Author: Urban Bolta
Location: Hipodrom / Šentjernej / Slovenia
Concert date: April 30, 2014
Attendance: 1500
Ticket price: 10€ (presale) / 15€ (day of show)
The last night of April is traditionally one of the liveliest nights of the whole calendar year. At the peak of the May Day holidays, bonfires blaze on hills and in valleys all over our little country, and the bigger events often come with a music program on the side. One such evening went down in Šentjernej in Lower Carniola, where the legendary Belgrade band Riblja čorba was the big draw. For the organizers, landing one of the many musical giants of the former shared country is a bullseye. These bands still pull the Slovenian crowd in like a magnet, even if Čorba’s thousand-and-first visit to our parts was never going to bring (and didn’t bring) any kind of musical revelation.
The event was nicely organized. Traffic flowed smoothly the whole time despite the sea of steel horses, and even the punctual start of the music at the announced nine p.m. hinted that the partying onstage (thankfully) wouldn’t drag on until dawn the next morning. First up was a local band whose name, sadly, I don’t know, led by a likeable young woman. Wading through energetic pop-rock and rock waters, and helped by some seasoned instrumentalists, the band had no trouble handling its role as the evening’s first warm-up act.
Next up were Zaklonišče prepeva, by now the elder statesmen of the Slovenian rock scene, who are returning to concert stages more intensively with the release of their album »Samo da prođe demokratija« (review HERE). Could you even wish for a better-suited opening act? Zaklonišče prepeva are a musical monument to Yugo-nostalgia, which today, thanks to the economic and social situation, is perhaps even stronger than it was a decade ago. Back then, frontman Vanja Alič overdid the political sneering at gigs, but now he’s toned his rhetoric down, making the shows easier to swallow for those who want to forget about political squabbles for at least that hour or two a week when they head out to a concert. Zaklonišče prepeva remain witty storytellers of the tales of the legendary Mića Muriqui and other stories of the average Joe, so with their playful yarns set to a rock’n’roll beat, it wasn’t hard to lure the crowd closer to the stage and get them involved. That peaked at the close with a cover of Balašević’s Računajte na nas.
It was already late when the gray-haired gents who’ve been together under the name Riblja čorba for what feels like three and a half centuries marched onto the stage. The Belgraders released their nineteenth studio album »Uzbuna« two years ago (review HERE) and presented it a year ago at a big show at Ljubljana’s Križanke. This time, at the invitation of the Lower Carniolan organizers, their van rolled once again into the land of Saint Florian, all the way to Šentjernej.
Riblja čorba remain masters of their trade: despite endless mileage, Bora and company make it look easy to hide the routine that carries them from gig to gig. The frontman’s controversial persona shows ever less radicalism in his old age. Midway through the show he even draped the scarf of Split football club Hajduk around his neck for a few minutes, which, given his past, is a pretty shocking move. Money evidently heals all wounds and the olive branch has been extended, but Čorba has landed in so many international conflicts over the decades that Bora’s friendly gestures will probably never get anything but an incredulous smirk.
In a marathon set, Riblja čorba strolled through a pile of hits, from the turn of the seventies into the eighties as well as the more radio-friendly ones from the mid-eighties, the ones that brought the Čorba legend closer even to the part of the crowd that otherwise has nothing to do with rock’n’roll. During the crowd favorites Avionu slomiču ti krila, Amsterdam and Pogledaj dom svoj anđele, flying drops of beer mingled with the air molecules. The more devoted fans got their share too, as Čorba threw them a bone in the form of Napolju, a song left unplayed for years. The wolf is fed and the goat is safe, in other words!
Bora Đordević used the full power of words in his poetic asides, which hit even harder coming from the throat of someone as charismatic as he is. As usual, he sharpened up his »pedre« through tuneful rhymes, and he didn’t skimp on the shoulder shrug when mentioning the Finns Leningrad Cowboys, with whom they shared a stage two years ago at Schengenfest. »How can someone be a Leningrad cowboy if they’re from Finland? Then from now on we’re Belgrade Indians too!« There was truly no shortage of laughs, good vibes, singalongs and, in the end, the smell of sizzling pleskavicas. Čorba wrapped up the two-and-a-half-hour hangout with hundreds of voices roaring along to the unforgettable anthem Lutka sa naslovne strane.
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