Location: Mladinski center Krško / Krško / Slovenia
Concert date: December 28, 2011
Attendance: 160
Ticket price: €5.00 (presale) / €7.00 (day of the show)
New Year’s break and a merry December – a killer combo for catching the last gig of 2011. This time the honor went to Zoran Mišić and his band, who came to heat up the Posavje crowd at MC Krško.
Mladinski center Krško has been celebrated as a “factory of alternative music” for quite a few years now, giving young bands a chance to show off their chops on stage. After the renovation and reopening in July 2011, they can boast an expanded offer with a youth hostel, new rehearsal rooms and a recording studio, plus a revamped club and hall. This time the renovated space was graced by Zoran Mišić, a finalist of the Croatian “supershow” “Hrvatska traži zvijezdu” (in English: “Croatia Is Looking for a Star”).
Zoran Mišić is known to the wider public mostly as the narrowly second-placed contestant of the 2009 season of “Hrvatska traži zvijezdu”, where he wowed audiences as a great interpreter of both Croatian and international melodic rock acts. With his versatile voice, he has also been racking up success in Croatia and the neighboring countries in recent years with his own original music, but of course his live repertoire still doesn’t lack covers of other great artists, which Zoran Mišić adds a bit of his own musical flavor to, bringing them back to life in a different light.
When I arrived at MC Krško, a swarm of fired-up teenage girls was already crowding both the club and the hall, filling up the front rows. Since there was no sign of the show starting any time soon, we first fueled up with the obligatory beer. Around 10 p.m. the temperature in the hall started to rise, along with the number of young fans. Finally, to the sounds of The number of the beast, the big Zoran Mišić walked onto the stage with a much smaller guitarist, Vjekoslav Čuljak, bassist Dražen Djukić and drummer Alen Valinčić. The young crowd greeted the performers with loud chants of “Zoki! Zoki!” (which strongly reminded me of the recent elections), and Zoki confidently kicked off the show with hits from his debut Strah od nepoznatog.
Before long he drifted into some better-known covers and invited us to join in – we all sang Highway to hell and Immigrant song together, and then Zoran went back to presenting his own songs. What’s always the most fun at gigs is some unexpected surprise, and this one didn’t make us wait long for it. During the song Vodi me, the drummer was also singing backing vocals, which showed that his singing chops don’t reach Zoran’s toes, and while drumming, he split the head on his snare. A short break in the regular program and a snare swap didn’t faze the Croatian music ace – backed by the bassist and guitarist and with loud support from the crowd, he sang the Opče opasnosti hit Jednom kad noč, which wasn’t on the setlist. Some more goofing around followed with the Extreme hit More than words, and then the drummer was ready again and they hit hard together with Would (Alice in Chains). A bunch of originals and covers followed in a nice sequence. We heard hits by Deep purple, Down, Majke, Laufer,… The hall joined in with singing as well as roaring applause and screams of excitement. Several times during the show Zoran stressed how happy he was to be back in Slovenia, praised the equipment at the youth center and told the crowd to be grateful for all the facilities the new MC offers them, because they don’t have anything like it back home. The other musicians on stage didn’t allow themselves any mistakes either, and guitarist Čuljak, with his “Pantera look” and Dimebag’s signature “Razorback” guitar, made it clear he can handle heavier riffs too. Of course, the young girls had to be taken care of first with the first single Gdje si sad, which the front row had been demanding since the start of the show. Next came Led Zeppelin’s Rock ‘n’roll, Motorhead’s Ace of spades, a great Metallica with Enter sandman and of course Pantera with Walk. Zoran closed the first part of the show with his very good tune Dolina suza, then everybody left the stage and came back about two minutes later, and for the encore, in deference to the love of harder music among the rest of the audience, they allowed themselves Pantera’s Cowboys from hell and said their final goodbye with a repeat of the first single, Gdje si sad.
By the end of the show the clock was creeping toward 1 a.m., and I have to say that was a very solid stretch of quality music for young Croatian musicians. With his quality vocals, good song choices and solid delivery, Zoran Mišić can expect to raise the average age of the crowd right below the stage soon enough, as long as he sticks with his love of harder rhythms. Go, go, Zoki!!
photos: Jože Hvala
Setlist
1. Moja generacija 2. Izgubljeni raj 3. Hridi samoče 4. Highway to hell 5. Immigrant song 6. Vodi me 7. Would 8. Svoj 9. Are you gonna go myway 10. Hush 11. A ti još plačeš 12. Svijet za nas 13. Mršavi pas 14. Stone the crow 15. Ovo je tvoj dan 16. Man in the box 17. Park 18. Gdje si sad 19. Rock ‘n’ roll 20. Ace of spades 21. Enter sandman 22. Walk 23. Dolina suza —encore— 24. Cowboys from hell 25. Gdje si sad
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