Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Tolmin / Sotočje / Slovenia
Concert date: 24.08.2017
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: €79.00 (three-day ticket)
You’ve got to hand it to them. The crew behind Metaldays, PunkRock Holiday and Overjam has a seriously big heart. After trying out a winter edition of the famous Tolmin festival Metaldays, they came up with the idea of a festival with more bluesy, rock’n’roll colors. And that’s how Motorcity festival was born! Three days, ten acts in total. Starting a little before seven in the evening and wrapping up at midnight or a bit after.
As always, the crew thought of everything. I’ll say that up front. Security, stage lighting, sound, the works. On a much smaller scale, of course, compared to what we’re used to at, say, Metaldays. Caution is the mother of wisdom, and so is modesty. That’s where you have to start. So let’s hope the whole thing takes off! And that I’m not getting ahead of myself. Big thanks to everyone brave enough to get involved in organizing this festival. Consider that said in advance.
Now on to day one. The first band of the first day, that is. Thursday, late afternoon. Barely thirty people in front of the stage. All in all there were about a hundred of us scattered across the clearing in the famous little woods at the confluence of the Tolminka and the Soča, where the stage named »B.B. King« stood, and that number didn’t change much right up to the closing act of the festival’s first day. The only stage of the very first Motörcity festival is, incidentally, the one that counts as the second stage at Metaldays. They got going right on schedule, a quarter to seven in the evening, with the veterans of Slovenian blues rock EMŠO Blues Band. Sages, seasoned pros and, of course, superb emulators of The Allman Brothers Band. Tuned to perfection, both in sound and in execution. It was my first time seeing the band live, which is a real little shame, but that’s how the days and years rolled by and I somehow never managed to catch them live before. The band’s lineup is Emil ‘Jimi’ Pock (vocals, acoustic guitar), Edo Sušnik (guitar), Janc Galič (guitar), Slavc Žust (bass), Andrej Konjajev (organ, keyboards), Marko Avanzo (drums), David Kobe (percussion), and for this occasion they got a hand in Tolmin from the versatile, razor-sharp drum master Sergej Ranđelović »RunJoe«. Allmans style. Two drummers on stage, then!
This band has serious mileage, so there’s nowhere to hide in this crew. The sound is spot-on. The band builds incredible tightness and coherence over the course of a set. From the impossibly commanding and perceptive vocals of Jimi Pock, who can be throaty, rough and manly one moment and soft, velvety and swaying the next, to the outstanding interplay of Hammond organ and guitars, to the thick bass foundation and the whole percussion and drum section, which glues all the building blocks of the sound together. The band opened the show in their own style. With their first love. The Allman Brothers Band song Don’t Want You No More. They stayed on that course with It’s Not My Cross To Bear. One Way Out (orig. Marshall Sehor, also known from The Allman Brothers Band’s version) wasn’t missing either, nor was the unforgettable Whipping Post . The band tackled a wickedly infectious, erotic blues waltz with Get On With Your Life, then moved on to You Don’t Love Me (orig. Willie Cobbs), Firing Line, Good Clean Fun, Black Hearted Woman, Gambler’s Roll and the closing End of the Line. While playing almost exclusively “Allmans” material, the band spiced up the middle of their set with the song Soundbound Mamma, originally performed by Dickey Betts.
EMŠO Blues Band were visibly enjoying themselves. Mostly all seated (on bar stools), they play with finesse and commit completely. When soul and heart become one and fuse 100% with the magic of blues and rock!
Next up on stage were Terry Evans and Hans Theessink. Two exceptional musicians who found their shared chemistry years ago and joined forces in an acoustic duo. They arrived in Tolmin from Klagenfurt, where they’d played the day before. Their essence made it feel like each of them brings the essential pieces of a perfect musical jigsaw puzzle. Whatever one lacks, the other has, and vice versa. So. Just two musicians, with acoustic guitars, finger picks and harmonicas, and? Vocals. Exceptional vocals that know just how to caress and coax emotion out of even the blackest corners of our souls. We can say this was the most special concert of the whole festival. Just how minimalism, in all its intimacy, can tame every megalomaniacal bit of kitsch and glitz that music production likes to “hide behind”. It doesn’t get deeper than this. An hour and fifteen minutes of pure, carefree delight from two exceptional blues preachers. Terry Evans is a true vocal chameleon. Whenever he opened his mouth, his sophistication and incredible refinement gave you goosebumps, and his vocal maneuvers shimmered in countless shades of color. If you’re looking for the real, primal “black” voice, look no further than Evans. Theessink, on the other hand, impressed to the fullest with his low baritone. The incredible vocal contrast between the two kept the small crowd on the edge of emotion and passion. In constant, full “tension”, in other words. The two gents cut loose with the following songs: How Come People Act Like That, Don’t Let The Green Grass Fool You (Wilson Pickett), Mother Earth (Memphis Slim), Talk To Your Daughter (J. B. Lenoir), Demons, and an excellent ragtime number called Glory Of Love. They put special emphasis on their joint album »Delta Time« (the famous Ry Cooder guested on it) with the songs Gotta Keep Movin’, Shelter From The Storm, I Need Money and Delta Time. The duo brought the concert to a close by first tackling Theessink’s playful Minnibelle, followed by the lewd You Can’t Judge A Book by The Cover (orig. Bo Diddley) and Chuck Berry’s first hit Maybeline. To heartfelt ovations from the small crowd, Evans and Theessink played Tears Are Rollin’ and said their final goodbye. Unforgettable.
The last to take the stage were the coastal boys Bluesback. This long-lived band from Koper, a quartet made up of Peter Orlič, Marko Stropnik, Willy DeMattia and Mitja Stropnik, is known as an incredibly experienced and technically razor-sharp outfit. They’ve played in an unchanged lineup over the years, and it showed again. Yet another of their shows full of daring solo escapades and feverish shots of adrenaline. The band, which RockLine hadn’t seen live since that long-ago gig opening for the legendary Nine Below Zero in Piran on 01.03.2008, once again presented itself as an incredibly well-oiled machine where every last little detail works. An outstanding weave of equally shared guitar solos between the two guitarists, while the lead vocal has gained punch and range over the years. The band’s rhythmic drive was also remarkable, with a distinct funky spring in the step of a warm, super-active and musical bass. The band plays its material intensely and with great commitment. Their own songs and their own arrangements of covers. And that’s what the concert was like. Somewhere in the middle of the set the band invited a horn section on stage (trumpet, saxophone, trombone) and hit Buddy Guy’s Midnight Train, and in that lineup they also played Love Sneakin Up On You (Bonnie Raitt). Among others, they also played I Want All My Money Back (Lonnie Brooks), I Don’t Believe (Joe Bonamassa) and Walk In My Shadow (Free).
Bluesback play every cover their own way. With their own spirit and essence, so you can feel the real beat and heart of the band. It was getting late, and signs of the day’s energy drain were slowly starting to weigh on our shoulders. About Blusback, let’s wrap up by saying they remain an excellent band that matures year after year like good old wine, and that growth shows no sign of stopping.
So day one delivered three superb concerts. All of them rooted in the blues, yet each act approached the genre in its own way, in both interpretation and stage presence. Either way, all three gave the music gourmets plenty to chew on.
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