ZAGREB - PAUK, Croatia
13th of December 2003
Report by Laszlo
I arrived with my girlfriend to Zagreb around 16.00, so I had a little time to walk around the city. I visited last year's venue, Tvornica (there is a lovely grill post where I had real nice sis-cevap, yum-yum). To my amazement I could not see a single poster or ad for that night's concert. Very disappointing keeping in mind WAT kind of band were about to play in town...
I talked to the promoter and organiser Tomi, who also said the ticket arel not sold out, so I should not worry to get a ticket. We approached the venue around 21.00 (it was pretty much outside of the city centre, some 20 minutes ride with tram, in the middle of the student village Studentski Dom Stjepan Radic), when the gates were already open. Since I could not find the ticket selling office, I talked to some youngsters around, and 2 of them just gave me a ticket for free (they won 4 on a radio show or something, but needed only 3). A nice welcome from Croatian students :) so I bought only one for my girl (price was 100 kunas in advance, 120 kunas at the gate - secondly I found the little window...).
I am pretty bad at guessing capacities of buildings, but PAUK hall seemingly has the same size of Tvornica. To my disappointment, when I entered, it was less then half full! There were some dance-type music played (I can't remember what) by local DJ's Schultz and Tomi, but there were no sign of Jani or other band members for a long time.
As time went on, people started to arrive (in general, I had the same impression as a year before, these guys were extremely calm, so to say "normal", no 88-hands, no jumping or pushing around). The music has been replaced by a very strange sound, which I can not call "music". I could not get exactly what it was, but sounded like Beatles rehearsing. Lots of talking, and in between some few seconds of guitar and drum sound. Like if someone would make a record with talking instead of tracks and music instead of pauses. It was PRETTY ANNOYING, but I think that was the point :). At last, Jani has reached his place just next to the old projector.
The concert started later than proposed, sometime around 22.30. I guess it was because the lack of the people. The well known Waltz finally came as an intro, with the time-bomb sound (tic-tac-tic-tac). It also served the message well, but personally I really missed the good old deep resonance Laibach sound.
The track list is the following:
1. B Machines
2. In the army now
3. Dogs of war
4. Alle gegen alle
5. Mars on river Drina
6. God is god
7. Tanz mit Laibach
8. Du bist unser
9. Now you will pay
10. Hell: Symmetry
11. The great divide
12. Achtung!
13. Das spiel ist aus
14. Ende
15. WAT
Encore:
16. Anti semitism
17. Sympathy for the devil
Nothing special for those who had the chance to see them on recent concerts. For me, my previous Laibach gig was the one in Hungary back in the middle of August. So I was quite amased how much all songs have changed, in favour of guitar. It seems Lord Matej rules the band these days! He did a fantastic job during "Mars..." (Milan has left the stage during this song to get rid of his upper clothes), and also a pretty good solo in "Sympathy...". The whole picture looked totally different from Trbovlje concert for instance, when he just played a few riffs as a background sound. Now he seemed much more confident. The girls were great too, I was impressed by the "hairy" encore! After the last song, the band remained on stage, clapping their hands for the rythm of a remix of "Tanz mit Laibach". After leaving the stage, some folks were still dancing in the hall for several Laibach songs and remixes the local DJs played. By that time I was already in backstage (see the picture attached) :)
To summarize, it was a great show all in all, with a nice experience of musical improvement and evolution in Laibach's music. I cought a strange movement of Jani, before the encore: he was shaking his head! The audience made almost no noise after WAT. I never EVER experienced such passivity on any concert. I wonder whatever happened to the people!?! Then Jani found a funny solution, he switched the lights off, which woke up everybody, so they started to scream again! :)
Other reports by Laszlo - BUDAPEST 2007, VIENNA 2006, BUDAPEST 2004, BUDAPEST 2003
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