Location: Riziko Bar / Postojna / Slovenia
Concert date: 10.11.2006
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: 0.00 SIT
I’d been looking forward to this one like crazy. Almost a year ago, Thomas and I stormed off to Zagreb to see S.Vai. This time we didn’t have to go nearly so far for something similar. Riziko Bar in Postojna. We marched in around 9:30 PM. The place was already packed to the rafters. Quick, beers!
Over a long career, Shime has developed a distinctive, one-of-a-kind guitar style, a supersonic display of finger-speed fireworks on the fretboard that can stand up to the biggest grandmasters of the genre, like S. Lukather (Toto), J. Satriani or S. Vai! Besides the breathtaking, neck-breaking solos, his songs are always seasoned with plenty of gorgeous melodies and carefully decorated with the wit of his guitar transitions.
Over the years, Shime has worked with some big names, including Eddie Van Halen, Tony MacAlpine, Mike Terrana, Rudy Sarzo, Richard Black and Steve Stevens. The latter even guests on Damir’s new album, on the track Little’s Boy Dream.
As proof of just how respected and admired a musician Shime is, there was the recent Fender / Mega Muzika awards ceremony on 09.11.2006 in Zagreb, where Shime accepted the honorable award for best guitarist of the year from the hands of Fender Europe’s director.
This time too, the guitar virtuoso brought a top-notch lineup to Postojna, with Damir joined by Ricky Riccardo – bass (a member of Tony MacAlpine’s band) and drummer Jeff Bowders (a member of Paul Gilbert’s band). A musical crew this unbeatable was a guarantee of an unforgettable virtuoso stage spectacle!
The clock strikes 10:15 PM and Shime greets the crowd: “Dobro veče Postojna!” The band didn’t hesitate for a second and the neck-breaking Formula One race of music was on. The place kept filling up and was swaying with an average of 60 – 70 music lovers in great spirits who had come to air out their brains. By the third song, Hit And Run, the band was incredibly warmed up and had shifted into a higher gear. Shime looked flawless. At Malmsteen-class speed and together with two outstanding musicians, they ran a “jam” as a (mere) “power trio”, and you’d better not have tried dancing to its beat. The solo detours took your breath away.
Still, all the tracks shared a tight, compact thread, so those of us in the room could enjoy the expressive power of the guitar riff, which Shime knows how to lay down extremely solid and decisive. The real attraction was Jeff Bowders’ drum solo, in which the guy showed what a top-schooled musician he is. He unleashed speed of incredible potency. Let’s not forget that last year Glenn Sobel sat in his seat next to Shime, and that Mike “The Troll” Terrana played the drums for Shime on the “Demostratus” record. And why is it again that Bowders plays with another crazy guitarist, Paul Gilbert? In short: flawless technique, deadly speed, and incredible power in squeezing the most out of every single hit. Cannon-fire incineration to the very end!!! After the solo, the crowd gave Jeff a thunderous applause, and Shime carried on with Never Say Never, whose Whitesnake-style erotic opening “riff & beat” released the electrified atmosphere. Ricky didn’t stay much in debt to Bowders either with his solo on the five-string bass. Little Boy’s Dream was especially striking. That track carries exactly that Balkan feint in its main motif, dressed up in a metal template. With a stance of progressively fractured thrashing, the guys aired out the atmosphere into a whole new dimension and then returned to the compact main motif of the song. As a songwriter, Shime is closest to Satriani, who composes extremely listenable songs despite their technical complexity. Shime is a progressive upgrade of that, while keeping the melodic tightness, so it’s honestly not hard to chew your way through the material the man serves up. Accessible. The charm of musicians like this is that they only truly glow once they’re on stage. Shime, as a representative of the American school, is a real “entertainer”, a “show man”, though not in the naively childish way of that other guitar guy, Steve Vai, with his plastic props, mascara and wind in his hair. Shime sticks strictly to the guitar. As a “show man” he doesn’t need anything more. So: Satriani’s compactness, Malmsteen’s classical melodicism, stretched over progressive power, a “power trio” of free-spirited improvisation, yet within the limits of keeping the melodies tight.
The gig went smooth as butter. The ambience clearly suited the band. They had the crowd’s support and they had contact with the crowd, even though there were fewer than 100 people. What matters is that they had the support. People rewarded the devilish solo acrobatics of the musicians, who developed extraordinary onstage chemistry, communicating in complexity while playing with flawless timing and precision, with applause.
You really couldn’t miss Malmsteen! Shime pulled off absolutely everything with his companions. The band played the first encore without even leaving the stage. Shime only symbolically yanked out his “jack” for a moment, and then the band got back to work. After a longer pause, with the band cooling their heads backstage, it already looked like the show was actually over. And yet… Jeff came back onstage and offered something that rarely happens at gigs. Drum solo number 2. He rattled away and entertained the crowd all by himself for quite a while, and then Ricky Riccardo joined the shared “jam” and the number really took off! When the boss Shime finally took his spot onstage too, the melody was born again. The guys flew high (Fly High) and closed with a song with a very fitting title, Loud Not Allowed!!!
A concert an hour and three quarters long! We lovers of technical flawlessness, subtly combined and upgraded with the wit of an improvising jam stage, enjoyed ourselves left, right and center. On top of that, in the heartwarming atmosphere of Riziko Bar, where arrogance (right, Ljubljana???) is completely foreign, and for a price of 0.00 SIT, we’ll definitely be back, even if only for a beer. Shime is a first-rate attraction. An attraction for every mature lover of “jazz” rock shenanigans wrapped in classical melodies at an electric power level, as well as for the music purist who came to admire the technical and sonic flawlessness of this fascinating guitar hero. Thanks also to the boss Milan for a wonderful evening.
Setlist
1. 80’s Song
2. Camel Toe Boogie
3. Hit And Run
4. Welcome To My Noise
5. Too Much Coffee
6. Joker
7. Going Home
8. Solo Drums
9. Never Say Never
10. Blues RV
11. Solo Bas Guitar
12. Freedom
13. Little Boy’s Dream
14. Doodly Doodley Wrongway
15. Treason Without Reason
—encore 1.
16. She’s Gone
—encore 2.
17. Solo Drums
18. Fly High
19. Loud Not Allowed!!!
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