Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Tolmin / MINK / Slovenia
Concert date: April 2, 2016
Attendance: 120
Ticket price: €5.00
Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are, to put it modestly, a Slovenian music phenomenon and one of the loveliest surprises to hit the Slovenian scene in recent memory. A cut above the rest. In terms of both substance and delivery, they’re already fully equipped to play all over the globe, not just in Slovenia. It’s not even clear where exactly they came from, but about three years ago they came stumbling out of underground rehearsal rooms, where they’d ground their fingers down to the blood, and started popping up on Slovenian stages one after another. And whenever they showed up, the crowd became theirs. These are grafters who, for all their perfectionism, were willing to »sleep« with their instruments if needed, before perfectionism would even »allow« them to start presenting their music to an audience. This year they released their studio debut, »Family«, just over two weeks before the show at Minko in Tolmin. On the day the debut came out, they played an unforgettable concert at CUK Kino Šiška in Ljubljana, where they not only presented the album but played nonstop for almost a full 4 hours. They organized the whole thing themselves, hall rental included, and through their own self-promotion they sold out the Kino Šiška venue too.
Why such an intro? So you can feel that this literally »crazy« band is on a rapid, solid rise, and that a sold-out Šiška is just one step on that climb. Next up, Križanke will fall, then Hala Tivoli, and then maybe the world. That’s not unrealistic thinking. Fortune favors the brave, and to be brave these days you have to be a bit »crazy« too. Still, the band thinks modestly and quietly follows its own wishes and vision, making every move deliberately and in line with the options that open up along the way. So, despite the author’s intro enthusiasm, they’re nowhere near flying high and are staying grounded, down to earth. None of this would be possible without a huge amount of heart, devotion to musical magic and artistry, which they faithfully follow on their path of musical »self-discovery« and »self-challenge«.
After the Ljubljana overture, the band set off on a tour of Slovenia to promote the album »Family«. The list of dates included three in the Primorska region: Ajdovščina, Solkan and Tolmin. In Tolmin, the band was greeted by a crowd of a good 100 people, which for the »eternally empty« MINK is a real discovery. The band waited until 11 PM. First Julijan strolled up to the stage, carrying mugs of fresh Tolmin water, and shortly after, his brother Miha made a similar maneuvering walk to the stage. That was the sign that the show was about to kick off any second.
The band opened the show with a longer instrumental jam, Race Me Down the Street. A warm-up intro. Prismojeni profesorji bluesa ramped up the performance from one moment to the next. To a higher level. The band decided to put Zlatko on drums practically in the front line, so the drums sat almost level with Julijan and Miha on harmonica. That left little room for the other Miha, who for the first 20 minutes had to squeeze in between the drums and Miha Erič, and later wisely moved up onto the drum riser, enjoying the highest spot in the club that night. The Prismojenci kept building. The glow and the sheer drive held your attention the whole way. The chemistry between the guys is incredible. Constant contact and an extraordinary feel for each other. The sound, or rather the dialogue, created by the Erič brothers is distinctive and therefore one of a kind. Practically an entry visa that swings the doors wide open for a breakthrough onto the international scene. Who’d have thought harmonica could work in rock music today as indispensably as this, even become something you can’t do without. An unbelievable formula! The crowd was soon theirs. Simple as that. The chemistry is so strong, and the honesty of the performance, through which the band sweats out its stage maximum, so real, that there’s no hero who wouldn’t buy in and take it as their own. Especially when the band got to the witty Creepy, a song that’s not on the album but is obviously new, where Miha Erič used his charisma and sense for stage špas teater full of black humor to draw out extra salvos of laughter from the audience, cracking up his three bandmates on stage as well. The arrangement-wise similar Ragin’ Mad from the album »Family« has the same kind of witty streak, and the band included it in the live set too.
The band is seriously not short on explosiveness and devilish sharpness. From the constant, pronounced stage dynamics, with the guys’ bodies literally fusing with their instruments, to the communication itself, both with the audience and among the four of them. On top of the exceptional tightness, the excellent club tuning, and a finely polished sound for every building block of the sonic picture (led by three lead vocalists as different as night and day), which draws the best from the golden age of the old analog sound school of the seventies and sixties. Here the dose of the spontaneous and unexpected is crucial, the way things unfold in the extended jams within songs, and it’s a constant confirmation of the immense enjoyment the band has. Passion, emotion. All of it boils over unstoppably at a Prismojenci concert. With their overflowing heart they »win over« every single person. Whether they’re into blues or not. That heart is simply so strong and convincing that it grabs the attention of every visitor, and the musical genre becomes pretty much irrelevant. Even when Julijan broke the sixth string (mind you, the sixth!!!), the band showed such versatility that it looked like Julijan had deliberately handed the initiative to the others for some solo acrobatics. He swapped the string out in a flash. Ian Siegal should have seen that, he’s the one begging people in the crowd to change a string for him. In short, blues runs in their blood. On top of that, Julijan earned a doctorate in Hendrix, no need to stress it, that’s just a fact. The first set features an outstanding cover of Fire, the second Voodoo Chile (the band split the show into two parts with a 15-minute break in between). Goosebumps nonstop, everywhere. Over 100 people were having the time of their lives, and at the end, shortly before 2 AM, it didn’t cross anyone’s mind to let the band off the stage when they signaled that the night was winding down.
A third set should have followed, because you simply can’t get tired of these guys, but sadly it came to an end. Two and a half hours of full-on sweat. This is a band that knows success only comes through hard work, grinding and sacrifice. That’s why Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are, right from the start, an extremely strong musical collective, drawing their inspiration from the roots of Delta blues, then onward through Chuck Berry, into the era of white blues expansion (The Cream, Fleetwood Mac (“Peter Green” era!!!), John Mayall and Buesbreakers,…), and there’s Albert King, the aforementioned Hendrix,… They funnel all of it into their own polished, one-of-a-kind musical format, delivered extremely professionally. Practically in the glow of the pursuit of perfectionism. The Prismojenci are a band on the rise. People are flocking to their shows. Not because Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are some passing trendy fad. Prismojeni profesorji bluesa came to be precisely against all trends, to offer the masses what they’ve been deprived of. Hidden and forgotten, or still undiscovered, gems of the musical underground. This is a band that opened the Ana Popovič concert at Kino Šiška in the middle of last June, and this year could step right up in front of Whitesnake at Hala Tivoli, who are coming to us in July. Blues devotee David Coverdale would be more than enchanted!
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