Bad Notion, Slovenia’s Blues Rock Sensation, Finally Knocks on the Door of Tolmin’s M.I.N.K. Too

location: Tolmin / MINK / Slovenia
date: Friday, 14.12.2018

When the club gig calendar starts to wind down in mid-December, it can still happen that two shows in different places end up “overlapping”. Especially since there aren’t many gigs left at that time of year anyway. Let’s leave aside the pre-Christmas stage extravaganza that erupts around then, the kind paid for by those with deep pockets, usually municipalities, insurance companies and other rich firms, who in this respect either throw private parties anyway or invite only the tried-and-true big names to the stages of public squares, the ones we’ve seen a thousand times, who show nothing new and just pocket a nice fee. So let’s get back to the clubs. That’s where the real, most authentic live pulse beats (as far as rock and roll in 2018 goes). On 14.12.2018, Bad Notion, a hard-hitting blues rock trio, played at MINK in Tolmin, which we reached straight from Cerkno, still fresh from the show by Brencl Bande, the cheeky folk rockers from Slovenia’s Obsotelje region, who wrapped up their set relatively quickly, so that after a stop in Cerkno it was possible to catch Bad Notion in Tolmin too. Gigs at MINK are scheduled late, and this time was no different, which suited us down to the ground.

We got there around eleven, and the valiant trio of Grega (guitar, vocals), Žiga (bass) and Rok (drums) had already whipped up quite a storm in this excellent club venue in the middle of the northern Primorska capital. Unlike the sparse turnout two weeks earlier, when Brazilian thrashers Valvera and local power metallers Minotauro tore up the same venue, this time a solid crowd of good rock party lovers showed up, so the band didn’t hide its great, sparkling mood. You could really feel that big cheerfulness that sparked the guys’ authentic enthusiasm, the very thing that got them playing music in the first place.

We’ve already written about Bad Notion at “doctoral” length. Most recently when they set CMAK on fire in Cerkno in mid-September this year. There’s really nothing to fault them for. They’re big perfectionists and approach everything with extraordinary zeal, dedication and pedantry, which means their concerts, even though they give that sweet feeling of spontaneity and daring abandon, also demand a lot of clear-headedness and constant, tight contact between them on stage. In short, focus. The “head honcho” Grega “Smola” went “all in” this time too, and Rok and Žiga followed him all the way. The trio is famous for being incredibly tight. Grega, armed with all the essential tricks that left a permanent mark on the history of the blues, stunned us with his remarkable arsenal and unsuspected mastery of six-string theory. He’s hellishly fast, yet incredibly precise and so piercing in his solos. He can turn the atmosphere around completely when he launches into a run of wailing notes, which he skillfully bends with subtle pull-offs and controls their decay, giving each one its own emotion. In the slow blues numbers Grega is especially infectious. Unbelievable control over the instrument. The vocals hold up too. The band exploded in full force and played an exceptionally long show, pulling the audience in so hard that it simply wouldn’t let them leave the stage. The rhythm section is no less outstanding, and with a guitarist as “unhinged” as Grega, it couldn’t be any other way. Žiga radiates incredible smoothness as he gushes through a multitude of musical lines, filling the space between the solid swings of Rok’s drums and Grega’s guitar wizardry. The band, who say their debut is ready for release in the first half of 2019, presented original material (Gunkoza, Cikorija, Arabia, Bossa Noga,..), and added covers of S. Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Michael Landau, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin (plus maybe a few more?), reshaped according to their own musical vision. You can hear plenty of S. Ray Vaughan’s influence in Grega’s soloing, as well as of the leading groups and artists of the white blues boom of the sixties (Peter Green, Rory Gallagher, and of course Eric Clapton too).

Bad Notion are an outstanding asset for the Slovenian music scene. I may be doing some Slovenian act an injustice here, but only because I don’t know them. Alongside Prismojeni profesorji bluesa, and perhaps a few like El Kachon and The Dreams, Bad Notion are currently the only real and legitimate link between Slovenian blues and the blues of the world. The ones who legitimately succeeded Janez Zmazek Žan, who deserves a special place in Slovenian blues. Comparing Bad Notion and Grega to the brilliance and uniqueness of the British and American blues pioneers of the sixties is nothing unusual. In terms of revivalism, Bad Notion are a unique blues attraction, and for Slovenia they’re definitely a sensation. In every respect that builds the genre mountain range called the blues. It’s hard to internalize it any deeper than this. In the feeling, in all the genuine emotions and passions that boil out of you as an artist, a performer, a transmitter of energy, that is, the one standing between the information of the universe and those who receive it (the audience). Bad Notion and Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are two outfits who should join forces for a European club tour. A must. Sensations for new times. It was no different at MINK. A night with Bad Notion’s brilliance that seemed to have no end. A night of fantastic retro-nostalgic reliving of the elemental feelings written into the saga of the blues, which live on so authentically in the bloodstream of these heartfelt guys. Bad Notion are a candidate, just like Prismojeni profesorji bluesa, for playing the most prominent blues festivals in Europe, and the first real chance for that is the Bluesland festival, which at the end of June will replace both previous editions of Tolmin’s MotörCity festival at Ljubljana Castle.

author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik