Venue: Križanke / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 08.05.2008
Attendance: 2000
Ticket price: 17,00€
Reunions of legendary bands have been seriously common lately. In recent years we’ve been “wowed” by The Police, Genesis and other pop acts. Now these family get-togethers have made their way to the former Yugoslavia too, where Time and Leb i Sol got back together after ages, and now Indexi too. We already saw Indexi in Ljubljana for the first time since their reunion last year, when they played Cankarjev dom. This time they stopped by Križanke.
For me, the Indexi show was already the second ex-Yugo gig in two days. After the Bosnian band Zabranjeno Pušenje (report HERE), now we got a visit from another bunch of Sarajevans.
Of the original members, only Fadil Redžić is left, and even he didn’t play on all of the band’s albums (he missed Kameni Cvijetovi). In some ways you could argue it wasn’t really Indexi at all, but a tribute band. Sure, there were still a few legendary members up there, like Ranko Rihtman (who also worked with Bijelo Dugme and plenty of other Yugoslav acts), Nenad Jurin, Miroslav Šaranovič and so on, but even they were more like extras, since they didn’t actually play all that much. Don’t get me wrong, the instrumentalists were all outstanding. Technically the performance was incredible, but it just doesn’t have that real feel of the original. The guitarist in particular was phenomenal, but for me Slobodan A. Kovačević was the very definition of beauty in guitar playing, and his younger colleague couldn’t recreate that. Just like at Cankarjev dom, this time too we got a big parade of pop singers, both male and female.
The show kicked off with the splendid Plima, sung by Željko Bebek. Right at the start, the first high point. After that the concert slid into a “schlager party”, especially once Sašo Lošić, Đuro, Hari Mata Hari and Nuša Derenda had done their bit. Later on, Hari Mata Hari at least redeemed himself with a great rendition of Bacila je sve niz rijeku. During the show we also got a recital by two lyricists who put their poetic talents to work for Indexi as well. After the poetry reading by Maja Perfiljeva, Benč came rolling onto the stage and, in his own style, added to the good mood. Another lovely moment followed when Aki Rahimovski, Dado Topić and Tifa sang Pjesmu za Davora. After a good two hours Indexi and their friends started saying their goodbyes, but they still had enough energy left to come back out all together twice and play two songs we’d already heard (Svijet u kojem živim and Ti si mi bila u svemu naj naj).
From a performance standpoint, the concert was outstanding. It’d be hard to point to any technical flaw, either in the sound or in the playing. Everything was at an extremely high level – the guitarist was wonderful, the keyboards were usually doubled up, father and son Redžić traded off on bass (once even Topić), and the drums were just as solid. The backing vocalists added their share, and so did Benč, who strummed an acoustic guitar during his own spot.
Among the vocalists I’d single out Željko Bebek and Massimo Savić, who strike me as the best fit for the music of a band like Indexi. Dado Topić has a bit too much of a rocker’s voice for hits like these, he needs something wilder to really come into his own, but he did impress me with Snijeg pade…, where he did a good job filling in for Halid Beršlić, who sang the sevdalinka at Cankarjev dom. The Macedonian singer Kaliopi also did well, charming the crowd with Budi kao more. The rest of the singers were all technically excellent, but not the best match for Indexi. The least suitable of them all was Sašo Lošić, who for some reason always gets shoved in anyway. Hari Mata Hari also wowed me with his voice, but as I said, he doesn’t blend all that well with the music of Indexi. Since these were shows in Slovenia, we had to have our own representatives too. Predin of course had to sing something, seeing as he was hosting the evening. On top of that, Indexi decided to include Nuša Derenda among the performers, who, hand on heart, really is one of our better pop singers. The full list of singers was as follows: Željko Bebek, Zoran Predin, Sašo Lošić, Branko Đurić, Boris Novković, Hari Mata Hari, Kaliopi, Janez Bončina, Nuša Derenda, Tifa, Aki Rahimovski, Dado Topić and Massimo Savić. No matter how hard the singers tried, replacing the one and only Davorin Popović is impossible. He was the voice of Indexi, the one and only, and I think it’s high time the remaining living members of the band left the legend of Popović and Slobodan A. Kovačević alone and stopped tarnishing its memory.
If I compare the show to Zabranjeno Pušenje the day before, the differences are obvious. At Zabranjeno Pušenje the atmosphere was far more relaxed, it was a proper party. Indexi, on the other hand, felt like a Big Event that they tried to make even bigger on stage. They wanted to put on a spectacle, and precisely because of that urge it fell flat. If they’d focused more on just the music, it would’ve been much better. I’d rather have seen a single vocalist than a different singer parading onto the stage for nearly every song, and all of them big stars on top of that.
I think Križanke is a better fit for a show like the one Indexi put on. The almost summery weather, with a light breeze cooling us down, created a really nice ambience for a proper summer music adventure.
Maybe we weren’t really watching the Indexi of thirty years ago, and maybe they didn’t play what I personally would’ve wanted to hear, but the event was a success. It was pulled off very professionally and everything ran smoothly. Sadly the music wasn’t quite front and center, it was first and foremost a spectacle meant to draw in as many people as possible. Despite all the shortcomings, though, I’m convinced most of the crowd got what they came for and left happy, with nostalgic melodies in their hearts.
Words: Rok Podgrajšek
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Plima
2. Pozdravi Sonju
3. Žute dunje
4. U jednim plavim očima
5. Ispili smo zlatni pehar
6. Predaj se srce
7. Budi kao more
8. Recital
9. Jutro će promijeniti sve
10. Negdje na kraju u zatišju
11. Sve ove godine
12. Pjesma o Davoru
13. Snijeg pade, na behar na voće
14. Ti si mi bila u svemu naj naj…
15. Sanjam
16. Balada
17. Bacila je sve niz rijeku
18. Svijet u kojem živim
19. Da sam ja netko
Photo Gallery
