Palladium, Cologne, Germany20th November 2019
Greta Van Fleet - “A Night Of Revelry With... Tour” 2019 - Support: Yola
GRETA VAN FLEET released their debut album, ‘Anthem of the Peaceful Army’, in October 2018 and Cologne was on the tour schedule quite early. The band had to cancel their gigs here twice due to health reasons. But this time they came. The quartet and their retro-Rock seem to attract all kinds of music lovers: From young hippies to Metal heads, from young to old. The Palladium is sold out. And everybody is excited to finally see and experience GRETA VAN FLEET and their support act YOLA.
Yola
YOLA is an English singer and songwriter from Bristol. Apart from being a solo artist, she is the lead singer of the band PHANTOM LIMB and provided backing vocals for numerous artists. YOLA released her first solo EP, ‘Orphan Offering’, in 2016 and her debut album, ‘Walk through Fire’, in February 2019. https://www.iamyola.com/
Music & Performance
YOLA did not seem to be the obvious choice as opening act for GRETA VAN FLEET. She and her band played a mixture of Country and Soul music, very calm and relaxed. That was nice and YOLA has an awesome voice. Unfortunately the audiences that were not in front of the stage stood further behind in the hall and chatted. Their noise was very loud and one could not understand YOLA’s speeches between the songs. Overall her sound was not loud enough. Only in the last part of the set did she manage to add some Rock elements into her music and the GRETA VAN FLEET audience liked that. Afterwards, everybody agreed that YOLA could sing and has a wonderful voice.
Setlist
01. Faraway Look
02. Ride Out In The Country
03. Walk Through The Fire
04. Love All Night (Work All Day)
05. Never Go Back (Birds Of Chicago cover)
06. What You Do
07. It Ain’t Easier
08. Spanish Harlem (Aretha Franklin cover)
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 5
Light: 8
Sound: 6
Total: 7 / 10
Greta van Fleet
So this happens when you lock your three sons into your basement, stuffed to the ceiling with music instrument and subject them to relentless playing of your record collection from the 70ies. This seems to have happened at the home of a certain Mr Kiszka somewhere in Michigan around 2012, when the three brothers Josh, Sam and Jake teamed up with a friend from middle school to form GRETA VAN FLEET. This set in motion a chain of events, which can only be described as breath-taking. At first, the band recorded an EP during one of their gigs, which they sold during subsequent gigs. This was enough to stir up interest from record labels. In 2016, they released the single ‘Highway Tunes’ via iTunes, which topped the US Mainstream Rock Charts, followed-up by another EP called ‘From the Fires’. After this, they played for Bob Seger, Elton John and also for certain European gigs of GUNS N’ ROSES, and all that without having released a full-length album.
Visitors of this year’s edition of Rock am Ring / Rock im Park got a first taste of the musical qualities of this band, which some hail as the true reincarnation of the legendary LED ZEPPELIN. In 2019, the band won a Grammy. http://www.gretavanfleet.com/
Music & Performance
GRETA VAN FLEET had to postpone their performance at the Palladium in Cologne twice for health reasons. The performance was originally scheduled to take place on November 1, 2018. The alternative date in March 2019 also proved to be too early for singer Josh Kiszka, who had apparently contracted laryngitis. So when the band finally appeared onstage in Cologne, the audience went crazy and greeted them enthusiastically.
Their magnificent show transported the audience right back to the 1970s. As mentioned, the band is often compared to LED ZEPPELIN. The whole band reminds LED ZEPPELIN in looks, Josh Kiszka sings similarly to Robert Plant and his brother Jake plays his guitar as good as Jimmy Page. Drummer Daniel Wagner could show his skills in a drum solo at the end, but he cannot compare to John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham. The band plays twelve songs to their audience and they turn most of them into long, overflowing psychedelic trips with instrumental passages and primal screams from Josh (he can really sing! Not one false note!). The band mixes Blues, Rock, Hard Rock and Southern Rock influences. Everything is powerful and groovy, always based on great guitar riffs. After 90 minutes the band leaves their ecstatic audiences.
Whoever thinks that the hype around these four guys was just a short one, should go to one of their shows. They will prove them they are wrong. We will hear much more from GRETA VAN FLEET.
Setlist
01. Highway Tune
02. Edge Of Darkness
03. Black Smoke Rising
04. The Music Is You (John Denver cover)
05. You’re The One
06. Age Of Man
07. Black Flag Exposition
08. Watching Over
09. The Cold Wind
10. When The Curtain Falls
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11. Flower Power
12. Safari Song
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Light: 10
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
All pictures by André Wilms
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