SNAKEBITE, acoustic Whitesnake tribute band
There's a growing tendency for tribute albums - we have reviewed dozens
of those [check the archives] - and there are more and more bands popping
up who do nothing but tribute gigs. And since rock music is more underground
than ever, the need and audience for these bands grow continuously as
the original artists tour less and less. This year's Whitesnake tour
does not include Hungary, and though I'm planning to attend either the
Vienna or the Prague show, I was glad to hear about Snakebite, an acoustic
Whitesnake tribute band. The band's singer K roly L‹rincz invited me
to this gig, he let me know in a few words what to expect still I was
very pleasantly surprised by the gig.
Never having been in the Pub before we arrived quite early and have
decided to try some of the food. The setting was as intimate as it can
get, small, elegant English style restaurant-like pub(?), people sitting
at tables, eating, drinking, chatting; not the typical biker rocker
meeting with beer pouring everywhere, drunken people demanding to hear
"Born to Be Wild" no matter what band is on stage. So the atmosphere
of the venue perfectly matched the atmosphere of the gig. The whole
thing was very faithful to the "Starkers in Tokyo" album, the arrangements,
the performance, even the set-list. All but three of the songs included
on the album surfaced here with almost the same arrangement, and there
were some really nice surprises. The complete set-list looked like this:
Sailing Ships, Give Me All Your Love, Too Many Tears, Love Ain't No
Stranger, Is This Love, Fool for Your Loving, Soldier of Fortune, Here
I Go Again, Walking in the Shadow of the Blues, Slow n' Easy.
The sound was clear, Attila B torfi played well, but - like it or not
- it's the vocalist who makes or breaks a Whitesnake cover (band). And
K roly L‹rincz sounded a real dead ringer for the Master here. I must
add that he even lived up to Coverdale's smooth personal -chatting with
the audience- style on stage, he was short, polite, withdrawn between
songs, winning the audience step by step for the band. [They were opening
up for a Kiss tribute band here] I really missed "The Deeper The Love"
and "Don't Fade Away" as those are among my fave Whitesnake songs but
"Fool for Your Loving", "Walking in the Shadow of the Blues" and "Slow
n' Easy" came as the surprises of the day, making the gig different
from a simple "Starkers" copy concert. I may add that the choice and
order of the songs was better IMHO than the one on "Starkers", so the
whole thing turned out to be a ten pointer gig. I can only hope these
guys get a chance to take this show abroad, as they are talented enough
to deserve that. Meanwhile if you happen to stay a couple of days in
Budapest, look for Snakebite in one of the pubs with live music. All
in all: good music, good company, good food, good night. :)
Gig report: Endre "Bandi" Hübner
(c) 2003 RockUnited.Com
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