Linz Europe Harbour Festival, Day 3

4 August 2009

It was the last day of the festival and we were now well into our groove: a bit of a lie-in, a quick update on the site and then down to the harbour on the bus, boarding through the middle doors so the driver didn’t see we didn’t have tickets. Off the bus and through the industrial bit of the harbour to the model aircraft flying ground, with Suzy collecting what stones and twigs she could in her open-toed sandals. As we walked down we met with one of the organisers I knew and she told us that Xavier Naidoo – a big German star – would be making a surprise appearance that day; he’d not been able to confirm his appearance until the last minute.

We grabbed a bite to eat on the ship and then went downstairs to watch Xavier rehearse a little with Hubert and Wolfgang Niedecken from BAP, who had stuck around for the last day. Once again, everybody was performing with everybody else.

The first group up was Stelzhamma, a more traditional group from Austria, with strings, brass, accordion and percussion. They played a short set before Willi Resetarits came on stage. He was at the very first Linz Europe Tour concert in Vienna in 2007. I met him briefly back then, determined to exchange a couple of German words with someone, but didn’t get to see him perform as that was the time when a storm ripped through the stage, causing the concert to be postponed to the day after Suzy and I had returned home.

I have no idea what Willi was singing about, but he was an engaging performer, at times standing right in front of the audience on the big speakers, at times sitting at a little table, as though singing to a small party in a little bar room. He is a Burgenland-Croat and Hubert and his band came on stage to sing a couple of Croatian songs. “Put the words on the floor,” he said, handing out lyric sheets, “then no-one will know you’re reading them.”
The video’s a bit shaky, but you get the idea:

After Willi came the Moldovan rockers Zdob si Zdub. In 2005 they represented Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest, coming sixth in the final. They have incredible energy and were the first band with whom Hubert connected when looking for bands for his tour in eastern Europe. In fact they’ve even recorded a joint version of Hubert’s biggest hit Koa Hiatamadl, which of course they performed in Linz. It’s pretty cool seeing a Moldovan star singing the refrain of that song in front of an Austrian audience, who of course immediately join in. Zdob si Zdub also performed Everybody in the Casa Mare with Hubert’s three singers, Maria, Marlene and Elisabeth. This was already a firm favourite for me and Suzy, as we’d heard them play it a few times on the street music day. Sadly no-one seems to have Youtubed it for my repeated, if not endless viewing. There is this though:

Konstantin Wecker, a German musician, was the next to perform, bringing with him his Bösendorfer grand piano. I didn’t see how the stage hands got that on stage; I assume they just used magic. When not playing the grand he would stroll the stage singing, backed up by Jo Wecker on keyboards and a number of other musicians. There’s a snippet of melody of his that is still stuck in my head that’s been going round in my head, only to be thrown out occasionally by the song that he and Hubert performed together, “Einfach wieder schlendern”.

At about quarter past eight the big “Europa” backdrop was taken down and replaced with Hubert’s Bad Goisern dragon. Hubert’s set was planned as the last of the evening and I was a little surprised by it starting so early – not realising that it was going to turn into a set of mega proportions. Having played one of the traditional instrumental openers the band played “Heast as nit”, another very popular song of Hubert’s, usually reserved for encores. But today, they’d play it at the start, because – why not?

Later in the set both Willi and Konstantin came back on stage to each join Hubert and his band for a song: Willi playing the harmonica for the “Fön” blues and Konstantin on the keyboard to accompany Hubert for the traditional Austrian folk song “Abend spåt”, the latter being a song that the audience wouldn’t have heard Hubert play since the 2004 “Trad” tour.

A few songs later and Hubert finally announced the evening’s special guest. A huge roar went up from the crowd as he announced, “Xavier Naidoo!”, who came on stage … wearing his rucksack. I know not why. They performed “Siagst as” , the duet from Hubert’s “S’Nix” album. I’ve seen Hubert and his band perform it alone before and so it was pretty cool to finally see it with Xavier too.

Siagst as – Part 1

Siagst as – Part 2

Xavier’s own set followed, integrating support from Hubert and his band and Wolfgang Niedecken and an hour later Hubert came back for the second part of his set with his band. It was nearly eleven o’clock by now and Hubert remarked that although they went past the curfew a little last night and were about to now too, stuff it, the penalty was fixed so they might as well keep playing. Woohoo!

I’ve already blogged the story of my being up on stage with the rest of the crew as Hubert thanked the various members of his team at the end of his set. After we’d all filed off stage again one final song was performed, with all the musicians who had appeared that day on stage for “Schluss, Aus, Vorbei”. Over, end, past – and the Linz Europe Harbour Festival – and with it the Linz Europe Tour 2007-2009 – finally drew to a close just before midnight on Sunday, 5th July.