Performer: Drinkers, The
Label: Self-released
Release: 2011
Duration: 62:28
Rating: 3.5/5
It doesn’t happen every day that you record a concert for a DVD release. Especially not if you pick Hala Tivoli for it. Even more so. Or less. Depending on how you look at it. Because it’s a challenge in general when you head into Hala Tivoli to answer nature’s call and have to walk across the stage to unload your excess cargo.
The stage in the Hala Tivoli toilets. Home of The Drinkers for a good hour! There was never any doubt they’d pack the place. One way or another. And they did. Like toilet-fee collectors, they held back 60 smoke-cured heads at the entrance to the “spacious” restroom, who clenched their loyal, seen-it-all sphincters together with the band for a solid hour. And the sphincters held. Verified.
If I finally get down to properly presenting the first officially released The Drinkers DVD, let me say that this is first and foremost a documentary release. Everything on it revolves around the latest The Drinkers prank, a perfectly typical idea that only the famously overflowing The Drinkers imagination could cook up.
Since the venue for this concert sin is tiny, with drummer Klemen literally parked next to the sinks, it’s obvious the camera can’t exactly go wild with its shots. So The Drinkers came up with the bright idea of breaking up the monotony of the footage by weaving comments right into the gig recording, from a few well-known cosmopolitans of the Slovenian music scene, fired-up fans, total laymen who just happened to wander past the Hala while this important historic document was being made, and music critics like the unshakable voice of Val 202, music guru “Dr. B” (Dragan Bulič).
As for the concert and how it rates, you don’t need Einstein to spell it out. On 18.09.2009, The Drinkers hit the stage in what is now the late lineup, with guitarist Simon Kavšek Koza and Matjaž Živkovič Maki, and with this release wrapped up a chapter of their career. Completely unintentionally and unknowingly, since the DVD came out three months before the lineup change. Ironic, sure, but it’s exactly this fact that gives the release so much more value, no matter what lineup The Drinkers carry on with in the future.
Full-on shtick. Just as expected. Maki egging the crowd on to piss and shit, the endless tuning of Koza’s guitar, with a broken-string change thrown in for good measure, all fits perfectly with the well-known The Drinkers pragmatism, which we understand as the dedicated duty of a guarantor of healthy taste in genuine rock n’ roll tomfoolery. The hoarser you are, the better the spectral payoff of the sound picture. That’s how real alcoholic punk rock n’ roll debauchery beats!
As for the sound, it could have used a bit more control in post-production. Sure, drums sound very boxy in rooms like this, but you still have to seriously strain your ears to catch any thicker, more penetrating tone from Mutvar’s bass guitar.
This is a document made for true fans of The Drinkers, and especially for everyone who still stands loyally by the band today and helps it in its long-lived, stubborn defiance on the scene, since it’s a kind of tribute to them. The idea of a gig in the toilets is excellent. With it, The Drinkers definitely did something nobody before them dared to do publicly on the Slovenian rock scene. And yet the execution of the final product is a bit sloppy when it comes to stitching together the shots and the sound, and there are no special extras to be found on the DVD either. What does deserve praise is the cover design, taken from the design of the concert ticket, as immortalized in the footage on the DVD. Still, we shouldn’t expect too much, since we know the financial reach of underground rock n’ roll in Slovenia today. Though we shouldn’t be too modest either. The Drinkers left themselves a huge amount of room for improvement this time, and they could have put a bit more attention and effort into enriching the release. Modest, but with a sparkling dose of tightly packed The Drinkers sarcasm. The latter successfully fills the gaps that the most demanding collectors of audio-visual media will miss this time.
And so we got the first DVD from our country’s first beer-soaked rock n’ roll debauchers, with which the band successfully planted its flag in the Tivoli toilets and, without meaning to, gave it historic value, since this release closed out the “Maki era”. Good luck, “Maki”, good luck, “Koza”!
You can read the RockLine live report from the historic The Drinkers concert on 18.09.2009, from the Tivoli toilets in Ljubljana, as immortalized on this DVD, HERE.
Lineup
Matjaž Živkovič “Maki” – vocals
Robert Likar “Litr” – guitar, backing vocals
Simon Kavšek “Koza” – guitar, backing vocals
Miro Mutvar – bass guitar
Klemen Markelj – drums
Track list
1. Lepi in trezni
2. Miss Lee
3. Tine Rine
4. I Love Alkohol
5. 10 majhnih jagrov
6. Pijemo ga radi
7. Hura
8. Jawohl
9. Stari mož
10. Lit’r vina
11. Ko to tamo peva
