Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Urban Bolta
Venue: MIKK, Murska Sobota
Concert date: 09.04.2009
Attendance: 300
Ticket price: 8€
Just arriving at the big park in the middle of Murska Sobota, where the castle complex with the youth center stands, hinted that the night was going to be an interesting one. Kids scattered across the benches of the sprawling park, a huge black tour bus and a warm April evening were the good omens behind that hunch. MIKK was hosting the merry bunch from Ajdovščina going by the name Elvis Jackson. A month ago the “Elvises” released their fourth studio album Against the Gravity, which got very positive reviews, and after the release the guys hit the road for an extensive tour across Slovenia, kicking off with a show at Cvetličarna in Ljubljana, which you can read the report on here.
World-famous names who worked on the new album, a big selection at the merch stand in the back of the club, their own tour bus and, last but not least, a two-week tour of Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the first half of March are proof that Elvis Jacskon have gone about this very professionally. In a tiny place like our little country under Triglav, that’s really hard to pull off. In short, Elvis Jackson are a band with guts and vision and a lot of potential, and with every next step they push the limits of what they’ve already achieved even higher.
KENNYBAL SMITH
As has happened a few times before, Kennybal Smith from Nova Gorica played the opening act. A little after ten in the evening they started playing their version of punk with some hardcore touches. Over a set of about 40 minutes, which they started in front of an almost empty club and finished with the Elvis Jackson show right around the corner and the place already packed, they didn’t make any great impression on the Prekmurje crowd. The reason is probably, given the genre, too much stiffness on stage, plus the fact that despite two guitarists, the melodies of their songs don’t stand out enough and blur into a too-monotonous sound.
ELVIS JACKSON
A little after eleven, the Ajdovščina-Nova Gorica-Styria lineup came bouncing onto the stage of the jam-packed, sold-out club and kicked off with the opening and title track of the new album mentioned above. Since the album could be bought dirt cheap together with RSQ magazine, it’s already well known, just a few weeks after release, and the crowd below the stage sang the choruses from the current album just as loudly as those of the older songs. Elvis Jackson once again proved themselves in the elements they’re already famous for. One of them is undoubtedly the constant switching between energetic punk rock and relaxing reggae-ska rhythms, so everybody’s happy: those who came to the show to go nuts as well as those with a more peaceful taste, who like to sip a beer at a gig in a spot where they don’t have to worry about a jumping crowd spilling it.
With the new album there are a few changes on the set list. Some songs dropped out, others were moved around within the show, and still others (the new ones, of course) jumped in for the old ones. For example, for the first time since the Summer Edition record (2004), Get up isn’t played last, and Running has gone from opening track to a spot somewhere near the end of the set. As usual, they wove riffs from famous songs into their show (Walk This Way – Aerosmith, One – Metallica, Seasons In The Abyss – Slayer, Holy Wars – Megadeth), and for a moment the few metal souls in the audience really got that sparkle in their eyes, before the riffs morphed into the band’s own songs.
Elvis Jackson are a band built on good vibes — we can’t picture them any other way. This time was no different. Singer Buda, the band’s frontman, dressed in his traditional stage outfit — a checkered suit with a tie — pulled all kinds of stunts, jumped around the stage, stood on his head, and twice went right into the middle of the crowd, where everybody sang together. Even in Prekmurje he couldn’t resist addressing the crowd in his thick Primorska dialect, which is hard enough for a Ljubljana native to understand, never mind someone from Prekmurje. Bassist Slavc, the band’s trademark with his beard and dreadlocks, calmly lurked on the right side of the stage again, swaying back and forth with a smile on his face in time with the sounds. His choice of T-shirt was interesting — he was straight-up promoting the local Psycho-Path. Guitarist Berto, “Pičolini,” as Buda likes to call him, “the only metalhead in the band,” is wilder by nature than Slavc, his performance is less static, though this time he didn’t decide to take a trip off the stage. You can always recognize him by the worn-out peaked cap he’s been wearing for a century, and of course by his playing style, planted in his own half-kneeling stance. The only Styrian in the band, Marko Soršak “Sori,” who was recruited as drummer two years ago, has by now completely meshed with the others and made himself at home — in fact, with his playing character he’s born for the party-loving Elvis Jackson shows. This time too he couldn’t skip a walk to the edge of the stage, where together with the crowd he wildly pounded the hi-hat cymbal he brought along. At Thursday’s show they had no guest to spice up the concert even more. The lack of an acoustic guitar and a cello was probably also the reason they didn’t play This Time — I can’t explain otherwise why they skipped the single at the album’s release show; the first single off a record is usually the one that represents it best.
The crowd was, of course, playful, a mosh pit broke out up front, and here and there you could even spot some “stage diving,” which on MIKK’s low stage is a real little art form. Some of the standard Elvis Jackson show props weren’t missing either: confetti, flying rolls of toilet paper and an inflatable beach mattress. Prekmurje’s alternative youth doesn’t get as many gig options as, say, Ljubljana’s, so a band like Elvis Jackson has near-star status there, which I can tell from the craziness below the stage and the already-mentioned sold-out club. So the Primorska boys cooked up a killer party for the Prekmurje crowd, one they probably won’t forget for a long time!
Photos: Urban Bolta
Setlist
1. Against the Gravity 2. Wake Me Up 3. Buka Ska 4. My Beer 5. Dry Your Tears 6. Dreams 7. Rangeros 8. You And I 9. Loser 10. Not Here To Pray 11. Breaking the Silence 12. Johnny 13. Morning 14. Get Up 15. Don’t Go Too Far 16. Salvation 17. This Song 18. If You Came 19. The Burned Out Flame 20. Hawaiin Club 21. My Van 22. Go Elvis 23. Sublito 24. Market Sweets 25. Running 26. Beer & Weasel 27. Smoke Poke ———————- 28. A Glass of Tequila 29. Weakies 30. Doubts 31. Fear Off
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