Click here to view original article (PDF) Roger Hodgson, the voice of Supertramp fascinates Oetigheim – Excellent Interpretation of pure rock music Up on cloud nine with old hits Badisches Tagblatt, August 13th Written by Udo Barth English translation by Claudia Yildiz
With Roger Hodgson, a unique musical personality enters the stage in Oetigheim and, from the beginning, the audience gave him thundering applauses. The legendary voice and soul of Supertramp conjured up the flair of the late 70s and the early 80s to the mild summer’s eve with his unforgettable songs. Most of the catchy songs haven’t lost their effect until today. The only thing you need is a voice that can cope with striking high notes – no show, only the music and the lyrics can be enjoyed undisturbed by the audience.
With “Take the long way home,” Hodgson starts the concert, which was full of hits, which evoke a lot of memories. At his side there is the Canadian Aaron McDonald, an excellent multi-instrumentalist at the keyboards and different saxophones.
Soon, some aging couples start hugging each other and swallow in bygone times because many of Hodgson’s ballads have been the cuddly songs of their youth.
The mixture makes it: a moment ago he played yearningly songs that took to the sky over Oetigheim like clouds, and thereafter the singer, piano player and guitar player, who was born 1950 in Portsmouth, performed songs that invite everyone to clap along with and which are absolutely composed in a very extensive way. It evokes memories to the times of the early Supertamp albums, like “Crime of the Century,” which was a mixture between catchy songs and sophisticated ones, somehow between pop and progressive rock.
Hodgson is an excellent story teller anyway – he combines his story about the searching for the meaning of life with a soundtrack that impressed a whole generation. He explains to the audience that he is inspired to write songs when he stays in nature. “The Logical Song” from the album “Breakfast in America” (1979) is such a song, which tells a story in tight four minutes. It suffices that the amazing young seemingly musician with his very individual counter tenor is backing himself only with acoustic guitar or grand piano. That conjures up the typical Supertramp atmosphere – reduced to the essentials, quasi unplugged, whereas the man on the mixing desk also plays an important role. With reverb and keyboard basses he arranges the background of the sound.
Often the tones that were produced by both piano players sounded like yearning songlines, followed by the staccatos of the mega-hit “Dreamer”. “School”, another commercial hit, enraptured the audience of Oetigheim to wild enthusiasm.
Roger Hodgson notes that with delight and is getting better from set to set. The fact that some of the compositions may sound a bit soppy doesn’t mind that much, the profound lyrics and the saxophone solo parts played by McDonald easily distract from it. We didn’t want to miss them anyway, because they are a part of rock history.
The enormous joy of playing on the stage is being transferred to the huge fan community, which is raving until the end of the two-hour performance.
“Don’t leave me now” – sometime the dream is coming to an end and we leave the concert with a feeling of happiness.
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