TIME TO ROCK 2023 - Saffire (Spotlight Blog)

Rich “The Meister” Dillon here for CGCM Rock Radio and I was recently on location in Knislinge, Sweden at Time To Rock Festival 2023. And what an overall incredible event it was! Throughout that weekend there were a veritable crapton of great acts gracing stages. But a few of the bands stood out to me over and above the already highly established bar. In my Spotlight series, I’ll go into more detail about certain gig sets than I did in my daily wrap-up blogs. All of the Time To Rock coverage can be found here: Time To Rock 2023 – Complete Coverage.

Sapphire? Jewel Of The Nile?

Now, this Swedish band I’d seen some years ago at Sweden Rock Festival. But I didn’t know them back then and didn’t catch the whole thing. I do recall thinking it was great. And I have played a track off their newest release in my show a few times, “Roses (Electrify)“. So I was interested to watch them here on this smaller stage today.

Missing the first three songs due to the schedule conflict the orange vesters jumped into the stage front pit at the outset of song #4. Being as I’m structurally challenged, this stage is the only one I have any hope in hell of capturing a drummer shot. And Saffire‘s drummer was exhibiting some fantastic poses and facial expressions. Man, I hope these turn out! By song number 5 I was thinking: “Man now I remember why I like these guys!! Why do I not know this material better?” And “Wow, this sounds incredible“…wait, this is my friend Michael Laine doing this sound too I think! Song six was indeed “Roses (Electrify)” which I knew quite well. And they pulled it off famously, near flawlessly to my ears and I was happy as hell.

The conclusion of the seventh number brought some crowd addression. Of course, all the stage talk was in Swedish, we are after all in Sweden! Wait, English: “We have t-shirts over there for 250 crowns“🤣. With a slower start, they went into “Black Sky Rider“. Wait is that what they said? Isn’t that a band with Ricky Warwick and Scott Gorham🤣? Anyway, it was a Sabbath-esque composition and I even felt rather doomy. “Flesh and Bone” ??Casters Of The First Stone????saw hands raised up in the air all over the crowd. Overhead clapping too, which I’ve somehow never been co-ordinated enough to pull off with any success. “Taming The Hurricane” possessed a great thump to it. Wow, I definitely have to get into these guys more and their 2 or maybe 3 albums. I’ve got some shopping to do!

“Swedish, Swedish, Swedish, Read Between The Lines” was all I heard for the introduction to the next one. Must be the song title I presumed. All hands were up again as the band ended the song with a big finish. I’m glad I remained for the entire Saffire set, what a great show!

SAFFIRE OFFICIAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK

TIME TO ROCK OFFICIAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK

Follow along with all of my coverage here: Time To Rock Festival 2023 Full Coverage page.

Cheers,