Demolition Group Rock the Market in Moste (2013)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Ljubljana / Center kulture Španski borci / Slovenia
Concert date: September 14, 2013
Attendance: 300
Ticket price: €0.00 (free entry)

If any band deserves the Victoria Cross, it’s definitely, heh, heh, heh,… Slovenia’s Demolition Group. The Prešeren Award for lifetime achievement. They’ve survived every flood there ever was. On the stage in front of the Španski borci cultural center in Moste. Actually, at the market in Moste! You show up whenever you like, you can’t buy fresh carrots or chard, but you can listen as much as you want. And even the beer is decent this time. Yes, decent, even when you’re drinking it out of a plastic cup. And one of the most homegrown bands the free Slovenian sun has ever given us plays you a killer show. Totally for free!

Demolition Group in 2013! Still breathing, still kicking, rejuvenated. For real. You could say adapted! The heat still hasn’t died down since 2011, when Demolition Group released their latest studio album »Planet Starcev«, an album of the kind that only the »sages« of biblical proportions in Slovenian rock culture can pull together after thirty years. An album, in other words, that has all the virtues and elements of a masterpiece. An album that once again doesn’t lie and that, in its truthfulness, shakes you to the core once you reach the heart of the plain fact at its essence: old folks rule the planet.

The guys took the stage around ten to nine in the evening. Lie. Around ten to nine, only Ivica Gregel comes on stage. He sits down behind the drums and starts pounding away. The pounding takes on clearer and clearer contours as the members of the quintet line up one after another. Temni angeli usode! A great intro that instantly delivers one of the basic cues of this band’s one-of-a-kind sermon. It shows you, mercilessly, heaven in one hand and hell in the other. On stage, the bald-headed charisma of the singular vocalist Goran lights up, and he hasn’t forgotten his famous swaying. It’s what makes his rugged presence, like a friendly mountain man on stage, unique. Recognizable. Chiseled.

The rhythm tandem of the Gregel brothers is what keeps these sages going today. Every single rock band in Slovenia that takes itself seriously would want the kind of active warmth and fire in melodic figures that the bass guitar delivers here, in a solid, virtuous rhythmic performance. The basic question that has made us a little skeptical this past year when the talk turns to Demolition Group concerts is the guitarist slot. Bojan Fifnja is no longer in the lineup. It reads and sounds strange, and feels like science fiction. Honestly, unthinkable. Who will fill the gap left by such a unique guitar voice? From the specific sound to the specific riff that gives such a big part of Demolition Group’s charisma its stature and spark? The band found the right answer in bringing in Matija Lapuh, whom some may remember from Shyam. One of the hallmarks of Shyam’s music is cunning sonic manipulation, so the parallel with Demolition Group seems perfectly logical. That’s why Matija is a completely natural choice for the band. And the man delivers. His dark red Gibson SG, with its old-school, chiseled sound and darkly hollowed-out swing, can even give you chills. Hard, hit-the-spot and unyielding. Exactly what the core of the Demolition Group legacy demands. It’s what Pegam needs for his famous tenor sax sound to fuse chemically with the guitar riff. Everything works as it should. Down to the last hair. Sound included!

Demolition Group are a one-of-a-kind example of how a saxophone can be used fantastically in rock. Really, a textbook case. In a role equal to the guitar. Even more, extra prominent. Besides reinforcing the chunkiness of the guitar phrases with its lines and giving them that erotic edge, and occasionally a touch of solemnity, Pegam on the other hand also plays the heart of the solos. They’re not called Demolition Group for nothing. The sum of the guitar riff doubled in the saxophone lines flattens everything in front of it. Every metalhead included. This time the beauty isn’t the creepiness of Van Der Graaf Generator, where the sax joins forces with a Hammond, but a perfect blend of rage and madness, where guitar and sax build the wall of sound. And then there are the restrained moments where the band has to show feeling and get sophisticated. That’s when the moments of yearning caresses for the ears arrive, growing gradually into a crescendo (Mesečina), or a broken, melancholic sway (Dež), but above all the musicians’ cunning craftsmanship becomes clear when they tackle a wonderfully twisted cover of Germany’s Kraftwerk (Model). It’s right in these moments that Goran, with his unique vocal charm, proves the completeness of his vocal presence. This is a frontman who is irreplaceable in his format of stage theater and in his vocal character. That realization is rounded off by all the erotic seasoning of the poisonously seductive bluesy waltz Ljubiva za svet. Demolition Group peel you like a banana with the sincerity of their passion and emotion. They carry an erotic charge. And that gives them a special place on the Slovenian scene.

There was no shortage of witty remarks between songs. Especially about the basketball game between Slovenia and Greece, which was going on at the same time at the other end of Ljubljana. Goran, who was up to speed on how the game was going, hinted that we were leading by: »One gram!«!«, and the band slammed into the song Gram. Then there’s the prehistoric Gastr’bajtrs march Japanci rade za nas, a mandatory part of the iron repertoire, as well as a lovely tribute to the legendary punk rock firebrands from Ormož, Pridigarji, in the performance of the song Diktatorji (the original appears on the compilation CD »Pridigarji XXV – Tribute to Pridigarji«, 2013). And Goran shines with his aura in moments like the ruinous adventure of quiet personal contemplation in the song Mučnina.

Once again, seeing Demolition Group live floored us, shook us, swept us away and cast a spell. Over twenty songs in an hour and a half. No mask. Squarely in the paradigm of the uncompromising, homegrown art legacy of this excellent band, which holds a special place not only on the Slovenian scene but internationally too. Demolition Group remain an uncut diamond, keeping the raw shine of their strict homegrown recognizability and authenticity!