Venue: Celjski dom / Celje / Slovenia
Concert date: 22.02.2008
Attendance: 900
Ticket price: 15,00€ / 18,00€
Saturday night, February 23, belonged to California’s Mad Caddies for the fourth time in a row. They’ve been getting crowds moving all over the world since 1995 with a mix of ska, punk, rock, reggae, surf, country and swing. That was the year a six-piece of local Santa Barbara surfers discovered their musical talent, and three years later (1998) they put out their debut “Quality softcore” on Honest Don`s, which recently celebrated its ten-year anniversary. Later they were taken under the wing of FatWreck Chords, run by the legendary Fat Mike (NOFX).
The show was originally announced for Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna Mediapark, but a week before it was due to happen it got moved to Celje, to Celjski dom, because Cvetličarna Mediapark insisted that minors not be allowed in, not even with a parent or guardian. A dumb decision, since plenty of people couldn’t make it to the show because of that kind of selection. Discrimination!
A little after eight o’clock, melodic punkrockers Summerville from the Slovenian coast took the stage. Sadly, I missed them because of work, but going by the reactions of those who caught them, the guys did more than a great job, and after a good forty minutes they handed an already nicely warmed-up crowd over to Wil Ridge, the new hope of California alternative country-rock. Wil Ridge and his backing band are touring Europe with Mad Caddies, and it’s also Ridge’s first tour ever. In Celje he hit the stage at 9:15 p.m. In forty-five minutes he played all his key tracks from his 2005 debut album “Painful” – Rooftops, Karina, Devil`s Toenail, My Smile and others. With an energy-charged performance and lyrics full of imagery and emotion, he set the stage for the stars of the night – Mad Caddies.
The lights went out, smoke filled the stage, and at twenty past ten, when the Caddies fired off the first riffs, the crowd of teenage girls and boys in front of the stage literally went nuts. If the security guys at the barrier hadn’t gotten reinforcements from the roadies and the rest of the crew, it would have collapsed, burying the journalists and photographers who were struggling under the stage for the best shot. As always at shows like this, you only get to shoot the first three songs. And if you’ve got a plain old “point-and-shoot” in your hands instead of a professional “machine”, you can only hope a decent photo turns out.
The guys kicked off with a track from their latest record “Keep it Going” (2007) – Reflections. The crowd lost it, and all those animal instincts that had been bottled up for so long came out into the open. Road Rush, Tired Bones, Hound Bound coaxed it all out, and the guys burned through one song after another with no unnecessary chatter in between. The craziness didn’t let up for a second, only the heat got worse by the second. The high point of the night came when the Caddies launched into Silence and Monkeys, even though Chuck’s mic cut out for a bit during the latter and you couldn’t hear him sing for a few seconds, and Chuck’s facial expressions said plenty.
After about an hour the guys were still going “all out”, and the crowd was still raving like it was the first song, except that besides drinks, sweat was flowing too, since the heat in the hall was unbearable. The crowd didn’t give the guys even a short break and called them back together. We want more!
The guys came back on stage, and a slightly mellower stretch followed, with songs mostly from the latest record, The Dirge and Backyard. I finally got my own moment when the riffs of Macho Nachos rang out. After that the crowd sang in one voice “Drinking for eleven, that’s just what I do, When I’m not with you, My heart goes to bed …” Couples around me hugged and danced in rhythm. That was one of the nicest moments of the night. The Caddies wrapped up the night in Celje with Preppie Girl.
When the Caddies said goodbye after an hour and a half, the hall emptied in an instant, and plenty of people missed those sweet moments after the show, when Keith Douglas was signing autographs and taking photos with fans, or rather with female fans, since they were the vast majority. The party then carried on at the local Metropol, where the band showed up after the gig too.
Despite the initial trouble with Cvetličarna, when the whole show was in question, everything turned out fine. Great organization, patient security, only the sound was a bit weaker. Then again, the hall really isn’t suited to shows like this. Mad Caddies didn’t leave the crowd indifferent!
text and photos: Lea Lesar
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