Venue: Križanke/Ljubljana
Concert date: 22.06.2008
Attendance: 2000
Ticket price: 20 and 25 €
Croatian pop group Jinx made a successful return to the music scene last year with the album Na zapadu. The band is hugely respected in Croatia and has plenty of fans, but I had no idea what to expect from their visit to Križanke. Could the place end up almost empty? As it turned out, those fears were completely unfounded.
The truth is, I barely knew Jinx before the show. I’d only heard the title track from the latest album, but that was enough to convince me this was a band worth seeing and hearing. It was clear to me this wasn’t some dumb, stereotypical pop of the kind you hear on pretty much every major radio station, and that Jinx bring a lot more intelligence, independence and ideas of their own.
Like I said, I didn’t know how big a crowd to expect. I figured it was a more alternative pop outfit and that Križanke might well end up empty. Clearly my ignorance of popular culture threw me off and led me to the wrong conclusions. Long before the show started, crowds of people began gathering in front of Plečnik’s masterpiece. Not even at the Indexi gig was there a throng like that! So the ambience was all set, packed to the rafters with Ljubljana’s well-groomed, dressed-to-impress high society (apart from me), the kind you never see at a hard rock show.
A little late, Leeloojmais, the Slovenian support act, took the stage. This time they were joined by former singer Lara Love rather than Kristina, who replaced her not long ago. The band plays solid pop, with a slightly too sugary female vocal and polished instrumentalists, and what saves them most is the fact that they have a sax player, which makes them a bit different from other Slovenian bands with a similar female vocal. At the start Lara was also helped out by some rapper whose name I don’t know. Leeloojamais played with confidence, but they didn’t blow me away.
When Croatia’s Jinx marched onto the stage, the difference in quality was obvious right away. The Croats know how to play the way it should be done, and they have an energy of their own that the Slovenes were missing. With her voice alone, their singer ate the whole Leelojamais lineup for breakfast. Lara Love is younger than Jinx’s singer, but the Croatian has so much more sensuality. I don’t mean bodily charms; she just knows how to coax incredible feelings out of the audience with her voice. The very tone of her voice is so expressive that it’s hard to stay indifferent. Of course the singer was the center of attention, but the others deserve credit too. The guitarist, who also helped out on vocals, was visibly having a great time. His lines were as clean and polished as those of some of the best rock guitarists, and I can say without a doubt that he won me over. The keyboardist proved his quality as well, sometimes playing old-school organ motifs you might have heard in the early sixties, and other times sounding totally modern. As is almost standard with Croatian bands, the rhythm section is outstanding and holds the reins of the music. Seemingly simple, yet so effective. Just like Leeloojamais, Jinx had horns too, but a whole three of them, which added even more dynamics to the music and boosted the solo firepower. Besides the lead singer, there was also a very good backing vocalist.
Jinx don’t just play pop. They’re too good for that. They won’t be boxed in by a single genre. They mix Latin music, folk, blues, psychedelia, rock, disco, funk and plenty more into their pop. Shortly before the end, the singer changed into a green outfit and came back to sing “Na zapadu”, where you can feel the influence of country melodies too. In short, they can play anything, and they do. They play whatever they feel like.
So Jinx won over a packed Križanke and played two encores. I barely knew them before, but after the show I was impressed. Their professionalism combined with exceptional commitment made a strong impression on me. Pop can still be good, and it’s hard to find better than Jinx.
Text and photos: Rok Podgrajšek
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