Location: Kino Šiška / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 07.02.2011
Attendance: 1000
Ticket price: €20.00 (advance) / €22.00 (day of show)
Well, the capital has finally gotten its show from California punk rockers Pennywise, who have been fronted since 2010 by Zoli Teglas, the vocalist of hardcore/punk rock band Ignite.
The ground started shaking that day (Monday, February 7, 2011) at Kino Šiška with Trbovlje hardcore crew Kreshesh Nepitash. The five-piece played tracks from both of their albums (Life Is On The Line and A Piece Of Anger) to a crowd that was still pretty thin and stiff at that hour, and sawed through a brand-new song called Pain for its premiere. The guys have some serious mileage behind them, and it showed in the 40-minute set, which was plenty to prove that they’re the champions of hardcore on the home scene – fight for hardcore pride!
Right on schedule, which was almost to the minute, Elvis Jackson marched onto the stage at 21:45 after a short break. They were the announced surprise, which the organizers only revealed barely a week before the show. At the first hits and screams from vocalist Buda, the crowd packed in, got into it and started moving (or rather shoving in the front rows). Their setlist also covered all of their albums (Move Your Feet It`s One O Clock, Go Home And Practice, Summer Edition and Against The Gravity from 2009). The Elvises are still firing up the crowd with the antics they’ve been pulling for years (like throwing toilet paper and confetti, the so-called swimming class on an inflatable mattress, and kicking an inflatable ball around), and the mix of reggae, metal, ska and punk rock always draws a motley crowd of all sorts to their shows. This time, too, there was no escaping a Raining Blood interlude, courtesy of the legendary Slayer, and a closing Slovenian anthem (that’s Smoke The Herb), which absolutely everybody still loves to sing along to with the Elvises.
The break gave everyone a chance to top up on liquid refreshments, the floor started filling up, the lines at the toilets got shorter, and the hall got fuller and fuller.
Five minutes late, California legends Pennywise took the stage, with Fletcher Dragge on guitar and backing vocals, Randy Bradbury on bass and backing vocals, Byron McMackin on drums and Zoli Teglas on lead vocals.
The band is known for hard-hitting tunes and socially critical lyrics about the everyday stuff going on in the life around us. They came out swinging with Fight Till You Die and cranked up the temperature right away. The stage diving, which stands for solidarity and brotherhood in the Pennywise world, went on from the very first song and eased off a bit around the middle of the show, when they had to turn on the lights and stop Homesick because somebody up front flew high and landed low and hard. Facts are facts, and they sometimes need to be said out loud again (as singer Zoli did): “Be careful when you jump off the stage!” and “You jump off the stage at your own risk!”
With every song the energy kept climbing, and so did the heat. The hits came from almost all of their records (Pennywise, Unknown Road, About Time, Full Circle, Straight Ahead, Land of the Free? and the latest release Reason To Believe, though they didn’t touch a single song from Fuse or From The Ashes), peaking with their cover of Ben E. King’s classic Stand By Me, a staple of their long-running repertoire. After a short break the visibly wrecked and hungover foursome came back out, thanked everyone who has supported them since 1988, thanked everyone who came to the show, and once more told us who and what they are (the song called “Pennywise”). The finale was the brotherhood anthem (Bro Hymn), which, as usual, pulled about 100 people, and then some, up onto the stage.
When midnight struck, the hall emptied out, visibly satisfied, and the night rolled on to the official after party hosted by Gala Hala at Metelkova. But that’s a story for another time…
photos: Martin Prezelj
Setlist
01. Fight Till You Die 02. Every Single Day 03. My Own Country 04. Can`t Believe It 05. What If I 06. Peaceful Day 07. Same Old Story 08. Living For Today 09. Greed 10. Society 11. Homesick 12. Fuck Authority 13. Straight Ahead 14. Nowhere Fast 15. Searching 16. Something To Live For 17. Alien 18. Stand By Me (Ben E. King cover) 19. Pennywise 20. Bro Hymn
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