Siddharta
Sunday, 23 June 2024, from 9:30 PM to 10:35 PM
Piran / Tartinijev trg / Slovenia
There’s no better way to cap off a particularly ‘intense’ June week like this year’s than on a Sunday — especially with a plate of Sarajevo-style ćevapi on the streets of late-afternoon Piran, topped off by a rock-charged evening in the company of Siddharta. With funding from several coastal municipalities, the legendary Slovenian rock veterans played Piran for the very first time. On a national holiday, no less! A fact that says a lot about just how ‘hard to reach’ this little coastal town really is. Dealing with the charms of the local monument to human civilizational progress — let’s call it the parking garage — is a story unto itself and calls for some serious mental decompression (especially on the way home), but we’ll save that for another time.
It’s a few minutes to half past nine in the evening and we’re slowly making our way toward Tartinijev trg, which is already packed solid. Right. We’re closing in on a national holiday, even if there are still two days to go. Marking that famous date has been more manageable when it falls on a weekend these past few years, even when the calendar isn’t exactly obliging. So Siddharta came to Piran to deliver what was their very first show here — with just one hour on the clock. That hour delivered a cherry-picked selection of the band’s most beloved classics, headlined by their adaptation of the Martin Krpan original Od višine se zvrti, which the guys played near the top of the set. The show was capped in the closing stretch by Dviga Slovenija zastave — before which Tomi, with the Slovenia vs. England Euro clash on the horizon, advised the Islanders not to get their hopes up: “It’s time we showed the English how football is played!” — and right at the very end, the »Nord« classic Na soncu, which hasn’t exactly been a regular fixture in Siddharta’s live sets these past few years.
Even if we only got to spend an hour with the icons of Slovenian rock and roll this time around, that ‘sweet little hour’ packed in a bundle of talking points and things to chew on. Tomi is unmovable on stage. Nothing takes him down. Beyond his already legendary, thunderously sharp vocal performance — the essential cornerstone of the band’s identity — and the tried-and-tested tricks he uses to hold the crowd masterfully in the palm of his hand, the man arrived on stage this time with a prosthetic leg and sang and played the entire show seated (the valiant musician had torn a tendon playing tennis). The other curiosity was spotting an additional keyboardist on stage. As is known, Siddharta have been billing themselves on posters this year as a quartet. Tomaž O. Rous is no longer part of the team — that much is beyond dispute — but Siddharta’s keyboard ‘helper’ officially remains unnamed. Whether he’s purely filling in, or filling in while the band sizes him up for a permanent spot in the lineup, remains to be seen. Either way, it was fascinating to listen in, especially on the »Nord« classic Samo edini, where the guy opened with a brief improvised passage and also got more room to breathe in the middle-eight section of the track, where he threw in a few tricks with a distinct jazz flavour. There’s a wind of change in the air. One way or another. Time will tell.
Ledena remains a special moment at Siddharta shows — a brilliant track with a particular pull, especially thanks to that always magnificent contrast and sheer weight of the low-end bass tones! The engine of that hypnotic, ‘ground-level’ melody is the riveting, ‘elusive’ bass guitar line of Jani Hace, which gives the track a unique intensity. A special kind of magic. The band masterfully kept the intensity burning with the follow-up Infra track Piknik. And naturally, the already legendary peaks were delivered by salvos from the »Rh-« and »Nord« albums (T.H.O.R., B Machina, Napoj, and the obligatory closer Ring) and Pot v X — the only track pulled from the debut »ID«. Despite the band having released their new, tenth studio album »X« on 29 February 2024, we didn’t hear a thing from it. There simply wasn’t time. Still, at least ‘pot v X’ rang out — which carries a certain symbolism of the road the band has travelled, leading straight to this year and the new album.
A surge of emotion in the middle of Piran. Goes without saying. Absolutely. Sound was excellent. Not even the occasional stronger gust of wind could spoil it. And the band — solid. Tight and compact. Exactly what we’re used to. Exactly as it should be. One hour, then, in the company of bulletproof Siddharta. Short and sweet!
text: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Edita Klemen
Siddharta – setlist:
1. T.H.O.R.
2. Od višine se zvrti
3. B Mashina
4. Napoj
5. Pot v X
6. Samo edini
7. Ledena
8. Piknik
9. Dviga Slovenija zastave
10. Ring
11. Na soncu
