Venue: Jamski dvorec / Postojna
Concert date: 26.11.2009
Attendance: 400
Ticket price: 16 €
If it seemed not so long ago that the Postojna blues festival was short on acts with a bit more name recognition to offer fans of quality music, then last Thursday the festival’s programming team managed to fix that, let’s call it, blind spot too. The big story of Thursday night’s get-together in Postojna was of course Ana Popović, and the unbelievable crowd shamelessly reminded us of that right at the entrance to the main hall of Jamski dvorec. Hand on heart, it’s a crush we haven’t been used to in those rooms in recent years. Clearly a swaying female body is a big enough magnet for gigs of all kinds, and the only blues festival in our country is no exception here either. Don’t get me wrong, Ana Popović definitely offers more than a drool object for those fifty-somethings and up who last took a close look in the direction of the female nether regions a good four weeks after the ceremonial vow of eternal fidelity. Still, it can’t be overlooked that a young woman strapped with a guitar, who on top of that diligently chats up the crowd with a noticeably lustful smile, does no harm when it comes to popularizing her own music.
Enough of the silliness. Back to the action at the second chapter of this year’s blues season. Ana Popović introduced the Postojna crowd to a three-piece backing band, with the services of ecstatic bassist Ronald Jonker, organ and keyboard man Mike Papadia and drummer Stephane Avellarzeda. The basic, stripped-down lineup made for a fairly hard rock-oriented evening. Flirtations with elements of funk and blues naturally couldn’t be left out, and over the night they stayed firmly embedded in a pretty compact sonic picture with a distinctly rock stamp. It’s worth stressing that most of Popović’s repertoire stays true to popular musical impulses. The odd breath torn from the aforementioned genre landscapes, served up in a package with plenty of dynamic and mood swings, cunningly keeps the onstage action exciting. Put differently, with Ana Popović you’ll rarely stray anywhere near more serious blues territory. Loyalty to more accessible musical approaches was confirmed by the confidently delivered new numbers “Blind For Love” and “Nothing Personal”, which made it clear that with her recently released album Ana may be reaching even too wide, and her much-sung identity as a true-blue blues performer suffers for it.
Popović’s brisk set kept the onstage communication sparkling over a nearly three-hour show, without letting up for a moment. The funk-rock rhythmic merry-go-round “Wrong Woman”, served up at the start, quickly staked out the course of the evening. Through “Blues For M” and an energetic take on Hendrix’s “House Burning Down”, it rightly drew plenty of ecstatic reactions from the crowd. Ana didn’t neglect her jazz roots either, as a mischievous rendition of “Let Me Love You” showed. It pulled every available force of her, luckily for us, very high-spirited backing band into an improvised musical orgy. As expected, T – Bone Walker’s “The Hustle Is On” thrilled, and alongside “Navajo Boom” it’s evidently becoming one of the main highlights of the Belgrade native’s shows.
The girl doesn’t lack confidence. Her guitar playing, which isn’t even all that spectacular, has a clearly chiseled tone, loaded with an enviably intense emotional charge. We’re talking about feeling the music as such, which demands above-average playing ability and isn’t just about technical chops. Still, Ana came across as an excellent handler of her instrument, and it’s worth adding that she showed her most confident stance in the full charge of her well-oiled backing machine, in other words when the communication channels were wide open. A similar story played out with her vocals, which kept trying on plenty of mood shades but, in frequent solo excursions, still showed a certain lack of real character, let’s call it grit, that would round out the colorful sonic picture with an extra helping of individuality. So, in a healthy diplomatic spirit, we could say that through the eyes of true blues purists, Ana Popović is more lady than devil!
Photos: Mojca Perdih
Setlist
1. Wrong Woman 2. Is This Everything 3. How’d You Learn 4. Hungry 5. Hometown 6. Blues For M 7. Change My Mind 8. Long Way Home 9. Navajo Moon 10. House Burning Down 11. Love Fever 12. Recall The Days 13. Licence To Steal 14. Nothing Personal 15. Let Me Love you 16. The Hustle Is On 17. Putting Out The Apb 18. Hold On
Photo Gallery
