Demolition Group Unveil Their New Lineup at Ortofest (2017)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Ljubljana / Orto bar / Slovenia
Concert date: April 6, 2017
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: €10.00

This year marks a full 35 years since the Brežice alternative rock outfit Demolition Group got started, a number worth every bit of envy. Two years ago the band released their still-current latest studio album »Zlagano sonce«, then lived through 2016 with quite a bit of turbulence: disagreements within the camp led to the departure of one of the band’s founding members, the iconic saxophonist Jože Pegam, who was followed out the door by guitarist Matija Lapuh. Still, Demolition Group managed to pick themselves up in time, and the gaps in the lineup were filled by two seasoned musicians, saxophonist Aleš Suša and guitarist Petar Stojanović.

The band thus entered 2017 with a string of announced shows, and on April 6, 2017 we finally caught them again at Orto bar, where they played as part of this year’s edition of Ortofest.

The band hit the stage of Orto bar’s downstairs room a little after ten in the evening. Today’s Demolition Group still features the iconic, truly irreplaceable Goran Šalamon, a man of unique charisma and a sparkling mind, a man who doesn’t mince words, a man who makes the ground shake when he thunders in with his incredibly piercing, unmistakable vocals, often backed up by his trademark roaring fury and rage. The rhythm section is still the brothers Tomi (drums) and Ivica Gregl (bass guitar).

Through an inexhaustible run of favorites, the band proved they haven’t said their last word yet. The new Demolition Group definitely play a bit differently than the previous incarnation of the band. They come across a little tighter, more textbook. Stojanovič is an incredibly technically gifted guitarist. Fast, precise. Guitar solos in Demolition Group now come in hurricane-like waves. Aleš Suša, with his extremely convincing eruptions of saxophone improvisation on the other side, can’t quite match the towering charisma of his predecessor, but even so, he and Petar Stojanovič have managed to build that eternally massive chemistry, an impenetrable wall of backing behind the sonic picture, which has always been unique and special to Demolition Group. The sound during the show was satisfying. In fact the balance of the building blocks was, as always, remarkably spot-on. The musicality of Ivica Gregl’s fluid, sharply funked-up bass, teamed with his brother Tomi’s ever-reliable tempo-setting, made for a welcome contrast to the riffy guitar/sax tandem that delivers the band’s recognizable, mocking live roughness, while right at the center of it all stands the one and only Goran, with his singular performance as a doctor of the tongue and an extremely charismatic figure of stage movement (and swaying).

That night Demolition Group »survived«. To be honest, I prefer the band’s previous lineup, with the one-of-a-kind Joco on sax, but let’s be fair. The band plays in its newest lineup too with undiminished power and fury, and with some mileage the new forces in the freshly refreshed band will settle into optimal effect. So? Yes! Demolition Group are moving on! Let’s hope new original material is »cooking« too, since, as everyone knows, Goran never runs short of exceptional poetic insight and intellectual provocation that hits like a lead bullet and cuts straight like the sharpest razor.