Lords of Planet starcev, Heralds of Young Slovenia! (2012)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Venue: Menza pri koritu / AKC Metelkova / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: December 1, 2012
Attendance: 150 – 200
Ticket price: €15

I know, I’d be repeating myself if I pointed out that in our small, backwater little country I’m ready to bleed and pin my hopes on only a handful of Slovenian musicians, but it’s true – after decades of being in love with the groove, the offbeat poetry of far-from-naive lyrics and above all the incredible stage presence of those orators of pleasure, the oligarchs of my world are the Brežice elder statesmen of the most genuine fun, Demolition Group, and few come anywhere near them! In the same weight class there’s no competition, I know, but that’s exactly why so many of us keep coming back with the same fervor and fire in our eyes to the places of revelation and back our chosen ones like it’s a matter of life and death, and that’s exactly what gives hope and strength to the claim that in the armor of revolt, the garage rawness of juicy guitars and subtle lyrics, the sting of justified revolt is still alive. Demolition Group have always proven that in the past and only fed the passion, and wanting to scratch that greedy itch for more once again, I headed on the first evening of December back to the navel of Ljubljana’s scene – to Metelkova, to Menza pri koritu, where, just one day after a record-packed, completely sold-out show that ran a whole two and a half hours, the vital quintet had a repeat in store, or better – an upgrade, writing a new chapter in the concert story of the inseparable symbiosis between the five of them and the sixth, sorry, seventh member of the band: the audience.

The clock crawled like a snail toward half past ten at night, and the belly of Ljubljana’s alternative temple wasn’t bursting at the seams anymore, but everyone there knew full well that something extraordinary was coming, something worth braving the cold and hundreds of kilometers to the Slovenian capital. At half past ten the chosen ones of the people stepped from backstage onto the front lines and took up their positions. On the left side of the stage, guitar in hand, stood Bojan Fifnja, virtuoso of six strings and heartfelt distortion. On the right, strategically placed, stood the fresh blood, the much-needed transfusion for the band, the Gregel brothers, and with Tomi on bass and Ivica on drums, Demolition Group got a promissory note for the next thirty years of active revolt. Adorned with legendary, indispensable mustache, the saxophone shaman Jože Pegam took his place beside Bojan, and last of all, during the opening bars of the opening track of the album Neovangelij, came the frontman. »Deceit drives the world / lies, ruthless greed / No mercy and no tears / Voracious power tramples feeling / Stand up and raise your head!« are the words that broke new ground, and with the anti-neoliberal undertones of the new covenant, even after 14 years the lyrics graft themselves onto the beat and the minds of the homogeneous body below the stage, which instantly fell into a trance at the mighty rhythm and the superb sound of heartfelt music. Bojan’s guitars were so sweetly sharpened, Jože’s dirty saxophone showdown with mouthpiece and overflowing lungs was more than superbly complemented by the rhythmic foundation of the brotherly duo Ivica and Tomi, and with his own signature stage dance, Friški left his mark from the very first moment, drenched in the sweat of anticipation and the desire for perfection. All this a year after the unveiling of their new studio release, the long-awaited and thunderously applauded record Planet starcev, which clings steel-hard to precisely these damn bitter, recession-branded times of grayness and modern-day enslavement. After the revolt in Maribor, this year the torches blazed in Ljubljana and other Slovenian towns, and while the misery-sick and better-times-hungry look for someone to blame, Demolition Group, in perfect harmony with the spirit of the times, are ready to take their share of the blame. Kriv sem za vse is a playful tangle of dance rhythms and deliberately ambiguous lyrics, and in the whirlwind of quickened heartbeats, cigarette smoke and mischievous rhythms the entire auditorium starts moving, and after the screaming intro of Dan dolgih sanj the ecstasy only keeps climbing. Demolition Group are masters of punchy manipulation of sharp contrasts, and the dirty rawness of the new creations is at times even stronger, more merciless than the sonic blows of the sweet, good Neovangelij! Communication onstage happens without words – only with glances, and in them you see satisfaction, good spirits and the awareness that the men on that stage couldn’t live without what they do, and without them the airless void of our below-the-stage lives would be even emptier. Goran greets the visitors to this shared ritual with a smile, and as a promise of satisfaction he says there’s another two-hour ride down the slide of explosive genius waiting for all of us.

Right on cue, Gospodar slips into the mix, a song DG dedicate to the self-appointed oppressors of the world. That it’s easier to rule over ignorant subjects soaked in commandments was already written long ago by Machiavelli. Friški interprets it in his own ironic way: »Don’t think, don’t ask / Faith is light, doubt is darkness / What is happiness, order and peace / The master knows the answer / Don’t think, don’t ask / For riches and for gold / All justice only he knows / The almighty Master!« The sharp discourse of the hard-hitting music section is meant as a wake-up call, and with Demolition Group the good introduction to a revolution of consciousness gets a cardiovascular strengthening element too, one that makes you forget your surroundings, and the juicy sound of top-notch tightness among the shamans of the evening fires up the rotors of consciousness in all those who don’t just listen to the music and the message but actually hear them. In this context, the song Bič, luč in upanje is one more drop of kerosene in the vaporizers of total fusion at the intersection of the coordinates Here and Now! We’re all helmsmen of our own fates. We’re all bringers of light, sweetness and suffering in our small but interconnected worlds! Completely juiced up and surrendered to the dictate of the heart, I at least got the feeling that Demolition Group aren’t singing just to the crowd but to every single person in the room. The stage energy is inexpressible, and the sweat flows in streams. Despite the organic exertion and the superhuman effort to outdo the previous night, the vital power of the Brežice collective is at 110%! A Marxist reckoning with God, an atheist treatise of rhythm and dance-floor saltiness, the song Nimam rad boga weaves into the raindrops of the ballad beauty of Dež, on which DG show their unique feeling for fragility, sensitivity and, contradictions notwithstanding, manly tenderness too. The return to Planet starcev is, fittingly for its title, slower, and despite fewer heartbeats per minute the massive air in Menza swirls with the same intensity, and a hundred pairs of lungs breathe in the sweat-soaked air with no less passion. The incredible interweaving of bodies and spirit and the perfect calibration of the music with the desires of the crowd thickens and intensifies, and despite the somewhat more pessimistic sound of the bitter words, the moment is simply too beautiful. The lighter Nisva tu morphs into a monolithic dialogue between guitar and saxophone with the song Še in več, and after a short intro a new sleeping volcano of passionate joy wakes up in your chest. The racing heartbeat follows the asymmetric exchange of guitar rhythms, the syncopations of bass and drums, and in a stampede of feelings DG weave all their knowledge and know-how into a homogeneous conglomerate that hits like an iron fist straight into every unprotected piece of soft tissue, and the sonic blows don’t hurt – flogged by decibels, we all scream sadomasochistically for more! What else would we do, since this concert is like driving at full throttle, as if tomorrow didn’t exist!

A little Romantika always fits, and instead of ballads the destroyers of stereotypes would rather reach for a meter you’d find among the books of the Odpisani. Demolition Group are anything but ready for the scrapyard, no worries, and the well-oiled machine grinds on like a tank fresh out of a full service. In Romantika I’m hellishly into the playful tangle of guitar, bass, drums and Joco’s sweet sax, and rather than sugary smooching, this gorgeous offering is more like a gorgeous, unbridled fuck, and to the sounds of music that never skips a beat, the hips are diligently swaying this time, girls, wives and lovers just as much as their male appendages! After the gorgeous microphony of 100 Krat and Amerika, which roared on the legendary record Deep True Love, time and space are forgotten. »Love is OK!!!« thunders from the throats of the gathered, and in line with the excellent live record Na živo Demolition Group steer their concert scramble, their roar of sound and the unexpected toward Neovangelij-style ominousness. »When I creep into your mind / kneel on the floor / When I stroke your cheeks / Kiss my palms / When I pull you close / Embrace my legs / Confess in the sweat of happiness / YES, you are my God!!!« are the words with which DAF beautifully sums up everything I feel in my heart and mind. There are more gods this time, and the many bodies of the band and the crowd feel just one single big heart in their chests! Kak dan is a melancholy interjection that keeps Menza from finally catching fire and burning to the ground, and with the dance rhythms of alternative salsa the first, regular part of the concert approaches its end too. The sensual beauty of Mesečina showers the palms of the music’s faithful with pearls of softness, and romantic souls could easily, eyes half-closed, have lit their lighters and danced even on the last day of the universe. After one of the first hits through which so many got to know Demolition Group, the song U tvojim očima, which left its mark with the deep, sincere love that blows through the record Deep True Love, come the soulful Gram and the indispensable tribute to Asian workaholics who overtake the rest of the world on the right, the song Japanci rade za nas, and after a thunderous, untamed ovation, whistles and cries for more, a still-willing Demolition Group return to the stage to serve up dessert.

First up is the superb Včasih tudi drugi, which the quintet plays as if they’d only just stepped on stage, not as if they’d already been giving themselves to the audience for nearly two hours! The more direct and explicit Crackhead fits like a glove and lands like a sledgehammer. »The hand trembles / The blood congeals / When your soft ass slips past my eyes / The world shakes / The flower wilts / When your firm breasts shackle my gaze / COME ON, LOOK AT MY SMILE / MY KISS IN YOUR HAIR / MY EMBRACE IN THE NIGHTS / MY TEAR IN YOUR EYES!«, hundreds of lips recite, and parched, scratched-up throats scream words of unbridled, so un-Slovenian directness and honesty! The great atmosphere smoldered like glowing embers, and from the blasts of the musical bellows, not only flames of elation rose toward Menza’s too-low ceiling, but also the arms of enchanted, spellbound believers, old and young, men and women alike. Nirvana cuts like a steel blade through cheese, and the dirty ode to the immortal Zucco, after Model and another hoarse scream for an encore, turns into a gorgeous display of dominance, power and the uniqueness of both the moment and the bearers of everything extraordinary about this Saturday night. Temni angeli usode are seasoned with solo inserts, and Ivica Gregel presents himself to the crowd as a true virtuoso, fully in command of every drumhead and cymbal around him, and after the drum solo the glowing nectar of beautiful noise pours into your ears, bringing worlds down like a song of angels, and in the trembling of your whole being and the whole world, after Sving and the grand finale with the song Like Night Before, the night closes in a sweaty finale, and while there’d surely be something more to add, after more than two and a half hours of explosive giving it would be unfair to claim too little was offered.

If the album Na živo is proof that Demolition Group can more than decently feed the voracious concert obsessions, then let me tell you it’s also a fact that you’ve only heard part of the whole truth. The mosaic of sound has to be completed by the embodiment on stage, and let me tell you that every single concert by the Brežice five-piece so far (six-piece, if I count in the inseparable component of the superb sound engineer Matjaž Pegam) has been a feast for the ears, soul and body, and after the devastating tempo of complete burnout, even after a marathon show at Ljubljana’s Menza, and only a day later after an equally explosive repeat, the band’s tanks still hold enough kerosene for DG to burn down all the temples of static doubt or restraint! Few can pull that off, and the elder statesmen of Slovenian alternative are, at least here at home, true masters of this elemental mixing of the world’s basic building blocks. From under their fingers they spin the threads of dreams and, like magicians, realize and put into words everything that stays stuck in our chests and minds because we never knew how to articulate it. Here is a geyser of ideas and music spewing out gorgeous frequencies that bring down the crystal castles of the world’s oppressors and tyrants, at least for a moment, into ashes and dust, healing and much needed for our little sub-Alpine nation, and that’s why Demolition Group are ever more needed and ever more wanted. From harmony with reality, next steps can be spun, and if I borrow and paraphrase the words of our first president: »On Saturday dreams were allowed, today is a new day!« What kind of day it will be is up to us, because each of us is our own Bič, luč in upanje!