Location: Ljubljana, Orto bar
Concert date: 11.03.2008
Attendance: 50
Ticket price: 5€
Pudding Fields. A band with roots going back to 1996, they’ve already got three studio albums under their belt. Their latest, “Srečni izbranci”, came out last December, and the public got its first chance to hear it at the launch show in the Koper theater. After that gig the guys went quiet for a while. In the meantime, the band parted ways amicably with saxophonist Erik Kramberger, and Mateja Filipič took over his spot.
The guys and the girl broke their almost three-month rest with a show at Ljubljana’s Orto bar, which went down last Wednesday, March 12. That kicked off the band’s promo tour through all the better-sounding clubs around Slovenia.
The show, originally announced for 10 p.m., started a bit late, a few minutes before 11 to be exact. Shortly after 9 there wasn’t a soul in front of Orto, and you could count the people sipping drinks inside on the fingers of both hands. That opening scene surprised me, since Orto is usually packed, both outside and in. Clearly this smoking ban is taking quite a toll. Around half past ten the security guys finally let us up to the next floor. The sight in the upstairs room shocked me. Hardly anybody, and the few there were huddled along the walls. Seriously, you have to wonder. A few minutes later the band hit the stage, picked up their instruments and kicked things off with “Feniksov let”. I don’t know if it was nerves that “ruined” the first track or the lousy sound system. When singer Maksim Vergan said a few words after the first song, his voice shook so much it seemed he wouldn’t get through a single sentence, let alone the whole show. “Kupid” followed, the sound wasn’t any better, and the crowd was still lazily hanging around the bar. The guys and the girl tried everything to get people moving, but the crowd stayed cold as ice. What’s more, at one point I looked around the bar and stared in amazement as a few people chatted away happily, as if nothing was happening on stage. Some people, because of the, to put it mildly, poor sound, even left the upstairs room. Come on, show Pudding some support.
But the band didn’t give up. They played song after song, and soon two girls danced out into the middle of Orto and (obviously) lifted the band’s morale. The nerves eased off for Maksim and the rest of the band, and the atmosphere got a notch more charged with energy. Among other things, the Puddings played “Vrtovi”, which was originally released on the debut album “Največja prevara 21(ega) stoletja” (October 2003), but they gave it a fresh new look and put it on the latest record too. No doubt about it, this version sounds good as well! Then came “Sodni dan”, the ska-flavored “Vesoljska”, “Krogla”, “Kralj” …
Just before the end, the Puddings played a rock-ska version of “Englishman In New York”, which Sting originally performs. They tacked on the newest radio single “Kocke (Srečni izbranci)” at the tail end of the set, and at least the handful of people who stayed shook their sleepy heads a bit. Even if only at the very end. Then the crowd surprised me when they suddenly started shouting for more, and the Puddings played one of my favorite tracks from the latest record, “Belo”. A perfect ending to an imperfect night.
Despite the bad sound, the guys and the girl got the show through to the end successfully. At the next gigs, though, you’d better swap out the sound (non-)engineer, because the Orto show could have been a lot better.
text: Lea Lesar
photos: Barbara Milharčič
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