Live Review: Whitesnake - Cologne 2019

Palladium, Cologne, Germany
7th July 2019
Whitesnake - “The Flesh & Blood” World Tour 2019 - Support: Santa Cruz

Already at 6 pm and thus half an hour before the actual inlet, a long line had formed in front of the Palladium. The only show in Germany is completely sold out with around 4,000 visitors and the fans are in a good mood and celebrate the Brits already with chants.


Santa Cruz

At 7 pm, the four Finns of SANTA CRUZ open the evening with groovy Sleaze Rock and Hard Rock. The guys around the blond singer and guitarist Arttu “Archie Cruz” Kuosmanen have been on the road since 2007 and have released three long-players. The last album was called ‘Bad Blood Rising’ and is from 2017. If you like GUNS N’ ROSES, SKID ROW, MÖTLEY CRÜE, FOZZY or STEELPANTHER, you will like the Finns too. With quick Rock, cool slogans, blond hair and sexy posing, the Finns take care for a good mood and make fun all the time.

Setlist
01. Changing of Seasons
02. Relentless Renegades
03. Tell Me Why
04. We Are the Ones to Fall
05. Wasted & Wounded
06. Aiming High

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Whitesnake

After leaving Deep Purple, where David Coverdale was involved as a singer in the MK-III and MK-IV formations, he founded the legendary hard rock formation WHITESNAKE in 1978. In the 80s, the band placed four albums in the British Top Ten and reached double-platinum status in the USA with ‘Slide It In’ in 1984. Since then, more than 20 million albums have been sold, with the biggest hits ‘Here I Go Again’ and ‘This Is Love’. After the successful “Greatest Hits” tour, which ended in October 2016 with three sold-out concerts in Japan, the band went straight to the studio. In May 2019, Frontiers Records / Soulfood released ‘Flesh & Blood’, thirteenth album of the British band. The band’s 40th anniversary is now followed by a world tour with a single gig in Germany.



Music & Performance
After a half-hour break, WHITESNAKE set off at exactly 8:03 pm. And now the hips were swung, the fans clapped their hands, groaning loudly but also listening with pointed ears. After all, it’s all about the crucial question of whether the blonde shouter can still sing properly or everything is played from tape. Well, the whole show is sung live, even though David Coverdale has plenty of vocal support from keyboarder Michelle Lupi (2015) and veteran guitarist Reb Beach (2003). The former DEEP PURPLE shouter sings significantly lower and rougher in comparison to the 90s, but does his job really well and concerning posing, he is absolutely the best anyway. It’s just amazing how he deals with the microphone and I know a lot of singers, including Joey Tempest from EUROPE, who are just imitating these poses, but no one can even get close to David.



Bass player Michael Devin (2010) was also on the last tour just like the guitar hero Joel Hoekstra (2014). On drums, the now 69-year-old Tommy Aldridge drives his men mercilessly in front of him. OZZY OSBOURNE, TED NUGENT, GARY MOORE and THIN LIZZY are just a few stops in his impressive career and many still consider him the best drummer ever. From WHITESNAKE, where he has been a member intermittently since 1987, he is no longer indispensable. Music was also played during the evening by the way. After the usual intro, ‘My Generation’ by THE WHO, with ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Slide It In’ there’s already lots of power in the set, but then all calmed down with ‘Love Is not No Stranger’. During the time I had to bring the camera out of the venue I missed a few tracks, including the bluesy ‘Slow an' Easy’ and ‘Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City’. Two Tracks from the new record were following, where ‘Shut Up & Kiss Me’ with its chorus could really convince.



Then, a quite long solo phase started first with Reb Beach and Joel Hoekstra dueling on the guitars and then of course Tommy still had his appearance. With ‘Burn’, for me the song best sung by Coverdale, and the final bouncer from the band, ‘We Wish You Well’, a thrilling and sweaty show ended after just less than 85 minutes… unfortunately without any more additions.

Setlist
00. Intro: My Generation (The Who song)
01. Bad Boys (with ‘Children of the Night’ snippet)
02. Slide It In
03. Love Ain’t No Stranger
04. Hey You (You Make Me Rock)
05. Slow an’ Easy
06. Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City (Bobby “Blue” Bland cover)
07. Trouble Is Your Middle Name
08. Guitar Duel
09. Shut Up & Kiss Me
10. Drum Solo
11. Is This Love
12. Give Me All Your Love
13. Here I Go Again
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14. Still of the Night
15. Burn (Deep Purple cover)
16. We Wish You Well

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All Pictures by Andreas Gey