Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Križanke / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: September 13, 2009
Attendance: 3
Ticket price: €25.00
The idea of beefing up your own music, weaving in a new dimension, new wings, a new contour, a new meaning, a new vision, can always be a big and seriously tempting challenge, one that keeps tickling the exploratory itch of every artist. There are tons of examples: bands who, twenty or more years later, play their legendary classic album again from first track to last on a tour made for exactly that (from Judas Priest to Deep Purrple, Queensryche and so on…), plenty of gigs in unplugged, acoustic form, punk/ska/pop/rock staples rebuilt in a totally new jazz makeup (The Police meets early Sting) and so on… And last but not least, it’s also very popular to rework the basic rock figures by bringing in symphony orchestras and adding symphonic arrangements. Dan D are a band that builds its original music in a tight, punchy, easy-to-listen-to way, one that also carries, by Slovenian standards, a strictly recognizable charisma. Since Dan D have always been driven by the urge to craft a finely made lead melody, they’re an ideal rock band for this kind of combination. Say the phrase Slovenian rock today and, apart from Siddharta, you’d be hard-pressed to find a third band that’s as clear a definition of it as Dan D.
And so it happened. Dan D together with the RTV Slovenija Symphony Orchestra in the Križanke hall. Demand for tickets was huge, and Križanke added an extra date, September 14, 2009. Still, that first show, on Sunday, September 13, 2009, remains one of a kind. It was completely sold out. And everyone was full of anticipation. The crowd as much as the band.
I was down to the last sips of my beer when something unusual played out in front of my eyes. The concert kicked off with bagpipes, actually in the courtyard of Križanke, quietly and with no fanfare, about ten minutes before nine in the evening. A guy with bagpipes and a Scottish kilt, with completely unobtrusive steps, walked onto the stands and the hall erupted. Everybody’s in place. Orchestra and band. For the third song, Moj problem, the guys move to the center, right up front, surrounded by the orchestra. The way the harmonies blend is spot on, wonderfully pleasant to the ears, different, new and thrilling the whole way through. Things flip with the song Halo and the band moves to the back, behind the orchestra. Tokac grabs his Telecaster and the band plugs in. This is where the singer’s strengths first shine through: his top-notch vocal articulation and the way he adapts to the different emotional situations embodied by individual Dan D songs. Yes, we’ve moved on to facing a new kind of energy in the hall. The crowd doesn’t hide its excitement. Križanke is bursting at the seams, people can’t move an inch left or right, forward or back. Even sardines in a can aren’t packed this tight, the way Dan D fans were this time.
Hello, security guys and order-loving promoters! Where are you? Help! They’re attacking us again, those crazy and insatiably greedy photography beasts, shoving their way through the crowd to get even more shots long after their accreditation limit of three songs in front of the stage had rung out. Ah, well, they’re just your average Slovenes who came to show off their Nikons, and in an hour they’ll scurry back into their mouse holes, only to show up in Križanke again half a year from now at a similar Plestenjak event. True. I can’t stand people who go to concerts to get photographed. You go to concerts to enjoy and to listen. And I especially can’t stand people who bother you while you’re enjoying a concert just so they can sell their pictures later.
Enough whining, because the concert was excellent. The sound was just right, the individual elements clearly audible, perfectly harmonized and tight in their playing. The band was super playful, even though Dan D are more or less static and don’t show any special signs of life, no bursts of higher stage kinetics moving away from the basic spot they stand on during the show. After pretty much every song came scattered shrieks of high hysteria from obsessed girls packed into the crowd, going through a delirious bloom of a new personal leap to a higher spiritual level. Joking aside. Dan D truly earned all of it. They sealed their bond with the audience by inviting special guests who sang duets with Tokac. During the song Roke, Polona Guštin came on stage to keep the band company. But among all the guests, the first prize definitely went to the combo with Ditka Haberl on the song Sirenia. A woman is like good wine. She only gets better with age! Presence and voice! Dan D built the set list in a kind of order of fast and rough song – slower and more sophisticated song, which strengthened the dynamics of how things unfolded, with a bold ebb and flow in the atmosphere of the gig that sent shivers down your spine a few times with no brakes on! Besides Ditka and Polona, the stage was also shared with Dan D and the symphony players by Borut Marolt (Niet), plus the brother and sister Severa and Gal Gjurin, and finally, at the very peak of the evening, Tomi Meglič (Siddharta), who sang a duet with Tokac on, which one was it again? Voda, of course. With that song Dan D wrapped up the regular part of their set.
Interestingly, the band that came back for the obligatory encore didn’t stretch it out to even 15 minutes. They played just one more song, Čakamo, while the thirsty crowd kept waiting in vain for the hit Plešeš. Even so, Dan D and the symphony players cranked out a concert 1 hour and 40 minutes long. The crowd just wouldn’t accept that the show was over and stuck around in the hall in front of the empty stage for a good bunch of minutes. I should add that the excellent sound and playing (the performance) were topped up by phenomenal visuals with extra effects (three screens). The left and right screens were dedicated to capturing shots of the band itself, while the biggest screen in the back played video clips during the songs. In one of them we got to know the klavžar bird (black vulture), the black ibis or Thoth’s bird (Coragyps atratus) quite well, an Egyptian sacred bird and a seriously endangered species (worldwide), which served as inspiration for the creation of Dan D’s new record, including its cover. And the band and the Vala 202 crew didn’t forget about excellent stage lighting and a blend of colored reflections either. In short, this was one of those evenings when all the stars in the sky line up in perfect position.
Judging by the sheer number of cameras catching shots at the venue, it’s not hard to guess the event was recorded on audio-visual media, which is the only smart move for one-of-a-kind events like this, ones that are a turning point in a band’s musical career, and Dan D playing a packed Križanke with the RTV Slovenija Symphony Orchestra definitely was one. My only little gripe would be that the band could have played a solid two-hour show and maybe paid a smidge more attention to the first two albums, from which we only heard two songs. I agree myself that “Katere barve je tvoj dan?” and “Ura letenja za ekstravagantne ptice” are a leap to a higher artistic level for the band, and it makes sense that the repertoire is geared toward songs from those two albums. The new studio album was actually played in its entirety, apart from the song Magično. It was a magical, one-time event, and we’ll most likely be able to relive something close to it many more times via a DVD or a live record from Dan D. Orchestral arrangements and Dan D rock? Excellent combination!
photos: Mojca Perdih
Setlist
1. Intro 2. Rožice 3. Jutranja 4. Moj problem 5. Halo 6. Roke 7. Love Song 8. Google Me 9. Novo sonce 10. San San 11. Sirenia 12. Le naprej 13. Sla 14. Tomi čuvaj se 15. Za naju punca 16. Čas 17. Tiho 18. Put slonova 19. Voda —encore— 20. Čakamo
Photo gallery
