Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / String's Bar / Slovenia
Concert date: 05.12.2014
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: €0.00 (free entry)
Jure »J.J.« Jurca and Matevž Pavčnik are two musicians whom the wheel of fate has thrown together into an acoustic guitar-and-vocals duo called Vagabunda. These two are watchful perfectionists who bet everything on the authentic sound of a natural complexion, one that only “knocking” on the wood and strings of the famous six-string wonder can produce. Their mileage is rich, and since they’ve left their mark with original work in past lineups like Chaosstar and Mit, among others, the same goes for their joint project Vagabunda: it’s fed with completely fresh original material.
That’s how their first EP, »Away«, came into the world (RockLine review HERE,), represented by a trilogy of songs: Morning Caffee, Long Forever and Slowly Waiting. They presented it through a handful of live shows from November all the way to the pre-Christmas period, including a stop at Ljubljana’s Strings Bar, which Jure knows especially well from the days when he spoiled music lovers at that very venue while running Scratch Bar.
The venue was nicely packed, and with the EP performance out of the way, Vagabunda naturally salted a long musical evening with sparkling, restructured arrangements of some big rock classics. The two musicians complement each other and read each other beautifully. There’s a lot of shared rehearsal behind all this, and the duo’s required mutual calibration hit its performance peak at this gig too, which was split into two parts, now pretty much standard practice at club venues like this.
The later it got, the more people piled into the venue, and just as things were reaching their peak, it sadly had to end, with a big rock classic that Jure and Matevž dedicated, believe it or not, to RockLine itself. Obviously, over many years of friendship we keep successfully learning defiance and perseverance from each other, which is the only thing that counts toward realizing a winner’s vision. Of one kind or another. With their original songs, Vagabunda showed the duo’s unsuspected songwriting talents, bringing together under one authorial roof a very bold blend of classic hard rock, grunge and even progressive rock and folk. And Jure and Matevž aren’t stopping there, promising to make their studio debut.
If they show up anywhere near where you live, spice up your evening with one of their gigs. They’ll convincingly toy with your sense of nostalgia, sparkling as they pull out famous, antlered rock evergreens in their own acoustic folk manner, along with some unexpected musical treats meant for strict music gourmets. So let yourself be surprised and seduced.
Photo Gallery
