Venue: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 30.03.2008
Attendance: 190
Ticket price: 14,00€
“Punk isn’t dead!”
With that slogan, this year’s by now traditional Ortofest kicked off on Monday, March 31, and just like every year, it’s going to serve us up bands from all kinds of genres. The festival was opened by new wave punks from Maribor, straight out of the eighties – Preporod, who are celebrating thirty years of existence this year. The guys stormed the stage of Orto Bar around ten p.m., and even though the upstairs room was still half empty at that hour, singer Smiljan Kreže joked that back in Maribor, people from Maribor never turn up in such numbers for a Ljubljana band, and he didn’t forget to add: “And for 14 €, which in Maribor is a whole month’s pay!” Rocking dark shades and a T-shirt with the telling slogan “I don’t want to brag, but I come quick,” Smiljan proved himself a real joker all the way through the set, a guy who can’t even drink a beer without the foam shooting out of the bottle. While the Preporod boys energetically powered through one song after another, Orto Bar kept filling up minute by minute.
After about forty minutes of mostly old songs that, by the way, sound very fresh and relevant, the Preporod guys handed the nicely warmed-up crowd, with Pankrti’s Peter Lovšin and rapper Trkaj swaying among them, over to another legendary band with a twenty-five-year history – the punk rockers from Metlika, Indust-bag. True, the band belongs to the new wave punks, but their set was colored more rock than punk. I believe the guys played their hearts out, but sadly the whole thing came out rather lame, and the energy Preporod had built up dropped noticeably. Among others, Indust-bag played a few of their big hits, such as “Psihoza”, “Brez provokacije”, “Za hitre dni” and “Zrasli smo divji”.
Maybe their set felt even lamer because the crowd took a break and went out to fill their lungs with “fresh” air, since most people had come for the surprise of the night.
Around eleven forty p.m., radio host Jure Longyka came onstage and, with words that went something like this: “Every government means police, and every police force means weapons in its hands. Every weapon brings suffering, and every suffering turns into rebellion. And every rebellion grows into revolution. Revolution brings a new government …”, he announced the Slovenian punk legends Niet, who reunited after more than sixteen years. The news that Niet had risen from the dead was definitely the best news of last fall, when they were supposed to play on 1.12.2007 before another legendary band – Pankrti (who celebrated their comeback to the music scene at the time in a sold-out Hala Tivoli), but unfortunately their performance fell through back then.
You could hardly have seen Niet at Orto in a more original lineup. Bassist Aleš Česnovar, guitarists Igor Dernovšek and Robert Likar, and drummer Tomaž Bergant were joined by singer Borut Marolt, who, as the show proved, did a more than excellent job stepping into the shoes of the sadly late original singer Primož Habič.
Jure Longyka took his introduction of the legends from their song “Ritem človeštva”, which Niet used to open Monday’s set. The crowd greeted them with a thunderous applause, and from the very first riffs the madness started and didn’t let up until the end of the night. With the very first song, Borut showed he’s made of the right stuff. Next came “Molk”, and the crowd sang in one voice “we behind the walls, we behind the walls, we behind the walls stay silent …”. Without any needless chatter between songs, Niet played yet another legendary track – “Depresija”. Ah, but all their songs are legendary! One of the highlights of the night was “Vijolice”, when the crowd got a notch louder still. “Melanholija” and “Heroj”, followed by “Perspectives – of drunken nights, perspectives – of wrecked mornings …”. Then “Izobčeni”, and then came the best, most beautiful moment of the night. The guitars started spinning out the riffs of one of their most recognizable songs. “The sun was shining and the sirens were wailing, the sky was blue, almost without a cloud …” Yes, that was “Lep dan za smrt”! Every throat in the place was screaming at the top of its lungs. How could they not, when you simply can’t stand still with your mouth shut during this song!
A short break followed, and the moment the band left the stage, the crowd started yelling: “We want more!” After a few minutes the guys were back onstage. They started the return with the slightly sadder “Bil je maj”. It’s a notch calmer as a song, but the crowd went just as wild as at the start, when Niet first stepped onstage. The evening was slowly winding down. They fired off “Februar” and another slightly calmer track, “Ruski vohun”, and with “Umiranje” Niet, after almost an hour of playing, really said goodnight.
The upstairs room at Orto emptied in an instant, since lungs were hungry for smoke and throats were thirsty, and the band was immediately swarmed by journalists who came just short of brawling over quotes from the members. Give them some room to breathe!
After some initial trouble picking up my accreditation and a few frayed nerves, everything worked out nicely. Niet gave it their all and, as I already mentioned, Borut was an excellent successor to Primož.
Setlist
1. Ritem človeštva
2. Molk
3. Depresija
4. Vijolice
5. Melanholija
6. Heroj
7. Perspektive
8. Izobčeni
9. Lep dan za smrt
10. Bil je maj
11. Februar
12. Ruski vohun
13. Umiranje
Photo Gallery
