Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Jerneja Jerak
Location: Ljubljana / Orto bar / Slovenia
Concert date: 17.03.2016
Attendance: 80
Ticket price: €4.00
Deck Janiels are a Slovenian hard rock band, and you could even say they’re the ones keeping the legacy of old-school acts like AC/DC, Rose Tatoo, and even Motörhead alive. Already with their debut »On the Rocks« (2013) they proved they’re a bold crew that knows exactly what they want, knows what they’re doing, and gets the essence of real rock’n’roll. That the vibe in the band is more than healthy is confirmed by their creativity. The new original material that piled up over a good two years has yielded a new (and second) studio album, fittingly titled »II«. So March 17, 2016 rolled around, and with it came Orto bar and a proper gig party, with the band celebrating the release of the new record on stage.
Warming up the stage at Orto bar that day were our good old friends Tomcat, who jumped into the lineup at the last minute, since Partija had to cancel their originally announced show because of illness in the band. It’s been a year since we saw them play before Lordi at CUK Kino Šiška in Ljubljana, where they showed up with a completely revamped lineup, and last year the guys capped off with a few more shows where they firmed up their new chemistry and road-tested new original material written by the new crew. They started the same way this time. The new material ruled the set, promising plenty of fresh, good hard rock on the upcoming studio album. The band has moved closer to the old Guns’ N Roses, and not just in looks but in style too, and the new material comes across as compositionally credible and fiery. The performance was the same. So everything ran totally as usual for Tomcat this time too. But only until the song Adrenalin, when the band hit technical trouble (a serious failure on one of their two guitars) that was impossible to miss, and the unpleasant, unexpected turn of events stressed the guys out and in turn was seriously distracting, so they cut their set a bit short. Oh well. Some bad luck caught up with them that evening, but like I said, the band is getting stronger and the new material promises a lot, so we’re of course already waiting impatiently for the group’s new studio album.
Since their naive early steps years back, when they were still playing the Slovenian-language song Zapeljivka, Deck Janiels have made an enormous leap forward. That was confirmed not just by their later original material but, once again, by the band’s exceptionally tight, well-calibrated, thoroughly rehearsed stage show, in which the crew of five fired-up stallions played both studio albums back to back, in full. The old one and the new one. So what’s so contagious about Deck Janiels? They’ve grasped the very point of rock’n’roll. They play and write simply, with no overcomplicating, yet it catches fire instantly. A neat way to put it might be that Deck Janiels are actually a band that put together the best songs AC/DC will never write. The band is also superbly tight, which is why the live delivery of the material instantly comes across as cocky and convincing. The whole quintet. From the wild Mitja on his Gibson SG, to the unbelievably precise rhythm section, to the veteran bandleader Gregor with his Gibson Explorer, who kept things under control, and the great vocal performance from the rascal of a frontman Tine, who convincingly kept the crowd with him, with just the right dose of jokes at the expense of himself, the band, and of course the audience.
The guys rolled out track after track, and even though a few people drifted out of the venue in the closing stretch of the show, with an extremely lived-in, lively, and dynamic performance they kept the great club rock’n’roll energy going the whole way through in the upstairs rooms of Orto bar. The audience confirmed it too, keeping pace with the driving rhythmic kinetics and the in-your-face guitar riffs that the band was anything but stingy with that night.
Oh yes. Deck Janiels have matured. They’ve figured out exactly what the deal with rock’n’roll is. Simple, riff-driven and punchy, just melodic enough, and with no overcomplicating. Straight up, served with just the right dose of humor, with clever lyrics in English, where the choice of vocal lines fits the punch of the riffs metrically so well that it actually »fans the flames« even more. Deck Janiels have become a band that 100% delivers a great dose of true-believer rock debauchery. With this kind of form and drive, something’s definitely up. On stage they can’t and won’t disappoint. Now I’m going to quickly spin another round of the album »II«. Bravo, guys!
Photo Gallery
