I was writing recently about musicians taking breaks from their core obligations and here again, a similar situation. So in addition to solo releases, there are beautiful projects that bring musicians to their favorite place, the stage. With Whitesnake on hold and Winger preparing some shows for next month, Reb Beach along with fellow Whitesnake member Michelle Luppi and Paolo Caridi, Fabio Dessi, Khaled Abbas and Enrico Varisco, not such bad guys to say the least, took to the roads of Europe presenting something that every Rock/Hard Rock fan would love to see live.
But before that we had the ideal warm up for a whole hour by an Athenian band with excellent musicians who got the audience well into the mood of the evening. “It’s All About The Music” was led by Manolis Tsigkos with a remarkable company whose performance was stolen by Anastasia Basta, a great voice and amazing performer on stage. We listened to songs from many favorite bands such as Def Leppard, Journey, FM, Pretty Maids, Van Halen, Firehouse and many more. I mostly kept the very good renditions of “Savage Heart” (Pretty Maids) and “All She Wrote” (Firehouse) in a set that was as remarkable as it was nostalgic.
Listening to the first notes of “Bad Boys” from the…bad boys, it was obvious how this performance would go, which lasted 105 minutes. The biggest part of the setlist was taken up by Whitesnake tracks, not from the albums Beach is involved with, but the band’s well-known classic hits. The same goes for the one and only track from Dokken which was “In My Dreams” and not something from ‘Erase The Slate’ which he was a member of. Instead, we heard three tracks from Winger, all from the first period, “Headed For A Heartbreak”, “Miles Away” and “Madalaine”. The performance of “Black Magic” somewhere in the middle of the set was one of the standout moments which started with a stunning solo by Reb Beach, while at the end “Burn” was just what was needed for a finale worthy of the show. The special guest was a not a bad guy at all, quite the opposite in fact, George Gakis, an excellent and beloved musician in the industry,who somewhere towards the end, took to the stage to perform “Give Me All Your Love” and “Here I Go Again”, which was applauded.
Before I close, I can’t help but give credit to Michelle Luppi, keyboardist of Whitesnake, but here he was acting as vocalist and bassist, who surprised me with his more than excellent performance of all the songs, which let’s not forget, are songs by David Coverdale, Kip Winger and Don Dokken! That alone gives him the title of MVP of the night. I also have to give credit to the organizers, Main Event Productions for once again, flawless organization!
Setlist: Bad Boys, Fool For Your Loving, Headed For A Heartbreak, In My Dreams, Love Ain’t No Stranger, Crying In The Rain / drum solo, Black Magic, Slow An’ Easy, Slide It In, Miles Away, Madalaine, Give Me All Your Love, Here I Go Again, Still Of The Night, Burn.
Dimitris Kazantzis
