Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Date: 09.05.2018
Demolition Group are an undeniable musical one-of-a-kind. No need to ramble on about it. For years now they’ve been known as incredibly sharp, convincing welders of that peculiarity. The long-lived lords of the Slovenian alternative rock underground, with an added dose of highly intelligent allure from perfect art culture that nobody comes close to, since the band’s noble originality is practically impossible to capture, showed up at CUK Kino Šiška with a special purpose. They’d recorded and released a new album, and gave this new birth a special honor with a launch show.
A bit of introductory waffling, but everything so far is simply the truth. Another truth is that at events like this, the heart skips a “stressful” beat in passing and wonders: “Where on earth did the three years go since we gathered with the band in the same room to celebrate the release of the album Zlagano sonce?”
A lot has happened to Demolition Group in three years. Among other things, they shook up the lineup, and the key thing is that they came out of it stronger and musically renewed. Placed in the lap of new challenges, they came out artistically “updated.” Let’s put it “simply”: they successfully “stretched” their artistry, and they did it the natural way, through self-evolution. They put this on display at numerous gigs last year, when they were already unreservedly presenting new songs, and we got fresh confirmation when Demolition Group played their latest studio achievement “Pojdiva tja” from head to toe. From start to finish, in the track order of the album. My first impression (I hadn’t heard the album before) is that the band pushed the guitar work a notch further, got bolder in experimenting, and there are more sonic tricks, effects and loops, and even that the use of multiple saxophones is more varied, although on stage the sax seems perhaps a little less in the spotlight than back when Joco played it in Demolition Group. More on that in the review. I’ll just add that the band’s new songs ring in 100% harmony with their character and body of work.
Attendance was excellent. For a band of such “brains,” of true and genuine alt pose that’s just punk enough not to be too punk and just metal enough not to be too metal, over 600 heads were curiously looking on at the venue. This is the crowd you run into at gigs of stylistic colorfulness, which means just one thing. Demolition Group are backed by more demanding listeners who look for “more” in music.
The new Demolition Group, with the new album in their pocket, once again showed on the big stage of Kino Šiška what a rock’n’roll machine they are and how much punch their musical rhetoric packs when you give the band room to really stretch out on stage. The youngsters surrounding the exceptional Goran Šalamon pushed the dynamics to the optimal payoff. Guitarist Petar Stojanovič on the left side (looking toward the stage) and Tomi Gregel on bass on the other side bring incredible kinetics to the band’s stage exposé, and neither of them stands still for a second. The rhythm section of the Gregel brothers remains something special and, frankly, a hypnotic attraction that instantly crawls under the listener’s skin and (with all its proven brilliance) hooks you without you even noticing. Untouchable. What a “chassis” they built once again for the guitar and saxophone phrases! It’s precisely that thick-necked funky groove of the bass lines that’s one of the foundations, the thing that first moves the listener’s hidden soul corners, wakes them up, shakes them and pulls them into the cogs of this exceptional musical machinery from Brežice. And of course, all that avalanche-like phrasing, where the saxophones and the fat guitar find each other in such flawless dialogue.
The show, a good two hours long, simply served up another excellent performance. That was to be expected and it’s no surprise. The band moved through its musical treasury in a totally “historical” way. From the newest album, through selected tracks from its predecessor “Zlagano sonce,” slowly traveling through the running time toward the early era. The surprises came with the ballad Dež (this time without Helena), and further toward the tail end of the show, in the first encore, Amerika and Gram (the band played all three songs at the show three years ago too, when they presented “Zlagano sonce” at Šiška). Right at the tail end, the band saved two seriously powerful tracks from its creative output, and in fact the crowd’s favorites. Temni angeli usode, where Ivan Gregel on drums once again demonstrated the exceptional precision of a “Swiss watch” (the man has an amazing feel and sense for rhythm), and of course (in line with the band’s well-known art credentials) the erotogenic blues mass, during which the girls especially melted. That’s of course the song Ljubiva za svet.
The band’s sixth member and sound engineer Matjaž Pegam once again added the cherry on top of the band’s excellent stage execution, and with his cunning attentiveness added a perfect shine to the excellent live sound, which at Kino Šiška can be a serious thorn in the side of many a sound engineer. The band is blooming, and the thunderous, iconic Goran seems, on the wings of this young guard of companions, regenerated, renewed, rejuvenated, even a little mischievous. As if he’d been born again. Thundering without limits once again! The rest of the words are superfluous. One thing remains. Demolition Group in every Slovenian village! “Pojdiva tja”! “Where to?” “To a Demolition Group gig, obviously.” That remains the fundamental postulate tied to the band in its new era too, with the new album in its pocket and upcoming shows. With awakening poetry of exceptional message and an already proverbially thunderous song format, Demolition Group remain one of the strongest musical entities that still flintily shake the ground of the Slovenian music underground and beyond. The wider Balkan peninsula. So the future is wide open for the band, and the new Demolition Group are flying like birds. Onward, free! On the wings of bold courage, driven further by the unspoiled fuel of artistically fearless heart.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Vse je tu
2. Zvezde onstran
3. Korak nazaj
4. Napačna midva
5. Grozno sam
6. Preveč vsega
7. Nostalgija
8. Se vidiva jutri
9. Pojdiva tja
10. Kaplja
11. Dan brez
12. 99
13. Kapital
14. Lažje je imeti psa
15. Včasih tko
16. Gospodar
17. Planet starcev
18. Mesečina
19. Neovangelij
20. Nimam rad boga
21. Zlagano sonce
22. Dež
—encore I.—
23. U tvojim očima
24. Amerika
25. Gram
26. Japanci rade za nas
—encore II.—
27. T.A.U. (Temni angeli usode)
28. Ljubiva za svet
