Walking Hand in Hand To an Anthem Loudly Sung by Dublin
We walked inside a time-capsule on the 17th October 2023, and went to the 1970s for a couple of hours. Personally, it was my first time time-travelling so I am very excited right now writing these words to share my experience. If you have no idea what I’m talking about still, we went to see Greta Van Fleet in Dublin for their European Tour of their latest album “Starchatcher”.
As much as I have heard the name Greta Van Fleet, I did not know much about the band before going to their show. When Alex played “Heat Above” for the first time to me, the acoustic guitar reminded me a lot of Space Oddity from David Bowie. Then, I heard bits that reminded me a lot of Led Zeppelin and other classic rock bands. What made them so fascinating is that even though the sound is so vintage and 60s, they were so new and modern, as if they were a bridge connecting the older generation to the younger, keeping the “Classic Rock” alive in 2023.
If you pick any song from GVF and press play, the first thing you will probably notice would be Josh Kiszka’s incredibly high-pitched voice. At first-listen, it honestly feels impossible for him to be able to sing these songs live, with such power and such high notes. Well, believe it or not, he sings them so effortlessly and even with more power when he’s performing live, which does not make sense at all. (in a good way) From the second the curtains drop and they start performing, you can feel the energy and the power of their music.
Josh is the ideal perfect front-man. His interaction with the crowd was so on-point, and he had the rock-star charisma moving around the stage. He distributed flowers all over the crowd, made cheeky jokes about his fashion and his hair (he was pretty obsessed with his fashion on stage); he even drew a tattoo for a fan during the show, which made the performance very interactive and engaging. However, understandably, he had to take a lot of breaks and went off stage to rest his voice a little bit since singing that high for a very long period of time would be too harsh on his voice. During his time off, we got the full Jake Kiszka experience on the guitar.
There is no denying that he is incredibly talented playing the guitar, but his stage presence was as admirable as his guitar playing. He was the frontman when Josh was not, bouncing around on stage while shredding loud guitar riffs. His constant movements from left to right, jumping, sprinting, standing on platforms, his whole energy was unmatched. Moving that much to fill out the whole stage while playing difficult guitar licks was truly unique and was fascinating to watch. One thing we can criticise is that we felt like most of his solos felt “too long” because it mostly consisted of broad, detached shredding from the rest of the band and their musicality.
If we look at the classic rock sound from the bands in the 70s and 80s, which is easily noticeable that is the main inspiration of GVF, we can say that the solos and riffs in the classical rock sound are more catchy, memorable, and even simpler. You can mumble the guitar solos of Pink Floyd or Slash, because it gets stuck in your head after the first listen. We noticed in the show that after 15 minutes of non-stop guitar playing, we did not have any melodies stuck in our heads. That does not necessarily mean that it was not entertaining, but we thought that even though the instrumental skills of the band is on top of the world, it can have a little more depth to it.
Speaking of the musicianship of the band, we loved the fact that all 4 of them had their own moments to shine. Contrarily to bands like Arctic Monkeys where Alex Turner is the centre of attention during most of the show, GVF loved to distribute the attention to all of their members. We loved that Daniel got his own drum solo, which was one of my favourite moments of the performance.
In bands these days, it is rare to see this much distribution of attention within the members, and even though we loved the fact that everybody took turns to shine on stage and have their moments, we thought that it also made the whole band’s performance detached to one another. At certain moments of the show, it felt like GVF was 4 very talented separate musicians taking turns to show-off their skills, rather than one band performing their songs. Overall, we love individuality, but when it is more balanced, and sometimes we felt that they could not balance it very well.
Another point important to acknowledge is that the show is around 2 hours and 20 minutes, and every second of the show, the band DELIVERS. There is a constant source of entertainment both visually and musically on stage, whether it is Josh, Jake, Daniel or Sam. It is truly remarkable that they play in a very high-tempo, high-pitched, difficult songs for more than two hours, with very few breaks.
With that being said, this is a good place to mention the acoustic set they did half way through the concert. I love the very high energy, singing and playing loud dynamic rock songs, but in a show that is longer than two hours, it is perfect to have a little break, both for the crowd and for the performers. Their acoustic set fit perfectly to the setlist and the performance. It gave us a breather, but also showed a different part of their musicianship which was very amusing to watch. Unlike some of our latest experiences where we thought that shows felt way longer than they are, in this show, we did not feel that it was very long, even though it was a long performance compared to an average concert. We believe that the acoustic set played a very important role in why we did not feel that the concert was too long.
Production
We knew their sound would give us a throwback to old school rock, but it was not only their sound that sent us back through the memory lane. One of the first things I realised about them was how they were dressed. I loved their shiny outfits consisting of long cape-like jackets, with topless underneath, and of course how they were bare-foot most of the show, which is a classic for GVF.
I also loved the colors of their outfits, with Josh and Daniel wearing all white, shiny clothes like angels, Sam in all red, and Jake contrasting Josh wearing all black. Seeing them on stage with those kinds of outfits makes you feel like it is more than just a concert, but truly a “show”. Speaking of colors, we also loved the efficiency of the lights and visual effects they have used on stage. All spectrum of colors were used throughout the show, which allowed different songs to feel and look different as well. We feel like using the same effects and colors during the whole concert, especially if it is a long one, could make the show monotone, but we did not feel that in GVF.
The stage had a high platform in the middle towards the back, with stairs on both sides leading down to the front of the stage where they performed. What we noticed was how little they have used that platform. We felt like they could include the top of the platform a little bit more rather than just including in the beginning and the end, because it brought depth to the stage, which looked good especially from the top floor seating area.
In the background, they used a big projection screen which was used for decoration to reflect color pallets and album-themed visuals. We really enjoyed when they had a night sky background, as if we were on a journey through space, in-between stars while listening to the band performing. Towards the end of the show, the projector screen turned plain white, which was a little bit disappointing because it was a big part of the show during the first half of the concert. We felt like they could have played around a little bit more with the visual projection screen in the background.
Here comes our biggest problem with the show. Even though we had a big projection screen in the back which we loved, we did not have any camera screens around the stage to see the band up close. There was no live footage of the band being shown from the screens, which was a first for my concert experiences. Basically, if you were not in the first couple of rows, you did not see what they looked like, their facial expressions, what they felt, and how exactly they were all dressed.
We had nothing but our plain eyesight to watch and observe the whole show, which is a major issue for the people sitting upstairs, or the people at the back of the standing area. For a show including this much color, fire, and very cool outfits, it was truly a shame not to see them closer through camera screens. We saw Josh from afar, walking around the crowd, talking to some of them, giving some things to some people, but we could not tell what exactly was going on because there were no screens.
The weird thing about this is that we are sure that this was not a venue issue, since we basically live in 3Arena this year, all of the other concerts we have been to had live camera footage on both sides of the stage in big screens. Considering there was a huge crowd both in the standing area and sitting upstairs, it can easily be said that a lot of people were affected by not having screens to see the close-up shots of the band. It was a huge minus for us as well.
Setlist
The first thing that certainly stands out is the "mere" 15 (14 considering the "Drum solo" is not a true song) songs in the setlist, considering the 2 hours and 20 minutes of the concert! A significant portion of the show was indeed dedicated to jam sessions, solos, and extended transitions between songs. The transitions were so long that, not knowing all the songs, it was almost difficult to understand the beginning and end of a song (the jam session concluding "Love, Leaver (Taker, Believer)" must have lasted at least 10 minutes).
The highlight of the evening was certainly the combination of "Heat Above" and "Highway Tune," which was the part that warmed up the audience the most. Personally, I found the acoustic section the most enjoyable part of the concert, as it was the only moment when Josh's incredible voice could be fully appreciated in a more tranquil context. The encore was also very nice with "Light My Love" and "Farewell for Now”, which couldn't have been anything other than the last song of the concert.
Crowd and venue
Despite the band being very young, we noticed a fanbase that spanned a wide range of ages. There were many young people, but also many adults, perhaps because they were nostalgic for 70s rock. This was the first concert in my life that I experienced as if I were watching a movie in a cinema. I entered, got a drink, sat down, and stayed glued to my seat until the standing ovation at the end.
It's one of those concerts where, apart from singing along (which is hard considering his voice) and enjoying the show itself, I don't see what else you could do. Even looking down at the ground floor standing area, where the most dedicated fans should be, I didn't see anyone jumping, dancing, or singing so loudly that it echoed during the songs. With this, I don't want to convey the idea that the concert was boring (everyone was having a great time), but I found it interesting how there was practically no movement in the crowd at a rock concert with flames every 10 seconds. Honestly, unless you're a huge fan and want to see them up close, I don't see any difference between going to the standing or seating area.
As for the venue, the audio wasn't impeccable. Josh's vocal range is certainly not easy to mix, as he can reach such high notes that it often blends with the guitar (I believe this effect is intentional at times). However, the feeling is that the guitar was too much louder than the vocals, bass, and drums, and considering the space given to it not only in the songs but also in the solos, it became a bit overpowering and overshadowed the other instruments. Outside the arena, right after the concert, talking to people who were in the standing area, we were told that the audio mixing was poor from there as well.
Finishing touch
Greta Van Fleet really blew our minds with how well they put in harmony the vintage classic rock and roll and the sound of modern music together. Undeniably talented, they were very entertaining and fun to watch. It is good to see the good old classic rock and roll sound in good hands. Even though today’s music is slowly drifting away from this genre, it is a pleasure and relief to see GVF carrying the torch proudly around the world wherever they perform.
Mt Joy, a band from Philadelphia with an indie/blues rock sound, kicked off the night. Just like GVF, they also enjoy indulging in long jam sessions between songs. It was a pleasant 45 minutes that set the right mood for the evening. Fun fact: it's the first time I've seen the opening band have more monthly Spotify listeners than the headliners.
Hot gignwings review
Performance: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
Production: 🌶🌶
Setlist: 🌶🌶🌶
Venue: 🌶🌶🌶
Crowd: 🌶🌶🌶🌶
Comments
Post a Comment