Location: Ljubljana / Arena Stožice / Slovenia
Concert date: December 7, 2013
Attendance: 7,000
Ticket price: €32.00 (stands) / €35.00 (floor)
In the cold days when the bears are already deep in their winter sleep, musicians still don’t get to rest. No matter how long they’ve been on the scene or how much rest they might need. Parni Valjak are surely one of the most tireless machines on the Balkan peninsula, and after their autumn shows in Celje and Ajdovščina, we finally got them in Ljubljana again.
The Croatian legends hardly need an introduction. Apart from a 4-year break, they’ve been active on the music scene for more than 30 years, and all that time their music and performances have thrilled the young and the young at heart alike. Teenagers and older generations both show up at their gigs, so the band has stayed relevant the whole way through. This year they released their 18th studio album, Nema predaje, and by the looks of it, Parni Valjak really have no intention of surrendering.
A quarter of an hour before showtime, it was clear that our southern neighbors weren’t going to fill Stožice to the last corner this time. The rather steep ticket price probably had something to do with it – on the day of the show, the floor cost a hefty €35. Of course, after the gig it would be hard to say the ticket was overpriced – for a spectacle of almost 3 hours, that may not even be that much. But then again, with the fallout of the recession knocking on every door …
Parni Valjak are a band that doesn’t need a support act at its show. With their rich repertoire and stage experience, they can satisfy every single listener and spectator in the hall on their own. And there were just enough of them to make for a pleasant atmosphere, with still enough room to move around to the rhythms from the stage, even right up front. At nine o’clock sharp, after a playful intro announcement by Vid Valič, the band members strolled onto the stage one after another and kicked off with the well-known, almost folk-classic Lutka za bal. The audience was literally eating out of singer Aki Rahimovki’s hand right away – the whole hall joined in on vocals without hesitation, and soon even the most static folks were at least nodding their heads to the lively rhythms. The velvety sounds coming from every corner of the stage caressed the crowd and carried it along. People in the stands got up and joined in the loud singing and the waving of hands in the air. The band steered skillfully through the song selection, so among the crowd of older hits we also heard newer tracks from the latest album. Even though Parni Valjak never skip their big hits from the past, they always keep adding more recent songs to the setlist. The band spiced up the show with a half-hour acoustic set, which didn’t calm the audience down one bit – quite the opposite. That very set woke up Stožice in a way and got the crowd singing along even louder, even though the band members were sitting calmly on their stools. The peak of the acoustic part was definitely Ljubavna, as the audience sang more than half the song all by itself. After the well-known Ja u ljubav vjerujem, the crew quickly cleared the chairs off the stage, the band swapped instruments, and the show carried on in electric form. At the opening notes of the keyboards, the audience sang along to Dođi. The band’s rich experience and perfect chemistry really shone in the last part of the show, when, despite trouble with guitarist Marijan Brkić – Brko’s Gibson, the whole lineup took up positions to draw as much attention as possible away from Brko, while also making sure that only the sharpest-eared fans caught the slight flaws in the sound while the problems lasted. But all of that is negligible. Despite no longer being dewy-eyed young, the frontman happily bounced around the stage, danced, and got the crowd to join in and clap along – Aki’s energy on stage fortunately doesn’t fade with the years, and his vocal abilities, too, can still handle a full 3 hours in one night with a solid tone and no major trouble. Their mastery of stage performance also showed in how they literally set the crowd on fire at the end with the energetic hits U prolazu and Ugasi me, which led to wild demands for an encore. The band didn’t make us beg for long. In the encore they played Vjeruj, Prokleta nedelja and, of course, Jesen u meni, which again triggered calls for the band to come back out. And the calls worked – Aki returned with the crew once more and treated us to Aleluja and the folk-classic Sve još miriše na nju. After almost three hours, the band finally said goodbye to an audience that could be more than happy and satisfied.
Setlist
1. Lutka za bal
2. Zona somraka
3. Zagreb ima isti pozivni
4. Zastave
5. Ostani s njim
6. Nema predaje
7. A gdje je ljubav
8. Istina
9. Stvarno nestvarno
10. Nakon svih godina
11. Jedino ti
12. Tanki živci
13. Gledam je dok spava
14. Kralj iluzija (acoustic)
15. Dok je tebe (acoustic)
16. 700 milja od kuće (acoustic)
17. Uhvati ritam (acoustic)
18. Ljubavna (acoustic)
19. Ja u ljubav vjerujem (acoustic)
20. Dođi
21. Stranica dnevnika
22. Sunčanom stranom
23. Mjenjam se
24. Samo da znaš
25. U prolazu
26. Ugasi me
—encore I—
27. Vjeruj
28. Prokleta nedelja
29. Jesen u meni
—encore II—
30. Aleluja (ja još vjerujem u nas)
31. Sve još miriše na nju
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