Location: Sevnica / the field by the swimming pool in Sevnica / Slovenia
Concert date: 02.05.2015
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: Free entry!
On Labor Day, dark clouds gathered over Sevnica all afternoon and into the evening. They threatened the organizers of the 10th traditional ROCK party, Študentski klub Sevnica and Zavod KŠTM, with a turnout much smaller than they’d hoped for at an event that was held outdoors for the first time this year. With a better weather forecast the festival would probably have drawn more people, but young and old still came out from Sevnica and the surrounding area, and the black clouds didn’t scare them off.
The party was kicked off with covers of well-known songs by a duo from Croatia called Mary Jane. The mix of female and male vocals over an acoustic guitar was just right for pulling listeners closer and setting the stage for the first band of the night, Divje rože. Divje rože are three guys – a vocalist who also handles the guitar, a bassist and a drummer – plus a girl whose fingers fly across the keyboards. With his sunglasses and rocker stance, the frontman was a dead ringer for the stage poses of Big Foot Mama vocalist Grega Skočir, and Divje rože share a similar musical style with them too. They warmed up the crowd with covers and a few originals, then handed the stage back to Mary Jane, who carried on and wrapped up their set with a string of covers.
The crowd got a bit of a jolt when the metalheads Burn Fuse from Celje took the stage. Style-wise they stuck out of the festival lineup like a sore thumb, since they’re the only ones wading in waters that heavy. The metalheads in the crowd were of course delighted, especially when the band played two new tracks, Sleeper Cell and Within The Light. Until that night, neither song had been heard live anywhere, or even on a recording, so this was the premiere of both. Considering that Burn Fuse were the genre outlier on the bill, it was actually surprising that a pretty good bunch of people gathered right up front by the stage, gave themselves over to the energy of the set, and demanded the obligatory encore at the end! That only confirms that Burn Fuse are an incredibly convincing live act.
Once Burn Fuse had finished shaking the stage and the crowd was well and truly fired up, the Ljubljana band Stone Orange stepped up. Stone Orange are quite a bit harder than Divje rože. They play hard rock and have two studio albums under their belt. Their latest, »Dreamcatcher«, is a real quality high point for the Slovenian hard rock scene. Even so, its release was pretty fleeting and barely noticed, which is a big shame for a band with such solid songwriting talent. Stone Orange come across as tight on stage, and they didn’t disappoint with their choice of covers either. Marko sang with real conviction and is a striking frontman, and Stone Orange took the crowd to a peak and earned loud applause.
Last to play were Resonanca, whose lead vocalist, Matic Nareks, is also a singing and stage performance teacher. They played mostly covers, and they say they don’t have a prepared setlist at gigs, instead following the crowd’s reaction as they go and deciding on the spot which songs to play. Nareks, who hits exceptional vocal heights, really shone on the AC/DC and Billy Idol covers. Resonanca thrilled the crowd with old rock classics like Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, as well as with old Yugo rock that stirred up nostalgic reactions even in the part of the audience that isn’t necessarily devoted to rock music first and foremost.
The event was well organized. The only minus was that there was just one bar set up on the grounds, which led to quite a crush and some grumbling. As for the stage program itself, it would have been much better if Mary Jane had played their set in one piece instead of going on stage twice, since it disrupted the other bands while they were getting ready for their sets. It’s a shame more people didn’t come to the festival, since the space could easily have handled it, but judging by the response, the crowd definitely got their money’s worth.
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