Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Delavski dom / Trbovlje / Slovenia
Concert date: 23.09.2010
Attendance: 500
The last weekend of September was a big one for Slovenian culture. Especially for Laibach, a band that (by name at least) every Slovenian knows, that is Slovenia’s most recognizable musical export abroad, and that will stay that way for a long time to come. Laibach were celebrating a venerable milestone: 30 years of existence. To make the jubilee properly big, the whole weekend in Trbovlje was given over to the party. At Delavski dom, in the center of town, an exhibition about the cult band opened as early as Thursday, on Friday and Saturday the temple of Trbovlje culture hosted two concert nights, and on the final day of the weekend, Sunday, the concert fever moved to nearby Kum, a peak more than 1,200 meters high, where the Trbovlje natives played one last closing show. And just to top it all off, a symposium ran for all three days with plenty of well-known guests from philosophy, history, art and other social sciences, discussing topics directly and indirectly tied to Laibach’s long career and development. The whole celebration of the infamous band took place under the slogan “Red District + Black Cross”.
Arriving in Trbovlje in the late afternoon, you could already feel in the air that this was no ordinary day. The town was breathing the festive occasion, breathing the band that carried the town’s name out into the wider world. Since Aleš and I showed up about an hour before the announced start, there was still time for a hop-flavored beverage. Looking around the café and its patrons, it quickly became clear that the event had a strong international flavor: you could hear “a thousand and one” languages from all sides, the signs on the walls informed us almost exclusively in English, in other words, the most hardcore devotees from every corner of the globe had come to honor Laibach with their presence, which gave the event an extra stamp of significance.
Just a few minutes after the announced start, the audiovisual show kicked off in a (surprisingly) not quite full hall, with the odd seat still free here and there. The sounds of Boji, Krvava gruda and other songs from the eighties in the opening stretch of the concert started pouring over the hall like rage, while the more psychedelic Mi kujemo bodočnost and Smrt za smrt filled the audience, trapped between four walls, with a sense of unease, even fear, with the hall’s excellent acoustics and the chilling rhythms playing a key role. Electronic sounds echoed, and the unique energy of the Laibach machine spread like lightning across the seated crowd, which was more than a fitting choice for this kind of concert, since only then do you get to experience the particularity of a Laibach show to the fullest. Just as we were all staring ahead, hypnotized, it was time for songs from the album “Volk” (2006). Somewhat surprisingly, the record was represented by as many as four tracks, especially given that the concert promo promised a dose of older material, yet we got almost the same repertoire Laibach had been playing at shows all over the country through the whole summer. True, the newer stuff was thin on the ground overall, but let’s be honest, we’d expected even less of it.
Besides the music, a Laibach performance is interesting for the eyes too. The lighting effects were a real visual treat in the hall, and as always the most attention went to the two screens behind the band, where projections tied one way or another to the music were running throughout the show. Plenty of ink has already been spilled over their controversial peaks, since graphic depictions of childbirth or oral sex are anything but normal at a cultural event of high-art significance, so this time I’d rather spend my few words on the fact that Laibach filled column inches in the print media and turned the hair gray on people in high state institutions with provocative gestures like these long ago, back in the eighties, when radical artistic messages of this kind were anything but welcome, which made Laibach a thorn in many people’s side. In fact, for (some) they still are today. The purpose of the projected films is to further reinforce the message of the song being played, often in roundabout ways, so sometimes it’s only after the fact that you grasp what Big Brother is trying to hammer into the viewer’s skull.
Laibach completely transformed many songs on stage in 2010, and they now have precious little in common with the originals. That goes especially for the older material, which has been given an unrecognizable dose of melodicity, courtesy of the mostly instrumental sound of three synthesizers and Mina’s accompanying vocals. Mina (Melodrom) has recently been a regular guest at Laibach shows, and she slots into the band’s sound vocally without any trouble, even though she faces the fact that it’s hard to fill the shoes of the unique Jadranka Juras, who worked with Laibach before Mina. Still, working with Mina is a new chapter for Laibach, as her charismatic voice opens up a new depth in their sound. Milan Fras, as usual, delivered his vocal duties in his trademark restrained but commanding way, half-singing and half-reciting, and the crew at the mixing desk certainly helped him along. With the sounds of the ancient Nova akropola and the younger God is God, the hour-and-a-half journey through a historical overview of the work and image of the cult that is Laibach came to an end, and the first day of celebrations could wrap up. Laibach proved they were and remain a one-of-a-kind representative of the Slovenian music scene, one that cleverly captures the spirit of the times, which remains as relevant as ever today.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Boji 2. Mi kujemo bodočnost 3. Smrt za smrt 4. Brat moj 5. Krvava gruda 6. Ti, ki izzivaš 7. Država 8. America 9. Anglia 10. Francia 11. Turkey 12. Tanz mit Laiabch 13. Alle gegen alle 14. Du bist unser 15. Hell: Symmetry 16. Das spiel ist aus —encore— 17. Nova akropola 18. God Is God
Photo gallery
