Avtomobili
Ljubljana / Novi trg / Slovenia
Wednesday, December 17, 2025, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Avtomobili and this publication are two inseparable friends. Always have been. At least since 2006, when Rockline launched — though the biggest culprit is the profound attachment of the author of these humble lines to the band and everything they stand for. The rule holds: catch Avtomobili live at least once a year. We managed it. Last year we were at the band’s anniversary concert marking 40 years of activity and the release of the compilation “Potujemo (1984 – 2024)” at CUK Kino Šiška, and this year, a full year later, we caught the legends at Novi trg in old Ljubljana. That’s the square where you used to be able to park, somewhere between ZRC SAZU and Zlata ladjica, and where in some distant past the townspeople were thoroughly irritated by the occasional blizzard of poplar fluff (the ancient, charismatic poplars on the left bank of the Ljubljanica were, of course, permanently felled long ago — with a precise “surgical cut”).
I was late to the venue — my own fault — having wandered off to Gornji trg, which is to say the wrong side of the Ljubljanica. Ljubljana is full of squares, after all. That evening every single one of them was an obstacle. They’d turned into a completely useless labyrinth. The fine, dense drizzle only added to the annoyance. Whether weather like this is even natural has been debatable for a long time now. It should, at the very minimum, be snowing. We’re in the thick of a festive December, after all. But it seems those winters from the eighties and mid-nineties are gone. For good.
On to the concert, then. Pot domov was already playing when I found my way to the stage — which means I’d missed one of the liveliest songs in the band’s career: Ljubezen ne stanuje tu. Unforgivable. The quintet, anchored by the rock-solid Vuksanovič brothers Mirko and Marko, rounded out by three musical precision engineers and true masters of their trade — Boštjan Andrejc Bushy on guitar, David Morgan on drums, and Uroš Trebižan on five-string bass (I still haven’t tracked down the story behind the nickname ‘Avstrij’c’) — remains one of the most beautiful musical stories Slovenia has to offer. A constant. They operate as if they have a perpetual motion machine built in. Rust doesn’t touch them. There’s the invaluable road mileage, the experience… and of course, the boundless talent. They’ve got all of it in abundance. Export quality. Their tightness as a unit is at an exceptional level! The high coherence of the performance is plain to see. It’s all there. The warmth of Marko Vuksanovič’s velvet voice — through which the band’s poetry shines with such passion — never fails to warm you, ignite you, get your engine revving, rock you, enchant you, fill you up… Armed with a pack full of evergreen hits and the excellent new music they’ve kept delivering well into the new millennium, the legendary art/pop rockers from Nova Gorica served up yet another unforgettable musical experience. The audience was spread out across the venue — it’s a big space — but you could count at least a solid 200 attentive listeners by eye. Many were watching the concert from the Ljubljanica riverbank.
The band performed under particular conditions this time around. I won’t say extreme, but it was festive December, an open-air venue, and under those conditions it’s always — as a rule? Cold. Bands in these conditions usually show up on stage in what amounts to practically alpine gear. Or at the very least some thermal fleece, which is not exactly a pose that fits the rock’n’roll orthodoxy. Or features in any rock’n’roll textbook, for that matter. The sight of Marko in an elegant black coat — lent to him at the last moment by David Morgan, because the band insisted the singer had to look “chic” on stage — was almost priceless. Correct call. And speaking of David — he still stands as one of the finest drummers in Slovenia right now, even though this time around he deliberately cut his standard solo spot in Netopir in half. But the only ones who probably got worked up about that were us three default complainers watching the concert from the edge of the mixing desk. For good sound you had to be standing in the middle of the crowd or towards the back. The stage at Novi trg is high, so the sound “carried over.” Over what, exactly? People’s ears? Certain frequencies were “cutting.” For the most part you couldn’t hear Mirko on backing vocals, while Bushy was clearly audible and, as always, beautifully colored Marko’s lead vocal.
The band ran through the concert with well-worn confidence. Start to finish. In the first third of the set the guys were maneuvering a massive heater on stage that was getting in everyone’s way, and in the closing V mrzlih dvoranah, Bushy had to reach for a spare guitar after snapping a string. This time, for once, it was Avtomobili who fumbled in the classic Gospodar — not the audience.
The one thing that marred this beautiful evening with the legendary band was the projection screen in the background, which kept aggressively advertising sponsors without pause — though that’s hardly worth dwelling on. Especially if you close your eyes, since music is, after all, primarily received through the mechanoreceptor organs. Indeed. It was one of those concerts that ends too soon. Far too soon. And Avtomobili? The legends drive on. The four-wheeler remains indestructible, one of a kind, and endlessly fascinating. And so it will stay.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Avtomobili – setlist:
1. Potujemo
2. Ljubezen ne stanuje tu
3. Pot domov
4. Argentina
5. Dovoli da
6. Poletje ljubezni
7. Daleč
8. Ona nosi uniformu
9. Punce izginjajo v noč (unplugged)
10. Lipe (unplugged)
11. Netopir
12. Stopinje v snegu
13. Sama
14. Mraz
15. Zato ti želim
16. Drugačno nebo
17. Skozi leta
18. Enakonočje
19. V mrzlih dvoranah
—encore—
20. Gospodar
21. Hvala za pisma
