Live at the Volkstheater

Howe Gelb: The Neil Young of Americana in Vienna

An alternative music hero from the second row: Howe Gelb wrote desert rock music history with and outside of Giant Sand.

(Bild: Omer Kreso)

With his band Giant Sand as well as solo, Howe Gelb has become a hero of the American indie underground. After several acclaimed appearances at Vienna's Blue Bird Festival, the 67-year-old is now coming to Vienna's Volkstheater. The Krone spoke to him about his Austrian roots, the band Calexico and why he is always looking for a thrill in his music.

Some things just go together. A soccer and a lush lawn. ATV and trash TV. Politics and empty promises. Howe Gelb and Austria also go very well together. Whether with his band Giant Sand or solo - when the high priest of the Americana sound tours Europe, a performance in the heart of Central Europe is always on the agenda. He is particularly fond of the always lovingly curated Blue Bird Festival at Porgy & Bess, where he has already taken to the stage three times in various guises. In a few days, Gelb, now a proud 67 years young, will be returning to Vienna for the first time since the pandemic to play a solo concert in the - unfortunately already completely sold out - Rote Bar at the Vienna Volkstheater. Gelb is commonly referred to as something of an "underground Neil Young" and coined the term desert rock with his band Giant Sand (formerly Giant Sandworms) from the 1980s onwards, when Kyuss and Queens Of The Stone Age members were still in diapers.

Burgenland roots
Gelb's love of Austria stems not least from the fact that he has roots in the Alpine republic. "My grandfather comes from the Burgenland region and left the country as a teenager. That was between the First and Second World Wars, when people here had a brief respite. He came to Pennsylvania via New York, found the love of his life and had six children - the youngest of whom is my father. Unfortunately, I never got to meet my grandfather in person, but of course that kind of thing leaves its mark and Vienna was one of the first cities in the 1980s where we went on stage in Europe. We were always warmly welcomed here and I have been playing great concerts in this country for a good 40 years. Austria has always been very good to me."

As a late teenager in the 1970s, Gelb moved from Pennsylvania to Tucson, Arizona, where he met Berlin-born Rainer Ptacek and, together with him, shaped an entire scene that he allowed to flourish from the background into a global export. However, touring is more difficult at a more mature age, as he reveals in an interview with "Krone". "I love performing and playing in Europe, but the traveling aspect is incredibly tiring. I have to manage my energy well these days and don't tour for long. It just exhausts me far too much." As there is not much ground to be gained as an indie artist with Spotify, the passionate artist is also deprived of a great deal of freedom of choice. "But age is no longer a yardstick these days anyway," he laughs, "look at all the old rock bands out there. Music is a means of staying young."

The meaning of music
Gelb has no problem with change in the music industry. "If you don't like change, you're lazy or too attached to the past. Many things are changing for the better. Today, anyone can listen to my music with just a few clicks of the mouse. That's also a great opportunity. A lot of people get upset about Bob Dylan changing his songs beyond recognition at concerts, but that's the point of music. That's how music has always worked, until pop took over and was only there to satisfy shallow tastes." Music by Giant Sand or Howe Gelb himself is not a great source of inspiration, but the mixture of desert rock, Americana, folk, indie sounds and roots rock gives him the opportunity to go in new directions every evening without leaving the basic path.

In his 45-plus year music career, Gelb has never had a plan or a clear direction laid out for him. "Some people say we've experimented a lot, but that's not the right word. I would say we were just always on the lookout and never let ourselves get sidetracked. It's a bit like going for a walk when a storm suddenly comes at you. You fight your way through it because you want to get back home. It's metaphorically the same with music." Curiously, yellow is best known by many people for another band. Calexico, who are also popular in Austria, began their career as musicians with Giant Sand before splitting off in 1996 and forming their own, much more mass-market band. No problem for Gelb, but he can't quite follow the musical path of his old protégés.

The desire to explore
"It was also interesting for me to see how they went on stage with their band every night and always played the same thing. Of course, that can also be nice and, above all, it gives you a certain consistency with the fans, but that formula wouldn't work for me. If I go to a concert instead of a beer in the evening, then I need a certain thrill. I need to feel like I'm on an exploration where I don't know exactly what to expect. Otherwise it makes no sense." However, Gelb is also critical of himself. "The Calexico guys are complete musical professionals. It's no problem at all for them to follow a style. I see music more like a movie. It consists of many scenes and different dramaturgy. That's also how my music works. And I'm too bad an instrumentalist to be able to stick to a certain style for years without any problems."

There were other quarrels surrounding the Calexico case, which Gelb would like to record in a biography. "When we wanted to release our Giant Sand album 'Chore Of Enchantment' around the millennium, the label City Slang told us we had to get in line behind Calexico because they also had one ready. With all due respect, Calexico would never have existed without Giant Sand and then you have to put up with such sensitivities. Such unnecessary discussions are particularly bitter for the fans of both projects, of which there are quite a few. That's how the music business works sometimes and it annoys me immensely. It's not that the two bands have a big problem because of it," he tries to calm things down, "but it's a difficult coexistence for everyone involved that doesn't have to be like this."

Musicians' favorites
Gelb only lost his footing once in his life. In 1997, his colleague and good friend Ptacek died of cancer, before which he worked on a benefit album with Led Zeppelin legend Robert Plant to finance the treatment costs. Gelb disappeared completely behind the stage curtain for almost three years, only to regroup after the shock news. Gelb is happy to dismiss Giant Sand's impact on the alternative music scene. "But it's nice to hear people like Mark Lanegan, the Radiohead bassist or the Bad Seeds guitarist come up to you and tell you they've heard your songs. I think my music inspires more musicians than conventional listeners," laughs Gelb, "but that's absolutely fine. I take that as a great compliment."

In the meantime, Gelb has already taken care of the baton handover. One of his daughters plays in the band Patsy's Rats, which makes the father proud. "They sound like a rough punk band from 1978, really cool sound. My youngest daughter, Tallulah, is not as wild, but has a breathtaking vocal range that most people can only dream of." At an older age, Gelb has found ways to exist healthily. "I'm an artist," he laughs, "it's not that I live an ascetic life, but I don't have any addictions and I can make a good living from the band and my projects. I have a wonderful family, I've been able to buy a house and I could get out of the touring life if I wanted to, but as long as I'm fit enough, I want to play. The only thing I never wanted was to be a frontman. But when we formed the Giant Sandworms, there was no one else available and so I became one - and stayed one."

Live at the Volkstheater
On September 27, Howe Gelb is coming to the Rote Bar of the Vienna Volkstheater for a solo show. Unfortunately, the concert is already completely sold out.