Although this time he is quieter than usual from the point of view of loud commercials, one of the pillars of hard rock Udo Dirkshneiders is returning to Riga again: the former lead singer of the group “Accept” will perform with his project “UDO “this Saturday, November 5, at the” Melnā Piektdiena “club.
For 70 years, the new metal uncle
In April of this year, the legendary Udo Dirkschneider celebrated his 70th birthday, but he is still active in the metal scene. His career turned out to be quite interesting: although Udo has been working as a soloist and / or with his project “UDO” for 35 years now, when it comes to him, mention will inevitably be made of the legendary group “Accept”. When signing into his official biography, it is said that this association was formed on the basis of the “Band X”, which existed in the late 1960s, but Udo and currently one of the most well-known producers of heavy music, Michael Wagner, is stopped at his crib. The lineup changed from “Band X” to “Accept” in 1976, and its founders are called Udo, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann (still plays in it) and bassist Peter Baltes.
In the 1980s, “Accept” was a cult group that could easily be placed alongside heavyweights of their genre such as “AC / DC”, “Aerosmith”, the new wave of British metal music led by “Iron Maiden” and ” Judas Priest “. “, etc. The albums Restless And Wild (1982), Balls To The Wall (1983), Metal Heart (1985) and Russian Roulette (1986) are still in the gold pool of heavy music, but Udo has decided to go for his way, starting with the brilliant album “Animal House” released in 1987.
The pressure of the public works, it will also sound “Accept”.
Currently both “Accept” (total of 16 studio albums) and “UDO” (also 16 albums) still exist and, regardless of what drives Udo, the audience always asks him to perform the “Accept” repertoire at concerts. Several years ago, Udo strictly said: everything is enough, no “Accept”! “Sure, I know people like to listen to ‘Accept’ songs performed by me, but I still want to get it over with. I want to close like a book, saying, ‘Great, but it’s over.’ I want to finish everything about “Accept”, so Udo said a couple of years ago, but … Anyway, as evidenced by the lineup of his current tour, Dirkshneider has given up and put a piece of the former band in the his repertoire.
The concert in Riga will take place as part of the supporting tour of “UDO’s” latest studio album “Game Over” (released October 2021), however, the “setlist” also includes older compositions which are claimed as covers “” Accept “” – at least ‘Breaker’, ‘Princess Of The Dawn’ and ‘Fast As A Shark’ were also played in Mexico in October, but joined with ‘Metal Heart’, ‘I’m A Rebel’ and ‘Balls To The Wall’. It should be noted that this concert was already scheduled for April, moreover, in a place as unfamiliar to heavy music as “Godvil”, but at that time the pandemic had not quite subsided. I have to say it’s good that it is, it’s hard to imagine heavy music fans going to “Godvil” …
“Game over” this time does not mean the end of the game
Regarding the album “Game Over”, which, among other things, is on a very good and “skeptical” level – one of the topics Dirkshneider has raised in the songs is global climate change, which is currently on top of the charts. . “The floods in Germany or the fires in southern Europe and Turkey have shown how urgent it is to do something,” says the musician. “But not only that. The problem of peace is also increasingly urgent. The international arms trade and the private possession of weapons are on the rise. Shooting among minors is on the rise in many countries, including in schools. In addition, there is it’s an unknown number of child soldiers who are actively involved in warfare in many places, “Udo said. By the way, don’t get confused by the provocative title of this work: it doesn’t seem like “Game Over” will be “game over”, at least musically, because the information on plans for Udo’s new album “My Way” (this is the working title of the record) has already been seen somewhere.
The years pass, the interest decreases, the quality does not disappear
Regarding Udo’s accompanying lineup – about two dozen musicians have passed through the “UDO” mill, which proves that working with this iron man is not easy. Currently, the Russian guitarist Andreis Smirnovs has been playing with Udo for almost ten years (he is of the Moscow rock group “Everlost”), while his son Sven Dirkshneider has been playing drums since 2015 (he will turn 29 in December). The other two – guitarist Dee Dammers and bassist Thilen Hudraps – only joined the lineup during the creation of “Game Over”.
It’s even hard to remember how many times and in what combinations German veteran “hard & heavy” Udo Dirkshneider has performed with us – it looks like this will be the sixth. He was here for the first time with his current lead group “UDO” as early as the mid 90’s, visiting the rock season opening event, but the latest was in November 2017 at the “Palladium” concert hall. (then with the side project “Dirkschneider”) and in 2019 at “Black Friday” “(with” UDO “in search of the album” Steelfactory “). Of course, each of these times proves that his age spares no one, but each of these times also proves that Udo is still and remains Udo. There’s no reason to think it might be any different this time around.
