Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: R'N'R pub / Zeleni gaj (Dornberk) / Slovenia
Concert date: 31.07.2010
Attendance: 550
Ticket price: 5.00€ (after 9:00 PM)
The party went down under Zeleni gaj again this year, near the charming little village of Dornberk. Dornberk? If you blindly circle a finger on the map, it’s nothing special and not damn far from Nova Gorica. Hellish, no doubt! And already in the middle of the day. Black souls on the march! This year the organizer invited bands whose members have chewed their way through a serious stretch of musical mileage. Once we start rattling off names like Requiem, Lene kosti and Železobeton, you’ve probably already figured out which way the wind is blowing this time. And names like that are a guarantee of a good turnout, because besides great live music they also deliver a great party! Guaranteed, in other words! Old story. We Slovenes are play-it-safe types who get fired up on a guarantee of quality in advance.
Original plans love to flip at the last minute. So the up-and-coming metallers Dawn Patrol cancelled their set again. I don’t know why the Ljubljana–Ajdovščina crew didn’t take this nice chance to open as the first, red-hot act and start stoking the metal heads. It’s a shame, though, that Dawn Patrol aren’t capitalizing on their talent and abilities at exactly the time they need to most badly.
Once again, on this “most illustrious lord’s day, the last day of this July,” I found myself wearing several hats tied to my everyday involvement in rock and metal. So I had to miss the set by the Prekmurje old-school thrashers Železobeton, who hit the stage a little after ten in the evening. I only managed to catch up with the band’s leader Tadej Repoša after the show, and we wrapped up our chat with a few hot tips from the band’s camp. Apparently so much material has piled up already that under ideal conditions (read: if milk and honey flowed for metal) Železobeton could have squeezed out three studio albums by now. The new one is taking shape with real vehemence in the Železobeton incubator, so we’ll see it this year still. The band’s ever-positive boss also didn’t hide how pleased he was with a successful set, or with the crowd’s response.
I got back to the venue around half past eleven in the evening. Onstage, the Italian Black Sabbath knock-offs were raging. The sound was very good. That goes for their recap of “Iommi’s guitar gear” too, which they came respectably close to. There’s just one thing I don’t get, and this one is on the whole crew. How can they tolerate a vocal rendition of cult songs by a cult band that revolutionized the development of rock and metal, when the singer doesn’t have a single, solitary verse under control? That goes even for a song as overplayed and worn-out as Paranoid. Some “Ozzy” that was! Yuck! Some of us were manically plugging our ears, while the carefree metal partiers switched off in front of the stage and had a blast. In that sense the band’s set is even excusable. As for the more “sensitive-eared” music lovers, I’d bet my right hand they suffered terribly through those 45 minutes, which brings us to the conclusion that bluffing can’t last forever. In Italy, where they don’t understand English or interpret it their own way (their English sounds best when they swallow the letter “H”), nobody at their shows will ever notice these grave malfunctions of a Black Sabbath tribute, of course.
And now to the stars of the night! Requiem! They’re extremely active this summer, especially in the western end of Slovenia, and they’re not that hard to catch onstage. Combined with Lene kosti, who followed Requeim, you’d expect a real “clash of the titans.” This combination, however, turned out more than fortunate and compatible. But more on that below. Requiem showed up onstage for this gig mildly “stripped down.” No singer Primož Romšak this time. A set tailored for the club scene, squeezed into an hour. A solid hour! The singing duties were taken over, as expected, by Sergej Škofljanec, strapped into his five-string bass. For Sergej, of course, that’s small potatoes. Plenty has been said, written and above all already experienced about this highly talented musician, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and so on… “Sergio” solved the situation simply. This musician, whom we can call “Mr. Everywhere,” has a highly charismatic figure and stage presence. Sergej gets a lot done with facial grimaces alone while singing, and most of all, of course, with his excellent vocals. It’s a highly controlled approach that doesn’t skimp on melody and uses the full voltage of his vocal range. Once again the “auxiliary” Requiem singer sounded confident and did far more than justify his handy side role, which the band obviously cashes in on skillfully quite often. Requiem as a quartet! As always, we can’t overlook the boss, Marko Slokar. This time the band’s leader dropped the “Ingwie” getup. Most of the band’s otherwise standard “baroque” frills fell this time to guitarist Matjaž Marin. Slokar’s rugged figure onstage remains the point of Requiem. Without him there is no Requiem, and the feeling of Requiem “fatherhood” that Marko’s presence gives didn’t go missing this time either! The songs were played with confidence, and the sonic qualities of the venue were fully exploited.
Some 300 heads were whirling in hell in front of Requiem, in full party form by then. Already thoroughly sauced and ready for any nonsense! Requiem confirmed how well-oiled they are with a smoothly delivered gig. Their hard rock heritage, deftly tailored to the mind and taste of the Slovenian crowd, came fully alive once again, and after the show there wasn’t a hero who would dare say they hadn’t gone through a proper grilling by the classic Requiem cannonade.
Lene kosti and Requeim swapped the running order at the latter’s request. Things dragged on quite a bit before the Lene kosti set, partly because of sorting out the drum situation. Requeim had their own drums, so Lene kosti had to quickly set up theirs in front of Requiem’s. That left much less room onstage right away. Such a cramped instrument setup affected the sound too. The drums lost some of the lower, warm tones and sounded a touch “boxy.” Everything else was just right. The band cut the taped intro, otherwise they’d have been forced to “sacrifice” another of their stage standards because of the time limit. “Dr. Evil” once again confirmed the outstanding vocal form that’s been with him all summer. He again made full use of his high charisma and the front rows were eating out of his hand. There’s no need to go on about how contagious Dr. Evil’s show is. The crowd had certainly thinned out a bit by the Lene kosti set. Some of those tough guys had already dropped and given out under the weight of alcohol derivatives by then, while many more, likewise under the miraculous influence of the liquors they’d consumed, were rolling around uncontrollably under the stage.. The Kavaš brothers flint-hard and riff-trained, Marc excellent again in the solos! The band skipped Diamonds And Rust and The Sting, and the rest was driven through in standard Lene kosti manner. Sparks flew most again during Russian Girl! There was no costume change for “Dr. Evil” this time either, so the term “stripped-down” set is justified for Lene kosti too this time..
Just as with Requiem, where we can’t ignore the contrast in the members’ national ID numbers (read: ages), the view of the stage during the Lene kosti set offered some interesting observations too. The energy radiated by members 15 to 20 years older is something else entirely. It’s a true sign of exceptional maturity, experience, routine, self-confidence and lack of baggage. And in lineups like these, highly talented and musically well-schooled young guys like Miha Nedoh (drums, Requiem), Matjaž Marin (guitar, Requiem), Rok Večerin “W.U.K.O” (drums, Lene kosti) and Grega Brenko (bass guitar, Lene kosti) can still learn a huge amount. These guys lack neither knowledge nor talent, and they can take a shortcut through the precious phase of gathering experience in artistic maturing and musical profiling!
The Requem and Lene kosti sets pointed out something else. Not only is putting the two bands back to back a more than fortunate musical combination, they also get along wonderfully. It felt like two old friends meeting again after an ocean of seawater had flowed between them since they last saw each other! So all we can do is hope this kind of concert package, Lene kosti – Requeim, gets repeated on stages as often as possible in the future!
A little after two in the morning, Wild Ones took the stage as the last act. These guys are really made of the right stuff. The central figure is guitarist Martin Favento, whose role models include guitarists like Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big), Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen) and/or Y.J.Malmsteen. If the band keeps up the path it has charted for developing its own musical artistry, we truly needn’t worry about the hard rock legacy in Slovenia. Credit for the compactness of this young and fearless band must definitely go to the excellent vocals, which develop an extraordinary stage power of vocal expression on a pure melodic foundation. Unfortunately I didn’t catch the band onstage. Simply put, the role of music journalist occasionally hits the upper limit of human capacity. So I hope Wild Ones become a fixture on the Slovenian concert scene, so we can meet again as soon as possible.
Peklenska noč 2010 has once again successfully come through its annual metal hustle! Good old friends with metal hearts beating gathered here again, went wild and confessed their deepest sins! A superb lineup of bands, a superb turnout and superb energy that flowed without brakes. And I believe it “popped” and “flashed” under Zeleni gaj long into the morning of the following day!
photos (Železobeton, Black Sabath tribute, Requeim): Martin Prezelj
photos (Requiem, Lene kosti): Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
ŽELEZOBETON BLACK SABBATH tribute REQUIEM LENE KOSTI WILD ONES REQUIEM setlist: 1. Čarovnice 2. Pekel in raj 3. Amsterdam 4. Križarji 5. Pozabi na vse 6. Heroji 7. Zvezdno nebo 8. Dvanajst let 9. All Night Long 10. TV 11. Kaja 12. Rock ‘N’ Roll naj živi 13. Kraljica noči 14. Stare device LENE KOSTI setlist: 1. I Got The… 2. Stones Of Death 3. Nightmare 4. Tube Snake Boogie 5. Time For Love 6. Iron Dragon 7. Uninvited Guest 8. Play With Fire 9. Russian Girl 10. Sunrise 11. Warrior 12. Rock Power 13. Do Or Die
Photo Gallery
