Location: Ilirska Bistrica / Slovenia
Concert date: 24.10.2008
Attendance: 0
Half a year after the first pair of G2R shows in Slovenia, the organizing crew ran it back, and the Brits once again stopped by for two gigs in Slovenia. First they played Ljubljana on 24.10.2008, in the always cramped Orto Bar, and the next day under a roomier tent in Ilirska Bistrica.
The trip there was seasoned with plenty of headaches. The clutch on my car acted seriously suspicious the whole drive, and that very vital part of the transmission finally gave in to the tooth of time and the pressure of the miles just as we rolled into the parking lot in Ilirska Bistrica. So, once it sank in that getting home the same day was off the table, we had no choice but to surrender to sampling the liquid fruits of nature, in keeping with the location, naturally, poured out of dark red tin cans.
An AC/DC cover band and Črna Gradnja were the two acts that kicked off the crowd warm-up. While the AC/DC guys, as usual (and despite a chronic shortage of audience), honestly played through their bouquet of “alternating/direct current” classics, the same can hardly be said for both bands that followed. Črna gradnja had pretty obvious sound problems, both on stage and below it, and that ended up producing a rather sorry overall picture, reflected in plenty of mistakes in both the instrumental and the vocal department. What backs all this up is the fact that, despite hits by Judas Priest, Europe and others, the band didn’t pull most people up to the front of the stage, and folks kept paying more attention to the drinks offer under the tent. It’s not fair to pin all of that on the band, though, since a lot of these habits come from the audience, from the fact that we Slovenes still treat going to gigs as “party time” and a “who can carry more” contest rather than enjoying the music the performer is serving up.
The last act of the night was Guns 2 Roses. It was clear the moment they hit the stage that the boys took imitating the real Guns way too seriously: they were drunk beyond any limit of good taste, even more than the crowd below the stage, which is hardly surprising for a non-Slovenian in Slovenia. The performance was just like that, a full two hours of shameless botching and butchering. All the while, Guns 2 Roses kept their drunkenness at a carefully maintained level with cans on stage. Bassist Nicky aka Duff was, just like his famous double, on the verge of toppling off the stage the whole time, while “Slash” on the other side imitated him quite decently at that. The instrumental botching was joined by Gavin a.k.a. Axl Rose, who proved to us half a year ago that he could be a worthy replacement for the real Axl, but this time just howled hoarsely into the mic. Despite all of the above, the crowd stuck with the band for a full hour and three-quarters, dutifully singing along to every word of the Guns songs, which in the end is just more proof of the power the tracks of that legendary lineup have. The show would surely have gone on for another half hour or so, but an overzealous fan, on a little trip down into the crowd, swiped the guitarist’s signature black top hat, and since he refused to give it back despite the band’s lengthy pleas, the boys packed up and left the stage, ending the gig, though they later promised they’d be back. Let’s hope in a more sober state.
