Venue: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 25.01.2007
Attendance: 120
Ticket price: 8.00€
Around eight, nine o’clock there was no big crowd to speak of, but you could feel in the air that the place would be packed by ten, when the rockers from Velenje took the stage. Again. Because wherever they play, they fill the hall, the club or just a regular little room with their loyal fans. And there are plenty of them. Add a few curious ears like mine on top of that and we’re ready for some rock’n’roll.
I didn’t know much about Res Nullius, but what I did know was enough to get me to Ort on Friday night too. There I found out the following: that I know too little about them (I thought they’d put out two records, but it’s actually four!) and that they’re a damn good live band.
I knew they weren’t exactly a “young” band, that their biggest commercial hit is the song Leta 72′ and that they made a surprisingly good video for the song Revolver ljubezni.
Wrong! When they kicked off with one of the tracks from their first record…..and went on through the whole spread of all four records, I realized that people aren’t only into that one big hit, they’re into everything. Nice and surprising. You can tell the real Res Nullius “fans” showed up. And maybe I’m one of them now, slowly but surely, of course. The singer comes across as kind of mysterious, since apart from “Good evening, thank you and good night” he didn’t say much, but he sang that much more and that much better, while the drummer, guitarist and bassist threw a proper, full-on rock party. Over a good hour and a half they won us over with charisma, energy and well-played music. The solos found their place too, and for all their effort the crowd showered them with applause. Personally I’m hyperactive, and even if I’m at a gig of who-knows-who, I’ll still find time for a trip to the bar and a chat with friends. This time I put all my energy into Res Nullius alone and gave myself over to a great show (and believe me, it’s not easy to see me standing still for an hour and a half!). Well, okay, I was screaming at the top of my lungs and clapping, but I stayed in the same spot!
It’s great to see that a “not so commercial band” has so many fans. The photos will show you just how far our photographer managed to push his way toward the stage. Far, far! They won me over personally, because they showed they can play really well and that they’re a band I’d highly recommend seeing live. Maybe on record they never seemed like much to you, but when you see and hear them live, you know this is a group that gives everything it’s got on stage. For the fans, of course, who followed every single track avidly and gave themselves over to the rhythms of rock’n’roll. Maybe the only thing that bothered me was that mystery, or perhaps just the coldness, of the singer, because somehow he didn’t give me the feeling of being on the same wavelength as the crowd. But maybe that’s just another mistake on my part, of course. Maybe they’re always like that, or at least the singer is (don’t forget, it was my first time seeing them). Come to think of it, at an event like this words are superfluous anyway. And still, they won me over, mostly as musicians on stage.
And a little mystery never hurts! Their loyal fans definitely know that, and now those few curious ears have figured it out too! Here’s to many more rock-flavored gigs, many more good solos and kind words in the notes, and above all, many more bands like this.
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