Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Gala Hala / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 01.03.2016
Ticket price: €7 with reservation / €10 on the day of the event
Local heroes The Canyon Observer can proudly call themselves the first Slovenian band to experience what it’s like to play in Cuba. After seven shows (the eighth was cancelled because the venue had no electricity), they went practically straight from the airport, shortly after nine in the evening, onto the yellow-and-blue stage of a nicely packed Gala Hala to kick off the final show of the tour.
From the very start it was obvious that, despite a week-long tour and a long flight back, they were in great spirits. The stage was crackling with excellent energy, which naturally rubbed off on the crowd. In a one-hour, uncompromising set with no pauses, breaks or banter between songs, the band took us on a dark journey into a post / sludge / noise world.
The sound was excellent, maybe a bit too loud for some at moments, which personally only added to the feeling of darkness and pain the musicians conjured up on stage with the help of the lighting guy, since vocalist Matic Babič sang the entire set down among the audience. The vocals sounded brutal, even though Matic had a 104°F fever (which we only found out after the show), and he was complemented very well by the backing vocalists, the guitar duo Gašper Letonja and Miloš Milošević.
The music glides beautifully from calm, at times tribally dissonant ambient passages into raw, loud and chaotic sections, which were spiced up most of all by the exceptionally skilled and dynamic drummer Simon Intihar. He plays with so much energy that he even put a heavy brick in front of his bass drum, while he handles the quieter parts with tons of feeling. The rhythm section, with bassist Niko Frank, who was the most active presence on stage, really does switch from one extreme to the other with ease.
The band stands out from most other groups with a similar genre orientation in that they play certain tracks with a backing track, and as a result they are extremely tight. They come across as a well-oiled unit that is incredibly dynamic and keeps grabbing the listener’s attention again and again. At the end of the show they got a long round of applause and took the chance to thank everyone who supported them on the Cuban adventure.
The Canyon Observer are proof that perseverance can get you a long way, even in the alternative scene. I hope this venture didn’t cost them too much and that they’ll head out into the world again.
You can catch The Canyon Observer this year at Metaldays Festival, on Thursday, July 28, 2016.
text: David Bordon
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