Venue: Gospodarsko Razstavišče, Ljubljana
Concert date: October 12, 2007
Attendance: 2500
Ticket price: 25 EUR
Remember the great Bora Đorđević? Besides having a serious feel for rock & roll, he’s the guy who, with his thoughtless (?) statements in the past, turned our Serbian brothers into a bitter pill for plenty of proud Janezes. Yes, that very Bora rampaged across the big stage of the Gospodarsko Razstavišče last Friday. As expected, we got a thrilling rocker of a show, full of fun “intermezzos,” both musical and lyrical, spiced with that trademark Chetnik-flavored humor. Ever since the “glorious” days of our beautiful fatherland’s independence, it has clearly gotten well under Slovenes’ skin.
First, a little history of Riblja čorba, a band formed in 1978, when singer and lyricist Bora Đorđević left Rani mraz, who recorded Računajte na nas, the famous song that has marked plenty of souls, both back home and south of the Kolpa. Bora and the then-members of the Belgrade group SOS founded a rock band called Bora i ratnici, which later renamed itself Riblja Čorba, a name that in Belgrade slang doubles as a word for menstruation. The name has stuck to this day. So after countless gigs and plenty of hits, they finally pulled into the hall of the Gospodarsko Razstavišče. With a routine, well-polished performance, they showed the spoiled crowd of youngsters, who were still happily hopping from one foot to the other back when Riblja čorba was unstoppably breaking through on the Yu rock scene, and the old rock tomcats too, of course, that they’re still masters at building a proper Balkan atmosphere and “setting the crowd on fire” in a truly warm-hearted Serbian way. Sadly, that also came with no shortage of assorted Chetnik political agitating. But let’s leave those “little things” aside. All in all, the concert was excellent. Bora stretched a two-and-a-half-hour set all the way from the newest CD Ovde to old hits like Lutka sa naslovne strane, Kad sam bio mlad, Amsterdam, Ostani đubre do kraja, Pogledaj dom svoj anđele, Avionu slomiću ti krila, Noeva barka, Srbin je lud… Bora came across almost like a gentleman. With a broken ankle, comfortably parked on a nice, roomy couch, he kept the crowd entertained the whole time with jokes, anecdotes and other funny stories. Together with a totally immersed “čorbica,” those gave Friday’s cold evening a proper kick of spice.
What is there left to add, except that after all these years of playing, old Bora still seems as fresh and indestructible as ever (the ankle excepted, of course)? The concert was top-notch, both in sound and in organization. And Bora proved in triumphant style that his “čorbica” still goes down just fine with the average Slovene, all those past controversial statements notwithstanding.
Text: Gregor Brenko
Photos: Daniel Pavlica
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