Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Jedro club / Medvode / Slovenia
Concert date: 08.05.2009
Attendance: 50
Ticket price: €3.00
Does anyone still remember those summer days when the hot hits of Def Leppard, Europe, Scorpions and Whitesnake were in heavy rotation on Radio Glas Ljubljane? It was the second half of the eighties, and, as we’ll get to below, you could easily toss Journey in there too. Twenty years have gone full circle. Over that stretch of a good twenty years, this music has earned a kind of legendary status. Its importance as an artistic achievement, as documented in the catalogs of the bands above (and many others), is worth that much more today. Especially because when this music first appeared, it sounded fresh, daring and inspired. And the Slovenian scene didn’t stay in debt to it back then either. Šank Rock showed up, then Pop Design, Chateau… and they took over, ruling Slovenia in the melodic hard rock field, with detours into pop, which resulted in the pleasantly sweet sounds of the “little night music” of AOR rock. The same goes for the catalogs of those Slovenian bands. Over the years it has grown into a historical treasure trove, bearing witness to a time in the development of the Slovenian rock scene in the eighties and on into the first half of the nineties.
Today melodic hard rock is an alternative movement that occasionally manages to pop up on the verge of a mainstream breakthrough. After all, Finnish Kiss “freaks” Lordi proved that three years ago. The movement is going through a proper underground revival that started spreading from Scandinavia down to the south of Europe. In neighboring Italy, young glam/sleaze bands are swarming everywhere. And I’m talking about quality. This gust of new-wave revival has clearly reached Slovenia too, and bands like Broken Arrow, Cyclone, Stone Orange, Hotty Mknotty, Seventh Angel,… have appeared, bringing the scene back into the spotlight of Slovenian music. Whether it stays completely underground isn’t even that important. The movement has begun, and you can’t miss it.
Broken Arrow and Cyclone are two young bands. The first hails from Brežice, the second from Ljubljana. They’re great friends and back each other up all the way. That fact alone confirms that the reactivated movement is still in its very early days, since there’s no envy, resentment or rivalry that could hurt one band at the expense of the other.
I first saw the two bands play together in April 2008, before the New York glam/sleaze rock underground stars Adam Bomb. Orto Bar was packed to the rafters and the walls were cracking at the seams. Both bands made it clear they’re not messing around and that hard work can carry them upward. A good year later I make my way to Medvode, where the freshly opened club “Jedro” greets me, and where the two bands are playing together again.
When I step over the threshold, I’m first amazed by the cozy atmosphere of the little “attic hall” itself, which radiates an almost homey accessibility and warmth. And then something even more important. I run into old acquaintances, rock fans, enthusiasts. The few of us who are still around and the few who have only just become that. Lovers of rock music.
It was great to see that Cyclone, who hit the stage at exactly 10:00 PM, have made decisive progress, which showed above all in their greater confidence delivering their own original material (Desire, with Marin’s long, decisive solo in the middle), as well as in the covers, which fit them better in terms of genre kinship with the style Cyclone cultivate. The opener alone, Talk Dirty To Me (Poison), then Hardline, say, and their Hot Cherie come across as more mature, and so does the more demanding Livin’ On A Prayer (orig. Bon Jovi), whose crushing performance at the last Metal Mania Open Air festival is now just a fleeting memory. Credit is due for keyboardist Anja’s more assertive involvement, which was especially helpful to singer Anže in the choruses of Livin’ On A Prayer and Crazy Nights (orig. Kiss). Cyclone have also come along in terms of stage movement in general. A year or so ago, it looked as if the only “alive” member on stage in Cyclone was the ever-untamed bassist Gregor Šujica – Šujo; this time it was a joy to see that both guitarists have more stage kinetics too. It was also encouraging that, in the parts where keyboards don’t matter, Anja stepped up front on stage as a backing vocalist next to Anže. Up front, that is. That’s a good trick that keeps the dynamics of the band’s performance alive (ahem, our photographer didn’t hide his enthusiasm for Anja either, as you can see from this article’s photo gallery).
The Saxon cover Princess Of The Night also came out great, and along with the closing Kiss cover Crazy Nights, it sounded the best and most convincing to my ears of all the Cyclone covers they played. A surprise was the inclusion of a song by Florida metalheads Iced Earth called Watching Over Me. Here there were quite a few gaps. Cyclone are definitely not metalheads, and even though Watching Over Me is a “ballad”, you somehow couldn’t feel any real connection between the individual building blocks of Cyclone on stage. You can’t fault the enthusiasm, but a few more servings of raw red meat before performing it in the future wouldn’t hurt. To put it in easier terms, imagine hypothetically some “Deep Purple tribute” band trying to play Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. So Cyclone don’t lack daring, as the Europe cover Carrie also proved, where Anže was left alone on stage, with Matjaž from Broken Arrow keeping him company on keyboards. Here you could tell Anže still has a lot of work ahead of him, because the cover felt more like a cheap copy that belongs at a karaoke party than a serious part of Cyclone’s concert repertoire.
Cyclone have progressed. That’s an undeniable fact. In confidence, in a stage performance that’s tighter and, in its new look, carries incomparably more energy. What could be upgraded in the future? Anže would undoubtedly benefit from more backing vocal help. Here I’m especially aiming at help from all the band members in the choruses. Furthermore, Anže needs to be encouraged to put on a naughtier stage outfit and pull off some silliness, the way the Axl Roses, Blackie Lawlesses and their ilk did in their better days. Then again, he’s still a very young singer, I don’t think he’s even 20, so it’s clear his vocals are still developing. Cyclone as a whole need to slap on even more makeup. Of course, it’s up to them to decide what they want to be, in line with their basic direction of development, so I think I’ve philosophized enough, since I’m not in their shoes and shouldn’t take extra liberties analyzing the band. In short: respect, and we wish them lots of luck breaking through.
Broken Arrow took the stage after Cyclone. The most important news was that Matjaž has given up playing bass and can now devote himself entirely to vocals. The band recently grew into a five-piece and got a new bassist named Rok Piltaver, who jumped over to Broken Arrow from Walk This Way. Of all the bands listed that belong to the Slovenian glam/sleaze hard rock new wave, Broken Arrow may well be the biggest provocation to have happened in Slovenia. In a positive sense, of course. These boys have reached an extraordinary level of stage tightness. They’re distinguished by the coordinated work of both guitars, intense communication between the rhythm section and the riffing, and a high level of polish shows especially in the well-honed transitional parts of the songs. The guitarists are so well rehearsed that they can spontaneously cut loose on stage and pull off all sorts of antics that further fire up the crowd below the stage. Then there’s Matjaž, who has developed further vocally and enriched his voice with more power and more melody (which is very important in hard rock), and the room to maneuver that opened up once he put the bass in the corner he has started using skillfully, with increasingly convincing movement during the stage show, which will hopefully keep building this singer’s charisma in the future.
The band masterfully hacked through their own assault anthems like Glam Till The End, Are You Ready To…, Sanjam jo, Our last…., We Ride, Hit The Streets, and especially the excellent newer song V tvojih očeh, which has the potential to be a big hit, as well as songs that owe a lot to the forefathers Šank Rock (Polet v nebo, Zdaj ko si sama). Šank Rock really should have been at this gig to hear Le sedemnajst and how that thing sounds in Broken Arrow’s energetic hands.
You Give Love A Bad Name (Bon Jovi) – with the bluesy “a cappella desecration” of the opening verse – somehow announced a switch to spicing up the evening with covers of foreign artists. The boys are big fans of Bryan Adams, with an interestingly restructured Heaven and Summer of 69, Big City Nights sneaked in too, as did Wind Of Change (The Scorpions), and toward the end of the night, together with Cyclone, they hit with the Guns ‘N Roses (well, technically Bob Dylan) cover Knockin’ On A Heaven’s Door, which “finished off” the party-hungry crowd below the stage.
Broken Arrow are in extraordinary stage form right now. Matjaž has upgraded his vocal abilities and is an ever more convincing vocalist. The guitarists are superbly tight and equally strong in solos, transitional embellishments and the riffing itself. Rok could maybe lower his bass a little, so he doesn’t come across, amid Broken Arrow’s naughty stage story, as diligently calculated “Čuki-style” for a village wedding, and beyond that, there are reserves to be tapped in the same places as with Cyclone. Stage wardrobe! The glam “makeup” is missing! Of course, Matjaž’s lush Bon Jovi-esque mane solves most of that, but still. Putting a bit more effort into polishing the vocal backing on stage wouldn’t hurt either. The choruses would come alive even more. Matjaž proved what a great keyboardist he is during Carrie at Cyclone’s set, so it’s surprising that the band uses backing tracks for the keyboards. It would be great if Matjaž played keyboards on stage at his band’s live shows in the future too.
Suma sumarum, I left the gig completely thrilled, with proof that the hard rock revival in Slovenia is steadily continuing. All Cyclone and Broken Arrow need is as much support as possible from the media, the audience and other stakeholders, so that the birth pangs around the debut releases of both bands are as painless as possible and they get as many gigs as possible.
photos: Robi Lipej
Setlist
CYCLONE: 1. Talk Dirty To Me 2. Good Time 3. Hot Cherie 4. Follow You 5. Livin’ On A Prayer 6. Magic Ride 7. Princess Of The Night 8. Desire 9. Overnight Sensation 10. Revolt 11. Watching Over Me 12. Crazy Nights 13. Carrie
Photo gallery
