Demolition Group Shake Up Cerkno Too (2017)

Poba Last updated 4 July 2019

Location: Cerkno / Gabrijel / Slovenia
Date: Saturday, December 23, 2017

The second-to-last weekend of the year was seriously busy as far as gig action in Slovenia goes. Demolition Group played in Cerkno. And not just because it was the second-to-last Saturday of the old year, but because Gabrijel bar was celebrating its 22nd anniversary that day. Meanwhile, on the very same day, Ljubljana’s Orto bar was celebrating its 23rd anniversary, and for the occasion invited the Vojvodina band Pero Defformero to the club. But let’s get back to Cerkno. You could hardly find a better band than Demolition Group to mark the venerable 22nd anniversary of Gabrijel bar. If I may be a bit “cheeky,” Demolition Group have in their music exactly the kind of genre ingredients that usually make up Gabrijel’s program. Jazz, alternative rock, metal,… Gabrijel bar was sold out in advance, which is rare enough, but it’s still a big confirmation of how cherished and respected the legendary Brežice-based alternative metal, rock and jazz-funk outfit is there.

Shortly before 9:30 p.m., Demolition Group hit the stage in a jam-packed Gabrijel bar. It’s no longer news that the band entered this year with a rebuilt lineup. Of the founding and original members, the current Demolition Group formation has only the iconic vocalist and poet Goran Šalamon left, a cornerstone without whom it’s hard to imagine the band existing at all. The band has been incredibly active this year and is eagerly writing material for a new album. If we heard four new songs in the set at their show in Tolmin at the end of May this year, this time in Cerkno there were already seven. The band is announcing the release of the new album for May 2018! And the new material sounds excellent on stage once again. Expectations for what the band’s new album will bring are sky-high.

As expected, the band delivered another top-notch gig. True, the guys had a hard time squeezing onto Gabrijel bar’s tiny stage, but still. The ambience there is special, and so was the atmosphere that got created! In the jam-packed room there was hardly an empty corner during the show. Condensation built up on the windows, that’s how badly everyone needed oxygen during the gig. The band is of course not just a quintet, but more precisely a sextet. This time Matjaž Pegam was also in the spotlight, squeezed behind an extra mixing desk set up somewhere in the middle of the room, so the half of the crowd that watched the show from behind him could keep an eye on his work the whole time. And it was incredible to watch the sound engineer this time, communing with his delicate fine mechanics, twisting knobs and pulling the faders up and down. All of that of course showed in the finer points of the band’s sound during the set, and the waves of shifting moods were contrasted and accentuated even further. Especially the guitar embellishments in the transitions between songs. Whenever the guitar or the saxophone launched into a solo, Matjaž made sure the two instruments held an integral role in creating the overall sound picture in those moments. The sonic density that was created was once again singular and, of course, unique. The same goes for the solid atmosphere of an utterly electrified character, with gloomy vistas of a post-apocalypse lining up, visions of the absurdity of this system, which at its sunset still flails its tail a little, but all the levers it still uses to keep itself barely alive are that much more absurd, bizarre, degrading to humankind, and of course long outlived and outdated. At odds with the mission of the human being, of the individual who is part of nature and its laws, where we must return as soon as possible if we want to survive. The band’s socially critical bite was once again stirring and awakening! With excellent rhythmic backing, once again provided by the brilliant Gregel brothers, where you don’t hear a single slip, the phrasing of the guitar and saxophones is supported by an incredibly convincing “groove” vibe of warm, lower-pitched tones, where the melodic bass lines also “crackle” funkily every now and then.

A mightily thundering sound guaranteed. No survivors left behind! Superb tightness, then, superb execution and, once again, a top-class creation of a one-of-a-kind musical world that awakens and comes alive only with Demolition Group. An engaged crowd, outstanding chemistry between band and audience. Everything once again revolved around the singular vocal figure of Goran Šalamon. His poetry shook us up again, giving goosebumps with its truthfulness and authenticity. Goran’s interpretation remains magical. The emotions and passions that run through his vocal exposé come alive in all their authenticity. The frontman’s performance was once again outstanding. His vocal punch is unique and he has no equal in that. He’s the foundation of the band’s eclecticism, of that unique original sheen. The towering man was once again tearing the place down with his thunderous vocal character.

An hour and three quarters, encore included! It was over in a flash. This time Goran talked less between songs than, say, in Tolmin in May, but the bond between the band and the audience was truly one of a kind. Thanks to the small space, the fusion of crowd and band into one was that much more intense and that much more real. The chemical reaction between the fans and the magic called music, with its whole wave of unbridled emotion, put the cherry on top of an event that, in all its sonic-performance aesthetics and energy currents, hit its peak right at the finale of the show.

But after the gig the partying at Gabrijel was far from over, since DJ Bigor jumped in on the decks and the endless Saturday night over Cerkno rolled on. And Demolition Group? Well, the feelings after a gig are always intense and keep you in their own little world for quite a while afterward. The conclusion after the show was once again the same. Demolition Group are a band that always delivers their concert maximum. And this time was no different. The show at Gabrijel bar was in the category of those one-of-a-kind gigs you simply never forget.

text: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Nataša Pišljar

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