(gig report) 3FF Festival – Day Two

Yes, after successful day one of the festival, Saturday offered line-up oriented more on hardcore and punk, so it was a perfect early September warm evening when DEAD DOG SUMMER first stepped on stage and played their set. This is the new band in Čakovec, our hometown scene, but members of the band played before in Implicite, Farewell Reason, Corewar, Senata Fox, Motorno Ulje, Youth Against to name just a few, so they are experienced guys in the scene with more than twenty years each of the three members. Dead Dog Summer presented circa half an hour or so of melodic hardcore punk with some emo nineties influences thrown here and there. Beautiful guitar melodies, not so fast song structures and guitarist/vocalist Igor´s voice fits perfectly to the songs with the screams and clean singing. Much more powerful live than studio songs. Welcome back to the scene.

I was eager to witness live the next band who hit the stage, that being ŠIZA from Koprivnica. This is also kinda new band in the scene with one album released, but both guys are playing and have played in many bands. Yes, this band is only two guys. Drummer and bassist/vocalist, but damn, they sound more powerful than five guys on stage in full band. They play a mixture of noise and punk rock with uptempo beats, at times complex song structures and lyrics in Croatian and crowd enjoyed their set very much, delivering tons of power and energy on stage and in front of the stage.

CRASSO DE ODIO were next. Guests from south of Croatia, Zadar are old school street punk/hardcore band. I didn´t hear much about them in a while, so I guess they were not so active in recent period, but no matter, I am glad they are still very active and their set was a mixture of street oi punk with anthemic sing along lyrics and more old school NYHC influences in some songs. I think they repeated one song at the end of the show but people in front of the stage had great time to their hits like Arm 2 Arm, Dio Vas and rest of their setlist. Band had fun on stage and two guitarists add to the hardcore power and energy.

Headliners of the second evening were SIX PACK from Serbia, band that played many times in our hometown in the last twenty or so years. It was nice to see Miki Pack returning to guitar and vocals, not only singing. I think that the band sounds much better and powerful when Miki is also playing guitar, not only singing. When he only sang it sounded and looked a bit weird hehe. But, that is only my humble opinion. They delivered set filled with hits from their 27 year span as a band and I saw them live really lots of times, but this was one of their best sets I have witnessed in ten or so times I watched them play live. Band did not hide their pleasure playing in front of us who sang along, danced and interaction between the band and crowd was fantastic. I must say hats off to the drummer who sings such superb fantastic backing vocals and harmonies that I had goosebumps on my skin through much of their set. Hits like Fabrička greška, Dva minuta straha, Viša sila, Crveni makovi, Delfinov let, Vodite me were all done with singing along by all of the people in the crowd. The band ended their regular set with Poslednja kap but crowd wanted more, so they returned and played two more Ramones cover songs to have fun themselves along with us.

Another edition of 3ff is behind us and I must say, thank you to all of the organizers of this fantastic free entrance festival for doing such amazing job this year. See you all next year.

(gig report) 3FF Festival – Day One

Finally there is an open air festival in our hometown. Great 3FF and Prostor Cezam crew organized 3FF festival after a one year pause. Of course, there is a two day event like previous editions and it is again situated under the walls of ancient Čakovec castle making magic surroundings to enjoy the music and just relish in a fact that the festival is back although with some restrictions due to covid shit still being active. Festival started just after seven pm and first band to hit the stage were VOSTOK. I personally never heard about this band until this gig and I think that this was their first live performance. Frontman/guitarist looks familiar and if I recall good, he used to play in a band called Feuacid. Vostok play a mixture of post rock, melodic rock with some old school Yugo rock influences thrown here and there and lyrics in Croatian. They gave us a great set, although not many people were present during their still early set. But, they played like they play in front of hundreds of people and I found this band interesting, especially because they have great lyrics and stage persona.

 

Night fell and more people started to gather as second band hit the stage, being SFUMATO from Zagreb. This is a trio which is a part of Jeboton collective and they play instrumental rock with lots of noise and psychodelia influences at least that is how I heard it. I must admit that this music is really not my cup of tea, but the musicianship was massive and superb. My friend Lesar told me that the bass player of Sfumato also plays in Pips, Chips & Videoclips.

Then came the band that I personally eagerly waited and the main event of the evening as far as I am concerned and that is KANDŽIJA. I saw Kandžija and his band couple of years ago at Špancirfest and was blown away. Kandžija is a rapper from Slavonija and together with his band makes awesome shows full of fun, great songs and lyrics and this one was not an exception. The set started somehow shy because all of us were kinda far from stage, but somewhere around half of the set we all got in the front rows and everybody was dancing and singing along to all of Kandžija´s hits like Crkva, Đuro, Nema Labavo, Seljak or Magična Butra. Kandžija and his band really enjoyed playing and it warmed my heart to see them all smiling and delivering so much energy. It was very emotional and nice when Kandžija gave a shout out and tribute to our friend Emil who passed away last Autumn. Best of the evening in my opinion.

Last band to play the first evening of the festival and kinda headliner were BRAIN HOLIDAYS from Zagreb. There are a lot of people in this band hehe, I counted eight people on stage if I am not mistaken. I remember this band from like twenty or so years ago from tv show Briljanteen, I think their song was at the top of the chart in that show. Brain Holidays play melodic reggae with trumpets, triple or more vocals and lyrics in Croatian and English. At some moments they reminded me a bit of Mad Caddies, but less punk rock and more reggae. The crowd enjoyed it much and there was dancing, smiling and band played an encore after the end of their regular set. This was a great choice for a headliner of the first day. Day two brings more punk hardcore side of things and stay tuned for that.

Dead Dog Summer released their first single!

Dead Dog Summer – new band on Croatian punk/hardcore scene

New Croatian band Dead Dog Summer presents their first single “A Wish (All About Me)” which announces their debut album planned for the beginning of next year.

Dead Dog Summer is a new name on the Croatian punk / hardcore scene and members of the band are Igor Bistrovic (guitar, vocals), Kreso Zerjav (bass, vocals) and Boris Strahija (drums).

Members of the band has been active on the scene for over 25 years in bands like The Farewell Reason, Nikad, Senate Fox, Implicite, Youth Against and many others.

The band was formed in late 2020 but the idea of a new band has been brewing in their minds for a long time so the pandemic and lockdown were a great time to spend some time and work on what they love most, making music and playing.

If we describe the music of Dead Dog Summer, it would be easiest to tell that it is post hardcore as it was played in the late 90’s and the name represents “dog heat” that has been cooking in the rehearsal room for the last year since the boys created their debut album.

The band recorded the complete material in their own studio while mixing was done by Filip Sertić from Depth studio.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deaddogsummer

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deaddogsummer/