Eric Burdon - Tollwood Festival Olympiapark Munich 8th July 2009
Approx Setlist: When I Was Young / Don't Bring Me Down / I Believe To My Soul / San Franciscan Nights / Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood / I'm Crying / We Gotta Get Out Of This Place / Boom Boom / Mother Earth / CC Rider / House Of The Rising Sun // It's My life
Coming mere days after Bruce Springsteen, the tantalising prospect of the great voice of Eric Burdon and Gary Moore’s guitar playing on the same bill seemed just too good to be true. Gary’s love of The Blues and his skill at playing is well-documented, whilst Eric’s voice is as Blues as you can get in a white man’s body. So, this gig was one I had been looking forward to for a few months. It seemed inevitable that it would be a classic, and that Gary would get Eric out for a couple of songs.
Well, when you feel that something is too good to be true, it usually is.
Eric Burdon came onstage with his band at 8pm sharp. (Gigs in Germany tend to run to a pretty tight schedule and rarely, in my experience do bands go on later than advertised. It is not that Germans are efficient, that is a common misconception: they are just so bureaucratic that, if it was advertised that it starts at 8pm, it must start at 8pm, because that’s what it says on the tickets. Otherwise someone is taken out back and shot. Or so I would imagine. The sound on the first song was a little shonky, but once they had the gremlins out of the PA, you quickly realise that the voice is just as good as it ever was and you know that you are in the company of someone who has been there and done that. It is about presence, something that the young ‘uns of The Great Unwashed, generally, lack, because they are young, and you only gain this kind of experience by being around the block a few times. And don’t think that after fifty years of performing, this is just going through the motions. Not for one single minute do you feel that he is on autopilot. He can still belt out the classics, and those in Eric’s setlist are just that. If you looked up the word ‘classics’, as it pertains to songs, in the dictionary, it would include the above setlist, almost in its entirety. You would have to be made of stone not to tap your foot and sing along until you are hoarse.
I could not fault the performance in any way and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had worried that he may be over the hill, the voice a croaky relic of a once-great set of pipes, but I needn’t have fretted on that score. Eric Burdon can still hold his own on any stage.
As Eric and The Animals exited stage left, I was moist with anticipation at the prospect of Gary Moore, and I was convinced that we would see Eric again.
Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder
10th July 2009
Well, when you feel that something is too good to be true, it usually is.
Eric Burdon came onstage with his band at 8pm sharp. (Gigs in Germany tend to run to a pretty tight schedule and rarely, in my experience do bands go on later than advertised. It is not that Germans are efficient, that is a common misconception: they are just so bureaucratic that, if it was advertised that it starts at 8pm, it must start at 8pm, because that’s what it says on the tickets. Otherwise someone is taken out back and shot. Or so I would imagine. The sound on the first song was a little shonky, but once they had the gremlins out of the PA, you quickly realise that the voice is just as good as it ever was and you know that you are in the company of someone who has been there and done that. It is about presence, something that the young ‘uns of The Great Unwashed, generally, lack, because they are young, and you only gain this kind of experience by being around the block a few times. And don’t think that after fifty years of performing, this is just going through the motions. Not for one single minute do you feel that he is on autopilot. He can still belt out the classics, and those in Eric’s setlist are just that. If you looked up the word ‘classics’, as it pertains to songs, in the dictionary, it would include the above setlist, almost in its entirety. You would have to be made of stone not to tap your foot and sing along until you are hoarse.
I could not fault the performance in any way and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had worried that he may be over the hill, the voice a croaky relic of a once-great set of pipes, but I needn’t have fretted on that score. Eric Burdon can still hold his own on any stage.
As Eric and The Animals exited stage left, I was moist with anticipation at the prospect of Gary Moore, and I was convinced that we would see Eric again.
Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder
10th July 2009