Tag Archives: DIY

(gig report)PUNK U DEVETKI:BKD(HR)/TAHIJEVI KMETOVI(HR)/THE INSURGENT(SLO)-25.08.2018.-Caffe bar Devetka, Varaždin(HR)

We didn´t actually plan to go to this gig, but sometimes good times come unplanned. In the afternoon hours the four of us went to Lendava, the nearby town in Slovenia to check out this year´s edition of Bogračfest and it was awesome there.

The evening came and we remembered there is a punk gig in Varaždin, so we decided to go check it out a little. The weather was not so much hot as it has been during the whole week so the short ride to Varaždin went by in a bit, thanks to our driver Allegra who drove us the whole afternoon.

When we entered the venue THE INSURGENT from Slovenia were already playing their set. I noticed that there was the new guy playing bass, but later on the guys told me that this is only temporary replacement. We already wrote about these guys on the pages of this zine, so for those who don´t know, The Insurgent are playing their vision of melodic punk hardcore, a mix of Californian sound and Slovenian bands like In-Sane. The guys in the band are young and they improve gig by gig and I am eager to hear how their first studio effort will sound like. They threw in Lagwagon and Bouncing Souls covers in their set and played about between 30-45 minutes.

TAHIJEVI KMETOVI from Karlovac, Croatia are band whose existence reaches even almost 30 years back, but I must admit that I have never heard of them prior to this gig. They recently put out their first album, so they´ve been busy all these years, hehe! The music they play is punkrock with some faster hardcore parts here and there, but mainly old school punkrock, almost that 77 vibe punk. As I understood the lyrics are in Croatian language, but I didn´t catch what are they singing about. They were okay, but I am fan of more faster stuff, so it was not my cup of tea, so to say.

BKD, local heroes were headlining this gig, hehe. It´s a joke, no one really headlined because all three bands were kinda equal but normally, BKD drew the most people in the crowd. I love how people know all their funny lyrics about drinking, then again some more drinking and everyday problems that this oi punk band sings about. Their gigs are party guaranteed, with the band joking between the songs and being just natural on and off stage. They played mainly the material from their recent debut album and also some newer material that is also awesome.

All the good things end quickly, so when the gig was over, we went home, tired, but happy that we supported another diy punk gig in nearby Varaždin. This town needs the club and needs it quickly. There are so many awesome bands and people there, the scene is not big, but it is tight and friendly community, so it would be nice to have a club and organize gigs there. Now the guys manage with house and backyards diy gigs, in a caffe bar here and there, but the club is an urgent need there. I sincerely hope they˙ll get it.

 

 

(record review)SMRT RAZUMA-“Demo”

Osijek is a Croatian city with great history concerning underground bands with many excellent punk hardcore, noise and metal coming from there, for example let us just mention Debeli Precjednik, Gužva u 16-ercu, Why Stakla, COG, Grupa tvog života and more…

a3854015958_10

 

Today is a different story, some of the old underground fighters still make a good fight there and play in bands but the newer bands are not present there. SMRT RAZUMA(english The Death of Reason) is the new band comprised of old school dudes and this is their first demo. The record contains 4 songs of angry and rawer hardcore punk with many thrash influences. The music is fast and aggressive and the vocals are angry shouting. The lyrics of the songs are in Croatian language so if you don´t understand Croatian you won`t understand shit. But I can tell you that they are in the right place being politically engaged and covering themes from poverty, depression, sexism, nationalism and general greyness of the area where the guys come from. This is great and energetic stuff to take a break a bit from the melodic side of things. For me the best song on the record is “Nikad više sretna” having a wicked guitar line that I love.

8/10

Bandcamp: https://smrtrazuma666.bandcamp.com/album/demo

 

(record review)AVAS-“Avas”

UK hardcore punk scene was always awesome, filled with excellent bands and Manchester´s AVAS are one of them. This is their new e.p. and I listened to the record and reviewed it for this webzine.

a2639857000_10

 

Formed in 2010., Avas released two albums and two ep-s, played live a lot of times and shared stages with H2O, SNFU, Death Before Dishonor and many more. This record contains four songs of high explosive energetic hardcore. “Think” is a pure hardcore song with gang backing vocals, positive attitude and more similar in my opinion to NYHC school than to European hardcore school. “Friendzone” is punkrock song with shouting back vocals just made for jumping and shouting at the gig and it reminded me a lot of Sick Of It All punkier anthems. “You and I” is another hardcore fast bomb in the old school youth crew way, an ode to friendship, scene and hardcore which reminded me when I was a kid like 20 or 25 years ago, when I went out with my hardcore crew and we felt invincible band of brothers. The best song on this record for me is ” Open Heart” which is the most melodic song on the record with beautiful sung vocals, great anthem and the whole song somehow reminded me of Endpoint. You might notice that I compare the bands a lot, but this in no way means that Avas are clones of those bands or stuff like that. Quite the contrary, this is an awesome hardcore e.p. which made my day and filled me with pure hardcore energy!

8/10

Links:

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

Bandcamp: https://avas.bandcamp.com/album/avas