Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Cvetličarna / Slovenia
Concert date: 02/22/2013
Attendance: 1500
Ticket price: €17.00 / €23.00
Is it even possible to pack Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna any fuller than by putting Majke and Partibrejkers on the same night? Through the snowstorm that, in the minutes before the start of another concert orgy dedicated to reviving the nostalgic feelings of retro Yugo rock, flicked its tail across the Slovenian sky, the crowds poured relentlessly into the belly of the renovated Cvetličarna floor. Those who had already experienced what kind of cauldron the Cvetličarna floor can turn into, following the rational calculations of common sense, preferred to park themselves preventively along the railing of the balcony platform and enjoy the presence of their stage heroes from a safe distance. A hot night of total rock n’ roll debauchery was in the cards. Nobody doubted that, and the excesses that trail the history of these “naughty boys”, or more precisely the bands Partibrejkers and Majke, are one of the biggest draws that keep Slovenian rockers’ souls fiercely loyal to both groups. In the spirit of the saying: “Loyal to the grave”!
Somewhere around half past nine in the evening the sound techs rush onto the stage, quickly cast an eye over the gear and check that it all works, plug everything into the power, and only seconds behind them the members of Majke sway onto the stage and the crowd goes nuts. This bond between the audience and the band is incredible, and nothing shakes it. It gives you goosebumps! The first telltale sign of a quality concert experience, and it only confirmed that we’d landed in the right place at the right time tonight!
All eyes were glued to the eel-like writhing of a familiar figure. The skinny, scrawny creature who is the cult frontman, the build and the voice of Majke. This is the one-of-a-kind figure of Goran Bare. Instantly the question pops up: what kind of shape is the vocalist in? Because the quality of a Majke show depends precisely on that. At least in recent years. Definitely weighed down with a few fortifying alcohol molecules, but not so weighed down that he might keel over, which the audience has already witnessed at Slovenian shows, Bare lifted the crowd in an instant when, after the new single “Teške boje” as the opener, the band cut in with the breakthrough mid-eighties track “Iz sve snage”.
Since at a Majke-type gig there’s no room for deep musical studies and analyses, because the guiding principle of the band’s playing is a dirty rock n’ roll drive, reinforced with a full-blooded dose of blues and lubricated with the punk nature of the street’s rage, there’s no point in judging the sound quality either. It was all rumble, loud, with the guitars in the mix basically indistinguishable, and yet nobody paid any attention to that tonight. “Super mother”, “supermother”, “first mama” or simply “the mother of all mothers” – Goran Bare is definitely the number one icon! A sort of Iggy Pop with a rich collection of jokes, who has survived every era of humanity and apocalypse, but you have to keep in mind that, despite the stage inferiority of the backing crew, Bare couldn’t pull off all this “high stage hovering” without them. Majke delivered an excellent performance, and the Majke show came off confident from start to finish, with no weak spots hinting at any stage misfire. Goran Bare’s gigantic charisma and the solid framework of the backing crew strung together one rock crusher after another, including the new Depresija and Pozovi me u noć, as well as older standards Krvarim od dosade, ’89, Zato te volim, Budi ponosan, Vrijeme da se krene (at the close of the regular set), Mršav pas, Fantastična vatra, Ja sam budučnost, Naivan san, Pozovi me u noč, Zato te volim, Nisam tvoj.
As said. A far stronger version of the band than in November 2011, when a wobbly Goran really did seem wrecked during the show. This time Majke lived up to all the high expectations and left the audience howling: “Majke, Majke, Majke,…”!!!!
Cane was not at all happy to accept that, as the shouts from the crowd of “Majke, Majke, Majke” drove him to first mutter into the mic: “Dobro, dobro ljudi…” Partibrejkers had some trouble at the start, as a guitar amp died right at the beginning of the set. The confusion was fixed fast and the quintet (!!!) – yes, you read that right – kicked off with “Ako si” and instantly won over the crowd, which from that moment on never peeled away from Cane’s infectious charisma. A marathon set was ahead of us. Heads weren’t hiding their alcoholic wear and tear. At one point between songs a beer came flying onto the stage. Nobody knew exactly what was going on, but Cane first snapped his gaze at the crowd, then aimed a sharp left-eyed glare at the techs, who immediately figured out what the problem was and rushed out to wipe the floor. Cane steps up to the edge of the stage and roars: “Pa jebem li ti pičku materinu…” – he’d spotted the culprit. Once the big boss had calmed down a bit, he added in warning: “Hej narode! Zajebi pivo večeras”! Juicy, the way that kind of juiciness can only be felt in proper Serbian. And that very juiciness is the heart of what Cane’s poetry and his crew are about, and they stuck the devil’s horns on the night with an excellent stage performance. It delivered better sound and a far tighter show than what Majke served up to the crowd before Partibrejkers!
There’s no comparing the two bands, but it’s worth bearing in mind that there was definitely a hidden rivalry going on between them tonight. It certainly worked as motivation, since that’s probably exactly why Goran Bare was careful about tipping back glasses of the red stuff, so as not to get a proper elbow before heading on stage. The shouts of “Majke, Majke, Majke…!!!” that greeted Partibrejkers as they walked on certainly fired up Cane and the crew even more to deliver the best they possibly could.
And they pulled it off, full-blooded. Partibrejkers stole the show from Majke. Definitely. Simply because of the band’s better form on stage, tighter focus, greater sonic precision, which really delivered a ravenous, synchronized riff-suspension of two equal guitar buzzsaws from left and right. No deserters at Cvetličarna tonight. A bomb to the forehead, crazy for the sake of the departed days of the blossoming Yugoslav punk rock scene. The people got bread and circuses, and the jam-packed Cvetličarna, swept up in the audience’s incredible participation in the verses (with both bands), cracked at the seams in every direction while the tornado of rock cumulus rumbling and droning lifted the roof high toward the sky a few times.
Outside, the snow kept on swirling and shaking, dim and heavy! It was one of those proper rock nights where it wasn’t hard to smell total debauchery, led by burek and Nikšićko beer and the smell of the grill, even though none of that is served at Cvetličarna. But the spirit of the Balkans blew in across the Kolpa with the bestial untamed force of a wrecking swing, and people didn’t hesitate, wrapped up in the extreme road conditions of a merciless cyclone, to stretch their Friday night with a visit to the nearby Balkan-style fast-food kiosks.
Setlist
PARTIBREJKERS:
1. Ako si
2. Noć
3. Zemljotres
4. Lobotomija
5. Čutanje
6. Žurim
7. Šta radiš
8. Put za jug
9. Za 1000 godina
10. Nočas u grad
11. Ledeno doba
12. Da li se još volimo?
13. Ono što pokušavam
14. Rođen loš
15. Hipnotisana gomila
16. Krena prema meni
17. Hoću da znam
18. Mesećeva kči
19. Dugo te nema
20. Ulični hodać
–encore—
21. Molitva
22. Gramzivost
23. Sjajnija budućnost
24. Ona živi na brdu
25. Kako je teško bez tebe
Photo Gallery
