Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Concert date: 09.03.2013
Attendance: 800
Ticket price: €15.00 / €18.00
And one more “Tiho reprise” with Dan D at CUK Kino Šiška. Two nights in a row. Two sold-out nights in a row. As part of the show “Izštekani”. All of Slovenia gathered there again, and a slimmed-down RockLine expedition made the trip once more to put together another weighty report.
The reprise passed its International Women’s Day test with flying colors, and just a day later the reprise got its own reprise, which was truly the last Dan D concert in the “Tiho” format. Since the same day saw an all-Slovenian rally with a fresh, loud reminder that the sowers of rot in this country had better “scatter” while there’s still time, Dan D wasted no time jumping on the occasion and joined the Saturday afternoon protest with two “electric” songs on the protest rock stage, chipping in their share to the wake-up call that may be heralding a brighter tomorrow for Slovenians.
The second day of the “Tiho” reprise had a big advantage over the first. There were no TV crews inside CUK Kino Šiška, so the concert wasn’t staged and bent around filming. There was less pressure on the technical crew and on the band itself, and the audience felt fewer distractions too. Dan D took up their acoustic setup on the main stage, whose depth had been “shortened”; the curtains in the “pulled-in backdrop” boosted the acoustic yield of the sound in the hall, just right for a concert by an act like, say, Leonard Cohen.
Dan D delivered a few changes for both “Tiho” reprise concerts. You didn’t have to wait long for the first twist to the set list: Google Me added to the opening of the evening. In the glow of a few unobtrusive little lights and a wash of blue, an almost mystical experience and a useful opening sway to calibrate the stage presence and voice of the band, Dan D lured the audience into the bosom of the unique experience of the sixteen concerts of the “Tiho” tour, which ran through October and November 2012. Their musical “guru instinct” first fully ignited in a nicely pulled-off reconfiguration of the orientally seductive San San.
The tie-in with radio and TV folks naturally linked the show to the “Izštekani” broadcast, and so its seasoned helmsman Jure Longyka soon appeared on stage. After the fourth song, the new Rekli so, a long conversation was supposed to give the audience, through salvos of playful blunders, a peek behind the scenes at how the “Tiho” idea developed and matured until it became reality. There’s no point arguing with the good intentions of adding educational discussion circles between sets of three to four songs in a concert. But let’s be honest, Dan D are musicians, so let them play instead of having someone “undress” and “peel” them on stage. That’s what separate radio and video interviews are for. This mixing slowed down the spontaneous flow of events, and holding on to the hypnotic atmosphere that an experienced and tight-knit crew like Dan D can conjure up in an instant was made very difficult. Luckily, music trumps everything.
Počasi, Polna luna, Pozitivne misli, Plešeš, and especially, in the second half, the by-now folk-classic Voda with the Tamburitza Orchestra of Metlika Primary School woven in, Čas, Love Song, Tiho, Tvoje je vse and Daj mi daj kept the audience glued. They were eating out of Tokac’s hand and were a bit shy at first in answering Tokac’s calls to join in (Plešeš), but when Dan D played Počasi once more in the encore, the standing hall dictated a firm tempo with stomping feet and clapping hands, which delivered a whole new mood compared to the first version of the song played at the start of the set.
Dan D added two more new songs to the repertoire. The first was the socially engaged Kriza, in which Dan D, masterfully and in tune with the healthy rhetoric of sparkling sarcasm that the amusement park of rock n’ roll demands, delivered first-rate social rock satire, which we can hope will find its way onto the airwaves soon, for the ears of the wider masses. The other new song, titled Dojdi, brought one more guest on stage, Rudi Javornik on saxophone. He had previously already sweetened Love Song from behind the curtain.
The reprise of the “Tiho story” was meant for something else too: presenting the new live CD, which comes from one of the Tiho tour shows, specifically the one on 30.11.2012 at the club Lokalpatriot in Novo Mesto. In that respect, the role of the “teaser” Longyka and the defensive stance of the “poor” band on stage produced an effective “Bambi effect” on the audience, who after the concert grabbed their copy of the live “Tiho” all the more eagerly – RockLine review HERE.
There’s no point wasting words on the Dan D crew’s performance. The combination of kitchen items (a grater, a spoon – which symbolically broke at the last concert, a bottle opener, bottles) and exotic gear (a Malaysian angklung, a tarabuka, a conga), through to the tuba in Za naju punca, which sent the Dan D members into uncontrollable laughter at the sight of a flushed Obro (the recording of this song on the “Tiho” disc confirms the same experience), to a whole array of wire-enriched instruments (ukulele, mandolin, bisernica,…), simply works triumphantly in the arrangements. Not a slip-up! Bathed in the extraordinary chemistry between the five members, which generates outstanding stage play, with Tokac’s emotions once again reigning supreme.
Not a slip-up in the farewell to the “Tiho” epic. So Dan D closed a chapter of their journey in grand style, and, enriched by a fresh experience, can calmly look ahead, fully ready to take on a new musical adventure.
Given the extraordinary all-Slovenian interest in the “Tiho” tour – every single concert was packed to the last corner, if not outright sold out – and given the two completely sold-out “Tiho reprise” shows at CUK Kino Šiška, it’s a shame the organizing team didn’t add another concert date or two. On 09.03.2013, quite a few opportunists turned up in the lobby of CUK Kino Šiška before Dan D’s last concert in the “Tiho” version, hoping to buy a ticket, but sadly left empty-handed.
Setlist
1. Google Me
2. San San
3. Počasi
4. Rekli so
5. Plešeš
6. Pozitivne misli
7. Kriza
8. Polna luna
9. Čuti se kot konec sveta
10. Moj problem
11. Kamn
12. Voda
13. Love Song
14. Čas
15. Dojdi
16. Tiho
17. Tvoje je vse
18. Daj mi daj
—encore I—
19. Jutranja
20. Za naju punca
—encore II—
21. Počasi
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