Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Urban Bolta
Location: MC Kotlovnica / Kamnik / Slovenia
Concert date: November 12, 2010
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: free admission
Last Saturday, the Kotlovnica youth center in Kamnik hosted Hard Rock Buffet 2, the second edition of the festival for unestablished bands after last year’s debut. For any rocker with a free night, that’s more than a good enough reason to sneak into an event that’s supposed to showcase the state of the local underground scene, with a package of four names the wider public has never heard of. Since Kamnik heavy metallers Use Less were presenting their demo at Ljubljana’s Orto bar that very same day, there was some worry that attendance would suffer, but that worry turned out to be completely unnecessary, because a pretty decent crowd showed up.
The night was kicked off by punkers Sirotinje from Kranj. The band jumped in a few days before the event to replace Plato, who had to cancel their set for reasons unknown to me. In a half-hour set, the Kranj crew played original songs full of uncompromising punk racket and messages about the wretchedness of society, clearly defining themselves as yet another representative of a genre that hasn’t been going anywhere for a long time and just keeps stereotypically grinding along. A strong bass line plays an important role in Sirotinje’s sound, but this time the bassist stood at the far right edge of the stage, cut off from the spotlights, in total darkness. If the sonic side of the performance was still worth sticking around for, I can’t say the same about the stage show. Energetic music and cheerful lyrics, and yet such deadness on stage? The two guitarists stood rooted to the spot and, resigned to their fate, strummed out their parts, and their lack of movement is one of the main reasons this set will quickly be forgotten. Punk? Yeah, right!
Second up was Karantena, a relatively young quartet from Litija that’s unknown to the wider public. Karantena had already drawn a significantly bigger crowd to Kotlovnica from outside town, which only increased my curiosity about them right before the set. The quartet bets on a hard rock attitude and stands firm on stage, so watching their show is a real pleasure! They build their sound on two clearly standout guitar lines that weave together and complement each other brilliantly. Between verses, a sophisticated vocal often steps into the foreground over a calmer instrumental backdrop, followed by tougher, more aggressive choruses, the high points of their songs. At times you could almost call them pop-rockers, but in the very next moment they surprise you with a hard rock banger, and with a touch more melody a comparison to Siddharta would be in order. The guys’ main and only guiding principle is love of music, and since Karantena spoke about it firsthand in a hefty dose of original tracks, they hit the nail right on the head and entertained the crowd for about 40 minutes with quality rock racket. The band, who started writing their story in 2008, would be very welcome on the Slovenian music scene judging by what they showed, but as we know, the road to success is always a thorny one. Best of luck on it, guys!
Third that evening, Deck Janiels took the stage, a local crew who gathered everybody who had stumbled over to Kotlovnica that night right in front of the stage, which rightfully earned them the headliner spot. Despite their youth, the guys already have a few gigs under their belt, and you could see it from a mile away. First and foremost I mean the well-used stage, which during the “Janiels” set turned into the real heart of the party, thanks to a tight guitar trio and a vocalist in great spirits who’s the central figure of their show. The charismatic Tine, dressed in a Motörhead shirt, steered the set in a goofy, joking style in the manner of his idol Lemmy, from original songs all the way to covers of Emergency (Girlschool), Breaking The Law (Judas Priest) and Kreni Prema Meni (Partibrejkers). Raw rock’n’roll riffs and an uncompromising performance finally warmed up everyone in the room, so the whole front part of Kotlovnica turned into a “dance floor.” The band puts a big part of their effort into the stage show, which sets them apart from the apathy of many other Slovenian rock bands, but a word of warning: if they play outside their home turf, where they won’t have a fan base behind them, they shouldn’t knock back too many glasses of that beloved hop beverage, as happened this time.
Last to play were another bunch of Kranj locals. Paraziti p.13. Yes, you got it right, punkers again. Kranj is a real cradle of punk and similar genres, and in their search for a way to spend their free time, even Paraziti couldn’t resist punk, choosing the wrong approach to picking up girls: music. Monotonous, teenage quasi-punk with ska rhythms grafted on is a sound you’ve already heard a hundred times, and despite their energetic performance, my ears couldn’t take them for longer than the first few minutes. Let somebody else listen to their little stories about lollipops and ice cream.
Drawing the line under the evening brought mixed feelings. It actually confirmed the well-known fact that our little country is home to a heap of young, unestablished bands that anyone can split into those they enjoy and those they’d rather duck out for a beer instead of. If Karantena truly surprised me first and foremost, and Deck Janiels entertained me admirably too, I can’t say the same for the other two bands. They say people quickly forget the bad moments, so in the long run, I did myself a favor by going to Kotlovnica that night, and I don’t regret it.
Photos: Rudi Benkovič
Setlist
Deck Janiels: 1. Road Rage 2. Dirty Honey 3. Breaking The Law 4. First Date 5. Code of the Road 6. Zapeljivka 7. No Class 8. Where Will You go? 9. Emergency 10. Jack N’ Beer 11. Kreni Prema Meni 12. Rock The Ground —————– 13. Blitzkrieg Bop
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