Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Žusterna (Koper) / Snack Bar / Slovenia
Concert date: 12.12.2014
Attendance: 300
Ticket price: 10,00€
Has anyone ever doubted Divlje Jagode? Hard rock veterans, and one of the most important bands to define the Yugoslav answer to the classic hard rock template laid down by Rainbow, Deep Purple and Whitesnake once upon a time, long, long ago!
Last year the guys put out a new album, »Biodinamička ljubav«, which we’d waited for a bit too long. This year, though, they’ve made very few concert stops on Slovenian soil, if any at all. The Koper show was tailor-made for them. Just picture it. Snack Bar in Koper’s Žusterna, right by the sea. A coastal crowd that’s always cheerful, relaxed and unpretentious. The venue packed to the last corner. The intensity of emotion swells in every dimension, and the energy in the room is instantly loaded with a heap of positive chemistry and joy.
The quintet is led by the immortal, one-of-a-kind guitar wizard and hero Sead »Zele« Lipovača, and in these new times it’s rounded out by new singer and guitarist Livio Berak, drummer Nasko Budimović, bassist András »Bandi« Ispán and keyboardist Damjan Deurić. In one of their rare appearances on Slovenian stages this year, they delivered a truly excellent live show. As expected, the band presented the new album »Biodinamička ljubav« with the songs Samo da znaš, Srce ne laže and Ti bez riječi znaš, and mixed in plenty of classics from their rock-solid repertoire that simply can’t be missing from their shows, like Šejla, Autostop, Dobro došla ljubavi, Krivo je more, Ciganko, Let na drugi svijet and of course Divlje Jagode and the people’s anthem Motori. Over a full two hours on stage, the band also seasoned the setlist with a few gems from their rich discography, which especially delighted all the longtime fans who found their way to Snack Bar that night, like Zaboravi (album »Konji«), Sama si (album »Čarobnjaci«), Vodarica (album »Divlje jagode«), Sve iz intata (album »Motori«), Oluja and Marija (both from the album »Od neba do neba«), Želim da te imam (album »Sto vijekova«) and Zvijezda sjevera (album »Labude, kad rata ne bude«).
The band was truly fired up that night. In great spirits and tight as a drum, thrilled by the warm welcome from a jam-packed Snack Bar. As always at Divlje Jagode shows, the fantastic Zele ruled the stage, once again blowing us away with his incredible feel, his softness and his extraordinary control over every single note he measured out on the guitar. The master’s just got that »grip«, that touch! That certain something that separates the great guitarists from the merely solid but »colorless« ones. In the revamped lineup Zele has found excellent musicians, and the camaraderie in the new Jagode crew works great, which you can feel on stage and in the tight, compact delivery of the material. Zele can breathe easy on that front, and having found a stable formula is of course the foundation for writing new original material, which will hopefully yield another studio album in the near future. Judging by the energy the revamped Divlje jagode radiate, it would be a must!
Livio Berak stunned with an excellent vocal performance that of course takes the best from Alen Islamović, while Livio develops his own recognizable vocal approach, stamping the songs in the set with deeply felt passion and sensual, open-hearted delivery. Consistently with exceptional expressive power, yet soft and tender at just the right moments. Livio is a singer, and Zele should have met him and invited him into Divlje jagode much earlier. This marathon evening, seasoned with a great repertoire, flew by in a heartbeat. By the end it felt like the band could have kept playing and playing, but the rules of time restrictions dictated otherwise. Oh well. A great night seasoned with the pure-blooded rock’n’roll mission of Divlje jagode, and let’s hope they’re back in our neck of the woods very soon!
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