Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Peščenik (Polževo above Višnja Gora) / Gostilna Jelenov rog / Slovenia
Concert date: 27.06.2014
Attendance: 60
Ticket price: €0.00 (free admission)
Polževo! The famous plateau above Višnja Gora, with its legend of the golden snail and the village of Peščenik, got some special guests on the last weekend of this June: the band Šinobusi from Novi Sad, Serbia. The band had already played one Slovenian show the day before, as part of this year’s edition of the Lent festival in Maribor! Since Šinobusi had covered over 500 km north (from Novi Sad) for the occasion, the idea was to pair the Lent gig with another one nearby, so to speak, right on the spot. And so Gostilna Jelenov Rog opened its doors to them. An idyll about 20 minutes’ drive from the Slovenian capital. Totally secluded, surrounded by gorgeous views and nature. It was a day of moody June weather, which in the end held up and stayed reliably dry. Luckily. The gig was outdoors, after all.
Šinobusi don’t need a long-winded introduction anymore. The band, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has become the subject of daily music debates over the past half year. At least among certain members of the RockLine crew. Especially after the release of the current studio album »Nebo od skaja« (2013) on Dallas Records, which is the first of the band’s studio albums to finally find its way to our editorial office. Šinobusi didn’t win us over with just an excellent new album. Music lovers are mostly blown away by their outstanding live shows, famed for their exceptional tightness and the heartfelt way they interpret their repertoire. Šinobvisi go at everything with passion and perfectionism. They’re big fans of sonic and arranging aesthetics in music. This is a crew that, to earn such a convincing status, has racked up plenty of live shows and that really holds no unknowns, neither on stage nor in the studio.
The inn gave up part of its courtyard, which became an improvised stage where the guys set up their gear. And the crowd? At our fourth show with the band, once again completely different, which is great. Some 50 people, mostly good-natured Lower Carniolan souls, were already showing signs of cheerful spirits before the gig. Partly thanks to some close flirting with the rough-and-ready drop of red.
Šinobusi, in the lineup of Milan Korać (vocals, guitar), Nenad Patković (guitar, vocals, backing vocals)
Stefan Stefanović (harmonica), Predrag Dmitrović (bass guitar) and Đorđe Bubnjević (drums), built their set in two parts, as is their custom. In the first they played older songs, from the »pre-Nebo od skaja era«. Once again the band stunned with exceptional cohesion and control over every single moment of the performance.
Under two spotlight »bulbs«, in the company of moths and other flying creepy-crawlies of the night shift, the guys opened the show with a song with a rock-accented phrase, Moje ruke sad su ptice, which was followed by the cheeky Mirna Bačka, and then an excellent cover of the Big Sugar hit Diggin’ A Hole. The band then returned to its own material with Kada svrake bulje u mene, Bluz je đavo, Ravnodušna pesma, Boli i mene, Ja moram da te vidim što pre, Čamac na Tisi, In the Bottle, Super bejbe, Bluz novog dana, and, as expected, Šinobusi salted the set with Taxman (The Beatles) and an extended version of The Rolling Stones hit Miss You. Already in the first part, one of the ladies in the audience felt the need to get a taste of Guns N’ Roses. After some lengthy diplomatic persuasion, Šinobusi satisfied her with a performance of The Beatles hit Hard Days Night, where Nenad and Milan needed a minute or so to agree on all the basics for pulling the song off. Nenad hopped over to bass for this one, and the band played the song as a trio.
After a 20-minute break, the band continued the show with a special guest on guitar, Slaven Kalebić (Mojo Hand)! A longer blues improvisation followed, with Slaven grabbing Milan’s red Stratocaster, as is his habit, and the band got the listeners into serious party mode and »channeled« this exceptional number, full of heart and emotion, into the next song, Going Down (orig. Don Nix). If you run into the lead guitarist of Mojo Hand at a Šinobusi gig, don’t be surprised if Slaven jumps on stage as a special guest. The great blues guitar master has been close friends with the band members for years. And that bond was of course felt in the exceptional confidence of the tight performance of both numbers.
Next came the part of the show where the band plays its newest material. Songs from the new album »Nebo od skaja«. This time Šinobusi had to leave the keyboards at home, so Nenad Patković adapted all the keyboard lines for guitar, which is quite a feat, since he didn’t have much time for it. This was the band’s second show of this kind (read: without keyboards), after Lent. The band came to Slovenia by car and they simply ran out of room to haul keyboards. The new songs thus took on a whole new expressive quality, without any major changes that might pull the charisma of the stage performance away from the studio originals, of course with a bit more rock punch, and above all it didn’t hurt the parts that call for special delicacy and sensitivity. In their refined attentiveness and mutual awareness, the band deftly handles every situation. They play the demanding repertoire with feather-light ease, while always finding room to deliver a heaping measure of lucidity with the signature humor of authentic Serbian origin. In the second part the band played Naš dan, Potera, Noonism (instrumental), Ko zna, Greed, Skačem visoko, Bio sam tu, and then the lineup got shuffled around a bit again and the outstanding harmonica player, just 22-year-old Gile, and Slaven on guitar stepped to the front as the band tackled Moody Waters’ I’ve Got My Mojo Working. Another number packed with improvised bits that seemed to go on forever. The crew really let loose on the »stage«, Pepa (Predrag) wandered off with his bass into the crowd mid-song, and Giile climbed onto a bar stool and soloed on harmonica standing on it. In short, total mayhem on all fronts!
On stage next were the »classic« Šinobusi again, with Milan on vocals; the band jumped into another Rolling Stones hit, Sympathy for the Devil, once again generously decked out with all sorts of improvisational filler, and for the grand peak, the band saved two special treats for the end of the night! The first was a bravura rendition of Whiping Post by Alman Brothers Band with Nenad on lead vocals. Šinobusi closed the show with a masterfully rearranged version of the fiendishly demanding Children of Sanchez (orig. Chuck Mangione). A piece that sounds made to order for some movie title sequence. The drama of all dramas! Once again Nenad stunned in its performance with his brilliant insight and flexible imagination, through which his refined ear guides him to an effective transformation of the original arrangements for wind orchestra into ones meant for guitars. In other words, rock! Nenad stayed on lead vocals for this song too.
The band is supposed to play Izola again at the end of this August, as part of a blues festival that’s reportedly being put together at Hangar rock bar. For now it’s just rumors, and the news isn’t official yet. Šinobusi are the very definition of musical and performing brilliance. The guys masterfully fended off attacks from tipsy heads demanding hits by Parni valjak and Guns N’ Roses. With some short »GN’R snippets«. While Pepa diplomatically calmed the older lady, explaining that Parni valjak are simply out of the question, Nenad entertained himself (and those present who failed to tune it out) with a guitar transcription of the opening Hammond riff of Gypsy (Uriah Heep), as well as a performance of the most famous inserts from the Wishbone Ash album »Argus«. Hand on heart (and with respect to the fans), given the charisma, character and work of Šinobusi, performing those covers at the request of the keen lady would literally have »infantilized« the very musical status of Šinobusi and degraded it. with the performance of the opening riff of Gypsy (Uriah Heep) and the inserts from the record Argus (Wishbone Ash).
There’s really nothing to add. Whether there’s a single person standing in front of them or the venue is packed, Šinobusi always give their all. This is simply a band that expresses its love of music with incredible sincerity. A crew of excellent »songwriters« and interpreters is nearing the zenith of its creative and live form, and nobody can take that away from them. Another fantastic gig, where there’s no point holding back on the superlatives. A unique embodiment of exceptional quality, a perfect fusion of musical value with blues rock! A band we’ll be hearing plenty about in the future, and a band that in 2014 sounds astonishingly close to the retro-sound hallmarks of the golden days of rock pioneering at the turn of the sixties into the seventies. Few of their contemporaries pull that off so convincingly, which makes the musical character of Šinobusi all the more valuable!
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