Location: Ljubljana / Orto Bar / Slovenia
Concert date: 16.01.2007
Attendance: 35
Ticket price: 3.00€
If you love the seventies, when it was bands making rock music and not record labels, and if you’ve forgotten what guts look like, then there’s no better cure than a Moonlight Sky gig. After a month and a half, it was time to check in again on the progressive phenomenon known as Moonlight Sky. The guys landed at Orto Bar, where they carried on with the live presentation of their freshly released record “Moonlight Sky”, a record that cost not just them their innocence, but probably the whole Slovenian scene too, which most likely had never come across anything like Moonlight Sky before. The sad part of it all is that it’ll take the world abroad to remind Slovenia that it lost its innocence! Right from the start, Moonlight Sky reach way beyond the borders of their homeland, scouting Europe, scouting the world. In short, a band capable of going for the top. Maybe they weren’t born in the right place or at the right time, but that’s exactly where the key lies, when it sprouts inside you like a quiet avant-garde streak in opposition, just waiting for the right moment to burst out and set off potentially massive euphoria!
22.20 on the dot! The lads walk onto the stage. About 25 people were squeezed in at the bar in the little hall (not counting the bar staff). Andraž’s opening greeting alone already sounded more confident than the kickoff of the band’s gig at Channel Zero a month and a half ago!
The guys picked a fitting tune to open with: Pluton. That song reveals the beat and spirit of Moonlight Sky in an instant, so it’s a highly recommended opener for the future too. It was obvious the band really enjoyed the atmosphere of Orto Bar, with less cigarette smoke in the air and more light on stage than they got at the aforementioned Channel Zero in Metelkova. Moonlight Sky presented their whole debut “Moonlight Sky” and did it as honestly as it gets. They played the entire record, in fact. They slipped in Hendrix’s Red House and spiced up the ending with an excellent rendition of Leb i sol (Jovano, Jovanke). The quartet sounded even tighter, better tuned, and even more unleashed with no brakes on, and Andraž in particular lifted the show with his witty banter between songs, which even managed to lure the shy, impoverished handful of Slovenes who came out that night to enjoy the gig closer to the stage! Guitarist Miha Petric, an out-of-the-ordinary talent by Slovenian standards, rightly drew most of the attention, thanks to his polished image and a fascinating rig of effects, including a talk box, and above all his playing style, which is the personification of some of the best moments in rock history from the late sixties and the first half of the seventies. I rarely get goosebumps watching Slovenian bands. This time they were everywhere, and not thanks to Miha alone but the whole quartet, and, interestingly, in a more than half-empty hall (toward the end maybe 35 to 40 people gathered). You won’t get a pick from Miha, because he doesn’t use one, unless he’s clipped off a fingernail! The guys put the setlist together cleverly. Honestly, they probably didn’t even think about it much, but the peaks were exactly where they need to be to keep the dynamics of the show high, keep the intensity up, and keep the shock factor going the whole time, so you can’t catch your breath, let alone yawn. Straight in with Pluton, then in the middle Rigg’s Family Shot and Ocean, one of the most beautiful pieces when it comes to the harmonious flow of the instruments, as well as the flow of unpredictably stacked moods, and the ending was especially decisive, with the aforementioned cover of the legendary Macedonians Leb i sol.
The hour flew by in a blink, and the guys waved goodbye for the first time, then came quickly back on stage, and at Andraž’s hint: “Do ya want more?” they even coaxed a resolute, approving: “Yeeeeeeeah!!!” out of the passive crowd. The surprise of the night came with the encore. They’d learned another Leb i sol tune, Devetka! It was the first time it had been played in Orto Bar in front of a wider audience! A short, interesting little thing, and above all a light one, which turned out to be the right warm-up for the Black Sabbath-style The Groove.
Moonlight Sky have something to show. Their debut alone (the record “Moonlight Sky”) holds so much variety that you can enjoy and discover it for a good stretch of time. For me it’s been going since late November last year, and I’m still finding bits that surprise and thrill me. If that’s really the case with this fusion of many musical forms, then we’re not far from the fact that Moonlight Sky are first and foremost a live band, one that truly comes to life in full glory only on stage. This is a proper “jamming band” that sets no musical limits on its own expression! The studio is actually even a bit limiting for the band’s exploratory focus. In short, a gig loaded with unpredictable twists of atmosphere, which is the whole point of any first-rate progressive rock story. These guys know how to serve up, with plenty of spice, everything your heart desires! From the guitar sound of Barrett’s late-sixties psychedelia to Hendrixisms, Gilmourisms,… The guys are first-rate musicians and the communication between them is truly outstanding. The band is growing, and after this promising start you can really wait impatiently to see where the wind will take them. The jazz rhythm section and the woven-in classic rock sound of guitar and keys lead to a special sound, expression, and appealing blend that carries hints of cerebral transcendence (Ocean), yet is grounded here and there by thick riff-plowing (The Groove). Noble fusion. In full bloom.
Setlist
1. Pluton
2. Angel
3. Devet osem
4. So Hard To Leave Someone You Love
5. Rigg’s Family Shot
6. Ocean
7. Red House
8. Štirje svetovi
9. Moonlight Sky
10. How Much?
11. Jovano, Jovanke
—encore—
12. Devetka
13. The Groove
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