Location: Ljubljana (Slovenia), Cankarjev dom
Concert date: 17.10.2006
Attendance: 3000
Ticket price: 4.800,00 SIT
Well, well. Not in my wildest dreams! Me, there? At a Šifrer show? Hello? Has somebody lost their mind? Holy cow, I had a weird feeling before walking into the hall. Saddled up in head-to-toe denim. All around me swarmed dads and moms decked out in their priciest clothes, living by the holiest rules of the holiest etiquette for attending Gala Hala-type halls (all that was missing were shaved poodles and chihuahuas). Normally you show up, order a beer, slip into a relaxed chat with your buddies, the band kicks in and the party starts. Here? Seats, no smoking, carpet on the floor,…
I don’t move in these circles, so before the show I felt lonelier than I had in a long time. Andrej Šifrer and his personal 30th anniversary in music! Times change… Not so long ago a bearded young guy in Rašica sweaters and tight Elkroj jeans was “thrashing” a guitar and delighting us when we were still little kids! All us boys in the scouts wanted to master his repertoire, and some of us actually did. Yes, yes! That was back before Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The carefree days of the late, lamented Yugoslavia.
The guy who breaks the ice with his joyful smile and sparkling mind, who tosses witty rhymes into everyday speech like it’s nothing, threw a very special evening for a people hungry for bread and circuses. This time there were no Rašica sweaters. There were polished shoes, a silvered, neatly shaped symmetrical hairdo, freshly shaved cheeks, no guitar in hand, more of a rose in the mouth. And yet one thing stayed the same after all these years. The smile, that positive charm of Andrej’s, which he managed to keep inside him like a little kid who always pops out to shine amid a crowd weighed down by everyday troubles and worries, to light up and brighten their day, stayed untouched. And this time was no different.
It really was a strange yet genuine sense of ceremony. I felt it especially because I’d come in still fresh from “yesterday’s” Ortobar, where the extreme metallers Wartune and Lycanthrope were worshipping the devil, but the chance came up and I grabbed the ticket that landed in my path for some new fun.
To steer his densely packed repertoire, Andrej needed a special helper, the likable Alenka Tetičkovič, whom every decently educated citizen of the Republic of Slovenia should know from the TV series Naša Mala Klinika. Slim Alenka at one end of the stage, with her decidedly (too) lanky frame, and Andrej’s two backing vocalists at the other, who with their bust volume sketched out sweeping views over vast fields of fertility, together vividly conjured up the whole contrasting palette of womanhood in Slovenia.
Right at the start Murat & Jose fired up the crowd, expertly “sampling” Šifrer’s tune To se govori. Through a parade of resounding guest names, each of whom came with a number of their own to pay Andrej tribute on his jubilee, all of whom had some part in his career in shaping various projects, and who took part in making Šifrer’s current CD “Kdaj si zadnjič kakšno stvar naredil prvič?”, we were treated to an extraordinary atmosphere for 2 and a half hours! Between songs, Andrej and his assistant dropped quite a few witty lines and had the crowd properly laughing a few times. The highlight of the show was definitely the performance by Christopher Cross, winner of five Grammys and one Oscar, who with Ride Like A Wind even made happy perhaps a rocker or two who, like me, had wandered into the Linhartova dvorana that evening completely unexpectedly and without suspecting a thing. Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges conjured a special moment too; because of his sheer size he first struggled to strap on his guitar, but later wowed the hall with an almost perfect command of the song Zoboblues in Slovenian. A deeply emotional moment came from Andrej himself, when he played a medley of classics with Dave Cook, producer of his first three records, who accompanied him on guitar. Sadly, these ended up tortured under one and the same rhythmic pattern, and the whole thing came off pretty shallow in places compared to the originals. Andrej should have strapped on a guitar at least for this part of the show. More than once during the concert he clearly didn’t know what to do with his hands when all he had was a mic on a stand. He could undoubtedly have loosened up his stiffness, at least partly, by giving his guitar a chance too, and that would have brought the show a measure of the authenticity he once had, which the crowd would surely have received with extra enthusiasm.
The sound? Totally decent. Right at the start Zuljan had trouble with his guitar’s amplification, as if the guitar-phobic rappers Murat & Jose had disabled the guitar with the power of thought in the opening number “To se govori” and stripped it of any role. After that, all was fine. That was the point. Real positive energy everywhere. The long set flew by. At the end we laughed till we cried at the verses of the fun Zmigaj telo, and I hope its lyrics will cut down the number of anorexic “posh chicks” in Slovenia. The encore brought Za prijatelje, and everyone in the hall put their arms around each other’s shoulders and swayed together through the song, while all the guest musicians filled the stage alongside Andrej and the band. If only Slovenes were this united more often! From a rock standpoint, an Andrej Šifrer concert is nothing special, and he knows why, but with such a lineup of famous and acclaimed guests, it’s hard to resist the temptation to tag along out of sheer curiosity.
Lineup:
Andrej Šifrer – vocals
Katja Koren – backing vocals
Darja Drobnič – backing vocals
Patrik Greblo – keyboards
Aleksander Sašo Gačnik – keyboards, accordion
Bor Zuljan – guitars
Nikola Sekulovič – bass guitar
Tomi Purič – drums
Guests:
Christopher Cross – vocals, guitar
Beth Wood – vocals, guitar
Steve Wood – vocals, keyboards
Dennis Seaton – vocals
Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges – vocals, guitar
Gerry Doyle – vocals, violin
Gerry O’Connor – vocals, banjo
Jem Cook – vocals
Dave Cook – vocals, guitar
David Clarke – guitar
Graeme Hamilton – trumpet
Murat & Jose – vocals
Setlist
1. Bučke (To se govori) 2. Kdaj si zadnjič kakšno stvar naredil prvič 3. You Draw Me With Your Scent (Kako mi zadišiš) 4. You Can’t Hurry My God 5. Party Tonight (Na žur) 6. Pass The Dutchie 7. Father (Oče) 8. Ego 2 9. Ride Like A Wind 10. Sailing 11. Arthur’s Theme (Best that you can do) 12. Be The Light 13. All Right 14. Medley: Bil sem mlad / Moje miške / Martinov lulček / Stoj Marija / Vse manj je dobrih gostiln 15. Eva’s Lullaby 16. Keep On 17. Zoboblues 18. In Your Arms Tonight 19. Givin’ Up On Love 20. Dirty Old Town 21. Wild Rover 22. Molly Malone 23. Zmigaj telo —encore— 24. Za prijatelje
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