper recognition, not just for their body of work but also for the inspiration Y&T’s presence offered the later commercially successful “lipstick bands” of the second half of the eighties. From the first moment to the end, which clocks in at well over two hours of energetic, eruptive Y&T, Dave Meniketti transforms into a real stage devil, with no shortage of mischief. Is he going to turn sixty? No way. Not with that kind of power and creative energy radiating off him! The guy simply switches off from the world. Every second of it. Only emotion and passion speak. Meniketti is the perfect embodiment of expressing passion and emotion through the language of music called rock ‘n’ roll. Already in the opener Mean Streak, the band made it clear they’re perfectly honed and that Brad Lang, who joined in 2010 to replace the band’s late original bassist Phil Kennemore, has become his true successor. And the way Meniketti’s fingers fly up and down the fretboard in every variation he fancies from the very first song is just proof of the incredible mileage this musical wizard has already racked up in his 40-year career. The dynamite Y&T scatter and set the stage on fire with is extraordinary. Hard to put into words. The whole quartet creates outstanding vocal harmonies which, together with the top-notch sound Backstage delivered that night, co-create the optimum stage show for the Y&T repertoire. There’s Dave’s faithful guitar sidekick John Nymann, his high school buddy, who even helped Y&T out on keyboards now and then back in the eighties. And we can’t forget the real drumming “walrus” Mike Vanderhule, whose cannon-like, precisely measured swings shake the contents of men’s trousers at venues like it’s a bet! No. Backstage was no exception.
After the quietly anticipated opener Mean Streak, Y&T delivered the first beautiful surprise of the night with a performance of the “Ten” (1990) classic Hard Times! The varied setlist really did cover all of the “pillar” albums of Y&T’s career! Back to the main man of the night, Dave Meniketti: he delivered another outstanding vocal performance. His voice is manly, rugged, packed with macho charge and piercingly strong, or rather, just plain powerful. Dominant. It has a distinct, firmly etched throatiness, which Meniketti, a vocalist with a unique tone, exploits brilliantly when delivering verses. It’s hard to put the guitar ahead of a vocal as good as Meniketti’s, but of course he’s first and foremost a guitar hero. The guy gives in to the pleasure. Y&T transform their songs on stage. Stretch them out. He took a lot of time to give a song like Dirty Girl the full treatment, and over its course it went through at least five solos. At times it seemed like Meniketti would never come out of his solo. The trio of buddies watches him on stage, alert and wary, waiting for the boss to wind down so they can walk him back from the solo into the song’s main phrase. As a guitarist/vocalist in one, Meniketti hasn’t lost a shred of his incredible energy, not a shred of his remarkable character. After all the years of sticking it out in the music business. It is true, though, that he coughed a little at the end of the show. You have to understand that a musician giving that much of himself is bound to burn out energy-wise. That’s probably why there was only one song in the encore. Two years ago at Garage Deluxe we got four encore songs.
For about two years now, Y&T have also been playing Squeeze from the “Earthshaker” (1981) album. Here Meniketti lets John Nymann sing the song, and he adds a heap of theatrics and ramps up the carnival-ride feel of the Y&T show. Since Meniketti is unstoppable on stage, the rest of the crew has to keep up. They’ve got no other choice, or they might lose their jobs at Y&T. In his wildness Dave literally drags them along, and there isn’t a moment when you could catch Brad or John standing still in their own corner of the stage. Y&T remain a perfect energy torpedo that doesn’t sit still for even a fraction of a second.
Masters remain masters! Next year the band celebrates its 40th anniversary. Y&T are reportedly planning to use one of their concerts in Japan to record a new live document. So the story is far from over. Not after what we saw in Munich. Y&T’s untamed, wild-kid heart is dragging them into their 40th year. And all those years haven’t made these wise old music wizards any easier to catch. The temptation of a Y&T show remains a must-have experience for any true hard rocker in this new era too! An experience that sobers you up. An experience where you meet a band that gives everything. And you share all the heart radiated by their genuine love for the magic of the music they make! The priceless value of that experience is, I’d say, literally irreplaceable in its uniqueness. It’s that point of total authenticity where you can say you really got the most a band can possibly give you.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
HARTMANN:
1. Right Here Right Now
2. The Sun’s Still Rising
3. All My Life
4. Like A River
5. After The Love HAs Gone
6. From Outta Space
7. Don’t Give Up Ypur Dream
8. Alive Again
9. Out In The Cold
Y&T:
Intro (Highway To Hell/From The Moon)
1. Mean Streak
2. Hard Times
3. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
4. Don’t Stop Runnin’
5. Black Tiger
6. Dirty Girl
7. Midnight in Tokyo
8. How Long
9. Lipstick and Leather
10. Hurricane
11. Winds of Change
12. Contagious
13. I Want Your Money
14. Rescue Me
15. I’ll Cry for You
16. Squeeze
17. Summertime Girls
18. I Believe in You
19. I’m Coming Home
—encore—
20. Forever
