Author: Urban Bolta
Venue: Rock Cafe / Postojna
Concert date: 17.03.2010
Attendance: 0
Ticket price: free entry
Thursday night brought the second-to-last act of the competition’s first stage to Postojna’s Rock Cafe, along with three new young bands who each did their best to win over a decently packed club and the expert jury with their musical talent. The lineup was built on a hard rock foundation this time around, but every band dressed it up and spiced it in its own way.
The night was kicked off by heavy metallers from the Slovenian Littoral, Shutdown. Between the glam look of the members and the band’s sound, you can clearly hear classic heavy metal mixed with the legacy of eighties hard rock, and the guys recently put that colorful combo on disc and released a demo (review here). Shutdown are no strangers to the Slovenian metal waters anymore, having already carried their faith in heavy metal to plenty of stages around the country. The guys grow with every gig and pile up experience, so the progress the band has made is more than noticeable. The busy action on stage comes from a guitar trio who, in the spirit of the Iron Maiden school of guitar, sweep across the stage from left to right and back again, then huddle together for the triumphant choruses and spew energy with melodic riffing. Shutdown crisscrossed the songs from the demo, taking us from Valkira to Varginia, and of course made the obligatory stop to pay tribute to the godfathers of heavy metal. It was exactly “You’re Got Another Thing Comin'” (Judas Priest) that exposed Shutdown’s sore spot: Egzi’s vocals aren’t up to every task. The frontman’s charismatic stage presence is generally flawless, but in his singing, his effort to nail Halford’s clean vocal line sometimes gets the better of him. No big deal though, mileage will surely iron out every flaw. Shutdown showed up in great form and, in a solid half hour, proved why they’re the hope of our heavy metal scene.
Next came a jump into the sound of the nineties and our first meeting with M.U.D.D. The band is so young that their name is still unknown, but with some diligent work ahead, judging by Thursday’s show, they could change that big time. Musically they roam a wide landscape, the kind you get from poking around in rock waters, bouncing from gentler rock rhythms to heavier guitar attacks and leaps toward a more alternative sound. Comparisons to our own Tabu and also to the angrier Skunk Anansie are right on the money. Just two years of existence were enough for them to come up with promising original songs, which they played alongside covers of Black Stone Cherry and Gun, proof of how wide their genre range is. The creative backbone of M.U.D.D. is three youngsters who hop on stage between more aggressive guitar work and almost pop melodies, and their main asset is singer Doris. She shone, steering the ship through stormy waves and dead calm alike, in other words, her vocal delivery fit the shifting musical backdrop perfectly. The band’s minus is the stage energy itself: they’re so static that it’s hard for them to strike the spark that would set the front of the stage ablaze. If the musicians start working on that too, their gigs will get even better, but despite this flaw it was clear that M.U.D.D. are cut from the right cloth.
Last up were the representatives of the glam rock school, eighties devotees Broken Arrow from Brežišce. With the opening track “Glam till the end”, the guys showed right away where they feel most at home: in energetic music, tunes full of positive vibes, and group singing, both harmonized and in multiple voices. Vocalist Matjaž, with the teased-up hair that’s so typical of the genre, knows how to carry the band’s energy out into the crowd, make contact with the audience and keep pouring oil on the fire of the already electrified atmosphere. The brothers Rok and Bor Marolt on guitar deftly whirled through the show and, despite a few small slip-ups, brought back to every listener in front of the stage the guitar moves of masters like George Lynch or Eddie Van Halen. The main attraction and special feature of this Broken Arrow gig was a trio of lovely young ladies on backing vocals, which turned out to be a double-edged sword. True, they opened up the sound and deepened the kinetic feel of the Broken Arrow songs with their backing vocals, but, let’s be honest, the not-quite-tight singing really soured the intended effect. Besides the classic “Lay Your Hands On Me” (Bon Jovi), the guys from Brežišce played their best originals too and, judging by the crowd’s dancing, went down a treat. One slightly annoying thing in the original songs is the constant switching between English and Slovenian lyrics, but I’m sure they’ll learn to pick just one of the two. Broken Arrow are a band with a pulsing songwriting vein, but they have to realize that it will be very hard to get further than a nostalgic revival of the eighties with music that flirts so openly with something already digested. But what mattered most: the guys from Brežišce did their primary job, satisfying the audience, more than excellently.
Three bands and three different takes on rock music. All three sets were as good as expected, so before the closing act of the night, announcing the winner, you could feel the uncertainty in the air. Who would win? In the end the audience went for M.U.D.D., but Shutdown were the ones who convinced the jury most, and the win went to Nova Gorica. All we can do is hope the guys will light a fire under us again in the second round of the night! I’m already looking forward to it!
Photos: Mojca Perdih
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