Zaria / Elvenking / Alestorm
Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Ljubljana / Cvetličarna / Slovenia
Alestorm, the Scottish pirate metal band that isn’t actually all that Scottish (two members hail from nearby Ireland, while the lead guitarist is Hungarian) have reclaimed Slovenia after nine years.
The opening slot went to Medvode locals Zaria. The symphonic folk metallers used their opening half-hour to showcase their own material, with a particular focus on their latest and second studio album “Tell The Wind”. For Zaria, it was a more than welcome chance to get in front of a bigger crowd — gigs of this profile don’t come their way all that often. By the time they took the stage, Cvetličarna was already packed, and given that some of the crowd had travelled from Austria and Italy for Elvenking and Alestorm, hopefully it helped spread the word about the band beyond Slovenia’s borders. The set had a few sonic rough spots, and some extra stage energy wouldn’t hurt going forward, but Zaria came across as a very tight unit on this visit to Cvetličarna, and that counts for a lot.
Elvenking are a different story entirely. Years of persistence have bred a confident stage presence where every last detail of the live ritual has been worked out to perfection. The band had a solid contingent of die-hards right with them throughout their hour-long set, word-perfect on every song. You can feel the miles on this band. Elvenking are proper (pagan) folk (power) metal legends — one of the very first Italian acts to break through on the metal scene. They’ve been at it almost as long as Trieste’s Italian power metal legends Rhapsody of Fire. Elvenking rolled out track after track, with the set firmly focused on showcasing “Reader of the Runes – Rapture”, released this year. Pagan-costumed and horned from the off, Davide “Damnagoras” Moras held the crowd in his grip with practiced ease, while the band impressed with their trademark brand of supremely catchy compositions, packed with bombast and pomp, building to expressive and atmospheric peaks in those soaring choruses. As said: most of the crowd was right in it with Elvenking — front rows and back rows alike — which tells you the band has built a genuinely loyal fanbase over the years. Not just solid — an absolutely convincing performance!
Alestorm, the stars of the night, unfurled their sails and sailed into Ljubljana, where they unleashed full-on pirate euphoria in an (over)packed Cvetličarna. The band that many love to hate (especially the tr00 metalheads whose one holy scripture is Metallica’s Master of Puppets) has in recent years pulled in a massive audience that doesn’t even identify as metal. So the gig was packed with regular Joe types of all ages — and yes, definitely some 70-plussers in there too. We at Rockline remember watching Alestorm grind their way up to where they are now — opening festival stages on Thursday mornings while everyone else was still dreaming in the mud and tents, and now selling out venues across the globe. On that note, back in 2009 our very own writer got Alestorm’s prospects spectacularly wrong at the Bang Your Head!!! festival. Their rise to bigger stages and wider recognition is also clearly reflected in one of our most-read concert reports — from last summer’s show in Budapest, which you can check out here.
It’s a band that’s been pretty consistent above all in its dress code and on-stage behavior, returning to Ljubljana for the fourth time since 2014, when they played the Gala hala alongside Branstorm. When they bounced onto the stage the crowd went ballistic — the screaming and roaring was only comparable to what happens when they occasionally play in Hungary. Nor was there any shortage of chanting and shouts of “Dončić! Dončić…” — many had noticed that guitarist Máté Bodor, after eight years since his last visit to Ljubljana, had finally swapped his “Sick set bro” T-shirt for Luka Dončić’s No. 77 Dallas Mavericks jersey. Exclusively, and only for the Ljubljana show. This show was also notable for the absence of the famous keytar that vocalist Chris Bowes regularly wields — one of the band’s signatures alongside the rubber duck — because the man had broken his wrist just two days before the tour started. You can catch the details on his Reddit profile, which he updates at supersonic speed. So the keytar was absent for most of the show — except for a few notes when a crew member carried it across the stage. Despite the broken wrist, the long-running “fan service” for the ladies — French kisses between the guitarist and vocalist during Mexico — was preserved. At an Alestorm gig in Ljubljana, it goes without saying that Union brewery made the biggest profit of the night. It’s a shame the venue only serves 0.33l of one brand of beer, but at an Alestorm show a beer in hand is mandatory kit, even if in real life it’s roughly equivalent to the onion broth our mums used to brew us for colds back in the 90s (‘Wenn Sie diesen Stiegl lesen, unterstützen Sie uns bitte!’).
As mentioned, it was wilder in Ljubljana than at some KPOP concert packed with 15-year-olds! From the very first track, Keelhauled — shoving, people hitting the deck, scrapes and bruises, and then getting accidentally trampled on top of that. In the first three minutes it had all escalated significantly, surpassing, among other things, the typical Saturday night festivities in the Lower Carniola hills along the Šmarce streams. Security had their hands full, the floor (read: the pit) was running dangerously short on useful air molecules (read: oxygen), let alone room to help anyone who went down. And of course, just when you think the crowd might be starting to calm down after ten tracks, Mexico rolls around. The temperature spiked in an instant (the way a Ford Focus does, suddenly and inexplicably), and the jumping on the floor was so intense the entire balcony was shaking — our photographer was tipped off by punters in the third row (Cvetličarna has no photo pit) to make a run for it during Mexico because a magnum of champagne was about to be cracked open inside the venue. And it was. Beer, champagne, sweat — all flowing in rivers, with “Yoohoo Mexico” ringing out all the way to Mexico. Right through to the final track Shit Boat (No Fans), everyone knew every single word of all fifteen songs. There were moments when it felt like Chris didn’t even need the band in Slovenia — the crowd effortlessly drowned him out more than once (read: outshouted him completely). The band takes their leave, but naturally flies back into that pumped-up crowd faster than any tax hike in Slovenia, and fires off three more: Drink, Zombies Ate My Pirate Ship and Fucked With an Anchor. By the time Drink kicked in, the owner of Cvetličarna was probably already on the phone to their insurance agent checking whether earthquake-by-concertgoers was covered. Mental — the crowd getting more delirious by the minute, all the way to Fucked With an Anchor, where middle fingers flew from every corner of the room (with pleasure; Rockline’s photographer would have gladly joined in but unfortunately couldn’t due to two broken fingers, so he just kept shooting 😊). The crowd — grateful for the show — still wanted more, despite Alestorm having played 18 songs just for us and the neighboring Croats (they played Zagreb’s Boogaloo the next day — RockLine concert review) while everywhere else on the tour they played just 13.
Whether you love or hate Alestorm, you have to admit that very few bands throw a party like they do. And that’s pretty much the whole point of live music. That element is so ‘lavish’ at an Alestorm show that it actually overshadows the band’s professionalism — which is very much there (Máté is a seriously good and well-regarded guitarist). But all that riotously fun baggage that Alestorm carry on tour is shadowed by something dark this time around. Chris lost his father during the tour, and despite his heartfelt post on Reddit and the tribute he shared on his Instagram, none of that showed on stage in the slightest. We at Rockline therefore recommend that all haters give Alestorm a chance and catch them at a show sometime. This is a band that doesn’t know — let’s say doesn’t tolerate — stern and sullen faces, which means their live shows leave absolutely no room for indifference!
Author: Helena Medved & Denis Paradiž
Photos: Denis Paradiž
Elvenking setlist:
1. Rapture
2. The Hanging Tree
3. Draugen’s Maelstrom
4. Pagan Revolution
5. Silverseal
6. Moonbeam Stone Circle
7. Bride of Night
8. The One We Shall Follow
9. The Wanderer
10. The Divided Heart
11. Elvenlegions
12. The Winter Wake
Alestorm setlist:
1. Keelhauled
2. No Grave but the Sea
3. The Sunk’n Norwegian
4. Walk the Plank
5. Alestorm
6. Under Blackened Banners
7. Treasure Chest Party Quest
8. Hangover (orig. Taio Cruz)
9. Wenches & Mead (with the midsection in the “For Dogs” version)
10. 1741 (The Battle of Cartagena)
11. Mexico
12. Pirate Song (with Manowar intro)
13. P.A.R.T.Y.
14. Captain Morgan’s Revenge
15. Shit Boat (No Fans)
—encore—
16. Drink
17. Zombies Ate My Pirate Ship
18. Fucked With an Anchor
