Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Šmartno (Goriška Brda) / Hiša Kulture / Slovenia
Gig date: November 3, 2012
Attendance: 170
Ticket price: €12.00
Dan D are among the most beloved Slovenian rock bands – you could say they’ve nailed the perfect balance of alternative edge and pop catchiness, and a heap of excellent songs backs it up – to this day those songs have found a home on four top-quality studio albums, each of which proves to be an artistic step up from the one before.
It’s hardly news by now that people love going to Dan D gigs. But on a market as tiny as Slovenia’s, the fact is that audiences get their fill of your shows pretty fast. Especially if there are too many of them and they come with the same tried-and-tested formula of stage delivery. Like every successful act on the Slovenian mainstream scene, from Siddharta to Big Foot Mama, Dan D have been forced to look for various »emergency exits«. One such tactic is switching from electric to acoustic. But since we already got a similar move from Dan D a few years back, this time the guys added a real qualitative extra on top. To rework the arrangements they hauled in a whole pile of »exotic« instruments, from all sorts of old-fashioned strummers to gadgets that normally belong to the everyday odds and ends that make life a bit easier. Spoons, bottles, openers, graters, a ladle, and on….
Dan D booked a proper tour for Slovenia, and a nice bundle of shows on the tour called »Tiho« stretches from this October into the end of November. After they bewitched Orto Bar, where they opened by selling out 4 nights in a row and got an incredibly enthusiastic response, the RockLine crew carefully picked a handy, let’s say more »exotic« spot to catch the band on this tour too. Sometimes it does you good to change the ambience, even if the gig is happening right on your own doorstep. Besides, it’s fun to go to a gig somewhere where you don’t know anyone in the crowd and vice versa. The basic purpose stays the same though: checking the quintet’s live form.
Medieval Šmartno in Goriška Brda, the »Hiša kulture« and the »Pri Kaminu« inn! A proven »beauty ideal« of intimate spaces for gig get-togethers. At nine in the evening the little hall filled up to the last corner. It had 150 seats, a few people without them watched the gig standing right at the entrance, and some squeezed onto the little balcony. The band made no secret of its cheerful mood! For the occasion Tokac and Tučo pulled old-timer little hats from authentic Lower Carniola farmhouses onto their heads, which brought back memories of the golden seventies and the agro excesses of the legendary Jethro Tull. If nothing else, on top of the friendly folks of the Slovenian Littoral, a glass of top-notch Cabernet Sauvignon one floor up opens your heart. The international seating plan that night was a funny one. The upstairs, that is the Pri Kaminu inn, was completely taken over by Italian visitors, who, in line with their usual habits, were carefree stuffing themselves with house specialties, while on the ground floor some 170 Slovenian music enthusiasts enjoyed Dan D.
There’s no need to waste too many words or sentences on Dan D. The band is made up of seasoned music tomcats! They literally feel the music they play and so they pass it on to the listener as authentically as possible. In an organic acoustic environment, where only natural sounds caress your eardrums, there’s no room for a slip of wrongly tuned notes. The guys vividly – in the style of the great masters, I’d say – turned the arrangements of their most recognizable songs upside down, and also served up as many as four new numbers (Kurbin sin, Pozitivne misli, Kozlam, Kamn), which came about while the guys were »having fun« at their latest relaxation »jam sessions«, as well as part of the tour’s pre-production.
The latest release »Tiho« also comes out of those »jam sessions«. It came out in a strictly limited run, and for the audio carrier the band picked a good old cassette. 100 copies were released in a hollowed-out log, and 100 more tucked into special »leather pouches« or »leather sleeves« (real leather). All handmade. And by the way – the logs have already sold out completely!
While Tokac, Nikola and Tučo wowed the crowd mainly with all sorts of strummed instruments, Boštjan and Obra took the crown for instrument exotica this time. The latter, in his role as percussionist, also put to use a row of empty bottles tuned to different pitches, and in Daj mi daj he picked up the baritone horn for the first time in many years to blow all the dust deposits out of the brass. Boštjan – the »quiet« keyboardist of Dan D, who at electric gigs usually works from the background – had almost the most work on stage this time, swapping props during the show like Berlusconi swaps mistresses. Those included a harmonica, a grater, various »shakers«, a tambourine, even a vocoder and more.
The new songs blend perfectly with the rest of the re-arranged classic material, and above all you could feel the depth and expressive power of Tokac’s poetry in a whole new way, which brought the sensitive side of his delivery even closer to the listener. What was interesting is that this time Tokac addressed the audience with way more rhetorical drive and entertained them effectively with quips – we’re simply not used to that in such a generous dose at the band’s electric shows. Besides the setting, he surely also liked the crowd itself, which came across as more mature than at gigs within the usual student rituals (freshman initiations and so on…) – maybe over all these years he’s also seen more than enough rolling heads weighed down by alcohol derivatives. So Šmartno was a more demanding audience, who come to gigs first and foremost to listen, and that definitely had a beneficial effect on the band, since without any disruptive factors in the hall it could completely let go and surrender to the magic of music.
After the first encore the ovations seemed endless. The band exchanges glances, Tokac asks the crowd which of the songs they’ve played they can play again, since they ran out of »alternative solutions« for a second encore. Quite a few people demanded Tiho once more, which actually carries one of the most successful reworked arrangements in this new acoustic guise of »spoon-clinking« and »scraping«.
To wrap up: triumphant. No less, no more. Planned down to the details and bathed in the glow of excellent execution. The band served up a dose of exceptional fun and playfulness that we don’t feel from Dan D so often on their electric studio albums or on an electrified stage, if at all. Above all, this tour is a great new experience for the band. It’s a tour of letting loose, but also of learning new things and finding out how far you can reach, how far you’ve reached, and how far you still can. Meanwhile we hope new ideas for another such »shock therapy« for an upside-down Dan D are already in the works.
Setlist
1. San San
2. Počasi
3. Kurbin sin / Rekli so
4. Plešeš
5. Pozitivne misli
6. Polna luna
7. Kozlam
8. Moj problem
9. Kamn
10. Voda
11. Tiho
12. Čas
13. Love Song
14. Tvoje je vse
15. Daj mi daj
—encore I.—
16. Jutranja
17. Za naju punca
—encore II.—
18. Tiho
Photo gallery
