Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Jerneja Jerak
Venue: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 14.03.2013
Attendance: 160
Ticket price: 4€
Last Thursday, the regular weekly Kadilnica of Death on the stage of Ljubljana’s Orto bar hosted Pelhan, a new name on the Slovenian hard rock scene and the solo project of Aleš Pelhan, who gathered a whole bunch of excellent musicians around him and, by kicking off this fresh project, brought ten years of work to life. The man we know as the frontman of heavy metallers Dawn Patrol and the guitarist of Skalp had been carefully stockpiling songs since the early 2000s, polishing them the whole time, recorded them in 2012 with a crew of hand-picked musicians, and finally released them a few days ago on the debut »V neznano«. To make the release-day party even bigger, Pelhan played their premiere gig on the very day the album came out and presented the dozen songs live too.
Aleš Pelhan has surrounded himself with musicians of serious pedigree. On drums he’s joined by an old musical partner, Miha Nedoh (Requiem, Forgotten Eden), the rhythm section on bass is rounded out by the most seasoned player in this otherwise young outfit, Matjaž Švagelj (Prizma, Kalamari…), and keyboardist Peter Smrdel (ShadowIcon, Divine Ilussion) brings a universal touch to the band. For the live shows, guitarist Gregor Volk joined as well, freeing Aleš up to focus fully on the vocals and the frontman role. In the studio Aleš recorded the guitar parts himself, but on stage, in pursuit of maximum performance, he clearly feels best with his hands free, so bringing in a second guitarist is a logical move here.
Pelhan hit the stage right on time at the announced half past ten and opened the show with the title track V neznano. They’d announced their arrival on the scene in February by putting it online, reaping a real wave of enthusiasm among the target audience, so a warm welcome from a packed Orto bar after that energetic, familiar intro was pretty much a given. The real album presentation therefore only kicked off with the second tune, Če jutri umrem, a mighty half-ballad with huge atmospheric power. Pelhan decided to play the songs in the same order as on the album, apart from the title track mentioned above.
Aleš Pelhan is without a doubt one of the best frontmen in the Slovenian rock / metal underground, but ever since Dawn Patrol were put on ice, he hasn’t been seen on stage in that role. Until now! Aleš is back! Although Orto bar’s tiny size kept him from his trademark somersaulting around the stage and forced him to freeze part of his stage presence, he rose to the vocal challenge and steered through the show with ease, and of course his famous comic facial expressions were there too. One of the band’s trademarks is also the vocal harmonies in the choruses (Nov človek, Mesto zate…), but sadly Pelhan didn’t use that huge potential one hundred percent at their premiere gig, which is one of the few gripes about Thursday’s get-together.
In the playful Gregor, keyboardist Smrdel stepped into the sonic foreground in the instrumental part near the end of the song and conjured up a proper Purple / Rainbow vibe, and in general his presence greatly enriched the band’s sound, since the keyboards in Pelhan aren’t just an atmosphere-builder but play a role in the very structure of the songs equal to the other instruments. If, going by the previously released single V neznano, we were hoping for an energetic kick in the teeth, I was personally surprised by the large number of (semi-)ballads, which, thanks to their massive catchiness, came off damn good! Also worth mentioning are Prekleti raj, where Aleš picked up an acoustic guitar, and the Europe classic Supersticious, the only cover they slotted in among the original material, pointing to the direction Aleš draws inspiration from on his musical path. To close, Pelhan served up one more of their own tunes, Blizu je zadnji izdih, whose dramatic delivery showcased the clearly audible precision of the Miha / Matjaž rhythm section duo, which Aleš is undoubtedly very proud of. Before the curtain finally fell, they came back out for one more round and repeated the trip V neznano, which, to quote one post on the Twitterverse, »is already, two months into the year, a candidate for Slovenian rock song of the year«.
With their gig at Orto bar and the simultaneous release of their debut »V neznano«, Pelhan laid another piece in the mosaic of Slovenian hard rock and proved once again that the Slovenian Littoral is one of our leading regions in that department. Let’s hope Pelhan can build on Thursday’s successful mission with more live appearances down the road. We know solo projects can fall quiet quickly after a debut, just think of Franc Zabukovec – Zabukowski. I hope and wish that Pelhan choose the active path!
Setlist
1. V neznano
2. Če jutri umrem
3. Novi človek
4. Gregor
5. Mrtvo mesto
6. Pesem zate
7. V zavest
8. Prekleti raj
9. Moč domišlije
10. Okrog najine osi
11. Pravi obraz
12. Blizu je zadnji izdih
———————-
13. V neznano
Photo Gallery
