Something New Rises from the Phoenix’s Ashes: Dirtswitch and LastDayHere (2012)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Photos: Jerneja Jerak

Venue: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Gig date: November 30, 2012
Attendance: 80
Ticket price: €5

You shouldn’t judge a whole year by one bad day, and you shouldn’t pass hasty verdicts after a single musical run-in with homegrown output – that’s the mantra I often use to calm my soul, so that sky-high expectations don’t leave me unpleasantly surprised, disappointed and even less willing to dig into the otherwise colorful offering of Slovenian enthusiasts every time I walk into a local club. These are the folks who, on top of playing obscure gigs, decide to offer the audience a bit more and even put out a record. Of course, it’s a two-way street. Sometimes a record plugs every hole in my already badly dented trust in the skill and know-how of creators from this side of the Alps, and you fall hard for what you’ve heard. Then, after the on-stage reality check and testing the magic live, the gold you heard earlier can quickly turn out to be the polar opposite of Kosovel’s Integrali, a screaming contrast, as if I were rereading the poem Kons 5 all over again. Let’s leave the side notes aside and let me first lay out why, on a Friday when Ljubljana was »happening« in full force – at Kino Šiška, Devin Townsend and Fear Factory were shaking the plaster off the walls, while the Brežice-based collective Demolition Group was moving the foundations of Menza pri koritu a few meters away – I instead headed for the familiar but small ambience of Orto Bar. The reason was a gig by Dirtswitch – four youngsters from Naklo near Kranj who caught my attention a good year ago with their debut Phoenix Down. The cherry on top was my plan to also check the guts and musical muscle of the Celje quintet Last Day Here.

As expected, the icy atmosphere in the surprisingly well-filled Orto Bar was broken by the lads with the slightly shorter track record, at least in years of activity. Dirtswitch are a band that started their journey across Slovenian stages, and an even earlier symbiosis of me(n)tal energies, in Naklo near Kranj in 2009. After only three years they had a first studio trophy tucked into their belts – the impressive little disc Phoenix Down. Since you can’t sleep on old laurels and you have to strike while the iron is hot, a string of gigs followed within a year, both at home and abroad. Strangely enough, I caught them right at the tail end of the promo tour, but as the old saying goes: »Better late than never«. A flag with the band’s logo was already billowing above the stage, and the well-warmed tubes in the amps were ready to pour a ton of fresh, white-hot soulful nectar into the crowd’s ears. At the announced time the guys took the stage and cut into the thick mass of expectations with something unexpected: a new hard-hitting projectile combining dirty, heavy distortion, a solid rhythmic foundation and mellifluous sweet vocals. Slave Fish, as this new high-octane conglomerate of post-grunge standards and well-studied hooks is labeled for now, is how Dirtswitch hook both the ears and the eyes of the prettier half of the audience, while even the testosterone-heavy, grunge-loving macho crowd isn’t immune to its sonic charms. The first impression is outstanding, because the balance of articulate guitar dirt from under the fingers of Jani Nendl, the barefoot playfulness of bassist Rok Seifert, the drumming punch of Uroš Markič and the vocal sensitivity, yet penetrating power, of singer Luka Lamut is every bit as effective live as in the studio material. The band radiates dedication, and a good spirit of post-grunge infatuation, both with the heavier distortion and with the softer contours of ballad stories about love, suffering and the pains of growing up, runs through every fiber of Dirtswitch’s stage being. The punchier guitar tone deserves special praise, as it gives the whole thing a distinctive stamp, and the exceptional tightness brought to mind Alter Bridge, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. As for me, with the flirtatious smuggling-in of wah-wah, I couldn’t shake associations with Tom Morello and his sonic excursions in Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and, to a degree, his latest work as The Nightwatchman. Too Much, a punchier tune from the record Phoenix Down, doesn’t calm the passions, and Luka proves to be an outstanding rotor of stage chemistry. He gives his off-stage reserve, contemplative calm and softness just enough escapist freedom that the tempo never stalls while the heart beats harder. The excellent performance of original songs was soon followed by the first trip to the lending library of sounds, ideas and packages of pleasure. Spoonman is the song that gave my teenage years a fitting soundtrack for easing the troubles, though I admit that after so many years I’m damn sensitive when anyone takes on sacred material and, instead of a decent tribute to the past, serves the crowd a half-baked mess and some benign nonsense. With Dirtswitch, quality shows even when they step into someone else’s shoes, my dear friends! Luka had no trouble hitting the heights that even Chris Cornell found tricky, and the whole musical body of the Slovenian version of that beautiful gem from the album Superunknown works without any hiccups or unwanted side effects of acid reflux. The original follow-up with Restraints and even more so the little ballad Looking Back brings a more stirred-up soulful mood into the territory of maybe slightly unnecessary Creed-style suspense. Still, even if they sound a touch saccharine at moments, the guys do their job confidently and at a high level. Since you have to keep the listeners’ attention, the trip into the rather bizarre times of the music business with Open Your Eyes, which German band Guano Apes sang a good decade ago, felt a bit unexpected and even superfluous. Instead of the energy that temperamental immigrant Sandra Nasić knew how to spew from the stage, and especially for lack of the anger and edge that the German export product had, Dirtswitch served up a slightly worn-out cliché that sounded unnecessary in that moment, but harmless. The punchy Overhang sounds a lot more confident and manly, resembling a mix of Metallica from the Garage Inc. era (by which I mainly mean the good, punchy rhythm section and a guitar that’s just loud and dirty enough) with the aforementioned alternative implants. Hybrids were welcome this time, and evolution has led to a step where familiar building blocks can be assembled into something damn good that the ears instantly like. A case in point is the high-octane first single from the record Phoenix Down, the song My Story, which drives the gig toward its final stretch without anything catching, either on stage or below it. The communication between Dirtswitch and the besiegers below the stage was just right, and the good spirit of the evening favored the lads on stage as well as my soul, somewhat pampered by grunge and alternative gems. The second ducat from the new collection of songs, with which Dirtswitch intend to build on their path so far, is a song originally written for a tune meant to play at fights of modern-day brawling gladiators, a rawer rock’n’roll number called WFC that we may know in future under the name Piece Of Me. It stands out a bit from their output so far and somehow doesn’t seem the most logical continuation of their sonic evolution. I see them more in grunge waters, I thought, and a confidently delivered tribute to a giant, a fallen hero of the Seattle sound, Layne Staley, the song Man In The Box, is proof of that! The somewhat softer vocal performance doesn’t quite match Layne’s self-destructive fury, but all the other components – the shockwave of guitars, the massive wall of bass and drums and the outstanding leaps into vocal heights – were executed superbly! The crowd agreed, and after the song Under My Skin they got a big finale with a song that fits the spirit of today’s age of revolt, revolutionary fervor and anger perfectly – the R.A.T.M. evergreen Killing In The Name. It wrapped up the whole set into a package that some more established, more widely seen and more often heard older colleagues of the young Upper Carniolans would happily put their names to, too.

What came next worried me a bit, since while following the thread of the Celje band Last Day Here, I felt quite a lot of aversion listening to the record From Pieces Created, and the potential that never fully blossoms nearly gave me an aneurysm. Still, I decided to give the Styrian quintet a chance to prove themselves live. With seven years of shared existence on their backs, a partly changed lineup (after the departure of the former drummer, Sašo Corso joined as the latest member a good year and a half ago) and fresh momentum, the guitar duo of Celje hardcore and nu-metal veterans Uroš Boršič and Jure Gorjanc, bassist Tomi Šenveter and vocalist Marko Duplišak decided to write a new chapter in their story. After a break of several years it’s time for a new wind in the band’s sails, and the tandem gig with Dirtswitch was just the right occasion to promote the record that will see the light of day in 2013, the album New Beginning. After the rather predictable intro and the opening samples leading into the song Hope Never Dies, one thing was clear in Orto too: in a somewhat upgraded way, LastDayHere are still prisoners of the form written years ago by names like Linkin Park, while bands like Cage 9, Digital Summer, Index Case or Signs Of Betrayal keep the tried-and-tested, but not upgraded or improved, on life support. I have to admit the first wave of reserve may also have come from the band’s much quieter sound, since the openers had a far more polished sound, while the guitar mass at LastDayHere sounded much more sinister, thin and, if I may stress, a hair too soulless. Uroš and Jure certainly know their craft, but the melodics of a precise stampede and mathematically measured breaks can’t replace the soulful substrate of alternative and grunge that had filled the vaults of the Ljubljana scene just before. The fact is that Marko, with his stage presence and an exceptionally good performance, contributed to the somewhat stale dynamic gradually warming up among the thinned-out ranks of Friday’s crowd. But many people had come for a dose of already proven dishes, and instead they all got a surprise they hadn’t expected. The continuation was also all about novelties! The song Simply Divine, the second single from the upcoming album, signals that the guys have left the fragmentation of their debut behind and that the new studio effort is more decisive and cleverly conceived. The combination of mellifluous vocals and the occasional guttural scream is crowned with heavily sampled sounds, and the polished contours give the impression that the guys approached the work with lucidity and a scientific spirit, rather than just following the threads of the inspiration of the moment. That’s also why I couldn’t shake the feeling that, within the otherwise compact whole of all the parts, small but now slightly distracting inconsistencies gape. The excellent performance didn’t carry over to the audience in kind, and the lack of mojo kept the otherwise dynamic stage show in the realm of the average, not the exceptional that the guys would undoubtedly deserve for all their effort. A bit more solidity and tangibility, and above all some real magnetism in the compass of the gig’s finale, came with the song Hide, with which the Celje counts of nu-metal had already introduced themselves on their debut From Pieces Created. No, I won’t judge whether some have outgrown their old clothes over time and whether this was more a moment of sentimental reminiscing about the past, because a bunch of pretty girls shyly took the front row below the stage and vocally backed Marko’s effort to shift things into a higher gear. He was partly successful, since the rest of the new, still unreleased record finally snuffed out that spark of passion that some had come looking for purely because of echoes of the past. Me, I say: »Thank the gods!«, because I like the band’s reborn sonic image more than the one from a few years ago. Mileage, years of new experiences and challenges, and above all being tempered in the fire and sweat of stages both at home and abroad – all of these are factors that have chiseled LastDayHere into a solid export product, though a little something is still missing for greatness. First I’d point out that nu-metal has been a pretty played-out form for the last few years, offering little room for building on it, evolving it and the surprises so badly needed. I always like small surprises, at least when it comes to music, but with this generic derivative, which the Celje quintet presents confidently and well in a craftsmanlike way, far too many things are served up on the first bounce and cut from the same cloth. This is of course my personal opinion, but despite all the shine and tightness, the flawlessness and the sterile sound, the vast majority of the otherwise carefully packaged messages raced right past my ears, and the whole picture was too rich for me to take in at once, digest and still be objective afterwards. Either way, the taste in my mouth after seeing LastDayHere live improved slightly, and the guys earned a big plus in my notebook for their effort. Still, the hour was late, and with the rather benign goings-on in Orto, the call of obligations lured me early into the chill of the Ljubljana night. So, sadly, I didn’t stay for the end of the dialogue in which the band on stage oozed their soulful substrate and got lukewarm applause in return.

All in all, I can say this Friday night was damn interesting and full of wonderful twists, and above all a colorful palette of good, and above all loud, music. The tandem experiment this time resulted in the Upper Carniolan alternative hopefuls outdoing the more seasoned and experienced Styrian alternative metallers by a few lengths. In the spirit of post-election analyses and statistics-shuffling of all kinds, I should also pour some clear wine into the goblets of this time’s diagnosis of the event. I’d borrow a metaphor from the world of numismatics. Over time, silver coins acquire a darker layer of patina on the surface, which gives the coin a slightly darker glow. Still, the uninformed, wanting the coin to look as pretty as possible, rush to clean it up as soon as they can. They take a steel brush and grind the apparent grime off the surface of their carefully guarded treasure, and in doing so cause irreparable damage. The shinier coin is worth less, and with the patina, the diligent ones managed to scrape off the coin’s character and stories too. Music is similar. Dirtswitch aren’t ashamed of their love for dirtier contours and are even building on that passion, which, I hope, their upcoming studio release will prove. LastDayHere, on the other hand, decided to polish their sound to the max. Some may like that, but I miss those eight grams of soul that make it possible to turn something good into something exceptional. There’s plenty of time, and the test of time and endurance will show who’s right. Personally, I still prefer to bet on the dirt card, because sterile servility just doesn’t do it for me, my dear friends …