Venue: Net Cafe, Ljubljana
Gig date: 11.11.2008
Attendance: 50
Ticket price: 0
The young Slovenian band Rock Shock formed in 2001. The lineup has gone through plenty of changes since then, but they’ve always tried to serve the crowd quality music that gets you on your feet. This time we caught them at a pretty unexpected spot – Net Cafe, next to the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana.
The first part of the gig kicked off with classics like Bayla (Zucchero) and Long Train Runnin’ (Doobie Brothers). The Doobie Brothers cover sounded especially good. In this stretch we also heard excellent covers of Toto (Hold the Line), Bon Jovi (Runaway) and Status Quo (Rockin’ All Over the World). In between they played two great originals of their own, plus a not-so-successful take on Proud Mary (Tina Turner). After ten songs came the first short break.
After that we got more predictable covers of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joan Jett and Billy Idol, and of course there had to be Bregović’s rip-off Ne spavaj mala moja, which is an obvious plagiarism of Rock’n’Roll Music. They again played two songs of their own, which again sounded good – truly excellent melodic hard rock. Hard To Handle by Black Crowes was a bit of a surprise, while this time’s black mark was reserved for the cover of It’s My Life by Bon Jovi. The criticism isn’t so much about the performance as about the choice, since it’s one of the most annoying Bon Jovi songs out there (Runaway is far better).
In the last part of the gig the guys turned to harder rhythms, so we got Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple), Enter Sandman (Metallica) and Motori (Divlje Jagode). We also got two covers of covers – You Really Got Me (Van Halen, originally by The Kinks) and Knocking on Heaven’s Door (Guns ‘n’ Roses, originally by Bob Dylan). We also witnessed a rework of Berry’s classic Johnny Be Good and the hard rock ballad Here I Go Again (Whitesnake). Another surprise was hiding in Walking By Myself (Gary Moore), and of course there had to be one more Yugo-nostalgic number, Kreni prema meni (Partibrejkers). The only Slovenian cover was Šank Rock’s Pravljica, which mellowed out the electrified atmosphere a bit. In this part we heard two originals as well. The first was typical quality hard rock, while the second (Gremo na pir) carried on the tradition of Slovenian “drinking” songs, in the vein of Laški pir (Šank Rock) and Deset majhnih jagrov (The Drinkers).
Rock Shock is a band that’s clearly very well rehearsed. The music flows smoothly and you rarely catch a mistake. The only bigger problem I noticed was that the guitar wasn’t loud enough and got a bit lost in the background, while the keyboards were surprisingly loud (usually it’s the other way around). The singer’s voice also slipped out of control a couple of times, but there were no serious blunders. Considering how long the set was, Rock Shock came across as extremely confident and routine.
The repertoire reads like some best-of rock compilation, but that’s how the band knows how to fire up a crowd, which of course reacts loudest and wildest to these evergreen hits. Personally, I’d have liked to hear even more of their own songs, which really work well, kind of in the melodic hard rock vein.
Rock Shock may well have had a stereotypical setlist, but a band that can play for three hours without any obvious mistakes deserves a firm handshake. Bigger things undoubtedly await Rock Shock, they clearly don’t lack work ethic, and I reckon we’ll be hearing a lot more of them on the radio in the future, and maybe even on TV. They’ve got the right stuff.
Photos: Mojca Perdih
Setlist
1. Bayla 2. Long Train Runnin’ 3. Feel 4. Runaway 5. Hladna 6. Proud Mary 7. Hold the Line 8. Čakam te 9. Tush 10. Rockin’ All Over the World 11. Sweet Home Alabama 12. Ne spavaj mala moja 13. Heroj 14. I Love Rock’n’Roll 15. Rebel Yell 16. It’s My Life 17. Zdaj letim 18. Hard to handle 19. Smoke on the Water 20. Ne poznam te 21. You Really Got Me 22. Johnny Be Good 23. Here I Go Again 24. Pravljica 25. Walking By Myself 26. Gremo na pir 27. Motori 28. Enter Sandman 29. Knocking on Heaven’s Door 30. Kreni prema meni
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