Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Orto Bar
Concert date: 23.02.2006
Attendance: 140
Ticket price: 1000 SIT
When thick fog rules over the expanses of Ljubljana in February, when temperatures sink to zero and the precipitation can’t decide whether to snow us in or soak us, so it does both, there’s really nothing for a person to do outside. But if it’s a Friday and The Drinkers are playing, the situation can of course flip completely. As is only proper, The Drinkers started the party late! Orto Bar was jam-packed again, with not a chair to be found on the lower level, and upstairs you needed an iron will to fight your way through hordes of mostly school-age kids. The youngsters will get their five minutes of rock’n’roll after all, even though everyone had already grabbed their mug and, as befits a The Drinkers gig, started swaying in the spirit of drink’n’roll.
I jumped into the venue and mixed in with the crowd just as they kicked off. It was late, late,… I don’t remember anymore, I was way too switched off for formalities like that. A party band that knows the real point of living rock refused to be held back once again. With Maki, The Drinkers got not just an excellent interpreter of their alcoholic mission, but also a naughty rascal who on top of that looks good. And as the patriarch of the Slovenian entertainment music trade Andrej Šifrer puts it, “pretty girls love bad boys” (which Maki of course isn’t, he just plays one when it’s needed, and the stage is his world). That bait lured a whole bunch of flirty bunnies, bored by everyday life, into the front rows, and they bounced happily all through the gig.
The guys cranked up the temperature right away, and it didn’t let up for the whole set. The raw, authentic sound properly rattled the bones of a crowd that was having endless fun. The Drinkers just know how. A sense of humor, exquisitely refined provocation and a raw erotic charge are the perfect cure for all human woes, a cure called the Friday switch-off. Alongside a good number of their classic crowd-igniters, the set list also had room for two newer creations: Tine Rine (for which the band recently shot a video) and the song Nočem na Evrosong, with which The Drinkers went after that prestigious prize, or rather star status. But, as befits modern Slovenian circumstances, they bailed in time, so as not to “unfortunately” and unintentionally outshine some poor Slovenian soul up in the heavens, since the “frajtonerica” accordion virus that today’s quick-buck rockers are so cheerfully shoving down our throats in this motherland belongs nowhere other than with Avsenik.
The Drinkers once again drove us convincingly nuts in their own style of musical boozing, and the hangout with them was over way too fast! The first rock’n’roll defenders of the alcohol religion on Slovenian soil did a great job of keeping alcohol awareness alive, and with their gig they not only delighted 200 fans, but also graced the birth of RockLine in the best possible way. The Beervolution in Slovenia carries on at full strength!
Setlist
1. Lepi In Trezni
2. Svet Se Ne Vrti
3. I Love Alkohol
4. Miss Lee
5. 10 Majhnih Jagrov
6. Ko To Tamo Peva
7. Žeja
8. Lit’r Vina
9. Alkohol Je Moj Idol
10. Lep Dan Za Smrt
11. Vijolice
12. 7 Dni
13. Fa Fa Fa
14. Cura
15. Miki Miška
16. Nočem na Eurosong
17. Tine Rine
18. Jawohl
19. Pijemo Ga Radi
—encore—
20. Kreni Prema Meni
21. Basket Case
22. All The Small Things
Photo gallery
