Venue: Bakhus / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: April 18, 2007
Attendance: 130
Ticket price: €0.00 (you had to show an invitation)
A party meant to promote Blackmore’s Night, whose concert was coming up three days later at Križanke. A party before the party (?), or really a party for us rockers, who still live in the misguided hope that Ritchie Blackmore will, by some chance, play something in this life again with Deep Purple or Rainbow, put away his tights, his hat and his look of an elderly forest gnome, and stoke the home fire with the lutes and other pastoral props we’re just not used to seeing in his hands.
Enough rambling. Of course, the first thing and, above all, the “oh and by the way” most important thing was that we got another stress-relieving get-together of generations: old, young, cheerful, a bit less cheerful, and in the end all happy. But you didn’t get in without a special invitation. A sip of champagne as a welcome gave my mouth a makeshift moistening, and after that I mostly stayed thirsty, because Bakhus is famous for drink prices of “unhealthy” origin.
10:15 PM! The crowd fixes its eyes on the stage, where the trio Oni shows up: Marijan Malikovič (guitar, vocals) and Jadran Ogrin (bass guitar, vocals), both formerly of Kameleoni, plus Nelfi Depangher on drums. A hard-hitting blues rock trio! The three-quarter-hour show had some lovely surprises, starting with Eric Clapton, then there were the Rolling Stones, and even Cream, where Malikovič really put the cherry on top of his excellent soloing. After that came the by now pretty standard ZZ Top cover (“Tush”), then Purple Rain (Prince, and no, not the tennis racket company!!!), where Jadran Ogrin had a real struggle on lead vocals, and the guys wrapped up the charming three quarters of an hour with an electrified take on the evergreen The Spencer Davis Group hit “Gimme Some Lovin'”. The set ended at 10:55 PM.
Just before Oni finished up, the legendary Dragan Bulič walked into Bakhus, another one of the central figures of the night keeping the crowd on its feet. So he didn’t waste any time elbowing through the otherwise well-packed ground floor of Bakhus, but slipped upstairs as fast as he could to the promised DJ spot. This night was, after all, dedicated to the Blackmore’s Night concert, under the wing of the M Koncerti promotion. Naturally, and as you’d expect, tickets were even being sold a full 10% below the regular box-office price. Well, one of the aspiring saleswomen got to learn that seductive looks and glances don’t automatically mean sales success, because the poor thing mixed up the most elementary rock basics, the kind that belong in the general education of every average Earthling, and mistakenly sold tickets for a concert by the former Dire Straits guitarist instead of the former Deep Purple guitarist. Truth sometimes hurts like hell, even in silence, and even when the bulk of the fire died down ages ago, the pain can linger!
Dr. Bulič (“Dr.” because of the specs) stirred things up by spinning Deep Purple and Rainbow classics! 10:25 PM came around fast, and Oni returned to the stage, but this time without top billing, because for the next 50 minutes they were joined by the legendary Janez Bončina – Benč. The gang ran through Benč’s classics, and a few more people gathered in front of the stage for the occasion. The trio of Malikovič-Ogrin-Depangher backed Benč’s classics with skill and routine, tunes like Zlata Obala, Ob Šanku, Navali narod na gostilne, Gvendolina, Kadar ognji dogorijo, Mr. Soul, Kanela Blues and of course the unforgettable Maji z biseri…. The guys had fun without ever overdoing it, staying within the bounds of healthy normality and gentlemanly charm and manners. The sound, per the ears of the Bakhus boss, was aimed at a friendly living-room volume. The crowd followed the musicians in a disciplined way and sang along to Benč’s every “ubogaj me”, with no “excesses” of staggering, leaning on walls, rolling around on the floor… which, to be honest, I kind of missed this time.
The evening flew by unbelievably fast, miraculously fast even, because when the guys stopped playing at 12:15 AM, the crowd suddenly scattered and Bakhus emptied out in an instant, and not even Bulič’s refined taste in picking the rest of the night’s music could stop it.
And on Sunday, April 22, 2007, it’s Blackmore’s Night. Excited yet? It’s going to be a blast! We rockers have experienced Blackmore at Bakhus more than decently, with our eyes firmly “squeezed shut” against the cruel truth, and we won’t miss Blackmore’s Night all that much. But the man in black could have shown up at Bakhus and, together with Benč and the rest of the “holy” trio, thrown in some classic Purple/Rainbow “arpeggio”. They’d surely have had a great time, and it wouldn’t have hurt anybody, least of all Blackmore.
Setlist
ONI:
1. Laydown Sally
2. Talk To Your Daughter
3. Honkey Tonk Women
4. Badge
5. Tush
6. a Chuck Berry song (?)
7. Purple Rain
8. Gimme Some Lovin’
JANEZ BONČINA – BENČ & ONI:
1. Mr. Soul
2. Kadar ognji dogorijo
3. Kanela blues
4. Zlata obala
5. Gvendolina
6. Maja z biseri
7. Navali narod na gostilne
8. Ob šanku
LINEUP:
Janez Bončina Benč – vocals, guitar
Marijan Malikovič – guitar, vocals, backing vocals
Jadran Ogrin – bass guitar, vocals, backing vocals
Nelfi Depangher – drums, vocals, backing vocals
Photo Gallery
