Venue: Katedrala / Kino Šiška / Ljubljana
Concert date: March 29, 2013
Attendance: 450
Ticket price: 14 EUR, 17 EUR on the day of the show
Friday night. Even at the end of March, Ljubljana is still sunk in winter conditions, not (or no longer) idyllic in the slightest, while the April rain is already lashing and showing its teeth. Yep, gray by day, gray by night. Wherever you look, you run smack into it. Gray rivers, gray streets, gray people. Grim faces. At first glance, Ljubljana’s depression seemed tailor-made for tonight’s performer, but even for Michelle Gurovich aka Chinawoman it was apparently too much. The first third of the show wasn’t even over when she was already asking, ”is anyone else feeling depressed, or is it just me?”.
But let’s set the worn-out ”depression” aside for today and shed some light on Friday’s event. Let me say this: there was nothing depressing about the fact that a relatively unknown act filled the Katedrala at Kino Šiška so nicely. Of course, that doesn’t mean the live scene in Slovenia is thriving, but it does back up two theories: 1. the independent scene is growing and is firmly anchored in Slovenia’s urban heart (Festival Tresk proved that in the end, never mind Metelkova, Radio Študent and the club K4), and 2. the summer festival fever is slowly approaching.
And at those festivals, at least early on, Friday’s protagonist will be playing too. Chinawoman has long since stopped being a stranger on the indie scene. She’s no stranger to Ljubljana either. In 2010 she played Gala Hala as part of Mesto Žensk. The crowd was thrilled, and it didn’t take long to get her back. Michelle Gurovich proved to be everything people say about her. (At least in small doses.) Hot-tempered Russian blood chilled in the icy lakes of northern Canada. She writes and performs (on stage) like a female version of Leonard Cohen, her hypnotic vocals recall Tanita Tikaram, and her overall musical expression sits somewhere between Russian (folk) tunes and romances, the French chanson of Edith Piaf, and a slightly forgotten strain of Euro pop. Through all of this I can’t shake the feeling of constantly comparing her to other strong women in music (even though they’re completely different in many ways): from Nico to PJ Harvey, Bat For Lashes, and all the way to Cat Power. What sets Chinawoman apart from those names isn’t just her Slavic fervor and pathos, but above all her shades of strange, dark magic.
Since that definition of mine doesn’t say much on its own, or not enough, I’ll just move on to the performance and a concrete illustration. Chinawoman is at home on stage. She moves around it with ease, not to mention how relaxed her pose is. She’s an extremely charismatic figure, but she doesn’t overwhelm us so much with an all-pervading stage presence as with a kind of ”fatal” magnetism that both draws you in and repels you. She’s able to create a dark, cold atmosphere while at the same time radiating incredibly warm and passionate energy. She kept interrupting the show with witty remarks and ”carpe diem” quips along the lines of ”Enjoy the moment” and ”We have tonight”, in which you could always detect at least a trace of irony. If those ”breaks” were still interesting at the start of the show, by the end they were occasionally too much. Still, surprisingly, they didn’t spoil the overall impression of the gig. The same goes for the music they played. Even though it was slow and melancholic for most of the night, it kept the listener’s concentration at a peak and boredom was never an issue. For that we most likely have to thank the sound engineers, who set up excellent sonic conditions, as well as the two musicians (drummer Robin Thomson and Diego Ferri on baritone guitar) who helped Michelle Gurovich build a great musical picture and story on stage. And that story is what gives Chinawoman her special touch. She’s an intelligent lyricist, and thanks to her extremely powerful voice she’s also a superb storyteller and a confessor of feelings, thoughts, and fleeting moments.
Between songs she swapped between several guitars, but spent most of the time on keyboards. The four biggest hits drew the most interest, and they were placed at completely opposite ends of the setlist. The opening ”To Be With Others” and ”Show Me The Face” stirred sentimental, intimate feelings in the hall, while the closing ”Party Girl” and ”Russian Ballerina” stirred people up, each in its own way. ”Party Girl” cut deep with its unmasking of masks, while ”Ballerina” got the crowd actively involved for the first time that night, everyone singing ”la lala, lalalalalala….” in unison. A gorgeous finish to the night, rounded off by the song in the encore. The cover of an old Russian song, ”Tolka”, proved to be the peak and the gem of the evening, mostly thanks to Michelle’s brilliant interpretation. After it, we all deserved at least one more encore. The new single ”Vacation From Love” went rather unnoticed in the middle of the setlist, while the Montmartre-street-style ”Womans Touch” and the dynamic ”Keep In Mind” left a good impression. And of course, the bittersweet ”Friday Night” couldn’t be missing on a Friday night. And so we’re back at depression.
But let’s follow Chinawoman’s words from the interview in the latest issue of Mladina and be honest: despite the bitter, pain-filled songs, Michelle conjured up a fantastic night of live music. The grim faces vanished for a while, and good (live) music proved once again that it’s a serotonin factory and a miracle worker. Over the years Chinawoman has turned into a true indie lady. After two albums (Party Girl and Show Me The Face) and many singles, it’s slowly time for a third full-length studio release. Still, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. ”Carpe Diem”. This time the Katedrala belonged to a Chinese woman with a Russian heart, a Berlin passport, and Canadian footsteps.
Setlist
1.) To Be With Others
2.) Show Me The Face
3.) Lovers Are Strangers
4.) Woman’s Touch
5.) Aviva
6.) Keep In Mind
7.) Acid Broke The Spell
8.) I’ll Be Your Woman
9.) Vacation From Love
10.) Farm
11.) Friday Night
12.) God Bless My Socially Retarded Friends
13.) Russian Balerina
14.) Party Girl
encore:
15.) Tolka (cover of Zhanna Aguzarova)
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