Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Kranj / Transtation Squat / Slovenia
Concert date: 14.03.2014
Attendance: 50
Ticket price: 10,00€
The resurrected Belgrade crossover »daredevils« Eyesburn, who last year gave birth to the excellent comeback studio album »Realitry Check« – Rockline review HERE, jumped on a few-day »Slovenian« tour in the middle of this March, hitting Ljubljana, Kranj and Maribor. The band first played Ljubljana alongside Croatia’s Gatuzo and Slovenia’s Srečna Mladina, where they ran a somewhat trimmed-down set because of time limits. In Kranj, though, it was the same song with a different twist.
The band had a hefty setlist ready, and 24 numbers rang out over a good hour and a half. They played as a sextet. Eyesburn are officially a septet, but the trombonist and backing vocalist Vukašin Markovič were missing from the stage. The main engine and the locomotive pulling the train along, Nemanja Kojić »Kojot«, stormed the stage with incredible momentum and instantly grabbed all the attention with his lived-in, brilliant stage show.
Everything felt top-notch. A cozy club space, some initial guitar crackle that the techs soon fixed into a tasty balance of the band’s musical elements, a band in great spirits, and above all the heartfelt playing the musicians brought to it. The only thing that bugged me was the realization that the turnout was seriously sad. Maybe 50-70 people, tops. No more. The long break of seven years has obviously taken its toll. Eyesburn used to regularly pack concert venues all over Slovenia and were considered one of the most beloved live attractions. They still are an attraction, but the problem is that the generation that once carried them on its wings has obviously »grown up«, started families and is now busy raising kids, with other things simply taking priority over going to gigs.
Whatever. The handful of people who knew exactly what they’d come to the club for »switched off« completely. Eyesburn win you over instantly. Rhythmically, they know exactly what they’re doing, down to the last detail. They’re seriously powerful. A compact, indispensable groove, a furiously fat wall of riffs, backed by thunderous tenor sax lines and the all-in stage theater of Kojot, whose interpretation and »unbridled stage gymnastics« came close to freestyle technique a few times. The band is superbly tight. The collision of genres comes across as seriously authentic and commanding when a unique band like Eyesburn takes that approach. Over the years they’ve grown into an incredibly experienced crew that’s hard to surprise with anything.
Even though the turnout was thin, the band showed right away that they’d play at full throttle and that no other option was on the table. Kojot took charge with his dynamic performance, the tightness of the rhythm section took charge, and so did the massive wall of sound built from guitar phrases plus tenor sax. An incredible orchestra in one. It’s what you get when you throw metalheads, hardcore punks, jazz fans and sworn reggae devotees into the same pot. The band walked through a generous helping of the new studio album »Reality Check«, then through the most recognizable moments of their career from older albums, and two covers that poured oil on the fire and got the crowd moving even more: So Much Trouble in the World (Bob Marley) and Šejn (Haustor).
A bravura performance with no slip-ups, spoiled only by the low turnout, as mentioned. Anyway, if this band ever turns up near where you live and confirms a show there, don’t hesitate for a second to give them a bit of your attention. Eyesburn are a band driven by a body of outstanding lyrics full of rebellious intellectualism, backed by a ravenous collision of many genre structures, and in all that commanding rhythmic groove it’s not hard to pick out the dynamic melodic backing in the arrangements. And it stays clear that in their sermon, which points its finger openly and straight at the corruption of the ruling elite, Eyesburn always leave the door to a solution open for the little guy. A band with an incredibly positive charisma that charges you up with energy instantly. Let’s hope we run into them again soon at some similar live treat.
Setlist
1. Smorior
2. Life
3. Sister
4. Peaceful War
5. No Free Time
6. Burning Ball
7. Šejn
8. Agony
9. So Much Trouble In The World
10. Chunt Chunt
11. Shine
12. Sudden Fall
13. Stark Blind
14. Hold This Way
15. Time
16. Pump It
17. Frontline
18. Lyrical
19. All Right
20. Fool Control
21. Exodus
—encore—
22. Dustbin
23. Divide
24. Mental Murderation
Photo gallery
