Location: Punk Rock Holiday 1.1 / Tolmin, Sotočje / Slovenia
Concert date: 11.08.2011
Attendance: 1500
Ticket price: €31.00 (single day), €78.00 (four-day)
For the first time, Punk Rock Holiday joined forces with the organizers of Trbovlje’s Šklabfest and Ajdovščina’s Njoki, and as the biggest punk festival in the region it served up four nights of a colorful mix of punk, hardcore and ska. Alongside the local names, plenty of foreign bands tore it up too, led by headliners Bad Religion and NoFX.
We got to enjoy the beautiful setting at the confluence of the Soča and the Tolminka, which also offered a chance to cool off in some properly freezing water. The beach was a real treat, and the beer and food offering there, plus a sound system set up right on site, kept everyone who still had any energy left busy before and after the huge lineup of concerts.
The stage and lighting were decent, and the sound was already very good from the very first acts. The bigger bands naturally brought their own sound techs along, so we got to enjoy really solid sound.
The festival was kicked off by Italy’s Myspace Invaders with their melodic pop-punk, sprinkled with a few covers. A nicely tight lineup, perfectly fine as an opener, but they lack the inventiveness for anything more.
Local lads Harry played mainly for the joy of their own crowd. Their clichéd punk and unremarkable stage presence need a lot more polishing before they’re ready for a big stage.
Trbovlje’s Kreshesh Nepitash sounded completely different. True to their name, they delivered a relentlessly hard-hitting and extremely tight show. Their crossover punk, with punchy rap parts from a very dynamic vocalist, didn’t sound boring or repetitive for even a second. They’re definitely one of the local acts at PRH worth keeping an ear on in the future.
The first of the two “neighbors” to take the stage was Rijeka’s Pasi . The band has plenty of miles under its belt, and their mix of hardcore and pop-punk with the occasional reggae touch wins you over mainly thanks to an excellent vocalist.
After them, in front of an already sizable crowd, Austria’s 3 Feet Smaller took their role as Bad Religion’s support act very seriously. Their pop-punk is very clichéd, and with a lack of musical ideas and fairly forced singing from the frontman, they made up for it with a crisply choreographed stage show, getting the crowd to sing along to one- and two-syllable lines, and other gimmicks that put everyone in a cheerful mood for the stars of the night.
Bad Religion started off energetically and played the whole show in great spirits. As frontman Greg Graffin put it, „we’ve been rehearsing for this show the whole tour”. Last year they celebrated a mature thirty years together, put out a live record and a “Tribute” album, plus a new release, „The Dissent of Man”. According to Greg, the single “The Devil In Stitches” landed at number eight thousand and one on the iTunes chart, which, in his words, shows the band’s importance on the world and even universal scene… University professor Graffin kept up that very witty approach all through the show, which brought a handful of new songs along with a varied batch of hits. The third song was already „21st Century Boy”, with „Punk Rock Song” soon after, and both naturally sent the crowd into the air, while the stage divers had to make do with jumping off the barrier, since the stage was too far away.
From song to song, Bad Religion proved their cult status on the scene: a relentless rhythm section, two razor-sharp guitars and vocal harmonies you rarely hear from acts half their age. About an hour and a half of hard-hitting melodic punk, with the mood climbing constantly, ended with an encore of „American Jesus”, „Infected” and the obligatory closer „Sorrow”, easily the highlight of the show.
The rowdy close to the festival’s opening night came courtesy of Macedonia’s Superhiks. With the shout „nema spavanja, Tolmin” and energetic ska-punk spiced up with ethnic touches, they got the remaining punk holidaymakers dancing. With really tight playing, they proved to be outstanding musicians who know how to combine different genres effectively.
The first day of PRH showed that the organizers set up a solid festival concept. Bad Religion, as one of the two headliners, played as brilliantly as expected, and among the other bands, Kreshesh Nepitash and Superhiks deserve a special mention.
Setlist
BAD RELIGION: 1. The Resist Stance 2. Social Suicide 3. 21st Century (Digital Boy) 4. Los Angeles Is Burning 5. Wrong Way Kids 6. Punk Rock Song 7. Atomic Garden 8. Before You Die 9. Recipe For Hate 10. The Devil in Stitches 11. Come Join Us 12. New Dark Ages 13. The Defense 14. 1000 More Fools 15. Dearly Beloved 16. Generator (slow version) 17. Cyanide 18. Let Them Eat War 19. No Control 20. Along the Way 21. Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell —encore— 22. American Jesus 23. Infected 24. Sorrow
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