The Hollow Prestige Revolution, for Slicked-Down Yuppies and Asses in Test Tubes (2010)
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Križanke / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: May 31, 2010
Attendance: 2,000
Ticket price: €24.00 (presale) / €29.00 (day of show)
The concert marathon with Niet at Križanke, celebrating the official release of the double vinyl “Trinajst”, kicked off a little after eight in the evening, when the cheerful short-pants crew Backstage hit the stage and warmed up the sparse crowd with trivial little ditties in the “Millencolin meets Green Day” style of the alternative “skater” rock crowd. “Nobody can take our bloodily skated ice cream away from us!” was one of the profound messages in the quartet’s highly intellectual poetry. For the first half hour. Oh well…
Quick changeover and… the second half hour. Oh, what? Buldogi take the stage. Who? Yes. Those very Buldogi who, going by moral principles, should have been the headliners at Križanke tonight. Night and day. Buldogi, formed back in 1979, still carry that stance of arrogance and scuzz today. V kotu sveta, Nisem pes, Doku, Šminkeraj, Panika! There’s nothing better than a band playing it with raw adrenaline and dragging you back to the days when punk was actually a tool of rebellion. The Ljubljana crew, commanded by a charismatic upholstered armchair on matchsticks, singer Damo, with thunderous bellowing that embodies the band’s whole point most convincingly even today, alongside the no less raspy Maček. Half an hour of proper punk rock roar that proved Buldogi’s touch of scuzz hasn’t left them even after more than three decades.
At Križanke everything is nicely laid out and polished. As it should be. Niet step on stage at 10:00 PM and soar above 2,000 heads in Plečnik’s cult temple of music! You barely turn your head and the band is already on a new song from the new album “Trinajst”, and so Čas za revolucijo arrives. They take the new album’s innocence vehemently and without any polite persuasion beforehand. The first part, where the crowd boiled over right away, is followed by new material that cools the hot heads somewhat, since it’s barely sticking in the ears yet, but even in this stretch it felt like the audience was watching intently and breathing with every gesture and move of the band’s stage presence.
The legendary Buldožer man Borut Činč rocks onto the stage. He watched over the first steps of the comeback, of course, and still watches over the authenticity, maturing and cohesiveness of Niet’s presence today. The man is the band’s quiet guru, operating from the background, but without his touch, a successful maturity exam for this band on the march again would be questionable. The maestro sits down at his Hammond and the band roars into Sam without hesitation. Relatively early in the set, Lep dan za smrt comes as a surprise, and, as expected, nearly all of Križanke joins in thunderously. From the stage to the very last, highest step at the opposite end of the venue.
A recap of the opening stretch follows, reviving the early Habič era. On stage, the quintet hitches up again in a higher rock gear. Likar is set slightly apart from the foursome on the left side, Dernovšek and Česnovar next to each other on the right. The band is more or less static, except for Marolt, who diligently paced from the edge of the stage to the foot of Dimnik’s drums. Kudos to the singer for plugging the excellent American indie rock outfit Interpol!
Next comes a stroll through the album “Izštekani”. Marolt and Likar stay on stage with a string quartet, and Činč joins them on piano. Once again they set the people swaying happily, albeit through nicely shaped harmonic arrangements sprinkled with sweetness, which accompanied the infectious Bil je maj. In the same manner the band picks up the brand-new Beli prah, where Severa Gjurin enters a vocal duet with Marolt.
That night was clearly tailor-made for the band. Everything came off with very little effort. The crowd ate out of Niet’s hand and the event took on a real pomp-and-charm that the vocabulary of alternative rock, which Niet come from, doesn’t exactly tolerate well. Ruski vohun is obligatory, of course, and so is the new song Živalska farma, where a children’s choir joins the band on stage. No hiding the fact: it was devilishly good, energetic rocking at Križanke. Even if we’re facing new times, new approaches, new ways and views in how the lads create, new ways of presenting their music live, and the late Habič may even have spun in his grave a few times. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but perhaps the lads’ brakes slipped just a little in that respect. There was a smidge too much glamour this time. And of course that attracts the yuppie crowd of rustling chicks in five-inch heels and their side-parted Pinocchios, who’ll go nuts at a show the next day with Flirt, Jan Plestenjak and similar mule-herders of all of Slovenia’s shallow heads, and who are now discovering the new Niet.
Not far from Dan D, they’re becoming harmless and vain to the bleating masses. “Trinajst” is a good album. More than good. It’s nice that they’re creating again, but at moments like these I’d still wish they’d just stayed in the studio. Damn the new times! But we can’t escape them. They’re here. And here’s the new live Niet. Still, it’s better that (live) Niet play the role of a sort of buffer, a bulwark, where the sterile and spiritually hollowed-out Slovenian youth of students and other school-age kids with ass-stuffed pants come for concert communion, as if wrecking parliament with granite cobblestones, while the repairs are paid for by those state serfs who should have burned it to the ground along with the MPs.
Almost two hours of marathon with Niet, who can’t be faulted for anything as far as performance and presence go, on the other hand served up a few bitter questions. Is the mission of alternative rock or punk rock really an indifferent stroll through pasteurized clouds of media showing off apparent pop-erfection? I believe punk and revolution briefly lost firm contact with reality this evening at Križanke.
photos: Martin Prezelj
Setlist
1. Paranoja 2. Molk 3. Vijolice 4. Tvoje oči 5. Čas za revolucijo 6. Tujca 7. Dekle izza zamreženega okna 8. Naj kri zalije ves svet 9. Sam 10. Vsak dan se kaj lepega začne 11. Lep dan za smrt 12. Izobčeni 13. Umiranje 14. Srečna mladina 15. Zastave 16. Sranje 17. Melanholija 18. Bil je maj 19. Strah in krik 20. Beli prah 21. Ruski vohun 22. Škrati in gosenice 23. Temni oblaki 24. Stres generacije 25. Živalska farma 26. Ritem človeštva 27. Depresija 28. Pesrpektive 29. Heroj 30. Ti in jaz 31. Februar
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