Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška
Date: 14.05.2015
33 years in the game and a new album, number 14 overall, from the legendary Demolition Group of Brežice. The celebration, with a marathon setlist at CUK Kino Šiška, drew a great crowd. Around 800 people came out that night to pay tribute to the lineup and their work, a band that deserves a special place on the Slovenian rock map. Stylistically and sonically nobody else sounds like them, which makes them an absolute alternative rock one-of-a-kind, full of homegrown originality and instant recognizability.
»Zlagano sonce« is the title of the new album, which follows its predecessor »Planet starcev« after four years. It’s a great record, exactly what every true fan of the band was hoping for, and it keeps up the tradition of quality and unbreakability of the big preaching combine from Brežice.
The band started rolling out track after track with zero compromise, playing songs from the new album »Zlagano sonce« in the first part. Right from the opening it was clear that everything at Demolition Group is exactly where it should be. Besides the commanders, the unbreakable “holy trinity” — vocalist Goran Šalamon, saxophonist Jože Pegam and Matjaž Pegam behind the mixing desk — there’s the fresh blood of young stallions eager to prove themselves: guitarist Matija Lapuh, bassist Tomi Gregel and his brother, drummer Ivica Gregel. A great rhythm section, full-blooded cannon-shot hits on the snare, often enriched between simple guitar phrasing with a tribal assault on the toms, an active, distinctly melodic, precise and warm bass line, hyperplastic walls of sound from the guitar phrases, a tried-and-tested manly, sexist tenor sax doubling the guitar lines, and of course the signature, unique, irreplaceable voice of the piercing Goran Šalamon. Perfectly in tune with each other, superbly tight, all of it caught up in one total, uncompromising marathon stampede.
Maybe it’s precisely because of the marathon set that the band decided they didn’t want to dehydrate and so didn’t want too much light on stage, which is why the spotlights were pointed at the performers’ backs for most of the show. The weak lighting also happens to fit the gloomy, even apocalyptic atmosphere and the band’s always socially engaged and very topical lyrics. In that respect, only the officially accredited photographers got the short end of the stick in the hall.
Over the course of the show the band strolled through their discography and picked up the strongest moments of their career, and toward the end Goran stepped up to the mic alone and read out a several-page pamphlet whose thundering truthfulness raised the hair on every “enlightened” listener’s skin. This colossus of a singer was astonishing in his vocal stamina. From the first song to the last, and there were quite a few (30 in total), he kept up incredible punch and power. He never ran out of breath. Hats off. Respect to the entire quintet for an incredibly committed and deeply felt performance. The crowd’s reactions proved that the energy in the air really was crackling: they took in song after song with enthusiasm, actively joined in with Goran, and hung in there right up to the last beat and the last struck note of the band’s show.
If you’re looking for the best that the Slovenian rock underground can offer right now, then go ask Demolition Group for advice. The only slightly worrying part is that Demolition Group remain pretty much lone socially-critical riders who brilliantly expose the injustice of the world order down to the bone. In Slovenia it’s hard to find successors to them among the younger generation of alternative rock bands. Real bands, real successors, simply don’t exist.
»Zlagano sonce« gives the band new wings, new flight, new drive. Plenty of live shows will follow, a whole bag of club thunder. The fantastic night at CUK Kino Šiška was merely the overture to the hot gig days that this year will write for Demolition Group! Let’s follow them!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
1. Kapital
2. Lažje je imeti psa
3. Kaplja
4. Dan brez
5. 99
6. Včasih tko
7. Slab gospodar
8. Da bi bil iskren
9. Tesnoba, strah in cvetoče polje
10. Zato ker smem
11. Zlagano sonce
12. Neovangelij
13. Kriv sem za vse
14. Tau
15. Dan dolgih sanj
16. Gospodar
17. Nimam rad boga
18. Planet starcev
19. Romantika
20. Amerika
21. Daf
22. Gram
23. Ljubiva za svet
24. Dež
25. Bič, luč in upanje
26. Japanci
27. U tvojim očima
28. Mesečina
29. Nujno ni
30. Crackhead
