Venue: Hala Tivoli / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 30.11.2007
Attendance: 6000
Ticket price: €25.00
“He always knows which way the wind blows, where it is and where it’ll be, and he loves reminiscing about the times before he was even around. Anyway, he loves getting into stuff he knows nothing about, and since that’s so common, at least he’s good at that! Seventeen, seventeen, young promising cadre, seventeen, seventeen, a radar instead of a head!”
That one, exactly that one, a Pankrti track from their first record “Dolgcajt”, is what I sang into Slavc’s ear – Pankrti’s drummer – in the toilet at Cvetličarna, where the “party after the party” was going down!!…..
Saturday 01.12.2007, a Saturday like any other…only one event broke the grey of the Saturday routine. PANKRTI!! Hey..an event that took us back twenty-odd years. Hala Tivoli sold out, packed to the last corner…hey hello…organizers, I mean the Hala Tivoli institute? How are you going to rein in a crowd of several thousand heads, the highlight of this year, an event naturally accompanied by abnormal quantities of both alcohol and non-alcohol, with one, and I mean really just one, room holding four urinals and three toilets…(and we want to join… Europe?). No wonder people pee into cups and little glasses, which they then set down, all tempting, on the shelf. How does it go again? Cheers! Or what?
I hate writing this, but there’s no other way. Slovenians wouldn’t be Slovenians if they weren’t a bit grumbly too. So let’s press on bravely. The lights go out and Đimi Rasta shows up on stage…another one of the quasi-legends…spins the track God Save the Queen by Sex Pisols and what, I mean what? So quiet I was a hundred percent sure he was playing some kind of “little night music”. I still haven’t pulled myself together from the shock when Jimi announces “let’s do a bit more in this style” and spins Anarchy in the UK (Sex Pistols).
Peter Mlakar announced salvation: “…you’re nuts…you need a doctor!!!” Hey Peter! Where’s your Divizije Niča and the track Kapo Partije (but he’ll still screw your wife), it would be so nice to see you as, say, a special guest of Pankrti. Anywhere, anytime!
And then!!!
Pankrti…finally..an entrance like the one U2 staged on the All You can leave tour…., they simply walked on stage, plugged in and „oopsss”… “Počitnice na morju” boomed out of the PA, nice and full of passion. The crowd wasn’t ready for that kind of confidence, tightness, youthfulness…in a word, for that kind of energy! Right away, without any announcement, came the three-hit punch: Lepi in prazni, Jest sem na liniji ( Perota got a bit carried away) and “my” Sedemnajst!
And now for that grumbling bit. It’s true, the sound was catastrophic, like listening from inside a swimming pool and hearing „mbljmvnmbu”. I mean, at a sold-out hall, I don’t know why, the sound engineer, I don’t know why, the cables? Again, I don’t know why, all I know is that the sound wasn’t right, got it?!?! And don’t you skimp on the PA on me.
Pankrti ran like a machine, playing at 110 revs…better than at Dom Svobode and Kodeljevo in the eighties! Slavc, you tore it up!! You were a proper machine!
I’d love to see and hear them once more…in a different hall..with the same feeling, with better sound! The band deserves it, deserves it, deserves it. That’s how it should be!
Of course a few more bangers followed, some playing around with Poland and football…Punca ne še umret, then Adijo Ljubljana, etc…
Aha, and now we get to him – the great song Dancin’ Barefoot – guitarist Ivan Krall, and Patti Smith…Nice, nice, but not this time, sadly, my friends. They could’ve had Žejo Buješpotre perform instead and the effect would’ve been the same. With a PA like that, no doubt. Sadly!
Hmmm..to me “Pankrti” were excellent (the slogan: “I’m gonna go for one more” fits the rebirth of the legendary Slovenian band on stage perfectly, in both senses). I wish and hope that Pankrti will play a gig or two in the future in some smaller venue too. And the song selection? Speechless (‚come on, don’t tell me they didn’t play enough “hits”).
Slavc’s hug and comment followed…Holy shit, man! You guys are still like this? I can’t believe it!!!
“Believe it! We still are, and there’ll be more and more of us!!”
DOWN WITH THE DEPOSIT!!
Setlist
1. Počitnice na morju 2. Lepi in prazni 3. Jest sem na liniji 4. Sedemnajst 5. Kdo so ti ljudje 6. Gospodar 7. Slavni razglas 8. Živ spomenik neumnosti 9. Greva drugam 10. Punca ne še umret 11. Zastave v prvem planu 12. Junaki drucga razreda 13. Sistem svobode 14. Umazane igre 15. Adijo Ljubljana 16. Bang Bang 17. Dancing Barefoot 18. Za železno zaveso 19. Vodja 20. Totalna revolucija 21. Lublana je bulana 22. Zvečer v mestu 23. Osmi dan 24. Zadnja ljubezenska pesem 25. Anarhist —encore— 26. Metka 27. Bandiera rossa 28. ZK Pank
