Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Orto bar, Ljubljana
Concert date: 08.10.2016
Here’s how the organizers, ŠKUC ropot and Dirty Skunks themselves, described the background and idea behind the mini festival:
»Almost a year has passed since last year’s successful edition – Punk pod Slovenci 1.0 – Slovenska Punk transverzala, when a punk caravan from the sunny side of the Alps gathered on the stage of the legendary night club in the capital. Let’s make this a tradition, and to that end we’re preparing a two-day edition this year that will be spiced up even more. Punk, HC & HM pod Slovenci 2.0 – Scena se pedena!«
Last year’s celebration of Dirty Skunks’ 14th birthday was held in a similar spirit of »supporting« the local scene, and this time too almost the entire Orto bar, bar excepted, was taken over by warriors of the homegrown punk/hc and metal scene. First up on the smoking room stage were Mt. Blanc, and the festival lived up to its name with a nice gesture too, stepping in to help the German hc punkers James First, who had been left without a show by our neighbors. Since every unplanned day off on tour hits the finances hard, the gesture was all the nicer. The Germans hit the club’s stage at eight and unleashed a barrage of fast, energetic songs, two to three minutes each. These guys aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel, since it’s totally classic hc punk with two or three chords and strong choruses, but they won everyone over with their energy.
After the German punk assault, it was time in the smoking room for the progressive djenty death metal of Celje’s Morywa, who are still celebrating the recent release of their debut Vamana Ira. In the half hour allotted to each of the bands, Morywa stomped all over Orto with massive death metal, defined mostly by the fatness of the eight-string guitar riffs and the groove of a thundering rhythm section. Although Morywa mostly move at a mid-tempo pace, they never come across as monotonous, mainly thanks to the many unexpected twists and the progressive spice.
Real Life Version then took over the punk-flavored upstairs, serving up a fresh dose of melodic punk rock, while Novo mesto’s Hellcrawler provided the hellish continuation downstairs. Despite some minor sound problems, the guys showed off this year’s second album Sandstorm Chronicles in great form. Short on time, Hellcrawler tore through their set of hard-hitting death n’ roll like a desert storm. It was nice to hear a Slovenian tribute to the HM-2 guitar buzz on Orto’s stage right before Entombed A.D. show up, and the rawness of Miran’s vocals worked great live. Half an hour of post-apocalyptic death metal was over way too fast!
Upstairs, the biggest genre departure of the night followed in a flash: Clockwork Psycho, who play psychobilly or punkabilly, an interesting and original mix of punk and rockabilly. It’s a style you don’t get to see live on our stages every day, and it went down well at Orto, with the band proving they’re special for more than just their red-haired upright bassist and singer Clockwork Lilith.
The last to take the smoking room stage were the local »all star« death metallers Demutilated, made up of members of bands like Dickless Tracy, Sweet Sorrow and Negilence. The guys first presented themselves to a live audience this past June, and this time they dissected the stage for the third time (if I’m not mistaken). These death metal surgeons are devilishly tight, the brutality is top level, and it’s all made even better by Cepot’s sick vocals and his act as a manic serial killer. The second day of Scena se pedena 2016 was closed out upstairs by White Stain, and the great idea of supporting the local alternative scene is worthy of nothing but praise. The only minus of the night was the poor turnout, which can probably be blamed on October simply being packed with gigs. So let’s make this autumn racket an annual thing! And next year, with a bigger crowd too.
Photo gallery
