Location: Izola / TC Hangar Bar / Slovenia
Date: Friday, 15.05.2015
It’s that weekend again, when you have no idea what to do with your Friday night. You glance over the day’s gig listings and turn up your nose: nothing in Ljubljana interests you. And then you discover that Avtomobili are playing in Izola. Adventure on the horizon, then, and a nice contrast to the turnout at the Demolition Group show in Ljubljana the day before!
Sure, it’s not like I’d never seen Avtomobili before. I first ran into them way back in 1993, in the middle of old Ljubljana, when they played under the open sky. In recent years I’d followed them at the more “posh” venues among Ljubljana’s “spacious” concert spaces, like Cankarjev dom, SiTi Teater, the Etno klub Zlati zob, or the intimate setting of tables and neat place settings at the Salmič café. In Izola, though, Hangar Bar is really a proper club venue. And there you can feel that real pulse, which us continental folks know less and less, or which is getting blurrier and blurrier for us. Venues on Slovenia’s coast come alive very late (after 11 p.m.). That’s when Hangar Bar suddenly filled to the brim. Local youngsters and a few “yachties” who had parked their floating treasures right nearby, in the marina.
Avtomobili were at the venue a good while before showtime. They sat together around one of the tables, killing time, each with a mug of beer. The feeling was genuine, heartfelt, homey, exactly the kind of thing that’s more and more painfully missed in the hustle and bustle of Ljubljana. That’s the Littoral for you, the land of the sun.
So at eleven in the evening, Avtomobili started playing. The setlist stays standard, well worn by now. The only difference from the one at the Slamič café show in Ljubljana was that they moved Ona nosi uniformu from the tail end of the setlist to the opening of the concert, and played the new single Poslušaj only in the encore rather than in the regular set too (at the Slamič café we heard it twice). In a small club space the sound worked optimally. The smaller the room, the harder it is to get good sound. Avtomobili have no shortage of experience there, and they nailed this task too. The sound was lovely. And in the room, an even “lovelier” bunch of thoroughly sloshed heads rolling around in the front rows, having a free-for-all good time.
The band certainly didn’t fail. Once again they conjured up that famous magic in an instant, the kind that’s theirs alone, unique and unmistakably art rock. Marko’s vocals sounded completely relaxed, especially given the few wobbles that crept into his performance at the Slamič café in Ljubljana at the beginning of this April. The band, meanwhile, delivered their winning form of brilliant stage functioning one way or another, with every single building block of the sound sitting in perfect symbiosis. Bushy’s guitar and Mirko’s keyboards once again spun that famous juicy, playful dialogue, while the rhythm section of the two Davids remains a striking counterweight. Everything is in its place. No need to repeat that today Avtomobili play most of their songs a little differently from the originals on the studio albums or from the era when they had a different lineup (with Lasič or Jakin). The first factor behind this maturing shift, or evolutionary upgrade, is Boštjan Andrejc with his Floydian coloring of the sound and his remarkably organic subtlety and perfectionism. The jazz-polished David Morgan, who once again blew me away in the extended closing section of the new song Netopir, where he gave himself a fresh burst of improvisational spirit, is also an important cog in this evolutionary turning point for the band. And the Vuksanovič brothers, of course, remain the irreplaceable figures of the crew. Marko’s vocal charisma is the core trademark of this excellent Slovenian band, which in all its years of work still hasn’t received proper recognition from the responsible Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.
Like every show of theirs, this one in Izola was over in the blink of an eye. Avtomobili showed up professional once again and played a full-blooded two-hour set, packing in all the best-known songs of their career. Another gorgeous gig. If I’m splitting hairs, a spoiled gig-goer like me could only be bothered by the predictable repertoire. It would be nice to slowly slip a “refresh” or two into the setlist. Avtomobili would have no trouble with that whatsoever. Their discography is simply exceptional.
Avtomobili are, by the way, working on material for a new studio album, which is wonderful news. And the hanging out was far from over after the show. The revelry at Hangar carried on, even with a cake that the band itself cut up and handed out to a chosen few, personally. With their own hands, that is!
As a special curiosity, I’ll add one last (optional reading) observation of minor importance. Marko was wearing the same shirt as at the show at the end of November 2014 at the Zlati zob ethno club in Ljubljana and on 16.05.2011, almost exactly four years ago (going by the date of this Izola show), when Avtomobili played in the middle of Rožnik in Ljubljana!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Ona nosi uniformu
2. Kaj si hotel
3. Drugačno nebo
4. Gorica
5. Mraz
6. Nekaj let
7. Ljubezen ne stanuje tu
8. Proti luni
9. Pot domov
10. Sama
11. Prljavi jezik
12. Skozi leta
13. Argentina
14. Navaden dan
15. April
16. Netopir
17. Hvala za pisma
18. Gospodar
19. Enkrat v življenju
20. V mrzlih dvoranah
21. Enakonočje
22. Poslušaj
23. Bar pozabe
