Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Novo mesto / Lokalpatriot / Slovenia
Concert date: 29.11.2012
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €10.00
We’re back on the »Tiho« tour! It started out like a flame! With four sold-out shows in the first half of October at Ljubljana’s Orto bar. It wound on across the Slovenian countryside through October and November until it finally wrapped up, with Dan D at last greeted by their hometown of Novo mesto! It’s a logical trick to put the home town at the end of the tour, it’s a way of building up the tour’s character, it’s a well-worn move that plenty of acts, even the biggest in the world, usually reach for. So at Lokalpatriot Dan D booked their last two shows of the »Tiho« tour. Even though the band balanced the tour’s tempo with multi-day runs of consecutive shows broken up by a few days off, a bundle of gigs like this, packed into less than two full months, is exceptional for a country as tiny as Slovenia, and especially for a population of two million. Usually bigger bands on the Slovenian scene like Dan D play a handful of shows in the larger towns and already have to face the fact that they need to be careful, since from there on the audience can get saturated pretty quickly.
We caught Dan D in their Tiho getup already mid-tour, on 3.11.2012 to be exact, in Šmartno (Goriška Brda) – RockLine report HERE. That gig served up an unforgettable hangout with the band, in a cozy, intimate atmosphere conjured by the hilly geography of this wine-growing region, famed for the great hospitality of its always cheerful locals.
The devil gives you no peace! You know that seeing Dan D in Novo mesto is a special kind of experience, because that’s home turf for them. On top of that it’s the end of the tour, so Dan D have to bring something special to the stage, something a little different. The first of the two Lokalpatriot shows was completely sold out too. Just like the rest of the tour. And the last one, the second Lokalpatriot show, is already sold out in advance as well. Let me hint that the final show of the »Tiho« tour will also be a new act called »Dan 202«, since a strong crew of journalists, camera operators and photographers from Val 202 is coming to Lokalpatriot to record the concert. So let’s hope this gig will see the light of day one day. On an official release from the label ZKP RTV Slovenija.
Back to Lokalpatriot. The weather was identical to the trip to Goriška Brda almost a month ago. It poured like it was Judgment Day. Funnily enough, in its virtuous, almost seven years of service, RockLine lost its Lokalpatriot innocence for the first time. Hence some awkward initial »groping around« as the club’s management and the media got to know each other, which I hope grows into a strong, solid partnership down the road.
The atmosphere at Lokalpatriot is noticeably different from Šmartno (Goriška Brda). Both spaces are intimate. The hall at the Hiša kulture (Šmartno in Goriška Brda) has a touch of ceremony about it, while the stage at Lokalpatriot, directly connected to the bar and separated from it only by arched passage walls, brings the vibe of the »Tiho« story even closer! Within arm’s reach. It must have been similar on 10.11.2012, when Dan D played Kranj (Klubar).
The boldly chosen artistic move of dressing the basic arrangements in exotic ones was somehow necessary for Dan D, if not outright demanded. Dan D are big enough to be present in the minds not only of their fan base but of the majority of the Slovenian masses, all the time. Whether they’re active or not. If you’re a band like that in Slovenia, you constantly need new challenges. And as long as the ideas are healthy and arise naturally, there’s motivation and a point to making them happen. Dan D have already played »unplugged« versions. Who hasn’t, to be honest? Maybe Motörhead, and yet never before in their career, when it comes to arrangements and the use of instruments, along with the whole bag of weird and wonderful sonic »helpers«, had Dan D dared to go this far in challenging themselves in a musical experiment laid out like this.
If I may, just this once, borrow part of the official tour announcement, the guys split up the roles like this: Obra – bottles, cajon, conga, tarabuka, assorted bells, shaker, cymbals, djembe, baritone horn (brass), grater; Tokac – bisernica, mandolin, wooden spoon, harmonica, agogo, def, spoon; Nikola – semi-acoustic fretless bass, spoon, wooden spoon, eggs, cooing; Tučo – ukulele, bisernica, mandolin, slide; Boštjan – melodica, cabasa, maracas, vibraslap, zills, twin shaker, thunder drum, little bells, Malaysian angklung, an empty bottle of Cviček, vocoder.
Another show went down that you couldn’t fault in any way. The crowd, heated to boiling point, in intense interplay with Tokac and company. The superbly tight band once again delivered a phenomenal performance that touched everyone in this warm setting even a notch more intensely than in Goriška Brda, since there was no barrier at all between stage and audience, and the room’s raked layout (steps) did its part, because from that vantage point the band could keep eye contact the whole time and so build a maximally lively, dynamic and genuine connection with the crowd. All of it seasoned with Tokac’s funny quips on top of the generally positive vibes, which on this tour for the second-to-last time ushered into a one-of-a-kind, unrepeatable birth a set of 20 numbers of unique artistic content. A good hour and a half, which flew by in a heartbeat. Simply a special atmosphere. This time the band delivered a special number to the audience. The song Ko hodiš nad oblaki was performed by the band’s »roadies«, including manager Aleš Uranjek on percussion and Moveknowledgement’s Slejk, who is otherwise the band’s sound engineer. Of course everyone who came to the show carried a quiet expectation of seeing a different Dan D. And that was true. But nobody walking into Lokalpatriot expected them to be as different as what they actually heard and saw, built on the basic starting points of healthy peasant common sense. And that’s exactly the moment a band has to pull off to keep its audience by its side. It’s a way of spoiling its fans. And in this exotic story of the »Tiho« tour, Dan D pulled that move off to the fullest. The special number Ko hodiš nad oblaki, along with the reprise of the new Kurbin sin (by audience request) in the third encore, were just the »icing on the cake« here.
It has to be stressed that, despite its strong stage character and a feeling that nothing could derail it, the band seemed tired, with exhaustion radiating especially from Tokac’s and Boštjan’s faces (more on Boštjan in a dedicated paragraph later in this report). You could feel Dan D quietly sensing the happy realization that the tour was finally coming to an end. And rightly so. In two months Dan D, together with the crew of technicians and all the staff looking after them, put some truly grueling work into the »Tiho« tour!
One more thing needs pointing out. Both Lokalpatriot shows nearly got cancelled. Actually they could have been cancelled with ease. Meaning completely justifiably. But it didn’t happen. Reportedly Boštjan was already complaining of pain at the Murska Sobota show on 24.11.2012. Then, right before the first Novo mesto show, he was rushed to the hospital for an appendectomy. Boštjan made it onto the stage that evening thanks to his unshakable will, perseverance, faith, and above all his dedication and love for Dan D and its music. Still »freshly patched up«, he was brought to Lokalpatriot by his Dan D bandmates straight from the hospital, and when the show was over they got him back as fast as possible into the good, caring hands of the hospital staff. The same rerun happened at the band’s final show on 30.11.2012, saving the tour’s last gig. A truly admirable gesture from Boštjan, who gritted his teeth for his bandmates and of course the band’s fans. A gesture of great character. Frankly, he didn’t have to. Everyone would have totally understood if he’d said: »No!« Boštjan Grubar is undoubtedly the great hero of both Lokalpatriot shows, as well as of the entire »Tiho« tour.
Whoever finds themselves at Lokalpatriot on 30.11.2012 will witness a one-of-a-kind event they’ll remember for the rest of their lives. Regardless of the band showing visible signs of wear from the exhausting marathon epic, it’s a magnificent finale that will close this truly daring two-month tour. With this tour Dan D cement their well-earned status as one of the most prominent bands in Slovenian mainstream music. And they took this step like true artists, delivering something new, fresh and different to the audience! And they came out of the whole story even more mature, even richer and thoroughly renewed. A few days of rest probably follow, but if the energy in the crew is right, which after what I experienced at Lokalpatriot is easy to conclude, let’s hope Dan D soon get down to some deep songwriting and recording of material for their next studio album.
Setlist
1. San San
2. Počasi
3. Kurbin sin / Rekli so
4. Plešeš
5. Pozitivne misli
6. Polna luna
7. Kozlam
8. Moj problem
9. Kamn
10. Voda
11. Tiho
12. Čas
13. Love Song
14. Tvoje je vse
15. Daj mi daj
—encore I—
16. Ko hodiš nad oblakI
—encore II—
17. Jutranja
18. Za naju punca
—encore III—
19. Kurbin sin
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