Author: Urban Bolta
Venue: Kino Šiška / Ljubljana
Concert date: October 18, 2009
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: 20€ / 25€ (day of show)
Every now and then, a band you’d never in a million years expect to see in Slovenia sails into the sleepy little land under Triglav. Mudhoney are definitely one of those. Seattle grungers who play punk rock. They rose from the ashes of Green River, the group that started writing the grunge story. After the original band fell apart in 1988, GR bassist Matt Lukin and drummer Dan Peters found two kindred spirits, started playing an almost identical sound to Green River, and were welcomed with open arms by the Seattle crowd. If their relatives Pearl Jam always liked to mix rock elements into the grunge ingredients, and Alice in Chains heavy metal riffs, Mudhoney are definitely the most punk band of the Seattle scene. In fact, what’s front and center in their sound is the alternative, garage punk of the old The Stooges school, to which they added a whiff of grunge, which was on a tremendous rise in the time and place where Mudhoney came together. If Mudhoney had come from any other little town under the sun, and not from Seattle, wrapped in a grunge towel at the end of the eighties, they’d surely have stayed (or become) punk rockers. But history had other plans, and under the strong influence of their surroundings, these young musicians became a very important part of the most popular rock genre on the planet in the early nineties. Since gigs by any of the big grunge bands are a real rarity these days, the chance to see a band of Mudhoney’s caliber in our own backyard is something of an obligation for anyone who ever licked their fingers while listening to the genre. But before Mudhoney strode onto the stage of the renovated Kino Šiška, there were two excellent support acts on the bill.
DICKY B. HARDY
The night was opened by the back-in-action champions of the local garage rock scene, Dicky B. Hardy, who are creating again after quite a few years off. The fresh breeze in the band is the new singer Bruno Subiotto (Borghesia, Hic Et Nunc), who is the real engine, the center of the action at the Ljubljana group’s show. In a set of about half an hour, Dicky B. Hardy showed why I called them the champions of the local scene! The guys, and the girl on bass, go with a Pixies recipe, but in a style that’s entirely their own. In their lively songs with fast-changing tempos, you can easily feel a huge amount of energy. The aforementioned vocalist adds his own part, of course, with an original performance and a really interesting, at times angry voice, interpreting every next song differently, and with a rich palette of vocal styles he puts his stamp on each one. The four-piece perhaps lacked just a touch of tightness, which showed in a slip or two from the guitarist, but that didn’t spoil the very good final impression of the set. Dicky B. Hardy, we’re supposedly getting a new record too? The sooner the better!
THE FRICTIONS
The important job of warming up the crowd right before the night’s main attraction fell to a very interesting band, The Frictions. Interesting mainly because their frontman Chris Eckman is a member of the American band The Walkabouts. Eckman has been looking for new musical projects throughout his whole career, and so in 2006 he found some like-minded souls in Ljubljana, they formed a band and named themselves The Frictions. Their gigs are rare, which makes it all the more interesting to listen to them when you catch them. Two guitars on stage made for a nicely filled-out sound, and the instrumental passages can get very long, simply carrying the listener off to another world, where there’s room only and exclusively for music. The spirit of the good old Television was with us again! The sound of The Frictions is no stranger to flirting with folk roots or the occasional psychedelic interlude either. You could see the musicians were really enjoying what they do on stage, each of them having a great time in their own little corner of the stage, swaying along to the rhythms of the song being played. Love of music is definitely no stranger to them! The only shortcoming was the relatively simple arrangements, without more complex twists, without surprises or unexpected turns over the course of a single track. Even the half hour The Frictions had at their disposal flew by too fast!
MUDHONEY
Mudhoney are currently crisscrossing Europe to promote last year’s record “Lucky Ones”, so even before the show the crowd could expect a setlist leaning toward that still-fresh album. A little after ten in the evening, the four-piece settled onto the huge stage of Ljubljana’s new concert center, to the delight of a solidly filled hall, and kicked off their show. After an opening old school punk cover of the American band Fang, the first minutes from the new record arrived. Sometimes it’s really a shame that a band can’t deliver some of the effects live that thrill us when we listen to the album at home – during I’m Now, the psychedelic keyboard effect from “I Wanna be Your Dog” was definitely missing, and a quartet with just the classic instruments (vocals, lead and bass guitar, and drums) obviously can’t conjure it up. The title track The Lucky Ones followed, then the other favorites from last year’s record. During Suck You Dry, Touch Me I’m Sick and the other better-known bangers, the mood in the front rows in particular was of course wild, and frontman Mark Arm poured oil on the fire with his banter. In the second half of the set, Arm also picked up a guitar and joined Turner’s guitar sound. On the latest studio releases, Mark Arm decided to focus solely on vocal duties in the band and leave the guitar to Turner’s fingers alone. One of the standout tracks was definitely When Tomorrow Hits, which not only featured a synchronized rhythm section solo, but also truly captures the spirit of the time in which it was written. A gentle, slightly psychedelic intro in The Velvet Underground style grows into a loud garage punk-grunge. An excellent pick to close out the main set!
After more than twenty years together, it’s almost a miracle that Mudhoney managed to keep nearly the original lineup they started out with in 1988; the only change was on bass, where Guy Maddison joined in 2001. This consistency in the lineup and the good relations within the band are the reason that over the years Mudhoney have kept cultivating the same style, with no major departures, no swings that might have driven off the old fan base. The only somewhat bigger shift happened in the mid-nineties, when, with the collapse of grunge music on the world charts, a move away from the typical Seattle sound can be noticed in the new Mudhoney style as well. From that angle, it’s interesting (for the casual attendee) to listen to the gig song by song and guess whether it’s an older or a newer track. It couldn’t be simpler! If the tempo of the song being played was a notch slower, or if the guitar played a slower, more depressive riff, then it’s a song from the first half of Mudhoney’s career, and vice versa, a faster and more unhinged performance is a sign of a newer creation.
Mark Arm on vocals and guitar, Steve Turner as lead guitarist, Dan Peters behind the drums, and Guy Maddison showed how it’s done. Mudhoney may not be the best at talking to the crowd, but they’re saved by a genre of music that practically begs for communal partying. In an hour-and-a-half-long, energetic set, which even saw a few stage divers, we witnessed a masterful performance from one of the bigger names of the alt scene to play here recently. Who knows when they’ll wander our way again – probably not for quite a while!
Photos: Robi Lipej
Setlist
1. The Money Will Roll Right In 2. I’m Now 3. The Lucky Ones 4. Next Time 5. Inside Out Over You 6. You Got It 7. Suck You Dry 8. Oblivion 9. Blinding Sun 10. What Moves the Heart? 11. Sweet Young Thing 12. Judgement, Rage, Retribution and Thyme 13. Good Enough 14. Touch me I’m Sick 15. When Tomorrow Hits ——- 16. F.D.K. (Fearless Doctor Killers) 17. Inside Job 18. Hard-On for War 19. In ‘N’ Out of Grace 20. Here Comes Sickness 21. Hate the Police
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