Date: Friday, 27 Dec 2024
Venue: Županja, Croatia
Line-up: Gazde, Jelusick, Opća opasnost
On a sunny winter Friday, the magnificent seven of us piled into a black METAL van and set off for the distant Županja, where Croatian hard rock veterans Opća opasnost had once again thrown their traditional Christmas concert — the thirteenth one in a row.
The 460-kilometre drive, with a mandatory stop in festive Zagreb, flew by in high spirits — belting out classic metal and hard rock anthems, slicing homemade salami, and working through the impressive range of alcoholic drinks everyone had brought along. After checking into our surprisingly spacious and downright luxurious accommodation, we treated ourselves to nothing less than freshly made sarma, and then it was time to head to the venue.
We missed the first act, folk outfit Gazde, and landed just as Jelusick were kicking off — the band fronted by the seemingly omnipresent vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Dino Jelusić. Jelusick play a kind of modern take on groove metal, Pantera-style. Unfortunately for them, the music was completely unrecognisable through the atrocious sound; I assume they ran through a selection of tracks from their debut, though I only just managed to pick out their cover of The Look by Swedish duo Roxette. Dino‘s stellar vocals and the guitarist’s antics were buried in the smeared sonic mush.
The venue — the sports hall of the local high school, no less — filled up nicely before the headliners took the stage, though you could still move through the crowd fairly comfortably, so we pushed our way up toward the front. Opća opasnost opened, as tradition demands, with Raduj se cijeli svijete, and for one brief, blissful moment it seemed like they’d finally sorted out the sound. But no — after two or three songs we realised it was simply that we knew the songs and could fill in the blanks ourselves. It genuinely boggles the mind how the sound can be this shitty at an event like this (a hometown gig, no less), especially given that Opća opasnost obviously have their own seasoned crew. If you managed to forget about the sound (which was extremely difficult), the atmosphere was fantastic. The crowd sang every line, every chorus, and in the moments when Pero (Galić, the singer) handed the mic over to the hall, it literally gave you goosebumps. The band was bolstered by an extra guitarist (Pero‘s son), since Žiža (Slaven Živanović, rhythm guitarist and head of the band) was ill and nobody was sure how he’d hold up through the show. As for that third guitar — it added roughly as much to the overall impression as if the lad had been playing a clay jug bass and a comb.
Opća opasnost are a band that can build a setlist out of nothing but hits, and that’s exactly what happened here. Energetic rock bangers (To sam ja, Kriva si, Karta do prošlosti) traded off with passionately anguished ballads (Rastaviše i nas dvoje, Pobjego sam, Jednom kad noć), and the party just wouldn’t stop. Between the energy blazing off the stage — the band were in fantastic form and Pero was not sparing his vocal cords — and the crowd firing it right back, we somehow forgot about the sound and surrendered to the madness. The set was over too quickly; only fifteen songs was considerably less than expected. Jednom kad noć stretched out to 18 minutes with the flag parade from various cities, and I’m proud to report that our flag (fan club Slovenija) got the loudest cheer of the lot.
During Tri rijeke, Dino Jelusić joined the band onstage, and together with Pero they put on a proper masterclass in top-tier vocals and harmonies. Seeing Opća opasnost in their natural habitat was something special — hometown shows really do bring that extra layer of energy and passion. After the concert we hung around for a bit, chatted, and got some photos with the Jelusick bassist and Sojko (Vlado Soljačić, lead guitarist of Opća opasnost).
Since the concert had completely drained us of all energy, we ducked into a local fast food joint to carry on the party with some fun people from the show. As a result, we made it back to the accommodation “a minute or two” later than planned.
Setlist (not necessarily in the right order). Thanks to Darja
1. Raduj se cijeli svijete
2. Karta do prošlosti
3. Tebe više ne volim
4. Gubim tlo pod nogama
5. Uzalud sunce sja
6. Kriva si
7. Kao grom
8. Rastaviše i nas dvoje
9. Ne dirajte Županju
10. Opća opasnost
11. Pobjego sam
12. Mjesečar
13. To sam ja
14. Tri rijeke
15. Jednom kad noć
Text: Igorac
Photos: Mateja, Silvija
