German bassist and producer Martin Engelien has been organizing concerts since 1996, under the name GO-Music, with ever-changing band compositions.
He then invites musicians to go on tour at least once, but often twice a year. The idea behind this project is that the changes create more creativity with a more jam character.
Regular bands often have a fixed repertoire that they play live at every performance. There have now been more than 250 band compositions up to 2020 (before corona).
Tonight it is Thomas Blug guitar, Ben Granfelt guitar, Martin Engelien bass guitar and Dirk Sengotta drums who play for a full hall. Thomas Blug and Ben Granfelt have known each other for years and met at the Frankfurter Musikmesse. Dirk Sengotta is playing for the first time tonight and tonight is the third performance in this Go-Music tour.
At exactly 8:00 PM the band enters the stage and the concert has no intermission and lasts an hour and three quarters. As Ben Granfelt indicates in the announcement, they play all the songs from the new album by Blug, Granfelt & Engelien ‘Strat-o-Sphere’, supplemented with their own songs by Blug and Granfelt. Granfelt’s announcements are humorous to the delight of the audience, with whom there is a great interaction.
They open the show immediately with a solid rocking instrumental with twin-sound guitar in ‘Hello Cleveland’ and then there are dazzling solos by Blug and Granfelt. Solid drums and steaming bass complete it. The tone is set! That twin-sound is featured throughout the concert, not surprising if you know that the Finn Ben Grantfelt played with Wishbone Ash for many years.
The rocking continues with ‘Ride Out The Storm’ in which Granfelt does the lead vocals and Blug and Engelien do the backing vocals. Then follows ‘Melodic Relief’ that Granfelt wrote for Wishbone Ash in 2011 with a wonderful groove. The ballad ‘My Soul To You’ is a Wishbone Ash song and has sensitive guitar playing and goes to a funky climax.
Thomas Blug plays a funky intro in the instrumental ‘My House Is Green’ with a somewhat ‘pinched’ sound, the beautiful solo by Granfelt remains melodic, and the drumming of Dirk Sengotta is super tight just like the bass work of Engelien.
The cover ‘Cocaïne’ by JJ.Cale is played rocking and gets its own color with a catchy bass solo with psychedelic effects by wah-wah pedal and ticking drums behind it. Top! The slow blues ‘Stand Up As One’ is about improving the world, written just after Corona with heavenly, psychedelic guitar sounds and choir singing and slowly building up to the climax. Goosebumps!
A more ‘poppy’ character has ‘Hold Your Head Up’ follows with a lot of choir singing in the chorus, which often comes back. ‘Bondrix’ (dedicated to James Bond and Jimmy Hendrix!) is rocking again with nice riffs.
Then there is another Wishbone Ash song with that characteristic twin-guitar sound in ‘Faith, Hope and Love’. Blug shows peerless guitar playing in the ballad ‘I Won’t Forget’, it splashes and bubbles and Grantfelt plays softly and quietly in the background and gets the most atmospheric sounds from his guitar. Great combination.
‘A Need For Speed’ is a fast rocker. As the title says. The set ends with the medley Wishing Hour, Allnight Blues” with a piece of Deep Purple and in which there is room for a great drum solo by Sengotta. Great class. Of course there will be an encore and that starts quietly, atmospherically with the instrumental Last ‘Day Of Summer’, in which Blug’s guitar playing reminds us of Jeff Beck, but ends firmly rocking.
A masterful, especially rocking concert by class musicians of a very high level. Wonderful twin-sound guitar, dazzling solos but also sensitive pieces and with super bass and drum playing for a very enthusiastic audience. Top evening!!
