Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Kamnik / Mali grad/ Slovenia
Concert date: 18.08.2016
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €0.00 (free admission)
This year’s Kamfest also brought to the Kamnik stages a band that has been feeding the airwaves high-quality music for over 30 years and isn’t letting up even in the more mature stretch of its career. The sextet Panda is the very definition of artistic perfection. Thirty years in, with a freshly released studio album in their pocket, »Stoletni ples«, and a dozen radio hits that have become beloved evergreens over the years, they’re once again playing Slovenian stages more actively.
The band, which at the start of April this year grandly celebrated its first thirty years at Ljubljana’s CUK Kino Šiška, this time came with a »stripped-down« program, or rather in the way we’re used to. Classic. As a band. So no special guests, no horn section and, of course, as a result of that? A shorter concert runtime. The band held off on the opening act for a bit, because at seven o’clock black clouds rolled in over Kamnik and, just like the day before, started pouring mercilessly over the venue. This year’s Kamfest isn’t exactly blessed with luck on the weather front, but that’s how it goes. You just can’t fool nature. Just after eight the rain finally took pity on us, the weather settled down, and the crew – still led after all these years by the inexhaustible musical visionary, keyboardist, arranger, composer and, of course, the band’s prime engine Andrej Pompe – kicked off the show for no more than a hundred and fifty people, thankfully with their umbrellas closed (the fickle weather sadly took its toll). With the new song Kje je ta mož.
The seasoned band, which besides living Slovenian music legend Andrej Pompe also features the sparkling, mischievous new addition on vocals, Nina Bauman, plus the established, battle-hardened and always top-notch crew of instrumentalists, namely Vlado Pirc (bass guitar, backing vocals), Samo Pirc (guitar), Vanja Vogrinčič (percussion, backing vocals) and Damjan Mulej (drums), quickly conjured up an exceptional backdrop of finely tuned chemistry between the building blocks of Panda’s stage sound, that is, their stage stature and voice. Behind the name stand years of perfectionism that shapes the very arranging of the compositions (Panda have always worked here like a mini orchestra, finely fusing many genres into their own musical ID card of art-pop culture). That filigree perfectionism in arranging has always carried over seamlessly to the concert stage too. It was no different at their gig in Kamnik this time.
As for the sound, at moments, especially in the transitions with some »slap« flourish (and/or a run of emphatically played higher notes in those transitions), the bass guitar slightly covered the other building blocks. Likewise, you occasionally missed more punch from the keyboards, and when all the instruments were squeezing out a serious amount of decibels, you missed more prominence for lead vocalist Nina (the instruments somewhat buried the vocals in the mix at those moments).
Otherwise, no complaints. Nina sang superbly. It’s incredible how fast she learned to master the lyrics of the band’s wide discography, while impressing with a lived-in stage performance, active movement and communication. It’s also a real shame that the load-bearing wall of rubble in front of the stage facade can’t be used as a catwalk (heaven knows what effort the organizer would have to put in for the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage to relent). That way the connection between audience and band would have been even tighter and more genuine during the show. Anyway, Nina deserves a great nine, or a shaky ten, for her brilliant vocal contribution. The rest of the crew, that is, the guys, are superbly in sync in their moves, which you could not only expect but, given their tenure, demand from Panda. As said. Refined, soft, softer, softest. Almost »hair-splitting«. In the hit Nepremagljivi, wrapped in salsa rhythms and with a guitar sounding à la Carlos Santana (second solo), Vanja and Damjan exploded on stage in the instrumental part with a percussion-and-drums duel and earned a well-deserved round of applause from the audience. With such a decimated turnout you couldn’t really expect who knows what kind of feedback and reactions, especially in weather that forced the crowd into a numb state, but still, especially in the trio of Sive ceste, Nepremagljivi and of course the hit of hits in Panda’s discography, Daleč stran, the band properly warmed the audience’s hearts and got some more tangible participation back from them.
The band trimmed its set a bit, but it did present its new, current studio album »Stoletni ples« in a big way (besides the opener Kje je ta mož, also the songs Stoletni ples, Kakšno sonce, kakšpen dan, Ljubimec brez imena and the closing Noro). The band also salted the setlist with Daj nasmeh mi nazaj and Odhajam stran, from the group’s third studio album »V poznih nočnih urah« (1995), since they hadn’t played either at the marathon show at CUK Kino Šiška (7.4.2016). The hits Lino and Kako ga čutim didn’t miss out on the repertoire either, nor did Ti in jaz from the album »Ecstasy«. That the new material blends superbly with the older stuff isn’t surprising, since it was written over a long stretch of the last ten years. So? Everybody go get the album »Stoletni ples«!
No two ways about it. Panda remain a byword for top-notch live performance, and the band only ripens and grows artistically with the years. With Nina Bauman on vocals they’ve settled in. The singer fits the band like a glove, and her confident, excellent show in Kamnik fully justified filling the giant shoes of her predecessors.
photos and video: Klemen Udovč
Setlist
1 Kje je ta mož
2. Kakšno sonce, kakšen dan
3. Le sebe še imam
4. Stoletni ples
5. Daj nasmeh mi nazaj
6. Kako ga čutim
7. Ti in jaz
8. Lino
9. Odhajam stran
10. Ljubimec brez imena
11. Sive ceste
12. Nepremagljivi
13. Daleč stran
—encore—
14. Noro
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