`Stoletni ples` – Thirty Years of Panda (2016)

Name: Danko Jones (Split Dogs), Ljubljana (CUK Kino Šiška), Slovenia
Start: 2026-10-22
End: 2026-10-22
Location: CUK Kino Šiška

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiska / Slovenia
Concert date: April 7, 2016
Attendance: 600
Ticket price: €13.00

Marking thirty years together, one of the most distinctive bands to emerge on our turf in the second half of the eighties gathered for a big gala show at CUK Kino Šiška to celebrate the milestone in style. The sextet Panda also gave the anniversary concert the title »Stoletni ples«, which coincides with another important event for the band: they’ve just released their new album, their tenth studio record overall, which took the last five years to make.

These days the band doesn’t play out much, but when they do take on a show, they go at it with maximum commitment. It’s eight in the evening. A “academic quarter” later, a familiar radio voice walks on stage, this time in the flesh in the person of Andrej Karoli, and then the guys start warming up their fingers with the instrumental Taxi.

Over a colorful journey spanning three decades, no fewer than six women have rotated through the lineup, and every last one of them showed up on stage that evening. The band, with new singer Nina Bauman and the long-standing regulars Andrej Pompe (keyboards, backing vocals), Samo Pirc (guitar, backing vocals), Vlado Pirc (bass, backing vocals), Damjan Mulej (drums) and Vanja Vogrinčič (percussion), played a marathon two hours and forty-five minutes, no exaggeration. The sound was beefed up with an extra three-piece horn section, and Primož Fleischman on alto sax added a dash of sensual spice to the band’s sound. Although, as expected, most of the songs were done with Nina Bauman, the band naturally also brought the other five former singers on stage for a great acoustic medley full of surprises. They revived songs that not only defined each singer’s era in the band, but some of which are practically folk-adopted art pop evergreens that, in their time and place, shaped the face of Slovenian middle-of-the-road music. Among the most hilarious moments of the night, first prize goes to the version of Lino, done »a cappella« by the »pure-bred vocal« quartet Male Malice under the watchful mentorship of Panda’s very first singer, Suzana Jeklic.

The show unfolded in a glow of total performance perfectionism, from the excellent sound to the interplay of instruments, where the members were remarkably tuned in to each other and communicated seamlessly. Although the band’s musical picture book is easy on just about any ear, playing it is anything but simple. The music hides a generous dose of craftily slipped-in jazz, quite a few sensual soul-blues turns, plus a bit of world-music temperament and a pinch of rock-flavored decibels. All of it is delicately woven into the art pop substance of the band’s one-of-a-kind musical ID. And this night I honestly didn’t hear a single wrong note or flub. Just a heaping measure of softness and refined sensuality, with moods gradually building to a new sonic climax and back down again. The band worked on stage like always. Like a mini orchestra. Given the subtlety and sophistication of the many genres melting together in the band’s pot of musical vision, comparisons with America’s Toto or England’s Spandau Ballet aren’t out of place. In Panda’s music you hear all sorts of things, yet you can’t tell where to file it. Simply because the band has always presented “that something” as part of its own, singular authorial identity. The new songs (Stoletni ples, Noro, Ljubimec brez imena) also blend superbly and maturely into the updated concert repertoire.

At first the view of the auditorium looked a bit scary, as I could barely count some 350 heads. The concert started very early, and the crowd kept trickling into the hall even during the show, well toward nine o’clock. The second half had a solid crowd of around 600 people, who lost their heads more than once and sang the beloved classics, the evergreens, in chorus. The energy was charged with positive vibes. The peak came in the closing finale, when absolutely everyone took the stage for the band’s best-known song, Daleč stran. All six singers, the quintet of Panda’s instrumental lineup, four endlessly entertaining »oddballs« from Male Malice, saxophonist Fleischman and the horn trio. That made nineteen people on stage at once! With repeated reprises of the iconic chorus, the entire Kino Šiška hall roared along with the band. It would’ve been nearly impossible to stage a more intense, emotion-brimming ending to the night.

An unforgettable event for the band and for the Slovenian music scene! Another milestone passed, with a new album in the pocket to boot! A marathon spectacle. Considering that RTV Slovenia was in the house, one can only hope the event was captured on camera. It would be great if a state-funded label stepped up to help Panda put out a proper live document.

photo: Klemen Udovč