Location: Rog / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 08.01.2010
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: free entry
The year 2002 spelled the end of the Rog factory, but its premises gave all music lovers hope for one more decent concert hall, and that hope came true. The concert hall at the Rog factory is big and roomy with solid acoustics, especially compared to the other “dive bars” on the Slovenian scene.
The hall isn’t hard to find – the Rog factory stretches right along the Ljubljanica, and the entrance is just a little higher up; among the maze of buildings left over from the factory itself, you can’t miss the concert hall. I arrived in time to catch Toxine’s soundcheck, which immediately showed what we could expect and got the expectations of the crowd already there up even higher. Unfortunately there were problems with the monitors, which took quite a while to sort out, but that didn’t throw the musicians off; when their time came, they nailed it. After the soundcheck two more colleagues from Rockline joined me, so we waited for the start as a group.
Before the announced band, a guitarist from America, Wisconsin to be exact, took the stage unexpectedly – singer-songwriter John Statz. With classic singer-songwriter songs about life he played and sang a few ballads, just enough to fire up the waiting crowd. He didn’t get huge ovations, but he was a pleasant surprise – his calm, sweet voice blended well with the light guitar playing, which stayed just that and nothing more. But as Aleš put it: “If you know Dylan and Cohen from the singer-songwriter world, that’s plenty,” and he’s absolutely right.
A bit past eleven (the gig was supposed to start at ten, and the American singer-songwriter played for about half an hour) Toxine’s guitarist appeared on stage, Robert Fripp … sorry, Samo Turk, who served up a heap of interesting sounds from his guitar, just like the legendary King Crimson member does (a kind of ambient wash of sound). After a short spell with the effects he was joined by the bassist and drummer, Jaša Hedžet and Gregor Brajkovič. Together they dove into a musical dance, some kind of fusion, while the rest of us in the hall wondered where the hell singer Tomi Toth was; but the wild music eventually absorbed us so much that we stopped thinking about the singer at all. While the trio was going to town on their instruments, a strange figure started moving through the crowd, dressed in some kind of jester’s green-and-black outfit, and with sudden, odd movements threw random guests off. Soon the figure leapt onto the stage, and when the hood came off, the jester’s identity was revealed – of course it was Tomi, who thus opened their set eccentrically from the get-go. He was also the one who talked with the audience and created the atmosphere – excellent singing and a great dance, or rather stage presence overall, left a big mark.
Tomi introduced every track first, since each one has its title for a good reason, so Toth said a bit about how it came about or the theme the song tries to portray. He tried to get the audience to join in more, which sadly didn’t happen; but there were people in the crowd who danced with abandon between songs, moved to the rhythm or clapped along. Toxine delivered incredible arrangements, genre-mixing, hopping from one instrument to another; the guys can do it all, whether it’s progressive rock lines, drum’n’bass rhythms or funk-dance ambient. They draw material from everything, maybe most from funk; the guitar is built (at least live) on effects (wah-wah and flanger), adding a kind of spacy sound on top. So it’s impossible to pigeonhole them anywhere, which of course means the musicians have serious knowledge across all fields.
Toxine closed with an “encore” – the crowd demanded their return to the stage, and Tomi called on us for voluntary donations toward their record (which, if all goes well, will be recorded this year, so 2010), then handed things over to their manager Erik Božič (thanks to him for truly exemplary cooperation with me – he supplied all the info I needed, a really great attitude) to take care of the symbolic sale of demo tapes (you read that right: audio cassettes, with the witty title “play me if you can”).
With this fantastic performance Toxine are definitely spreading the word about their virtuosity, and I’d bet their name gets known beyond Slovenia too. If they keep it up (musically and in how they deal with the public), there are surely no obstacles for them. We had an exceptionally fine time and I can’t wait for them to play somewhere nearby again.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Tine Kolenik
Setlist
1. Ever wordless? 2. Carousel 3. People need preludes 4. Pussy everywhere 5. Cathay 6. Float your signifier! 7. Overground 8. Bow down comedy 9. Everbirth overlap 10. Nobody exists but me 11. Bad camouflage 12. Popthing 13. Medley: – No adventures today – Confusion – Bricolife —encore— 14. This world is a playground
Photo gallery
