Location: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 12.09.2015
Attendance: 20
Ticket price: €10.00
If you were watching a certain famous music TV channel around 2000, you probably heard the track Heaven is a halfpipe at least once a day, and if you didn’t watch MTV, you’ve probably never heard of OPM at all (judging by the very poor turnout at Orto, Slovenian youth were obviously following other music trends even back then).
Anyway, OPM hail from California and debuted in 2000 with the album ‘Menace to sobriety’, followed by 3 more albums and 4 EPs, the latest of which came out in August 2015 and is titled ‘The Minge Dynasty’. You’ll find all that info online, of course, if you’re curious.
So how was the gig?
The night was opened by Ceekay Jones, who is currently making his debut with a single by Bliss n Eso – My life, and who has definitely already worked with some big names across the US. He took the stage modestly – just him and his 2 guitars – and served up an improvised set with no setlist planned in advance. Even when a minor technical problem popped up with one of the guitars, he quickly found his footing and carried on with the show.
The special guest of the night was Big B, aka Bryan Mahoney, a former member of OPM. Together with OPM’s drummer, guitarist and keyboardist, he played his own set, which included the radio hits ‘Hangovers with you’ – a collaboration with Dirty Heads – and ‘Sinner’, recorded as a duet with Scott Russo of Unwritten Law. All the rap tracks definitely sounded way better live, with live musical backing, than they do with the overchewed samples that every aspiring young rapper uses these days.
Big B then joined OPM on stage as well, and they served up old and new material alike, while Big B dropped freestyle rap bits that had us properly cracking up at times – yep, he’s got plenty of interesting stories up his sleeve. Some of the crowd provided entertainment too, with acrobatic attempts at balancing a glass of beer on their forehead that completely threw Big B and John E. Necro off – they stopped the song mid-performance and filmed the guy instead – maybe the clip even ends up on YouTube.
Despite the dismal turnout, all the performers gave it everything they had, and we got a fun Saturday to the beats of Californian ska punk / rap / rock… and maybe we’ll see them around here again sometime.
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