Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: November 26, 2008
Attendance: 60
Ticket price: free entry
The promo shows (rolled into one gig) by two Croatian bands, Vatra and Morso, both snugly tucked into the ever-reliable bosom of Slovenia’s strongest label, record company and distributor Dallas, came along at just the right moment to shake up Ljubljana’s live offering this November.
Originally, Vatra, who hail from Virovitica but have been based in Zagreb for 10 years now, were supposed to be joined at the launch by the rockers Stage from Slavonski Brod, who also just dropped their studio debut “Ovo je buka koja mi se sviđa”. Things evidently didn’t work out, and Rijeka’s Morso jumped in for Stage, a band cut from very different cloth, but more on that below.
Vatra turned up at Orto bar with their fifth studio album in their pocket, titled “Sputnik”. The band is no stranger to Slovenia, and although the room was still pretty empty a few minutes before showtime, the crowd, who had been busily puffing away and smoking up the ground-floor space of the newly “founded” Orto smoking lounge, finally started trickling in at the first notes of Morso.
Morso are absolute oddballs on the Croatian rock scene. For the Slovenian music scene, their debut “Izlog”, released this year, got its premiere performance at Orto bar. The seven-piece lineup really had to rack their brains to squeeze efficiently onto Orto bar’s tiny little stage. A band with two singers and two keyboard players, and then drums on top of that, and you know what we’re talking about. Morso go all in on costumes too, which added to the hypnotic, trance-like atmosphere that sucked you right in, an atmosphere they created live. Their rock character is backed by a refined sense of artistry, or in other words? This is a band with serious style. The songs are dark, dramatic, melancholic, and at the same time there’s a hidden whiff of longing and eroticism. The excellent vocal combo of charismatic singer Ivana and the band’s mastermind and singer Stanislav had to put up with somewhat poor sound conditions this time, which left the vocals mixed too quietly in the sound picture. That caused them some headaches here and there as they hunted for the ideal melody in the verses, since they couldn’t properly hear their own vocals during the performance.
Even so, Morso showed incredible tightness as they played excellent tracks from a blend of eighties post-punk rock, wisely and proudly combined with the fashionable atmosphere of indie rock bands à la Interpol or Editors. The band’s distinctive character shone through in the songs Kao da ne znam kraj (a great candidate for a hit single), the album’s title track, Svijet za nas, Ima li nešto, Sati and Izgubljeni. To fire up the crowd, they also slipped into their 40 minutes a cover of the Joy Division classic Isolation, which most people today probably know indirectly through the Irish rock band Therapy?, who were the first to cover it.
Morso made it clear they know exactly what they want. Crafted and put together with purpose, in a fresh, special, different and therefore incredibly appealing way. This is a band that wins over the listener by creating a voluminous, thick and full sound picture, in which expressive male and female vocals lock in, along with hypnotically repeating figures of sound sampling joined by prominent guitar phrases (even in the minimalism of lead melodies played on a single string), underpinned by simple but solid rhythms. Melodic, dark and mysterious. That evening I was one of the few people in the room who came to Orto primarily for Morso, because beforehand their album “Izlog” had been on heavy rotation in my CD players, in the car, at home and at work, and it had completely won me over. And believe me. Even the mostly lay audience wasn’t left indifferent after the band’s set. If Morso stick to their vision, they’re bound to make it. This is a band with huge potential, firmly committed to the continuity of preserving the rich treasury of rock tradition, as shaped by the unique climate of the city of Rijeka. Sadly, I’m convinced Morso work much better on a bigger stage, so we’ll have to look for the first big opportunity to see this band on a larger stage, say in their hometown of Rijeka, because you could feel that, thanks to the limited stage dimensions at Orto, the band couldn’t stretch out as much as it wanted to.
After a fifteen-minute break, Vatra took the stage. This is a band from a completely different mold, with almost 10 years behind them and, with “Sputnik”, five albums released in total. When Vatra took the stage, the audience reacted far more intensely than for Morso, and when frontman Ivan called on people to take a step closer to the stage so the band wouldn’t have to come to them, the crowd didn’t hesitate for a second to follow the order.
In fact, most of Vatra’s story revolves around Ivan’s extraordinary charisma. He’s a phenomenal singer and an excellent guitarist. Both in one person, which is great quality and a great rarity at the same time. The man is an outstanding stage presence, fully immersed from head to toe when it comes to stage performance. On top of that, he’s also a superb MC, who during the band’s set quite literally had people eating out of his hand. He built on the energy-charged show with witty remarks and jokes at his own expense, while also dropping a few perfectly healthy provocations, poking and prodding the crowd until they completely lost it, and the room was swept by a palpable current of energy, which of course flowed both ways. Vatra set the whole Orto bar club scene on fire.
Tight, well-drilled chops, a long mileage of gigging, rich experience. All of it paid off in this show. The band didn’t just focus on presenting the new album “Sputnik”, but mixed material from all their albums so far into the set. An amusing bit of humor sneaked in mid-gig, when Ivan announced the second single Eskim (from the new record) as a chance to calm down a little, otherwise all the intensity of the gig might do him in. So they had to play something a touch mellower. “So, people! Do you want us to keep going at this tempo and then wait 15 minutes for me to come to, or do we carry on from here like I suggested?” The sparkling, cheeky dedication to the most handsome men in Ljubljana (read: the ones of the gay persuasion) in the intro to the song Mornarska majica also stood out.
Hell of an energy, hell of a Vatra! The finely honed quintet saved the first single from the new record “Sputnik”, titled John Travolta, for the end, getting the entire Orto bar back on its feet once more, bouncing as one.
The promo was a success in every way. It also arrived at just the right time to shake up the sleepy, gloomy November season, when everyone usually prefers to stay home and warm up by the stove. This time, Orto got an extraordinary mix of ice (Morso) and heat (Vatra). The folks at Dallas probably didn’t think much about it when they set about organizing this promo for the two bands, but in this respect the combination worked phenomenally well. Both bands squeezed the most out of their sets and convincingly drew attention to their big musical talent, their development potential and their distinctive sound and stylistic rock relevance.
photo: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Aritmija 2. Boljeg za sebe 3. Privremeno nedostupan 4. Alkohol 5. Anđeo s griješkom 6. Mornarska majica 7. Lak za nokte 8. Eskim 9. Gorim 10. Privatni pakao 11. John Travolta 12. Ruska
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