Reprint from DAN # 20: When, at 9:45pm, Grushecky took the world’s smallest stage in the Albani, just half an hour out of Zurich, and hit the first few notes of "No Strings Attached", he set a pace, that he would keep all evening long. This would not gonna be a laid-back everybody-loves-everybody-affair, nor would it be a sophisticated evening of musical and lyrical expression and discussion. No, what Joe had in mind was straight, raw, (too) loud, honest and angry rock’n’roll music; straight from the heart straight to the heart (and legs). And let me tell you, I don’t think there are too many people who stand in the same class as the Pittsburgh-native when it comes to this kind of performance. Grushecky, for whom this is the first European tour, always kept close contact to the quite well-numbered audience. And the fans, already warmed up after a good performance by Germany’s Scooter and the Streethearts (no, they are not the techno-people), responded enthusistically and wild, therby making the band work it at even harder. And work they did! Whatever Grushecky and his Houserockers might lack in sheer talent and potential, they’ll make you forget about it, sweating, pounding and shouting out everysingle riff and every single word. At the latest after "Rock And Real", the fourth song of the show, played on special- request (Käthy), the whole joint was jumping, fist-pounding, yelling...in short we were rocking our gutts out! Inspired by this wild, but still kind of cozy atmosphere, Joe soon forgot about his set-list, mixing up his songs as he liked it, and thereby proving to have a great sense for the flow of the show; a talent a lot of his much more famous colleagues often seem to be lacking. With a gig like this it’s extremely hard to point out single highlights, since the whole show moved at an almost atmospheric level, but I’ll try anyway: Well, there was "Dark And Bloody Ground", an angry number from his newest release "American Babylon", a song with an unparalleled intensity; the classic rocker "Mustang Sally", which is still a great sing-along; "Never Be Enough Time" another great, great track from "American Babylon" and the highly amusing "Talking To The King", a story about Elvis breaking into Grushecky’s kitchen for a can of beer. The absolute killer, though, was an unbelievable "Down The Road Apiece", challenging even to Bruce’s version at the videoshoot in Berlin. During the song the miniscule stage finally got too small for Joe, so he simply jumped off it and, guitar in his hand, danced with the audience... especially with the pretty girls he earlier on spotted in the first few rows, mostly populated by DAN-members. Even after almost 2 hours of R’n’R carnage the crowd didn’t let the obviously exhausted Grushecky get off stage, before he played two sets of encores; the first consisting of the Stone’s "Gimme Shelter", another of those songs where you simply cannot not sing along, and one of my favourite Grushecky-songs, "Rebel Music". The second set started with the driving, but slightly disappointing "I Ain’t Going Down", the evening’s "worst" number, before Joe bid us farewell with an astonishing version of "I Hear You Knocking (But You Can’t Come In)" (talk about dancing your heart out...). With this concert, a show that exceeded my expectations by far, Grushecky proved once more, that he by no means need his help to kick ass on a stage. by Manuel Pasi