Lene kosti – A Short but Sweet Cracking of Bones and Walls (2008)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Venue: Gromka club (Metelkova) / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 20.12.2008
Attendance: 120
Ticket price: 0,00€

This year’s reunion of Lene kosti, Ljubljana’s boogie metallers, is a hugely important event for the Slovenian music scene. It brings back a picture of a healthy metal and alt rock movement, that missed rock continuity Slovenia just doesn’t have, since bands of the so-called “first generation” and “second generation” have pretty much died out here altogether. Another comparable case is the revived Niet! By that categorization you’d file Lene kosti under the second generation, where you could also slot in the likes of Pomaranča, the short-lived (but sweet-lived) Turbo, Lačni Franz, and… luckily still going today, Avtomobili, etc…

The long-awaited show by the legendary Ljubljana band was their third since the 2008 reunion, and almost two and a half months had passed since the previous one in Ivančna Gorica. We were very, very curious how Lene kosti would fare in the capital.

HARE KRIŠNA HIPPIE GROOVES: 23.45-00.30

The bill of four acts was kicked off by Honky Tonk, whom I missed entirely because of obligations I couldn’t put off. I rolled into the venue a little before midnight, where a bunch of youngsters with the wonderful name Hare Krišna Hippie Grooves were stirring up spirits in the hall. Going by the band’s name and what I heard, you could say without hesitation this is a “band with double morals”. Since we supposedly live in a “democratic” country and plenty is allowed in art, deviations like this are actually welcome. Rock needs a healthy dose of piss-taking to keep regenerating itself indefinitely. And Hare Krišna Hippie Grooves know that. So, in a wildly predictable version of sped-up garage rock n’ roll frenzy, they put forward an excellent vocalist who surprised first of all with an enviable range of unhinged, powerful screaming, authoritative guidance through the repertoire and flat-out stage immersion, proving that sometimes even we Slovenes aren’t afraid of showing off our sexuality a little too much.

The vocalist definitely brought the band that necessary element of shock and attraction! The glam component. In the way he dresses (read: a runaway biker from a motorcycle rally), in the hairdo and of course the stage moves. In a 40-minute set the guys presented their own material and gave a glimpse of a band that’s already seriously tight from the get-go, and the sound in the club was excellent too, convincing everyone in the hall that these lads are hot and cut from the right cloth. Ladies, heads up! Some “erogenous eye candy” for you!

LENE KOSTI: 00.45 – 1.30

First onto the stage trudge the four instrumentalists Marc Kavaš (guitar), Giovanni Kavaš (guitar), Igor Kremenšek (drums) and bassist Davor Kastelec (ex-Mary Rose). And what do they have in common? Their surnames all start with the letter “K”. And what else did they have in common? They spent quite a while fiddling with the stage setup and sound. From the crowd you could even hear a panicked question: “So where’s Krušič!?!??!” Unbelievable. A fifth guy in the band with a surname starting with “K”.

All the mysteries were cleared up once the guys opened the set with I Got The! Onto the stage of course leaps the “missing” Milan Krušič (vocals)! The club was nicely packed, and keeping the band company were all kinds of music-lover profiles. From alternative fans to rastafarians, and there was definitely also a bit (though a minority) of the loyal heavy metal army, whose loyalty inside Gromka lasted exactly those 40 minutes that Lene kosti’s set ran. And everybody was getting something out of it. Lene kosti instantly unleashed a proper adrenalized energy bomb into the room, with Milan Krušič as the main catalyst, of course. With the magnetism of his incredible charisma, his stage confidence, his well-rehearsed feints and his experience, he effortlessly pulled everybody in the hall toward himself. Milan can be a real wild beast!

The guys surprised right away with the next track. They took on “not exactly an easy job”, a cover of Ronnie James Dio’s Stand Up And Shout. Their own way. Tight, no flubs, though I’d have liked Marc’s solos a notch louder, given how good the band’s overall sound in the club was. Milan used his slightly old-school “Priest – Accept-style” vocal tone on this one, but didn’t forget the vivid gestures that the legendary Dio also uses at his shows. They nailed it. And Milan, in his own improvisation of the verses, snaked through the master Dio’s lines like a pro. Next come classics with polished riffs and devilish rock n’ roll drive, such as Rock Power and Stones Of Death, and then the band shifts gears again with the Joan Baez classic Diamonds & Rust, in the Judas Priest ’04 – ’05 production, of course, but just like with Stand Up And Shout, recoded into Lene kosti’s musical jargon!

Milan fought off the heat in the club by soon baring his body from the waist up and showing off that in the 17 years he was away from the stage he’d gained a serious stash of tattoos. In the second half the guys fired off a run of their own material with the strongest riff-driven songs, the classics Iron Dragon, Warrior and of course their most notorious, Russian Girl. Then comes the question of whether we want one more song. The end of the set came a bit too fast, since the band hasn’t yet rehearsed any new material, so the sets are unfortunately still somewhat limited in repertoire and running time for now. Then again, new material for a new record is already shaping up nicely. The quintet closes by crashing into Do Or Die and, despite the chants of a few diehards holding out for an encore, leaves the stage.

The guys put on an excellent show. Sound-wise, performance-wise and as I said. With his presence and energy, Krušič is the lead bone of Lene kosti, dragging the band through the show so that you can’t be bored for a second watching the guys on stage. Considering how colorful the band’s earlier shows were, the guys have of course “gotten a bit more serious” during the years of abstinence. But you could feel that Gromka’s little stage is nowhere near enough for Lene kosti. Krušič was practically bursting with all that “recklessness”, and on a stage of wider dimensions the man would surely have come up with some extra juicy surprise. Not just the charismatic frontman, but the band as a whole had a new drive, a hunger for performing, a wish to finally create what it was robbed of 17 years ago. Tightness, experience, charisma, confidence (plus, of course, carefully grown kilos). All of that the guys know how to use today in an extremely convincing way.

The successful return from the dead sparkled in the general approval of the crowd, for whom the gig passed far too fast. Let’s just hope that Lene kosti, after the reunion, also dare. Dare to go all the way. After all, they remain big debtors both to themselves and to the rock scene itself. The band is already looking for gigs in spring 2009 and at festivals. So a hot concert year 2009 is on the cards for the Slovenian music scene. Welcome home, lads!

DANDELION CHILDREN: 1.45-

To close things out, the young hopefuls took the stage. At the end of February 2008 I saw them in the Menza p.k. hall just a few meters away, opening for the garage blues rockers Radio Moscow. They’ve taken a big step forward since then. The band is led by Jure (vocals, guitar, bass guitar) and Katja (drums), and on stage there’s also Anže, who swaps bass guitar and/or guitar with Jure. Interestingly, this time there was no Uncle Borut (aka Uncle B), who usually played bass on stage.

Above all you could feel a big improvement in Katja’s more polished drumming from when I saw the band in February 2008 to today. Jure also came across as a more assured, more confident singer. The band weaves different influences into its musical figures. You could say they’ve taken on some version of rock music that pulls various influences from the past. They come across as fairly indie but retro-minded. In the songs you feel the essence of blues power, they can slice in elements of ska, they even seem “stoned”, or they speed up into a rock n’ roll gallop. But the essence of it all is the same. Put the energy of rock music out there on stage and unleash it among the people! And the band pulled that off. They’re young and need as many gigs as possible. They also need a bit more clear direction in what they want, or in other words: “They’re still finding their feet a little”. The songs have to clearly put forward their basic motifs, they have to flow and be catchy under the skin from the first listen, with no dragging and no overcomplicating. At moments the band manages this with minimalist riffs that even recall White Stripes or the stonedness of Queens Of The Stone Age in the “Oliveri-ish” days. Encouraging, and what matters most: the band is moving forward!

In closing, let me add that the event was a success across the board. Credit goes to dandelion fan Jure (Dandelion Children), the main organizer and the man responsible, for making sure things ran the way they should. Attendance was huge, helped along by three basic factors: free entry, rain-free weather and a day off work following Saturday. The Metelkova idyll, what else!

photos (Lene kosti): Jadran Tomšič

photos (Hare Krišna Hippie Grooves & Dandelion Children): Aleš Podbrežnik