Location: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 18.09.2008
Attendance: 80
Ticket price: 0,00€
It’s finally here, the big day for the band Krema, the day their debut, which the guys fittingly titled “In naj traja…”, took its first happy steps. They’ve earned it, no question. The pop rock quartet decided to celebrate at Orto Bar, which is still the best little spot in our capital for an occasion like this.
Orto Bar got lively the moment the doors opened, which is now at 9 p.m., but the band didn’t hit the stage until 11 p.m. In good company the time flies, and before I knew it I was standing right in front of the stage. And what a surprise, I was totally blown away! The band had hauled in its own stage lighting and its own lighting guy, who delivered a “little” spectacle of a light show in the club throughout the set.
The lineup of Janez Marinč Johnny (vocals), Peter Zajc (guitar), Dejan Markič (bass) and Roman Milavec (drums) pulled a pretty decent crowd of thirsty revelers in front of the stage, all there to cheer on their local heroes. The guys didn’t hesitate for long, firing off a barrage of guitar riffs right away in Črni napadalec, which gave the green light, and the crowd, hungry for bread and circuses, finally cut loose.
Krema played the entire “In naj traja…” record at the show, and threw in some pop influences too, role models and former kings of the foreign pop charts of the eighties like Phil Collins and Elton John. A super accessible musical style, leaning hard on radio-hungry pop twists and turns, quickly won over the crowd, who were anything but indifferent to what the musicians were doing up there. The guys didn’t quite hide their nerves, a result of the band’s own sky-high expectations. After all, this was Krema’s first big show in Ljubljana, a show that will never happen again in quite this way, the kind only a one-time “release party” knows. Singer Johnny did a great job covering for the instrumentalists’ mild stiffness, with a great stage presence, flirty dance moves (probably the highlight for the ladies), convincing vocals and a confident hand guiding the band through the set. The sound was decently tuned and the show a success in every way.
It was an interesting choice to put Slovanska vas, which is really the one point on “In naj traja…” where the band allows itself a short experimental detour, at the very end of the setlist, since you’d expect a final rock knockout punch in that spot! In the encore we got Črni napadalec and In naj traja again, and with those the guys brought their concert, dedicated to the release of the debut “In naj traja…”, home successfully about a quarter of an hour past midnight.
What the guys need now is as many shows around Slovenia as possible. What they offer is an album with real potential to invade radio and TV airplay, and one that may well help shape the kind of healthy “mainstream” that Slovenia is still, sadly, searching for. So let it last.
Krema setlist:
1. Črni napadalec
2. Egotrip
3. Črni Peter
4. Rojen za umret
5. In naj traja
6. Se dogaja
7. Povodni mož
8. Nikoli končana zgodba
9. Suženj občutka
10. Misliš da ne vem
11. Mala igrača
12. I’m Still Standing
13. Jesus He Knows Me
14. Easy Lover
15. Slovanska vas
—encore—
16. Črni napadalec
17. In naj traja
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