And now my promised report.
It was a very nice summer evening, and the residence in Ludwigsburg is a great spot for concerts although it felt weird to not be able to go into the vast gardens which I haven't visited in a long time.
Typically, you weren't allowed to carry any water bottles with you, which isn't too great when it's as hot as this. There were a lot of food and drink stands, though, so unless you're a weirdo like me who would like to have something to drink that doesn't involve either alcohol or soda, you easily got your fill.
The first support act, Siggi Schwarz & Friends, hit the stage five minutes prior to the official opening, and played for about half an hour. I had seen Siggi supporting ZZ Top in 2019, but then his band only played blues & rock classics, and the bass player did the vocals. This time, he had a dedicated singer who had participated in a TV talent show and didn't quite appeal to me, and they mostly played new material (which was clichéd hard rock) although a almost pointlessly shortened version of "All Right Now" sneaked into the set. Siggi Schwarz himself was the main saving grace, and his guitar solo fusing elements of Gary Moore's "End of the World" and Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing" & "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" was the clear highlight for me. Unfortunately, the sound wasn't great, and I had to use earplugs. It sounded pretty shrill to me.
I'm not sure when I discovered the merch stand, but I somehow managed to snag the very last signed CD of Rhino's new album. Nice! Oddly, they didn't have any Quo CDs on sale. I also later got a t-shirt (with a photo of the whole current line-up and the somewhat anodyne "SQ 24" logo, and tour dates on the back) and a water bottle.
The Spider Murphy Gang showed up, again, slightly ahead of time and immediately brought the level up several notches. From the get-go, you could hear how well these guys are playing together, and they brought us a very lively group of Bavarian rock & roll numbers. At one point Günther Sigl (singer and bassist) joked along the lines of "You wanna hear some more rock & roll?" - audience cheers - "Good, because we don't play anything else." His dry wit entertained the crowd, but the band's playing itself even more so. And maybe it was due to me standing in a different spot, but now the sound was completely spot on - no more shrillness and perfect volume wise. No earplugs necessary for the whole set! Of course, the more time went on, the more the party atmosphere increased with "Schickeria" boasting a lot of long, but never boring solo spots, and of course "Skandal im Sperrbezirk" getting everybody to sing along.
While I hadn't come to see the Spider Murphy Gang, their performance was good enough to justify the ticket price even if Quo had been in bad form. One minor quibble, the screens to the sides of the stage were essential for viewing the band up close but often the camera operators (or whoever was responsible) displayed the wrong band member, like showing the guitarist playing rhythm while the other one was just taking a solo.
Needless to say, Quo weren't in bad form. At this point, there had been a few drops of rain, but not really enough to make me wish for an umbrella or a jacket, although it did suddenly feel a bit weird to be standing there in shorts & sandals
They took to the stage with the tried and tested drone and went into Caroline. At this point, I had moved further to the front but the guys next to me were singing along so loudly, and completely wrong, that I desperately put my earplugs back in so I could somehow hear Francis! I changed my position a bit but even then, the sound wasn't quite as good and balanced as during the Spider Murphy Gang set so I kept the earplugs in most of the time. (See what I did there? (Unlike Quo!)) Francis's guitar sound especially seemed to suffer, at times sounding more like the Hammond organ than like a guitar and getting a bit lost in the mix. I also got the impression he seemed to struggle a little bit with getting in the right groove but this subsided as the gig went on, and he played some great stuff especially on Roll Over Lay Down and around Down Down. The days of atonal squeaky bends seem to be firmly behind him, and what a relief that is. One notable occurrence was a mess-up during In The Army Now, where he was already launching into the solo instead of singing "You got your orders..."! Well, that's live music for you. His voice has held up remarkably well considering his age, obviously there are some high parts he shies away from but I was quite impressed with how well he sang nonetheless.
The setlist itself was almost entirely predictable, which would've been an issue if the band had been less energized than it was. As it stands, it seems like it was very well attuned to the "outdoor festival" crowd but less so to the Quo faithful, even if I'm sure most of those attending were also enjoying it. My problem is that this set is missing a focal point in the middle, where they would usually play a bunch of new songs (whatever happened to "Cut Me Some Slack"?) or maybe something a bit more relaxed like "In My Chair" or "Gerdundula". As it was, it started with a bunch of openers, and then we were already in the "closing warhorses" section. And just like my last Quo show before this, five years earlier in the same town, they didn't do any encores after "Rockin' All Over the World" which I noticed was leaving quite a couple of attendees a bit deflated.
I suppose the medley was conceived as the high point of the set, and it had increased in length, now feeling more like a "proper" medley again with "Something 'Bout You Baby I Like" and "Rollin' Home" stuck back in, and ending with a digest version of "Mystery Song", sung very convincingly by Richie who had already made his mark prior with a great "Little Lady".
As for the other vocalists, Rhino did an OK job on "Rain", SBYBIL and "Again and Again", not sounding any different than previous versions I'd heard, but Andy surprised me by sounding quite a bit stronger on "Whatever You Want" than I'd remembered. It's like he finally managed to sing it with conviction as opposed to the sort of non-committal or irony he displayed on previous tours. Still, if there's a spot where Rick's missing, it's the vocals, particularly the harmonies. You just can't replace the way he and Francis had developed to sing together, and if anyone would be capable of filling the role of Rick's harmony vocals, I feel it's Richie (though Leon could probably contribute on that front as well); Rhino's voice just doesn't blend nearly as well with Francis.
Obviously, Francis is the main character on stage, always entertaining the audience with the "Does anyone understand a bit of English" shtick, and in this particular case getting hung up by how the German word for "teddy bear" sounds the same as the English! This was because somebody managed to put a teddy bear on stage and they showed it to the cameras, eventually sitting it on the drum riser. Quite funny
And in true Quo fashion, there were some of the synchronized movements going on. Oh, and even some bouncing during "Hold You Back"! Andy, at times, was playing keyboards with a guitar around his neck. Like 2019, I feel he's become more active perhaps in an effort to fill Rick's role a bit.
Musically, the most interesting part for me was the improv before and during Down Down. I'm sure you all know that "Little Dreamer", "Better Days" and "Backbone" all developed out of similar jams, so there may well have been the starting point for a new Quo song somewhere during what Francis played before starting the song proper. Then in the middle after the breakdown, they suddenly launched into a slower shuffle that went on for several minutes and at that point, I really felt something of a connection to the heavy jamming days of the 70s and 80s (which I never experienced in person, mind). Of course, I later found out that they have been doing this for two years already and that the riff wasn't new but taken from the last minute of "Rockin' On" (it did sound familiar but I couldn't place it at the gig). Nevertheless, I'd warmly welcome any more excursions like this to keep things from getting too stale.
Things were over and it had gotten dark, and with some effort at walking faster than most of the people spilling out of the area and even hopping on a bus for one stop, I managed to get the train instead of having to wait for one hour for the next one, so getting home went surprisingly well. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet with anybody I knew (snakelady is recovering from an ailment), which left me feeling a little bit isolated although I had the odd chat with other audience members. Perhaps the most chatting went on at the platform and in the train, when we looked at/listened to the videos we'd made. (:
So; slightly mixed feelings about the setlist, not that I didn't expect it, but a band still performing extremely well. That said, I think the Spider Murphy Gang came close to outplaying the main act. Quo are a well oiled machine and obviously have an incredible wealth of material to draw from ("Paper Plane" was a notable absent song), and the crowd celebrated like there was no tomorrow. But the SMG was probably the act having more fun.
I was in LB as well, as I live just about 10km from there. Dad was with me too, he lives in LB.
The gig was superb, the sound was brilliant, although it could've been louder to my ears. The band was on fire and delivered banger after banger with the exception of BOTE which I cannot stand live.
Unfortunately there was no encore because of the curfew but ok.
My 50th gig, nearly in front of my door, together with Dad, who brought me into the band and attended many gigs with me, including the very first one in 2005 and FF in Hammy and Dublin was just great!
You should've said hello!
. We look forward to your review! 
