I love melodic punk and this zine is practically full of such music that I love and cherish above all. When I heard about this gig a while ago, it was a must go, because this package is indeed Punk Rock Holiday mini fest hehe, almost like winter edition. The three of us traveled from Zagreb in Irina˙s car, because we went there a day earlier on Friday evening to check out Inteliber in Zagreb, the biggest book fair in these parts.

We arrived in lovely Ljubljana around 5 pm and the gig was not scheduled to start until 7 30 pm, so we had time to eat something, so we found great little Mexican food restaurant and ate some delicious spicy food there.

When I entered Kino Šiška I was amazed with this gig space, it is a former cinema with a lot of space, what is more important, there is no smoking inside, so you don˙t feel like smoked salmon after gig and it is spacious, vast and totally great sounding venue. We greeted friends from Slovenia and Croatia and it was about time to enter because the first band was about to start. FAIR DO´S from UK are no strangers to the pages of this zine, because we reviewed their excellent record out with Lockjaw records some time ago and I was eager to hear the guys play live. Despite going on early they delivered fantastic half an hour set of neckbreaking fast and musically skilled modern melodic hardcore punk with some modern metalcore touches in one new song they presented to us. They reminded me of a mixture between Propagandhi and The Human Project, but they are deliciously fast and I saw such strength emanating from them while playing. Definitely fantastic band to check out live.

ALO STARI from Maribor, Slovenia were on next representing the local scene and I must admit that I am amazed by melodic, energetic pop punk they played with super frontman and lyrics in their own Slovenian language. I was later told that three of the guys played in Trash Candy, so they are no strangers to the scene although this band is relatively new, on scene since April this year with no album released yet. But they definitely showed why are they on tonight`s bill, because I am eager to see them play live again.

I saw SATANIC SURFERS play live a little more than year ago, when we witnessed their great set at Punk Rock Holiday and interviewed them there. It was cool to meet familiar faces again and talk to the bass player Andy and guitarist Magnus again, those guys are so friendly, down to earth and full of positive force. As for their set, the Swedes delivered 45 minutes of energetic fast hardcore punk with Rodrigo doing the drums again as well singing like in old times. The set was made of hits from their still latest album Back from Hell, like Catch my breath, Usurper and couple more, also old hits were in the set although some of the gems were missing due to limited time on stage. The communication with the full house was super, all of us really enjoyed their energy and music. They triumphantly ended their set with Head under water.

It was my third LAGWAGON gig in three years, so I knew that I was in for something great. The new record Railer is for sure one of the best releases this year. They opened their set with one of my favorites from that record being The Suffering. Joey Cape was singing okay, what he couldn`t manage, bass player Joe Raposo covered with fantastic backing vocals added by Chris Rest and Chris Big Bitch Flippin. It was nice to see the band smiling and enjoying their set of oldies Sick, Sleep, Coffee and Cigarettes, but also fantastic new songs like Surviving California, Bubble and Parable. The hits like May 16 and After you my friend were sung by all of us louder than band. This evening was special because it was Joey Cape´s birthday, also Andy from Satanic Surfers too, so they received two fantastic cakes on stage after regular part of the show finished with Razor Burn. Joey tasted cake, took guitar so we knew what was next. The evergreen anthem Alien 8 which we sang like there is no tomorrow and I wanted this show never to end. Such amount of love, good energy, great music, friendship and vibe bands returning to us fans and vice versa. Lagwagon ended their set with Making friends and Stokin the neighbours and I was smiling the whole time with joy after being there, witnessing the gig I will remember as long as I live. There is only one question remaining, why there is no such gigs in Croatia? But maybe it is better that way. I love Slovenia. I love gigs there.