Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Cvetličarna Mediapark, Ljubljana
Concert date: 02/25/2009
Attendance: 700
Ticket price: €25
I first saw Gobac and the gang at the Golovec hall in Celje about 12 years ago (time flies, man!). Back then I was a high schooler, watching from a safe distance to see how many pairs of underwear would land on the stage or fly off it. Like Iggy Pop, the psychos’ frontman loved showing off his chiseled body and often even got physical with the fans up front.
As far as flirting with the female half of the crowd goes, not much has changed. But Psihomodo Pop don’t just flirt with the audience, they flirt with all kinds of music too, from primal rock and roll to wild, breakneck punk that takes us back to the golden age of the Ramones, to blues, and now reggae as well (Gobac reportedly drew on his boundless love for the legendary Bob Marley for the song Stabilno from the new album Jeee! Jeee! Jeee! Je).
The show kicked off a little before ten in the evening. After three older hits we heard the title track from the new album, a cover of Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! by punk rockers the Vibrators, with which the Zagreb boys join the celebration of punk rock’s 30th anniversary. After introducing the next new song, Gobac also took a jab at the tense political relations between Croatia and Slovenia, since our media supposedly hounded him with that question before the show. How banal! According to him, the whole world is surely wondering when these two global superpowers will come to blows! Bravo, Davor! Let the music do the talking instead. And it did. Domovine sin is an ironic ballad about a numbed taxpayer who has made peace with his fate and is just waiting for the state to start charging him for the air he breathes.
All the tracks on the new album are the product of Davor Gobac’s creative energy, except for the title track mentioned above and the song Požar, a cover of About the Fire by Nancy Sinatra, who is well known to the world’s music public.
You could say that, as far as promoting the new record goes, Thursday’s gig really broke the ice (the band had the official launch two days later at Boogaloo in Zagreb). The guys stay true to themselves, they don’t shut out new musical elements, which they work into their sound in moderation, the lyrics are uncompromising and pretty ironic too, stage props are no stranger to them either (a plush snake and an apple during the new song Raj), and they still manage to come up with a heart-wrenching rock ballad that makes your hands shoot up in the air and clap along in time.
During the show my eye kept landing on keyboardist Jurij Novoselić (where do I know that surname from?!), aka Kuzma, who proved to be a real jack of all trades. He handles the keys with ease, the warm tones of his saxophone enrich many a song, when needed he picks up a tambourine too, and he even knows his way around computer-produced dub inserts. Excellent! And let’s not forget guitarist Vlatko Čavar, aka Brada, and bassist Smiljan Paradiša, aka Šparka, who help the singer out with backing vocals.
Finally, I have to admit that I didn’t experience Thursday’s show in a strictly professional, objective way. I’m also a huge fan of their evergreen hits (Kad sam imao 16, Ja volim samo sebe, Osječam se haj, Pinokio, etc.), and during those I neglected what was happening on stage and the general vibe, and focused on enjoying myself and, of course, the obligatory neck-and-head maneuvers, which were still reminding me the next morning that something had gone down the night before. How good it feels to hear those old hits and forget the limits that space and time impose on us! And the guys even kindly gave the two of us their setlist! Thanks for that, and I wish you lots of records sold!
Photos: Tanja Goršič
Setlist
1. Srebrne svinje 2. Telegram Sam 3. Volim crtane filmove 4. Jeee jeee jeee 5. Domovine sin 6. Zauvijek 7. Požar 8. Kad sam imao 16 9. Bože čuvaj Psihomodo Pop 10. Rano jutro 11. Frida 12. Totalno sam lud 13. Jurim, jurim 14. Ja volim samo sebe 15. Osječam se haj 16. Raj 17. Boing 747 18. Stabilno 19. Pinokio 20. Natrag u garažu 21. Nebo 22. Ramona 23. Sexy magazin Encore 1: 24. Mila 25. Starfucker 26. Pile 27. Leteči odred Encore 2: 28. Ponekad 29. Baš kao
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