Garbage at Kino Šiška, Just Before Their New Album Drops (2016)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 2 October 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Nina Grad

Venue: Kino Šiška, Ljubljana
Concert date: 07.06.2016
Attendance: 900
Ticket price: 26 / 28 €

In their twenty-three years together, Garbage had surprisingly never played in Slovenia until now. Their sixth album, “Strange Little Birds”, came out on Friday, June 10, 2016. Just a bit earlier, on Tuesday, June 7, they finally made their Slovenian debut as part of “Super Šiška Week”, which ran from June 6 to 10, playing a sold-out show at Kino Šiška. That was a pretty clear sign that there’s still plenty of interest in a band that set its own kind of musical trends in MTV’s heyday.

The show kicked off at 10:30 PM, and right from the start it was obvious who the alpha and omega of the band is. Scottish-born singer Shirley Manson has been the band’s biggest trademark since day one, and that clearly hasn’t changed. She’s not short on energy on stage, even though she’ll soon turn fifty, and hand on heart, you’d never guess it. Not vocally, not visually. With her signature commanding stage presence she confidently plays the crowd’s emotions, swinging from pure joy to anger and, at moments, even deep emotion. Her banter wins people over even more. Before »Sex Is Not the Enemy« she didn’t hold back her criticism of US presidential candidate Donald Trump, and in another speech, while thanking us for having them in Slovenia, she credited our school system for the fact that we understand her so well. You can’t blame her for messing up Blood for Puppies: a few seconds in she stopped, apologized, and the band started the song over from the top. At the start of the show Shriley apologized for singing with a cold, but you could hardly hear it in her voice. She pulled off her usual charismatic performance to perfection. The current lineup still has Duke Erikson and Steve Marker alongside Shirley Manson, but Butch Vig sat this one out because of health problems. On drums he was replaced by Matt Walker (The Smashing Pumpkins, Morrisey).

From the new record, Garbage played Sometimes, Empty, Blackout and Even Though Our Love Is Doomed. For a hall packed to the last corner, Kino Šiška, they also served up the well-known hits: Stupid Girl, the already mentioned Sex Is Not the Enemy, I Think I´m Paranoid, Push It, and I´m Only Happy When It Rains as the closer of the main set. This time they skipped Queer, with Shirley explaining that they’ve supposedly played it a million times already. For the obligatory encore they came back with three more songs plus the hit Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!), wrapping up a more than satisfying set of twenty-two songs.

You can’t fault the sound, which was decent from every spot in the hall. As for the visuals, Garbage have clearly held on to their “girlish coming-of-age style” even in their mature years, with a full dose of loud pink and panther-fur patterns that goes hand in hand with the cover of the new studio album. No visual fireworks, but satisfying in every way nonetheless.

Garbage could probably have filled an even bigger hall in Slovenia. If not now, then definitely years ago. It’s honestly a shame they didn’t visit us with a show sooner.

text: Klemen Udovč