Hladno Pivo’s Big 20th Birthday Bash (2008)

A rainy evening on September 3rd brought Hladno Pivo to Križanke. The Croatian band is an old friend of Slovenian stages, but this time their visit was something truly special: they were celebrating 20 years together. Hladno Pivo started out in the late eighties playing covers of the Ramones and Dead Kennedys, and over the years they went from early garage punk to modern punk with hints of other genres, building their own recognizable style, which they themselves call “šank punk”, and winning a mass of fans across the whole former common country with their relentless gigging. Two weeks ago Hladno Pivo threw their birthday party at Jarun in Zagreb with 20,000 fans, and this time the guys celebrated the big anniversary with Slovenian listeners too.

The show kicked off late, in good old Balkan tradition. Still, Križanke filled up decently in the meantime. As always after the release of the band’s latest studio album, an intro track rang out from the speakers, and then Mile, Zoki, Šoky, Suba, Stipe and Deda came bounding onto the stage. Fitting for the occasion, they were in a great mood, and their energy of course jumped to the crowd instantly, which went wilder with every next song. Just how cold that evening was is shown by the fact that vocalist Mile bounded onto the stage in a windbreaker and a cap, a very un-Mile getup. All that nonstop gigging shows in how tight and in sync the guys are on stage. They’ve even “invented” a few bits of their own that never fail to make the crowd laugh, like jumping around in every possible direction to the rhythm of a song after everyone except drummer Suba gathers in the middle of the stage. Their punk rock sound, with the occasional ska or metal riff, got the front rows bouncing and “skanking”, which turned into full-on singalong and partying during the best-known songs like Zimmer frei, Für Immer Punk and Ne Volim Te. The moment for any hip hop fans in the house naturally came with Teško je ful biti kul, where trumpet player Stipe handled the “fast-talking vocal” job well, while Pijan, one of the rare ballads, was the perfect moment for all the lovebirds. They also played a very fun mash-up of the hard-hitting punk of Rigoletto and the hippie vibes of Mlohava Čuna, which they’d already unveiled at Jarun. Frontman Mile and trumpet player Stipe are the two members who, with their comic bits, banter between songs and the pauses in between, crack up the whole place, stretching the listeners’ mouths into wide grins as they rib each other or introduce the next song. Mile in general is hugely charismatic and the true leader of the band. More than once during the show the crowd started chanting his name. Several times he also showed off his unique walk, which most resembles that of a waddling goose. We got two encores, and the show lasted a good two hours, ending on a mellow note with Planeta from the latest album.

Hladno Pivo pulled off their set with confidence, but let’s not forget this was a concert for their twentieth anniversary. They could have served up something new or dug out some long-unplayed song. For the hip hop moment they could have brought out Edo Majka, who was on the original recording of Teško je ful biti kul. The only thing that set this show apart from their club gigs was the big screen in the background, showing various projections and a live feed of the concert itself. The average fans were surely happy, while the old-school fans could hardly have been. The fact that they played only five songs in total from the first two cult albums, Džinovski and G.A.D., says enough, while a big part of the setlist was made up of the last two studio releases. And the fact is, in my opinion the venue wasn’t right either. Two years ago the band played Gala Hala in Metelkova, last year Cvetličarna, and this time already Križanke. But it’s not just about that, it’s also about the lack of a mid-sized concert venue in Ljubljana, but that’s another story… 

 

Text: Urban Bolta

Photos: Barbara Milharčič

Hladno Pivo setlist: