Urban & 4 at OrtoFest (2016)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Orto bar / Ljubljana
Concert date: 14.04.2016
Attendance: 200

There was no support act on this day of Orto Fest, so at 10:15 p.m. the band, with Urban at the helm, started getting into position on stage. Typical for a Slovenian crowd, the real turnout only showed right when the show kicked off, as everyone suddenly emerged from behind the bars in the courtyard and the smoking room. One look at the stage and it’s immediately clear who’s the alpha and omega of the night, because the artfully built, massive mic stand says it all. The band opened with the very drawn-out overture Venecija tone, during which Urban sat with his head in his hands, getting his head into the performance. Urban & 4 are hardly a rarity on our stages, but you never hear much criticism of their gigs, and this time we can’t come up with any major complaints either. In the tight, well-oiled lineup, alongside Urban you’ll find Saša Markovski, Luka Toman, Marco Bradaschia and Sandi Bratonja. Plenty of music buffs know frontman Urban from the mostly guitar-driven rock band Laufer, which split up in the mid-nineties, and soon after that Urban got going with the current lineup.

The bulk of the show was, logically enough, dedicated to the current album Mamut, which the band released last year. They have six albums under their belt, plus one live album that came out at the end of last year. The gig served up songs the crowd knew well, and the biggest ones were all there: Ako se voda povuče, Kundera, Ako se napijem, Pridi mi bliže, Nebo, Odlučio sam (da te volim). The mixed-generation crowd was visibly enjoying themselves. Given the genre, which you could already partly file under alternative, there was obviously no throwing yourself around the hall. Urban gave the crowd the biggest treat with the song Moja voda, which dates back to his Laufer days and is without doubt his best-known song overall. Surprisingly, it’s more of a rarity than the rule at their shows, and that’s exactly how Urban won the crowd over most »big time«. Quality-wise, the songs from the current album Mamut stood out most among everything played, which is no surprise, since the album is definitely among the high points of the band’s career, if not the peak outright. Nobody expected much interaction between the crowd and the band, and that’s not even a bad thing, since Urban is a vocalist like no other, which you can already see in his performance, where his total devotion to the music is plain to see. His one-of-a-kind movement is something you can almost pick out on its own, and at moments, with those signature hand gestures, you could compare him to the great Joe Cocker. At this show Urban proved that he’s without a doubt one of the best and most singular vocalists of the former Yugoslavia. And an exceptionally tight band adds the final cherry on top to a level of quality we don’t see very often from bands of the former Yugoslavia. After an encore of three songs, the show wrapped up after just under two hours with the last song, Astronaut. Urban clearly treats his fans with »kid gloves«, because a few minutes after the show he was already down by the stage with them, chatting and signing albums with no trace of rock-star attitude. We’ll get to hear Urban & 4 again in Ljubljana on June 9, when they play at the Siddharta concert, whose members we also ran into at the show at Orto bar. They also recently recorded the song Strele v maju together.

The sound at the gig can’t be faulted. More than solid for a club hall, so no complaints from us. The crowd got exactly what it came for: a dose of quality music that isn’t the standard fare of rock bands from the former Yugoslavia, and as such a pleasant change of pace. For the Orto Fest lineup too.

text, photos and video: Klemen Udovč