Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Rock Cafe / Postojna / Slovenia
Concert date: 15.04.2010
Attendance: 300
Ticket price: 0,00€
Since releasing their album on 05.03.2010, their first proper studio album since the band formed way back in 1978, Lene kosti remain a hot-ticket live act. After the party at Orto bar on 19.03.2010 to mark the release of “Do Or Die”, where Orto was bursting at the seams and dozens of people were left standing outside because they grabbed one of the 200 available tickets too late, something similar hit Postojna’s Rock Cafe this time around.
This time there was no need to fear a bunch of brawlers fighting for space in front of the stage. Rock Cafe is a bit roomier, and it also has sturdier ground under your feet and a more solid set of load-bearing pillars holding up the building it sits in. If you don’t like something, you can slip off for a game of pool or pop up to the restaurant above. If there’s one place that has something for every taste, it’s surely Epic Center, or let’s rather say Rock Cafe.
In the company of old friends, the hot Nova Gorica metal matadors Shutdown and the naughty Ljubljana rock n’ roll kittens Hellcats, Lene kosti finally came to say hello to Postojna too. The club started filling up late, in true Postojna fashion, borrowing that trait from the Littoral. So we only saw Shutdown on stage at 10 p.m. It’s incredible what a leap this band has made in just one year. They opened for Lene kosti in May 2009 (Ljubljana) and later in October 2009 (Kranj), and became part of the permanent Rock Cafe furniture through the Epic RockLine Contest – RockLine report HERE, where they secured a spot in the second round and so at least two gigs at the club (if they make the final, they’ll play Rock Cafe four times in just under two months). The young guns crowned their ambition with the release of their demo “Shutdown”, which my colleague Rok Klemše gave a big “blessing” (RockLine review HERE). In short, it looks like everything’s going swimmingly for these guys. They’re in demand, they’re good, they’re convincing on stage, and most importantly, they’ve got the charisma that leaves a mark on listeners and concertgoers alike.
The man at the center of it all is, of course, singer Egzi. He’s not ashamed to pull his spandex up to the throat in a manly show of strength, matching his wardrobe of colorful underwear with a touch of “glam” colors. The two-guitar combo has improved enormously in a year. They play their thirds in sync, galloping together through old-school Maiden riffs and serving up some bravura, finely-shredded guitar solos. The rhythm section sticks to the old school as well, with Pejo clinging firmly to a single bass drum pedal. Honestly, you really don’t miss the double pedal with Shutdown. But the biggest leap was made by Egzi, of course. The guy has upgraded his vocal abilities first and foremost. He crowned the performance with a deeply felt, active stage presence that kept everyone below the stage constantly on edge. The way he moves, fires up the other members, and gestures has all been upgraded with a frontman’s charisma, so Shutdown come across overall as a hugely convincing unit spreading the heavy metal gospel to the masses. The cherry on top was the excellent club sound again, which rarely fails at Rock Cafe. So all of us there got an honest look at the stage of development Shutdown have reached on their musical journey. No beating around the bush: this is one of the hottest melodic heavy metal bands in Slovenia, and that kind of work ethic and commitment could take them to bigger stages and wider recognition.
Hellacts took the stage a few minutes past 11 p.m. The girls can boast that they’re the only purebred all-female rock band in Slovenia. Even though it was the first time I’d ever seen the band in front of a stage, and I’ve often read critics’ mixed feelings about their shows, I can’t deny that Hellcats’ set was confident all the way through. The girls proved that the bonds between them have tightened. That showed in a properly tight performance from a band that forges its original songs on the foundations of acts like AC/DC or Judas Priest, adding some glam cosmetics on one side and an unmistakably dirty punk-rock accent on the other. The road to the quality level of a similarly conceived quartet from Sweden, Crucified Barbara, is still quite long, but it leads in the right direction.
However I look at it, it was a very successful show by the quartet. Tight and likable. The girls cashed in on their stage provocativeness in skin-tight latex-spandex-leather outfits, which clearly suits them. Singer Valentina is also continuing to grow into a real stage figure and frontwoman, since she grabbed the attention with her playing and delivery without any major trouble. Katja justified the tougher job that falls to a guitarist when she’s the only guitarist in the lineup and has to play boldly and confidently enough to fill out the sound in the riffs with just one guitar, and still stay “present” on stage when the solos come. Bravo, girl! The same goes for the indispensable sister duo in the rhythm section, who didn’t waver in holding the right tempo through the whole set. Hellcats presented original material, including the songs Steelrider, Heavy Metal, Vladar noči and Hellcasts. In just under an hour, together with Shutdown, they built an excellent platform for the evening’s headliners, the “polished” metal bulldozers Lene kosti, to step onto.
The clock struck a bit past midnight. The stage was set, the guys tuned up. The intro kicks in, the club goes dark, as dark as it can get, because the club couldn’t kill all the lights, so the intro never quite got to glow in full intensity. During the intro the evil doctor marches onto the stage, accompanied by his junior, little Rok, dressed up as a “mini Dr. Evil”. Yes, that’s a novelty our evil head physician Dr. Evil prepared just for Lene kosti’s Postojna show. The band hits a rolling Motörhead-style Overkill rhythm under the baton of Miha Nedoh, on his last stage appearance in Lene kosti colors! Strange, shouldn’t it be I Got the…? Nope. The guys open the show with Play With Fire. At first there were sound problems. Marc’s guitar was completely inaudible during Play With Fire, but it was fixed later on and the sound reached the required level of quality.
Once again Lene kosti didn’t owe anybody anything. With his charisma, Dr. Evil brought the audience to its knees, eating out of his hand. The show’s unpredictable excess also brought a new figure onto the stage, a new alter ego of Evil’s. The mad butcher, who after the mandatory dinner in The Uninvited Guest went on terrorizing Rock Cafe in all its bloody dimensions.
Even though the two spotlights of white light took their toll on the band, visible in the sweat-soaked brows and streams of sweat running over the instruments and dripping mercilessly onto the stage, the band squeezed out another excellent show, wiping out the few trivially audible mistakes that had crept into the Ljubljana Orto bar gig a month ago. Dr. Evil sang his repertoire at a high level, with the performance of the perpetually tough Warrior as direct proof. It sat in the middle of the setlist, a smart move, since performing that song takes a huge amount of power, and by then the voice is less worn down, so better preserved. In that sense, it wouldn’t be dumb to keep that song in the middle, if the band is already shying away from using it as an opener.
This show was symbolic for Lene kosti too. Toward the end, during one of the breaks, Miha Nedoh stands up from behind the drums. Miha drummed like he was in a trance this time. It was his most committed and, as a result, by far his best performance since he’s been defending the Lene kosti colors. The fact that he was leaving surely fired him up, and it was a chance to show his respect for the band with his contribution. Of course there was some truth in the rivalry as well. As long as it’s constructive, it’s all good. And who the hell was this rival? A new name in the Lene kosti lineup. Drummer Rok Večerin – “W.U.K.O.”, whom some of you might remember from Dawn Patrol and Crossbreed. The handover of the sticks between two drummers who are cut from completely different cloth in nature and character was accompanied by an emotional speech from Dr. Evil, in which Lene kosti said goodbye to Miha “Bomber” Nedoh and welcomed W.U.K.O., whom Dr. Evil immediately baptized in song as “W.U.K.O. The Machine”!
So the song Nightmare rang out with a dose of new energy, brought in, of course, by the new drummer. Same tempo, same end result, but the energy, the sound, and so the feelings the song evokes are different. The cymbal work in particular is a new story for Lene kosti, and so is the weaving in of double bass drum. The triplets in Nightmare remain unblemished, no worries. Lene kosti’s trademarks have been preserved and will surely be upgraded soon too. So it’ll be interesting to watch W.U.K.O. melt further into the Lene kosti charisma and to watch the band’s development in the coming period. With the song Do Or Die the new Lene kosti lineup closed their set. But that wasn’t all.
For the encore the band plays Russian Girl once more. Suddenly, Dr. Evil drags Shutdown’s Egzi onto the stage. After the first verse, Dr. Evil, already suffering badly under the spotlights and wrapped in a towel, unexpectedly retreats to the bassist’s side and hands the mic over to Egzi completely. That totally threw the likable Egzi off, since unfortunately he doesn’t know the verses of Russian Girl. But the guy handled it brilliantly, mumbling along by feel and pulling off the melody in the verses. Of course, Dr. Evil soon came back to his rescue and the two brought the show home.
With a generous dose of fun and the expected stage antics, as well as a “horror show”, another gig by the legendary Ljubljana heavy metallers came to an end. Although the well-attended venue didn’t stage the general mayhem that Orto bar served up to Lene kosti a month ago, the band played a better show than the one in Ljubljana. Both in the performance itself and in the fact that the sound conditions were optimal. Even though the heat in the room made performing the material harder.
The excellent combination of the chosen trio of acts, cheered on by a solid crowd, bodes well for the future activities of all three bands. Their genre compatibility, as well as their personal chemistry, along with the fantastic reception from the audience, points to a repeat of such a get-together as early as this fall. Well, at least that’s the whispering that could be heard after the show. “Thunder from a clear sky, straight into the daft forehead, one more time, please!”
photos: Tereza Vuk
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