Location: Krško / MC Krško / Slovenia
Concert date: 21.01.2012
Attendance: 80
Ticket price: €6.00 (presale) / €8.00 (day of show)
Requiem finally in Krško! That’s what Posavje’s rock fans could have been yelling at this show. We hadn’t heard Requiem live in Krško for many long years – so long that apart from Marko Slokar, the band’s veteran, nobody even remembered they’d ever played in our parts. This time they were invited to the idyllic little Posavje town by Jure Zlobko, who runs the club at Mladinski center Krško. To the gratitude of all of us hungry for good rock gigs, Jure is turning MC Krško into a proper little Posavje capital of good old hard rock, which he’s a big fan of himself.
Around half past nine in the evening, Ljubljana’s Tomcat were the first onto the stage. The four young guys, who are currently pouring all their energy into getting a debut out, took the stage with total confidence. And not by grinding out Guns N` Roses covers, but with a solid pick of lesser-known covers and originals. Commendable. For most of the set the guys play flawlessly. Denis’s vocals are impeccable and clean, Rok on guitar nails the rhythm and adds the harmony the songs need with his melodic leads, with Gregor-Šujo rounding it all out on bass. The backing vocals of both guitarists blend nicely with Denis, and Damjan ties it all together rhythmically on drums. Their stage show is likeable – the band clearly lives what their music stands for, no doubt about that. And yet something’s missing. Behind the flawlessly played guitar solos, a slight rhythmic-melodic void yawns in the songs. The band itself clearly knows it, too, since for the last few songs singer Denis grabbed his Jackson, but, to my disappointment, mostly just leaned on it. Once he started playing, he made it clear his guitar skills don’t come up to his singing talent even at the knee. I’d recommend that this excellent lineup think about adding a guest or an extra member, at least for live shows, whether on guitar or maybe even keyboards. That would fill in the missing piece of that X factor, for which they’ve already laid some very solid foundations.
Tomcat had thus already partly sated the Krško crowd, hungry for good old rock, which was slowly filling up the MC club hall. Next up to warm the stage were the much more pop-flavored Evil Eve, whom those of us at the Requiem gig could already catch at Kino Šiška. The band is made up of former collaborators from Make Up2. Despite a flawless performance with plenty of theatrical effect from vocalist Eve, who draws a lot of attention with the feather headdress, in my opinion the band just doesn’t fit the overall lineup of an evening like this. Genre-wise, Evil Eve’s music is different from both of the other acts. They played a few originals and a few covers.
And finally, after a quick changeover, Requiem’s intro track boomed through the hall. Yet another Slovenian band that’s better heard live than on studio recordings, which they proved right at the start with the punchy Let it hurt from the upcoming CD, which, if the members’ promises hold, should finally see the light of day at the end of February. The setlist was no surprise for anyone who’d been at the Kino Šiška gig. The guys carried on with the first single from the upcoming record – the cheeky Slovenska, which says a lot about one of the Slovenian people’s favorite pastimes. By this point the guys had completely mastered the stage and pulled every single listener below it into their music. The crowd let itself be led and gave itself over to the band entirely during Zvezdno nebo, where it showed with loud singing that despite the concert drought in Posavje, Requiem are no strangers to Posavje listeners. Things in the hall picked up with All night long, where the Krško audience once again came through with vocal support. Not that Sergej Škofljanec’s vocals needed any help – his crystal-clear voice knows no flaws. And doesn’t admit any. One of Slovenia’s top vocalists, no doubt, didn’t disappoint this time either, even though a demanding task was waiting for him the next day – a duet with Tarja Turunen at Kino Šiška. But Sergej didn’t “spare” his voice in Krško because of it.
The guys went on with a batch of older hits (Kaja, Čarovnice, Amsterdam, …). The looseness on stage kept growing; the guys warmed up nicely and got tight. Only the most strained ear caught the occasional tiny rhythmic slip and slightly-too-loud bass lines, and even that couldn’t break the real rock vibe, not even for the most critical listeners. With the title track of the new CD, Fallen angels, the crew led by veteran Marko Slokar took the crowd all the way to rock ecstasy. One of the evening’s peaks was definitely the acoustic/electric performance of the Ogenj/Ker te ni mix. Singing on stage was barely needed, the audience below sang its lungs out, and Sergej could give himself over to playing acoustic guitar, with the rest of the members soon joining in on their instruments. A guitar duo of Marko and Matjaž, bassist Martin and drummer Miha in the back. They took the 12-year journey through Pekel in raj to the second peak and, at the same time, the finale with Stare device. But the crowd wasn’t about to be sent home that easily. They wanted more, even though the people in the front row had grabbed the written setlist off the stage and were frantically scanning it for whatever hadn’t been played yet. Even though we’d heard the whole setlist, we held out. And we got what we came for.
This time Requiem didn’t repeat the mistake from the gig in Šiška, where the encore had us hearing two songs they’d already played. This time the guys added Kraljica noči and Rock `n` roll naj živi. But even after that encore the crowd stayed relentless. The guys had no choice but to repeat Slovenska in a second encore. Then Requiem slowly said their goodbyes, and we headed home more than satisfied.
photos: Jože Hvala
Setlist
TOMCAT: 1. Race with the devil 2. Purgatory 3. Breaking the chains 4. Girl in leather 5. Fortunate son 6. Hangover 7. (Hit the road) Wild child 8. Riders 9. Goodbye EVIL EVE: 1. Moja navodila 2. Ni popolnega 3. Word up 4. Lithium 5. Rebel yell 6. Secret 7. Love gun 8. Ne bi, hvala 9. Zombie 10. Poker face 11. Ideal REQUIEM: 1. Intro 2. Let it hurt 3. Slovenska 4. Zvezdno nebo 5. All night long 6. Kaja 7. Čarovnice 8. Amsterdam 9. Križarji 10. Red leather 11. Pozabi na vse 12. Little princess 13. Mr. Twister 14. Začaraj me 15. Heroji 16. Fallen angels 17. Gospa 18. Ogenj/Ker te ni 19. Pekel in raj 20. 12 let 21. Stare device —encore I.— 22. Kraljica noči 23. Rock`n`roll naj živi —encore II.— 24. Slovenska
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