Author: Urban Bolta
Location: Pr' Kaminu / Šmartno (Goriška Brda) / Slovenia
Concert date: April 15, 2012
Attendance: 130
Ticket price: €20
Intimate shows by giants of music are the exception rather than the rule in Slovenia. A visit from one of the (former) rock giants every now and then simply isn’t enough for a nation in this little country beneath Triglav to really feel rock culture and identify with it, the way people do in the more developed Western countries, where quality rock concerts of every subgenre are never in short supply. Only regular contact with its legacy lets a person, in today’s breakneck pace of life, feel all the emotions rock music has to offer in a genuine way. And daily contact takes plenty of smaller gigs, because waiting around for mega spectacles can leave you thirsty pretty quickly. With that in mind, we headed to Šmartno in Goriška Brda, an idyllic medieval village near Kojsko.
In the wine country of Goriška Brda, David Knopfler took the stage with his longtime musical partner Harry Bogdanovs. It’s mainly the first name that the music world knows well. David is the younger of the Knopfler brothers, the famous duo that founded Dire Straits, one of the leading arena rock bands of the eighties and still one of the most respected bands around. David played on the first two albums by »Dire Straits« (1978) and »Communiqué« (1979), and in the middle of the making of the third, »Making Movies«, he stepped aside over differing views on the band’s future and devoted himself to a solo career. His brother Mark went on to become one of the most recognizable rock guitarists on the planet, while David gave himself over to writing music in the shadow of his brother’s success, far from the spotlights of the big global media. That’s just how he liked it. That’s how he found the point of making music again – and with it, the point of his own existence.
By the time we arrived at “the scene of the crime” at the Pr’ kaminu farmhouse, it was already buzzing with people of all ages and from all sorts of places. The charming little hall, with around 120 seats, was sold out, so all the audience could do in the minutes before the start was fight for the best possible spot to watch the evening unfold.
A little after eight in the evening, a smartly dressed David Knopfler and Harry Bogdanovs walked onstage, each with an acoustic guitar of their own, and kicked off the show with Hey La. At first, because of Knopfler’s intense strumming, Bogdanovs’ solo flights weren’t easy to hear, but over the first part of the show the two found each other and settled into the mix, each with just the right volume. The tender Wild West End right at the start of the evening hinted that Knopfler might spend much of the set on classics from the early Dire Straits era, but that would have been counting your chickens before they hatch. David Knopfler is a man with a wide-open musical horizon, and swearing by past glory isn’t his thing. So the next hour and a half belonged exclusively to the original material of the younger Knopfler brother.
Songs from different periods of Knopfler’s career followed one after another, showing the seasoned musician as an excellent lyricist and interpreter. His lyrics carry a strong message and touch on the troubles we all face in everyday life. Before playing America, David joked that because of its message aimed at the system of former U.S. president George W. Bush, they’d never hear this song in Texas. Between songs, Knopfler kept things homey with short, usually comical remarks and made a real connection with the packed hall.
Now and then Knopfler switched over to the keyboards, trading the sound of two acoustic guitars for more organic-sounding, more colorful arrangements, as in the melancholic Southside Tenements, a would-be Dire Straits hit that never was, or in the second half of the show with Somebody Kind from his latest studio album, »Songs for the Siren« (2006). David’s vocal form is outstanding! Not only does his gravelly voice successfully hide his 59 years, it also sounds a lot like Mark Knopfler’s in his golden years, so the comparison between the two inevitably comes up here as well. Toward the end of the show, David had some fun and finished True North in a bouncy country spirit, while the high point of the night was a dynamic version of Easy Street, with the audience itself keeping the rhythm by clapping. At the crowd’s demand, the duo came back out one last time with a cover of Joe South’s already-classic Games People Play, whose energy brought a smile even to the lips of the ice-cool Bogdanovs.
A concert of remarkable expressive power, with two acoustic guitars in the hands of two exceptional musicians, opened up a new dimension in the definition of intimacy. Longtime friends and musical partners-in-crime David Knopfler and Harry Bogdanovs proved that a love of music runs through their veins. Even without the glare of the big media houses’ flashbulbs, it was enough to serve the crowd a real acoustic treat.
Setlist
1.Hey La
2. Wild West End
3.Deptford Days
4.King of Ashes
5.Cinnamon Girls
6.Southside Tenements
7.God’s Mockingbird
8.4U (Rabbit Song)
9.Billy Crowe
——intermission——-
10.Mending My Nets
11.Underland
12.Somebody Kind
13.Here in Geneseo
14.Tears Fall
15.Grace in the Gutter
16.True North
17.America
18.Easy Street
——————–
19. Games People Play
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