While outside, a beautiful autumn sun was shining at a temperature of 18 degrees Celsius, inside the Rock City, LA rockers Talon, who played here before, opened the second day of Firefest. Since the new millennium they are working hard to build a career and already three albums have been fired our way with three different lead singers. Due to work obligations current frontman Shawn Pelata had to cancel, so in stepped original vocalist Michael O’Mara, who delivered a wild performance and even dived into the photo pit. Evidently, many songs from the debut passed in review mixed with some new ones. The classic rock of this sextet didn’t blow me away though and was average at best.

Following act Vega scored last year with their debut “Kiss Of Life” on the Italian Frontiers label. The same level of craftsmanship was exposed on stage today, with vocalist Nick Workman in a leading role. From the first note on, they fired their guns at the crowd who treated them with an enthusiastic response in return. Their adult oriented, catchy sound sometimes reminded me of Def Leppard and just as their compatriots I’m sure they can attract a wider audience if given the chance. Vega kept their high level performance consistent during their whole set and closing with ‘Kiss Of Life’ they had the crowd massively chanting along. Without discussion a superb performance by a very talented band.

In 1987, Silent Rage debuted with “Shattered Hearts”, a strong album produced by Paul Sabu that delivered the Americans a deal with Gene Simmons’ label. Two years later, “Don’t Touch Me There” was a strong follow-up, but then grunge kicked in and it remained quiet ‘til their reformation in 2001. Following two more albums and an earlier gig at the Z Rock festival, Silent Rage finally found their way to the Firefest stage for a long overdue performance.
Time took its toll on remaining members Jesse Damon, E.J. Curse and Mark Hawkins, but luckily they hadn’t lost their musical abilities. Especially the multi lead and backing vocals impressed me. In the absence of keyboards, the sound was rawer, but still very melodic. Some new songs didn’t go down that well, but luckily they focused on older classics such as ‘Running On Love’, the medley ‘Make It Or Break It / Sarina / Rich, Young & Pretty’ and their sing-a-long classic ‘Rebel With A Cause’. Excellent set, although reactions were rather academic. Due to ignorance perhaps?

For years we hadn’t heard of Jeff Paris, who besides his solo career had many successes as a songwriter for different artists. His announcement for Firefest came as a complete surprise and I had really no idea what to expect. The last couple of years, Jeff has mainly played with blues guitarist Keb’Mo (real name Kevin Moore). This time he was forced into the spotlight again, singing songs he hasn’t performed in years. No wonder that with opener ‘Race To Paradise’ he took a rather slow start and you could see he was searching for the right ‘vibe’, but lack of enthusiasm is the last thing you can blame this passionate artist of. And neither has he lost his touch for words. ‘I used to talk a lot on stage, but I don’t do that anymore’, and again a new monologue was fired our way. Of course the eccentric man played as well, with Jimi Jamison’s backing band - including guitarist Tommy Denander - as a tight unit behind him. We were treated on a ‘best of’ including ‘Saturday Night’, ‘Cryin’ (also covered by Vixen), ‘Charmed Life’ and ‘Lucky This Time’. During acoustic versions of ‘I Saw Red’ (Warrant) and ‘Rainbow In The Dark’ (Dio), Jeff displayed his emotions and although overall this wasn’t a memorable gig, I enjoyed his heartwarming performance, which ended with ‘Wired Up’. Paris is currently putting a new album together with the help of Tommy Denander, which I’m really looking forward to!

Filling the shoes of headliner Warrant, who cancelled barely six weeks in advance, is a hard task. On top of that, making your live debut in front of many dedicated fans is taking a giant risk. Nevertheless, W.E.T. took on the challenge and promised an exciting show. Boy, did they keep their word. This project’s eponymous debut with members of Work of Art, Eclipse and Talisman has grown into an instant classic and expectations from the packed crowd were evidently high. From ‘Brothers In Arms’ on - also thanks to an excellent sound created by our very own Peter De Wint - they were spot on from the beginning. No mistakes, no stress and a flawless and tight performance can only be achieved if you are top musicians and these guys were just that and more. Frontman Jeff Scott Soto was in excellent shape, but had no problem in passing the microphone to Erik Martensson, who accounted for two songs as well: ‘To Mend A Broken Heart’ (Eclipse) and ‘The Great Wall’ (Work Of Art). With ‘Invincible’, ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’, ‘If I Fall’ and the sing-a-long ballads ‘Comes Down Like Rain’ and ‘If I Fall’, the best songs from their debut passed in review. The ‘departed rock stars’ intermezzo, including acoustic song snippets from Dio, Gotthard, Y&T and Gary Moore caused a true emotional moment, which Soto ended with Talisman’s ‘Mysterious’ in tribute for his brother Marcel Jacob. ‘One Love’ was the end of a unique and superb show that was easily and overall regarded as the best of the weekend. With a second album on its way, W.E.T. should consider changing their status from project to band and hit the road. Success guaranteed!

Following this act certainly wasn’t a gift for Strangeways, who played here last year as well. Then the focus was mainly on new album “Perfect World”, which was understandable, but left the fans with mixed feelings. This time however, they promised to perform their classic album “Walk In The Fire” in its entirety and also saw the return of original bass player David Stewart. Terry Brock was due again, but still struggled with a cold and it took a while before Strangeways reached their top level. However, the compelling guitar riffs by Ian Stewart and Jim Drummond’s refined drumming swept me away through the many great songs such as ‘Love Lies Dying’, ‘ Everytime You Cry’ (dedicated to Terry’s sister Sue who came to thank her brother on stage), ‘Talk To Me’ and ‘After The Hurt Is Gone’. Only a pity that some fans couldn’t be bothered with this superb AOR. The encore of “Native Sons” songs ‘Only A Fool’ and ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ closed down this enjoyable set.

The cancellation of Warrant pushed Steve Augeri to headliner status on Saturday. As he’s a former member of Tall Stories, Tyketto and Journey, I was expecting an enjoyable mix of songs by those bands. Instead, Augeri chose the shortest route to success and presented a set with mainly Journey songs. This went down great with the fans of course, but it left me with mixed feelings. Augeri had and still has a great voice and thanks to the Valentine members who backed him perfectly, we heard superb renditions of many Journey songs. With ‘Sister Of Mercy’ only one Tall Stories song passed along and material from his Tyketto period was even completely absent. Besides, the expected finale with Jeff Scott Soto didn’t happen, which perhaps in Jeff’s case is somehow understandable. Admittedly though, Journey songs ‘Stone In Love’, ‘Seperate Ways’ and ‘Wheel In The Sky’ managed to create a great ambiance and even the new songs went down well. Again, it was past curfew time when a second stunning version of ‘Seperate Ways’ closed this set on a high note. The lion’s share of the crowd loved every minute of it and so did I, but this was more like a Journey tribute than a Steve Augeri show.