Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Križanke / Slovenia
Concert date: 05.05.2015
Attendance: 2000
Ticket price: €16.00 (presale) / €27.00 (day of show)
Well, it’s finally here. After Šank Rock’s much-talked-about comeback with an exclusive show in Laško last year, it was only a matter of time before the Šank Rock caravan hit the road for a proper tour. They tested the waters with a handful of gigs before the start of 2015, and on Tuesday they laid the cornerstone of the Zlatorog Pride Tour at Križanke, a tour that will carry them around Slovenia over the next two years.
A few minutes after 8:30 p.m., the members of San Di Ego walked out on stage in front of a pretty well-filled Križanke. This quartet of excellent performers is already a familiar face to gig-goers here, since they’ve been getting around the stages quite a bit since their debut came out last year. Just a few weeks ago we caught the guys at Ortofest too, where they premiered their freshly reworked version of Mežek’s tearjerker Julija live. The huge crowd climbing up the stands above the stage didn’t rattle San Di Ego one bit – as always, they delivered their part of the show with plenty of professionalism and polish. It was a bit shorter than at their own headline gigs, but no less eye-catching. Their own material, to their credit, already made up almost half of the setlist. The male half of the audience got to rest their eyes on the pretty dancers who kept the quartet company on stage during Domina, and then came the real surprise, when Aleksander Mežek walked out carrying an acoustic guitar and played and sang the first verse of his Julija. San Di Ego then carried on with the song on their own, in their punchier arrangement. Sergej Škofljanec proved himself not just an outstanding vocalist and guitarist but a talented pianist too. He stayed behind his keyboards for the Queen medley of hits that closed out their set. The crowd rewarded them with warm applause, which shows that the San Di Ego name is catching on nicely with Slovenian gig-goers.
Then came the break, which many used for a trip to the bar, because drinks weren’t allowed into the concert area of Križanke. Still, you had to knock back a glass of Laško in a hurry if you didn’t want to miss what came next.
The Šank Rock show announced itself with the familiar intro tape, during which the band members came out on stage one after another and greeted the crowd. The whole intro was accompanied by a rich play of flashing spotlights and changing images on three big screens behind the stage. The colorful visuals on the big screens kept going throughout the whole show. To start things off, Šank Rock hit us with Restart, a song that announces the band’s reunion and the continuation of their musical journey. Judging by the singing along, it has already caught on well with the fans. The sound at Križanke wasn’t ideal during the first few songs, but then the sound engineers balanced out the instruments on stage and the crowd could enjoy flawless sound until the end of the show – the kind of sound we can only get at Križanke among our larger concert venues.
After a few old hits, Šank Rock also played their new single, Ni sreče brez Rock’n’Rolla, live for the first time. The guys breezed through the old hits with routine ease, but the instrumentalists really showed off their chops in their solo spots. Bor was first to step into the spotlight, his nimble fingers flashing across the strings of his Ibanez like lightning in time with the light show during You Smear My Innocent Name. The audience stared at the stage, spellbound, and rewarded Bor with thunderous applause at the end.
Bor wasn’t the only one behind that sonic perfection, though – everyone on stage chipped in. After Matjaž’s Počasi… je lepo and Lahka dama, it was Cveto Polak’s time to shine, and with his bass he had no intention of lagging behind his bandmate. His fingers danced just as deftly across the thick strings, which he also tapped with a drumstick. The crowd also got an acoustic interlude from Bor and Matjaž with Želim, da si tu, which the two blended straight into Jaz in ti. Both songs added a pinch of tenderness and touching sensitivity to the show, and with the acoustic guitar and gorgeous vocal melodies they turned into a proper emotional bomb. Matjaž Jelen’s voice was clear as a bell and didn’t flinch for a second, no matter how much effort it took to rise above the loudly singing hall. Few vocalists can hold up through more than two hours of flawless stage performance, and Matjaž Jelen’s is definitely one that has no trouble with it.
The guys handled the big stage and the two-thousand-strong crowd below it without a hitch. Every now and then one of them got a little lost in the notes on his instrument, and another time in the lyrics, but the band steered every such “spice-up” back on track with plenty of professionalism. After a short drum solo from Roman, the first guests started coming out on stage. During the almost folk-song-by-now Metulj, Tinkara Kovač joined Matjaž on vocals, 6 Pack Čukur joined in on Daj bolj na glas, and Natalija Verboten sang Hočeš nočeš alongside Matjaž. The guys then sang Delam, kar paše mi on their own with the help of the wildly jumping crowd, and during the song we could already see an extra guitarist getting ready on stage. Soon we heard him too, because during Jaz nimam noč za spanje the band was joined on guitar by Zvone Hranjec, the group’s original guitarist, who played with Šank Rock from 1982 to 1991. After Saša’s mystical intro to Pravljica o mavričnih ljudeh came the last surprise of the night, one not planned even by the band members themselves – Matjaž was joined on vocals by by far our best skier at the moment, Tina Maze. Tina showed that a good mental game for an athlete also translates into ease on stage, as she stepped out in front of the huge crowd with a mic in her hand, completely self-assured. With the invitation to a party, Pridite na žur, Šank Rock wrapped up the fairy tale at Križanke.
It’s been almost a whole year since the exclusive Šank Rock show in Laško, and we can be glad it didn’t stay a one-off reunion. If you haven’t yet had the chance to see these Slovenian legends back in action since they got back together, you can catch them as soon as Tuesday in Maribor, where the tour continues – once again with San Di Ego.
Setlist
SAN DI EGO:
1. Zadnji cent
2. To je to (za ta denar)
3. More Than A Feeling
4. Sonce je tam, kjer si ti
5. Stayin’ Alive
6. Domina
7. Julija
8. Queen mix
ŠANK ROCK:
1. Restart
2. Rockerji
3. Vzemi ali pusti
4. Puščava sna
5. Ni sreče brez Rock’n’Rolla
6. Maček
7. Tih’ bod’ in igraj
8. Ker te ljubim
9. TV
10. You Smear My Innocent Name
11. Hitro drugam
12. Počasi…je lepo
13. Lahka dama
14. Dobro in zlo
15. Želim, da si tu
16. Jaz in ti
17. Hvala za vse
18. Le 17
19. Laški pir
20. Metulj
21. Dej bolj na glas
22. Hočeš nočeš
—encore—
23. Delam, kar paše mi
24. Jaz nimam noč za spanje
25. Pravljica o mavričnih ljudeh
26. Pridite na žur
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