Julian Sas – Still Preaching
If a concert hall could have what could be described as a 'Home Game' then Julian Sas at The Harmonie in Bonn would be just that.
Except that Sas is from Holland. How does he manage to sell the place out every year yet remain something of a secret tip amongst blues and rock fans?
Well the answer from me is 'I don't know' but I'm glad that if he has to be a 'Geheim Tip' as they say here in Germany, that Bonn is no secret to his booking agent. In fact he visits every year like Father Christmas. And just like Santa, it's always a pleasure when he comes to town. My last review called him 'The Missionary'. Well the good news is that he is still preaching 'The Gospel according to Muddy Waters'
A first for me at a Harmonie concert was seeing a young kid being carried out of the audience. He hadn't been screaming 'Julian!' (or 'John, Paul, George, Ringo or Bill' for that matter) but it was proof that JS fans come in all shapes, sizes and age groups as much as it was proof that it can still get pretty hot and sticky when the hall has a busy night.
At shows end I see the said youngster, upright again, with poster and pen in hand waiting for autographs. So how does that fit in with the rockstar ego? Julian was talking after the show about a festival in Finland. "This one is for Rory Gallagher" he remembers saying – and a crowd of 12.000 Fins went wild. But importantly to me listening to Julian tell the story, it wasn't the fact that 12.000 fans went wild to hear HIM playing that mattered – he was moved that so many people there remembered Rory. That, purely and simply, is Julian Sas. If he has an ego, he keeps it in a locked up box in the attic, and the box is very definitely covered in dust.
It would be easy to think you were pretty important when you come out to a hall that is literally packed out to the corners. In fact, had the Harmonie been twice as big I suspect the corners would still be packed. They are certainly filled with hard rock music as Julian, Tenny Tahamata (bass) and Rob Heijne (drums) get going. It's the classic power trio combination of course and on Sas classics like ‘Burning Soul', ‘Aint no Change' and ‘Devil Got My Number' you can firstly see why the hall is packed every year the show hits town, and secondly, you wonder why the band isn't playing stadiums instead of concert halls.
There are a couple of surprises for the audience in the shape of songs scheduled for the new CD next year. The slow blues of ‘Sailing into the Unknown' for instance is a great workout for blues guitar. It's a song about coming home – and one wonders if the Harmonie isn't Julian's second home by now – certainly there is a family atmosphere about the show. Peter from Julian's German website and Bill from ‘Rory's Friends' are here. Bernie from the Mr Music shop is only missing because of illness. It seems like half the audience know Julian, but maybe thats just Julian. The extra effort people give can be seen in his whole presentation: from the Entrance tickets with photo on, through the deluxe packaged ‘Dedication' CD/DVD. People put in extra effort for Mr S it seems.
No-one puts in more effort for the music itself than Julian though. ‘The Way it Goes' is an uptempo song in the ‘Radar Love' mode that promises good things for the new release, but it's inevitably "one for Rory" that gets the biggest cheer as Julian and band launch into a ten minute blistering version of the Gallagher classic ‘I Take what I Want'. A counterpoint to the up-tempo mayhem is Sas's own melancholic ‘Blues for J' dedicated tonight to Bernie at ‘Mr Music' (Blues for B maybe?)
It sometimes seems like there are two concerts in one when Julian Sas is in town. One is a hard rock package with pounding drums and thumping bass, the other is a rock/blues show. I can't help smiling every time I see Julian switch to his Gibson Thunderbird and pick up a glass slide. Whatever else Julian has played, does play or, for that matter will play in future – at the bottom of it all is Muddy and co. He talks briefly after the show about keeping the blues alive and if I heard it from anyone else it might seem like media hype. When Julian tells me how much of a buzz he still gets every time he puts on a classic from the likes of Muddy Waters though it comes from the heart. How do I know? Because some have a rock n roll heart, Julian Sas has a heart made out of Muddy Water Blues.
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