Location: Ljubljana/KUD Franceta Prešerna
Concert date: 03/19/2009
Attendance: 250
Ticket price: €30
Eric Sardinas is a name that music fans in recent years have mostly linked with the concert idyll of Bluesiana in Velden. But times change, KGM has been gone for ages, Haider recently threw in the towel too, and the homebody stallion from Florida had no choice but to head back to Janković’s turf! Sardinas came down from the Karawanks to Ljubljana on the wings of the venomous rhythm duo Levell Price/Bernie Pershey, and of course he won. KUD fell under a barrage of confident blues rock interpretation, and the trio also hinted at alternative directions of expression, saved for days to come.
Eric Sardinas and Big Motor is a deadly musical machine in every sense of the word. Like a well-oiled set of gears caught in the merciless vise of raw blues rock’s crushing power. Sonically, the trio comes across with exceptional tightness, and it doesn’t lack a feel for innovatively dressing up an already colorful repertoire either. Once again Eric stayed true to his tradition of upgrading standards and the iron-clad classics related to them, keeping them vital, not to mention attractive. New tricks, especially unpredictable rhythmic turns carefully woven into the backbone of the songs, were plentiful. The band is locked in down to every last barely noticeable detail, and it sounded confident, even unbeatable, during the rare improvised passages too, which, as expected, were mostly steered by the slide guitar.
Sardinas served the Ljubljana crowd his usual musical-educational tasting menu of first-class blues rock miniatures, spiced up with a pinch of the slightly less peppery obligations from his latest album. Down To Whiskey was not allowed to be missing, the playful Texola won us over with its moody character, the bloodthirsty medley” 8 Goin’ South/Ramblin’ Man Blues disarmed us, and the time was ripe for Waters’ Can’t Be Satisfied too. You know, that very favorite of Sardinas’ repertoire that so shamelessly reminds you at every turn of Robert Johnson’s Preaching Blues (Up Jumped The Devil). The debt to the blues legend is obvious, and Eric is nowhere near ashamed of that presence. Instead, with a heartfelt and inventive demonstration of the basic guidelines of blues music, he gladly lectures the audience on the legacy of the timeless icons of the genre. Sardinas’ other creditor will apparently forever be Elmore James, whose legacy Eric Sardinas has taken over, pushing it into once unimaginable boundaries and expanses. Eric has hinted more than once that he clearly understands the blues tradition, and if anything, we blues lovers can only accuse the master of tinkering too much with the otherwise astonishing elements of slide guitar technique, which too often comes off kitschy, drawn-out, and therefore insincere. But that’s simply the direction the protagonists of modern blues rock have been moving in for quite a while. And among them, Eric Sardinas is certainly one of the more imposing performers.
New-generation blues rock, then! Absolutely, more listenable and contagious, and friendlier to the ears of the average listener. At the expense of edge and rawness, of course. Those are the words I’d use to sum up the presentation of Sardinas’ latest album Big Motor, whose colors were honorably defended by This Time and Ride, and toward the end of the night, with a dedication to Rory Gallagher, As The Crow Flies by Tony Joe White gave us a proper shaking. I could say that by recruiting more listenable elements of expression Eric has even softened up a bit, but let’s say that in the old boy, personal maturing has finally started to merge with the process of further musical development. Still, Sardinas’ latest moves point to a more radical shift in how he expresses himself, with an emphasis on the role of backing vocals and more clearly defined duties for each member of the band. So we’re talking about a discipline we weren’t used to from Sardinas before.
Not to nag, but the chance for a one-of-a-kind blues experience with Eric Sardinas still remains plentiful. The gentleman’s stage presence stays triumphant and dominant in every respect. Anyone who has ever had the chance to see him live knows his reputation is well earned. Last night the master carried out all the “sacred” duties of his calling, maybe even with more liveliness and feeling than expected, and the reaction of the crowd, packed into every last corner of Prešeren’s temple, was ecstatic at the very worst. If I leave out a few distinctly rural-minded outbursts from certain individuals, which cruelly reminded us that the smell of spring manure sticks awfully well to the soles of Ljubljana’s high society too, the night went by without the slightest flaw, which is surely a good send-off for future blues rock adventures on the sunny side of the Alps.
Photos: Mojca Perdih
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