Venue: Cvetličarna – Mediapark (LJ)
Concert date: 19.06.2007
Attendance: 0
Ticket price: 15 EUR
On Wednesday, June 20th, I headed to Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna aka Mediapark, full of enthusiasm and positive energy. And why wouldn’t I? The star-studded punk rock outfit Me First And The Gimme Gimmes was in town, and some of us lucky ones had already gotten to see them last weekend at Nova Rock festival in Austria, where we were treated to a killer, fun “covers only” show. To top it all off, word got out that same day that the American musicians’ Ljubljana gig was sold out! Despite some slight doubts about whether Cvetličarna is a suitable concert space at this time of year, we headed off toward Bežigrad full of excitement.
What looked like a not-so-bad situation at first soon turned pretty chaotic. Every ticket holder had to pick up a wristband at a truck in front of the Cvetličarna entrance, which would let them into the hall. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if people had known about it. Suddenly a crowd poured out of Mediapark demanding their wristbands, since security had obviously been letting people in without them earlier. A real crush and a lot of shoving broke out in front of the flower van, and since I got more than successfully pushed out of the line, I decided in a foul mood to wait an hour or so for things to calm down.
Meanwhile the opening bands were of course already playing inside, and I unfortunately missed most of them. When I came back, things had been organized a bit, so the path to the ticket window was clear. I managed to pick up my ticket… yay… but the road of thorns had only just begun. I still had to get into the hall, squeeze through the crowd at the door, and wait for the security gentlemen to graciously deign to open the doors, which they had closed in the meantime for no apparent reason, jacking up our impatience even more.
Not exactly a promising start to an otherwise long-awaited concert.
Oblivious to what awaited us inside, we said goodbye to the fresh evening air and stepped into a jam-packed hall that was positively steaming with unbearable heat. Within five minutes you were a wet rag. On top of that, thanks to the crowd you practically couldn’t turn around 180 degrees. Conditions were dreadful.
The bright spot at that moment was without a doubt the British punk rock trio TAT. The band, led by rocker beauty Tatiana, drove us completely wild, well, at least the part of it we managed to catch. They dared to steal their own slice of the evening. The performance was more than excellent.
Already pretty wiped out from the heat, but still full of anticipation for the real reason we were there, we finally got to Me First And The Gimme Gimmes.
MFAGG is made up of members of the punk rock bands NOFX, Lagwagon, NO Use For A Name, Foo Fighters and Swingin Utters. An all-stars lineup that plays covers (both the more evergreen ones and the more pop ones) in their own personal punk style. The combination is perfect. The most anticipated member, though, the no-longer-so-fat Fat Mike, was replaced on this tour by Eric Melvin, who is otherwise NOFX’s guitarist.
The set was made up mostly of material from their album Love Their Country, which came out last year. Despite problems with the sound, especially the bass, there was of course no shortage of some of “their” biggest hits, like Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin), Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon), Leaving on a Jet Plane (John Denver), Gershwin’s Summertime and the unforgettable End of the Road (Boyz II Men).
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes completely drove the crowd wild and, despite the technical difficulties, put on a good show. We’d witnessed an excellent show a few days earlier in neighboring Austria. But it’s definitely time for our organizers to start taking a page from our northern and western neighbors, where it’s perfectly normal for concerts like this to be held outdoors on open-air grounds set up in front of the concert hall from May onward.
Next time, I’ll be steering well clear of a concert at this time of year at this venue.
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