Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Rock Cafe / Postojna / Slovenia
Concert date: 05.12.2009
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: €0.00 (free entry)
Nothing beats it when friends join forces. Especially for a mini tour of Slovenia, when they decide to share a few last moments on stage together in 2009. Rock Shock and Mit are both relatively young bands on the scene. In fact, they put out their studio debuts at roughly the same time. Mit served up the record “Stik” (2009, RockLine review HERE), and Rock Shock followed close behind in the same year with their debut “Rock Shock” (RockLine review HERE).
Even though the two bands are stylistically miles apart in the musical language they cultivate, they closed ranks, teamed up and lined up a handful of dates through December, where they push both studio debuts together and, first and foremost, make sure both band names “stick” on the Slovenian rock scene. This was day two of the tour, after the Rock Stik tour lost its virginity the day before in the Gorenjska region, in the little village of Lancovo near Radovljica. I get to Rock Cafe a bit past nine, where I’m greeted by the ever cheerful, positive-minded guitarist Janko Tomšič of Rock Shock. Mit are warming up at soundcheck; Rock Shock had already done theirs, since they’d be going on second, i.e. last, on the bill.
Postojna tends to cling to that famous Italian approach to organizing gigs, where there’s no rush and the support acts don’t kick off until around 10 p.m., not a minute earlier. But the minutes flew by, especially with the intense chat among old friends from Mit. Mit, who recently beefed up their ranks with new bassist Matej Žibert, actually hit the stage a few minutes past ten in the evening. A pretty solid crowd had gathered, considering the Slovenian club rock scene, and for a good hour Mit mainly showcased their album “Stik”. I finally breathed a sigh of relief myself. For the first time I get to watch the band in a proper club, a room with excellent conditions when it comes to acoustics. And that’s exactly how it was this evening at Rock Cafe.
Matej is obviously made of the right stuff, because he came across hugely convincing on stage right from the start, both in playing the band’s material and in his stage presence. Nor should we overlook the careful mentoring of seasoned old hand Bucot, who kept one eye on Matej the whole time while mercilessly “ripping” his B.C. Rich six-string and handling the higher lines of the backing vocals. Mit are superbly tight and growing day by day. The backbone and heart of the sound, Miha Plesničar – Flešo, held the band at a gallop and locked in on drums, experienced, assured and masterful. Matevž’s and Bucot’s guitars delivered the volume of the band’s signature “drama groove”, where Uroš’s recognizable approach really shines through. The man, who looks almost like a chiseled Hollywood actor of the older generation, Yul Brynner, proved he’s upgraded and livened up his stage act within a single year, and especially with a few well-landed lines between songs showed he’s racked up a nice amount of stage mileage this year and is getting ever better at working the crowd.
Besides the original material Mit presented with the songs Pošasti, Črni dež, Neskončen dan in a specially arranged acoustic version, Mit, Stik, Sence, Odisej and the closing Imolo vesperi and Maršal, the band worked in covers of Depeche Mode, Ramones and U2, which they play true to their own essence and being. That’s of course a great bonus, since Mit are convincing and supremely confident at recoding evergreen covers into their own musical language. If anything bothered me a bit, it was the overly reserved crowd, huddled by the bar and back toward the exit doors. Constantly about five meters from the stage. It also felt like Uroš maybe couldn’t hear himself well on stage, meaning his own vocals, since at a few points in some songs he drifted off the right key. Mit might solve that in the future with in-ear monitors. Otherwise the sound in the club was perfectly fine, and the show proved the band has lovely potential to cement its status as a rock oddity on the Slovenian, and perhaps international, scene. The upbeat mood in the camp is also shown by the fact that Mit are heading off to record a new album as early as February 2010.
Rock Shock, up second, were in that respect a sort of logical choice, since they originally hail from the Notranjska region of Slovenia and are very well known to the Postojna crowd. A denser crowd in front of the stage showed it, though people still kept a good few meters’ distance from the stage. The whole time. Not even singer Matej could get them any closer, even though throughout the show he kept tempting the crowd in all sorts of ways with free tickets for the upcoming Božični Rock festival, happening on 25.12.2009 in Postojna, where both bands, Rock Shock and Mit, are playing.
Rock Shock are a somewhat different story compared to Mit. Mainly, stylistically they can’t boast any particular departure from the familiar approaches of the classic, melodic hard rock principle they’re devoted to. In that respect Mit simply stir up more interest. Still, Rock Shock once again shocked those present with their excellent tightness and great sound. Singer Matej stood out especially, with a full, melodically clean approach that fits perfectly with the original character of Rock Shock’s music. Rock Shock studied the sonic conditions of Rock Cafe well and convinced everyone that this was simply their home turf. It really sparkled in the ideally balanced sound picture of the keys-and-guitar dialogue. Rock Shock also had to change their lineup. But the change is temporary. Bassist Marko, because of an ear injury, was replaced at the gig by former Billys bassist Martin Rozman. Otherwise, the authoritative, assured singer Matej is a hugely important figure on stage, capable of grabbing attention during the show. He just had to make sure a “plastered rocker” didn’t jump into his arms, the guy who was “working out” below the stage during the band’s set and kept chasing the crowd away from it, to a pretty serious distance.
The band’s songs clearly clicked with the crowd, and this was confirmed above all by the explicit demand from the female part of the audience that the band play the song Heroj once more. The band in fact made sure to play the entire “Rock Shock” album live. The songs Zdaj letim, Ti ne veš, Heroj, Glej me v oči, Igra, Ne poznam te,… sound much more convincing on stage than in the studio version, because on stage Rock Shock step on the gas pedal even harder, and that sparkles in a much more raucous rock sound.
That Rock Shock are regulars on stages is proven, as already mentioned, by the excellent tightness of the whole lineup. The guys confirmed this with a few covers as well. Joe Cocker’s evergreen classic especially burns, and I’d even say it stands out decisively whenever the band tackles it. The guys also manage to win people over with more demanding covers of Whitesnake, Van Halen and of course Toto (for that occasion Mary Rose bassist Mitja Kobal jumped on stage). The crowd took in all of this and more with a big “Yes” and freely surrendered to the band’s lead, which resulted in great energy in the club.
Of course Rock Shock have the edge over Mit in grabbing attention with the covers they pick, since these are genre-wise closer to their core principle, so they sound more like the originals, which also means more “homey” and “friendlier” to the less demanding ears of the crowd, and that’s why Rock Shock’s set certainly came across a notch above the one by their predecessors Mit. Somewhere shortly before one in the morning the revelry was over, and the crowd would have happily kept Rock Shock on stage, which is undoubtedly a lovely compliment, as well as proof that the guys are hot on stage.
The Rock Stick tour phalanx wraps up in Tržič on 26.12.2009. There it’ll be more home turf for Mit than for Rock Shock, and the situation could get really interesting. RockLine will of course be in Tržič with the guys too!
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
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