Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Concert date: January 31, 2015
Attendance: 400
Ticket price: €10.00
On Saturday, the last day of this January, CUK Kino Šiška hosted its second charity concert. After »Cvek raku!«, where we said farewell to Boštjan Cvek, the founder of the Jazz Cerkno and Keltika festivals, who passed away far too soon, came a festival called »Za kombi!« (“For the Van!”). Behind this charity drive stand the members of the Association of Paraplegics of the Ljubljana Region, who needed a van to get around. It would make everyday life easier for them: doctor visits, getting to work, hanging out together and everything else that makes up ordinary daily life. Funny that the state and the humanitarian organizations don’t lift a finger for this. Let’s leave aside this country, which would rather collect money »For Europe« than for its own citizens and “Za kombi”. Faith in rock ‘n’ roll beats everything, after all!
So the bands Bo!, Balot, White Stain, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa, C4, The Lucky Cupids, Moj Boogie Band, Lene kosti, Bütli, Carina, Sausages and Šukar joined forces and offered their live services for free to help raise money. The festival marathon was really something. Each band had 15 minutes, which worked out to three songs, except for the last act on the bill, Šukar, who played a half-hour set. The stage was split into two halves. Left and right. With two drum kits and the logistics of a basic PA. So the sets followed one another pretty much back to back, with no gaps. While one band played, the sound techs were already setting up the neighboring stage for the next one.
A little after eight (in the evening, of course!) the Celje crew Bo! took the stage. The surprise of the night, since the band hadn’t been announced beforehand, but apparently a gap turned up in the schedule and they jumped in as the first act. Charismatic singer boštjan Meh, with the help of three buddies, delivered thoughtful rock ‘n’ roll, full of freshness and faith in a better tomorrow. Bo! already have two albums under their belt, so do give them your time! Veterans of Slovenian rock’n’roll Sausages served up the famous Dej pel, Spal bom cel dan and the hit To mi deli in their set. In the finale, Marko Čulajevč Čule once again overshadowed the charismatic guys; he wouldn’t be chased off the stage and got totally lost in the closing solo, which he played in an extended version, down on his knees. Still on the same side of the stage, the right, C4 kept the rock n’ roll party going. The well-known TV star Buco (Sausages) stayed on drums, filling in for the “work-detained” Boštjan Vajs, and the band, fronted by singer Billy, who let out a few downright devilish “Axl Rose-style” whoops, played the original Kraval and the ballad Srečen, which Billy sang twenty-plus years ago in Bombe. About time the band’s first studio album slowly came together. C4 are known for playing famous hard rock classics every last Thursday of the month at Orto bar.
On the left side everything was ready for The Lucky Cupids to take the stage. Singer and guitarist Andrej Rudolf instantly commanded all the attention in the famous Elvis pose, with Matevž Carnelutti on guitar keeping him company on the left behind him (he’d later take the stage again with Moj Boogie Band), stalwart double bassist Iztok behind Andrej on the right, while Dejan in the background diligently stirred up a gentle rhythmic rattle, evoking swing- and surf-tinged vibes, which rounds out the picture of Slovenian rockabilly masters. A really nice change of flavor for the evening! Then a shift to the right side, where the front of the stage was finally taken over by the first two representatives of the fairer sex. Both Urškas of Balot. The band has been around since 2007, and »Za kombi« was the first time I’d run into them, which I count as a minor minus. The first song surprised by mixing rock with Balkan folk melos, and otherwise it was a retro rock “greeting card” that went on to bring the first punks onto the stage too! Things got rumbling, garage-style, rowdy and arrogant! Here come Bütli. Sly and teasing. Teasing especially thanks to their excellent, “aggressive” singer Andreja, who flung her hips left and right and with her approach lifted the crowd to a higher yield of kinetic “swaying”. A lady and a half! A band and a half! Bare, stripped down, no embellishments. Right in your face!
More of a warm-up, you might say, before the only representatives of the metal genres this evening. The relentless Ljubljana boogie metallers Lene kosti. The band played on the left side and presented two brand-new songs, starting with the opener Screaming Bones. A song with a mighty riff of raw, gritty typicality that’s recognizable across the band’s musical dossier. Crushing, aggressive and instantly contagious under the skin. The band roared a few notches louder than everyone else at the festival. Screaming Bones was followed by a “revamped” classic from the album »Park Bar« called Lady Evil, and that by another brand-new song that has no title yet, but went down great anyway. We can safely say Lene kosti are coming back in a big way. The plan is to record a new album in the second half of this year. Let’s wish the guys plenty of luck. This April you’ll get another chance to catch them in Ljubljana. Luckily, this time nobody unauthorized at CUK Kino Šiška has mistakenly shut them down on their own initiative! A short but sweet heavy metal resurrection was followed by a new sonic takeover of the space by an all-female crew sworn to heavy rock. The devilish Hellcats, of course. They open the show, naturally, with the song Hellcats, and the first thing that catches the eye is new singer Daša Makuc, whose vocals blend perfectly with the hard-rocking kinetics of this razor-sharp female quartet’s machinery. Not to mention her red-dyed hair, which makes a great contrast to the other three blondes. These girls could serve as a really nice textbook on how to get onstage. Polished look! Seasoned leather! Katja has become an excellent guitarist, and that’s no longer news. With her approach she could teach many a “professor” how to ration tones in a given solo to get the real effect out of it within the mid-eight passages of a song! Let’s hope for a new album, then!
Next up, a set of near-star names. Moj Boogie Band brought back to the stage three musicians who had already played earlier with their own, let’s say home, bands. The crew is led by charismatic singer Andrej Ojsteršek with a gorgeous semi-acoustic guitar with two f-holes , with the riled-up Čule (Sausages) on his right, and alongside them Matevž Carnelutti (The Lucky Cupids) and eager bassist Janez »Dago« Dagarin (Lene kosti). Nor can we skip the drummer, the exceptional Robert Rebolj, otherwise a member of the much more famous folk rockers Katalena. The rough-hewn blues and rhythm and blues, which puts you in an instantly alert and, shall we say, erect state, was powered above all by the playful trio of Čule, Matevž and Dago. Čule in particular raged across the stage in the charm of his shenanigans, and for the second time he wouldn’t be chased off. When the band had already finished with a bang, he theatrically ran off in the style of the film »The Marathon Family« for a few more laps around the stage, brandishing his Gibson guitar high! It’s also great to see the punk rock veterans who go by the name Carina on stage. This time as a quartet, with the phlegmatic, charismatic Marin on vocals, and of course the famous bassist Dare holding all the reins in the background. The band is reportedly working on a new album. Let’s hope it comes bouncing into the world soon. No holding back, and in a glow of heartfelt authenticity!
On the same, left side of the stage came the nearly spectacular set by Prismojeni profesorji bluesa. One of the most interesting discoveries on the Slovenian music scene lately, we can say! The quartet draws from the bosom of the blues, of course, but also from the elemental power of rock, and the guitarist is a dead ringer for Jimi Hendrix. All you Jimi Hendrix fans, take note. It’s downright obvious he has slept days and nights with that guitar, it’s poured onto him, and not only that. He’s developing his own style and sound of playing that’s compatible both with the noisy fever of the old-school garage fogeys Grand Funk Railroad and the aforementioned virtues of Jimi Hendrix and the Excperience, and everything in between. On top of all these tricks, backed by the fiery acrobatics of the harmonica improv whiz, there are even flirtations with hillbilly lads, and the lead vocal can be taken over, in a somewhat rougher delivery, by the drummer too. In short, energy cranked to maximum voltage! With their concerts, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa deliver a definitive standout on the Slovenian music scene. Anyone who comes face to face with them can’t stay indifferent. An attraction and a half, and a band we’ll be reading and hearing a lot about in the future. Surely one of the strongest live performances of the festival.
Next, a leap into the realms of melodic punk, courtesy of White Stain. Well, back in the day Čuki sang about a white tear sliding down a cheek, while the punk rockers White Stain prefer to get straight to the point. The white stain, that is! Excellent tightness and energetic sharpness from a trio that’s boiling with lust for the stage and for performing original material, and so sounds exceptionally convincing. White Stain is a band that all you fans of the new punk rock generation wave, which gets plenty of play on MTV too, absolutely have to keep an eye on. For the grand finale, the exceptionally varied genre palette of the lineup was crowned by the famed masters of Romani music, Šukar. Although the guys moaned after the show that they were hard to hear on stage, we didn’t notice that at all on the other side, among the listeners in the hall. The band again delivered exceptional playing of their famous songs wrapped in Romani melos and spiced with Arabic scales and rhythmic seasoning. The chiefs, the vocalist and Igor Misdaris (with a five-string proto-guitar) and violinist Nenad Ljubotina (to whom we add all the other guitar-like string instruments he swapped between during the set), then Matevž Lavrinc, Peter Lozar, Štefan Švagelj, with drum support from the exceptional Sergej Randjelovič “RunJoe” (Elevators), always remain a hot treat that sets you in motion without you even realizing it. An exceptionally harmonious heartbeat, exceptional tightness and an exceptional cannonade of passion and simmering emotion. The band is reportedly slowly gathering material for a new album, which will be the first since 2007!
What else to add at the end? Poor turnout. That’s all that spoiled the festival evening. Otherwise, all praise especially to the sound techs, who showed exceptional mastery of the logistics and the space. Without them a lot could have gone wrong. The event was a full-blooded success, and this experiment with splitting the stage in two is an excellent idea that’s worth using more often in the future too. At the same time it’s once again clear that in a normal, “mature” society, where those in charge have at least a shred of decency and leave the plebs at least some crumb, money for helping the disabled would always be found whenever their mobility is at stake. And yet! An exceptional gesture by the Association, which organized all of this itself. Let’s hope rock and the paraplegics’ association will keep nurturing and strengthening their mutual bonds in the future! Rock is a universal language that unites, erases every barrier and tears down all taboos! Everyone’s hearts must beat as one for it! Always!
Photo Gallery
