We Rocked

This year’s Rokaj fest is over, so I’ll just give you my view of everything that went on between July 4 and July 6, 2008 on The Island of Youth at Jarun in Zagreb. This review is completely personalised and biased. Like everything else on this blog, this is just my view of things, and my opinion – regardless of how wrong it may be.

Since I went there in mixed company, I didn’t get to see everything I wanted, but I did see most of the acts I eagerly anticipated.

I was among two dozens of people in the audience when Stampedo was on, but Ivanka and the boys didn’t seem to care too much about that and did their thing just as they would in front of a much larger audience. Their 30-minute set included just one song off their new album, Špricer, while the rest of the set was filled up with their greatest hits (including Maslina and Dolje je bolje which they did with Mile & Putnici), and some of the funnier songs off their previous albums (my personal favourite Ti odlaziš u Kinu). And just like Ivanka jokingly announced, soon after they finished their gig, they joined the audience when Datsuns came on.

As far as The Datsuns are concerned, although they do their job well, I can’t shake the feeling that there is something missing. Based on those few singles that got stuck in my head (Harmonic Generator, Mother Fucker from Hell, Blacken My Thumb), I expected a more varied sound. What I got was an hour of the same sound and similar songs, even the live version of Harmonic Generator sounded a bit bland.

Bogart&Addictives, which I listened to while walking around the food area, waiting for goulash, were a pleasant surprise, but that’s what happens when you run into a good band out of the blue. In their short set, they had a few songs I instantly liked, so I hope to hear from them in the future.

And with those three concerts, my crew and I went back to the hotel, finishing day one of the festival. I didn’t feel like waiting for The Wire since that meant I’d have to suffer through the Bosnian version of Limp Bizkit (Trnokop), and Pips Chips and Videoclips have nothing interesting to offer since the nineties.

Unfortunately, I had to miss a huge part of the festival on Saturday – I was quite interested to hear Soprano, and I hear The Dwarves did a good job. I got to Jarun right in the middle of Urban’s concert, missing out on Astronaut. What I did hear was okay, a solid “B”, though it wouldn’t hurt Urban to bitch a little less about life, the universe and everything. The Lemonheads were excellent, as I expected – they did the whole It’s a Shame About Ray in little under 30 minutes (Dando did a few of the songs solo), and they filled up the rest of the gig with songs off their other albums, If I Could Talk was the encore. I the end I lost my voice and my breath, slightly drunk and drenched in sweat. Got a free hug from a guy who was giving them away. All in a day’s work.

Sunday was a bunch of hits and misses, when it comes to music. I was fashionably late for These New Puritans but with some running I did get to hear Elvis, the rest of the gig wasn’t that impressive – now I know why it was their breakaway single. They may be a bit too experimental, they rely on synthesizers a bit too much, the boys are playing while the girl on stage is playing Solitaire on her MacBook without showing any interest. For a band which is supposed to play music to dance to, they seem disoriented, rhythm-less. The armour made of metal and feathers Barnett wore looked like something Patrick Wolf would wear.

After that – The Fall. The band played well, but Mark E. Smith sang as he usually does, mumbling to himself and whining. I don’t really care how big their cult following is, how many years they’ve been together or how many albums they recorded – they would be great as an instrumental band, nobody would annoy the stage crew by kicking down mikes, mike stands, cymbals and other equipment on stage. Somebody at the festival summed it up well in a text message which was displayed on the screens next to the stage – “Enough of babbling, start singing”.

I regretted the desire to hear some singing later when Dead Elephant began their set, because I believe death metal vocals are a good in-joke, not something I would intentionally listen. So what if I’m a snob who doesn’t understand that kind of music and likes to hear when singers correctly articulate most of the words in the song.

The performance of Rambo Amadeus was solid, there was enough of humorous songs, and his jazz fusion musical background gives you something to dance to while Rambo does his monologues. Text messages on the screens by the stage were strong competition, granted, there were funny comebacks, comical adverts, friendly provocations and greetings to the gay population at the festival.

Finally, I’ll say a few words about the festival itself – this year’s Rokaj fest became a worthy competitor to INmusic Festival. Even though there aren’t as many performers, the line up is much better than that of INmusic, there are no overlaps of performers, no idiotic 90-minute breaks between acts on the main stage, no crowds in line for coupons, you can get gulash and beans for 15 kunas, no electronic music, you can bring your own food into the camp, you don’t have to think about how to get off work/school right in the middle of the week. On the other hand, there weren’t as many big names performing, but the price of the ticket makes up for that. If they keep up the ratio of domestic and international performers next year (especially if they get bigger and… well, younger performers), I believe that Rokaj fest might just top INmusic.

Rokasmo

Ovogodišnji Rokaj fest je završio, pa vam donosim i moj kratak osvrt na dio onoga što se događalo od 4. do 6. srpnja 2008. na Otoku mladosti na zagrebačkom Jarunu. Osvrt je potpuno neobjektivan i personaliziran. Kao i sve na ovom blogu, radi se čisto o mojem viđenju stvari i mojem mišljenju – ma koliko kontroverzno ili krivo bilo.

Uglavnom, kako sam išao s miješanim društvom, nisam baš pogledao sve što sam kanio, ali većinu stvari koje sam s nestrpljenjem iščekivao – jesam.

Bio sam među dvadesetak ljudi u publici na Stampedu, ali Ivanka i dečki su su svoj dio odradili jednako savjesno, kako bi, vjerujem, i pred većom publikom. U polusatnom setu bilo je mjesta za jednu pjesmu s novoga albuma, Špricer, dok su ostatak popunili najvećim hitovima (uključujući Miletovu Maslinu i Dolje je bolje), te zabavnijim pjesmama s prethodnih albuma (meni osobno vrlo draga Ti odlaziš u Kinu). I kao što je Ivanka u šali najavila, ubrzo nakon njihovog nastupa, na koncertu Datsunsa, pridružili su se publici.

Što se tiče Datsunsa, iako je dečki dobro rade to što rade, ne mogu se oteti osjećaju da mi u cijeloj priči nešto fali. Točnije, na temelju onih nekoliko singlova koji su mi s vremenom ostali u glavi (Harmonic Generator, Mother Fucker from Hell, Blacken My Thumb), očekivao sam raznovrsniji repertoar, a dobio sat vremena istog zvuka i sličnih pjesama – čak mi je i Harmonic Generator u live izvedbi djelovao pomalo blijedo.

Bogart&Addictives, koje sam slušao sam obilazeći “fud eriju” u iščekivanju gulaša, ugodno su me iznenadili, ali tako to obično biva kad iz čista mira naletite na dobar bend – u svom kratkom setu imali su nekoliko pjesama koje su mi se svidjele na prvo slušanje, pa se nadam da ću o njima još čuti u budućnosti.

I s ta tri koncerta, lagano sam se pokupio s ekipom i zaključio prvi festivalski dan. Wire mi se nije dalo čekati zbog bosanskog limpbizkita (Trnokop), a Pipsi mi već desetak godina nemaju ponuditi bogznašto.

Na moju veliku žalost, u subotu sam promašio dobar dio programa – Soprano me posebno zanimao, a čujem i da su Dwarvesi bili dobri. Dovukao sam se do Jaruna tek u pola Urbana, propustivši Astronauta. Ono što sam vidio i čuo bilo je dobro – solidna četvorka, iako je Urban mogao i manje jamrati između pjesama i objašnjavati svoj pogled na život, svemir i svašta. Lemonheadsi su bili očekivano dobri, brzinski u pola sata izveli cijeli It’s a Shame About Ray (nekoliko pjesama i u Dandovoj solo izvedbi), ostatak popunjen stvarima s drugih albuma, If I Could Talk za bis. Na kraju ostao bez glasa i daha, nazujan, mokar do gole kože. Takav dobio free hug od jednog dečka koji ih je dijelio. Sve u rok službe.

Nedjelja je pak bila dan pogodaka i promašaja, što se tiče glazbe. Na These New Puritans naravno zakasnio, uz dosta trčanja stigao sam ipak odslušati Elvisa, ostalo me se nije previše dojmilo – jasno je zašto su baš tu pjesmu izabrali za single. Možda malo previše eksperimentalni, prelako se oslanjaju na sintiće, dečki sviraju dok cura u pozadini nezainteresirano igra Solitaire na MacBooku. Za bend koji pretendira na plesnu glazbu, doimaju se dezorijentirano, bez ritma, a pernato-metalni oklop koji je Barnett nosio nešto je što bi Patrick Wolf odjenuo.

Nakon njih – The Fall. Bend je dobro svirao, a Mark E. Smith navodno uobičajeno pjevao, odnosno mrmljao sebi u bradu i zavijao. Ne zanima me koliki kultni status imaju, koliko godina rade ili koliko albuma iza sebe imaju – kao instrumentalni bend bili bi odlični i nitko ne bi živcirao tonce konstantnim namjernim rušenjem mikrofona, stalaka za mikrofone, činela i ostale opreme na pozornici. Netko od posjetitelja sažeo je cijelu situaciju u SMS poruci koja se zavrtjela na platnima uz stage – “Dosta kreveljenja, ajmo sad pjevat”.

Želju da pjevač konačno nešto propjeva požalio sam kasnije i na krepanom slonu jer death metal vokale smatram dobro internom šalom, ali ne i nečime što bih išao s namjerom slušati. Pa neka sam snob koji ne razumije takvu glazbu i voli kada pjevači ispravno artikuliraju većinu glasova u tekstu pjesme.

Performans Ramba Amadeusa bio je solidan, bilo je dovoljno humornih i društveno osvještenih stvari, a uz jazz fusion podloge stvari može se dobro i drmuskati u ritmu dok Rambo odrađuje svoje monologe. Jedino su mu SMS poruke posjetitelja na ekranima bile snažna konkurencija, jer je bilo duhovitih dobacivanja, još zabavnijih oglasa, prijateljskih podjebavanja, servisnih informacija i toplih pozdrava gej populaciji na festivalu.

Na kraju ću se osvrnuti na sam festival – ovogodišnji Rokaj fest ozbiljan je konkurent INmusicu. Iako je po broju izvođača manji festival, raspored izvođača po pozornicama i danima znatno je logičniji od INmusicova, nema nepotrebnog preklapanja izvođača, nema idiotskih pauza od sat i pol na glavnoj pozornici, nema gužve za kupovinu bonova, ima graha i gulaša za 15 kn, nema šatora s elektronikom, ima unošenja hrane i pića u kamp, nema razbijanja glave oko toga kako uzeti tri slobodna dana usred tjedna za vrijeme školske godine i pred ispite na faksu. S druge strane, nema velikih imena, ali zbog toga je cijena ulaznice i više no povoljna. Ukoliko se ovakav omjer domaćih i stranih izvođača (posebno stranih i aktualnijih) nastavi i nagodinu, vjerujem da bi Rokajfest mogao nadmašiti i INmusic.