On Thursday evening, June 23, Radio Laguna i publishing house Laguna were the organizers of a rock concert called Ghosts of the Past for bands 40+, in the concert space Mixer House. The concert started at 21 pm, lasted 3 and a half hours and was a real pleasure to attend.
The organizer of the concert wanted to present how much hidden talent he still has. That evening, 10 bands, whose members had to be over 40 years old and who had never released a record, CD, DVD or album, showed their musical skills. They played songs by other authors and there were some female band members who were probably under 40 years old, but of course that was not a problem for the organizers. It was important that the majority of men followed that rule.
The jury was in charge of the evaluation, which had to choose the three best groups, and a prize was provided for each of those places. For the third place, each of the members was given a crate of beer. Second place brought Converse sneakers ("old") to each of the band members. First place was awarded a cash voucher in the amount of 300 euros for the purchase of musical equipment. Someone might say "well, it's best to be third" and maybe some bands tried to be third...
By the way, the jury had the following composition: Gorica Nešović, journalist, Marko Vidojkovic, writer, Petar Janjatović, music critic, Srdjan Dragojevic, director and Dejan Papić, owner and director of Laguna publishing house and Laguna radio.
The host was Darko Mitrović from Radio Laguna, a very witty and charismatic personality, who did his job brilliantly that evening. He encouraged the audience to approach the stage at first, but over time, the audience came closer. He presented the jury very well, and he jokingly asked his boss from Laguna for a higher salary from Monday, because of the kind words he gave him.
The first group to take the stage was Walnuts. They played "Don't worry baby" by Los Lobos and "Walk this way" by Aerosmith. I can say that they destroyed both songs. Just the kind of start to a concert you'd want. Good electric guitars, dominant drum and vocal performance of the singer in both songs. The first song was incomparably better than the original. A much faster and stronger rhythm, more pronounced instruments, even a solo with a harmonica, which is not present in the original version of Los Lobos. Another song by Aerosmith is a little harder to play to sound better than the original. However, very decently played and performed. The song is originally in a hard rock style, but Orasi managed to make it sound fancy. In both songs, the singer sang a little Serbian, a little English, which is also commendable.
They entered the stage after them No Mators. Interesting name, yes. They performed two songs by Deep Purple. I'm not sure about the first one, but I think it was "Soldier of Fortune". Maybe a little stiff, but I have to agree that they played well. "Stiff" seemed to me after the performance of the first group, which broke up. Their second song was "Child in time", which, by the way, lasts 10 and a half minutes. Maybe the only problem was that it was too long, and everything else was phenomenal, especially the way their singer sang it.
After them they introduced themselves Mary Jane. I can't remember exactly what they did, but I think one song was by Partibreckers and they did it really well. Regardless, I remember them the least of all.
Fourth in order was the group Bo-Za. Their name is a compilation of the names of the towns of Bor and Zaječar. As host Darko joked, they could have been called Zaje-Bo. Joking aside, this group had the most support in the audience. It was probably their fans from Bor and Zaječar. As I recall, this band played two songs in 3 different languages. They performed songs I didn't know, but they were really good.
Next on stage was the group Sunday Afternoon. More precisely Nedjelja In the afternoon, because Laguna made a mistake with their name, but the mistake was corrected by the group's frontman. At that point, I was expecting that they might play Azra's song of the same name, but they didn't. They played "Trese, lupa, udara" by Bombay press, and the second thing was "Only we need love" by Bajaga. They played the first one very well, but the second one was excellent. Better than the original. Bajaga's cover of the great Beatles hit "All you need is love" was the best song at that moment, and Nedjelja Popodne was the best group at that moment.
After Sunday Afternoon, a group with a Latin name performed: Venus Amadis. They seemed strange to me. It is the first group that had a female member, a singer. They had the weakest instrument sound of the entire evening, probably due to the fact that they only had an acoustic guitar and drums and no drummer. Their first track was "Beggin'" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I don't remember the others. What is worthy of respect is that they performed the first track differently from the original, in their own style. But it turned out well, the singer has an interesting voice, which fit well in both songs.
Seventh in a row, the group took the stage Square. They also had a singer. The first song was “Johnny's got a Boom Boom” by Imelda May. They performed it better than the original, because they significantly sped it up, with a good vocal performance by the singer. Speaking of the vocal performance, for the second song, which was "I'd rather go blind" by Etta James, I wondered how they would perform it. However, they surprised me and it was the best song of the night. The way the singer sang, it sounded unreal. Also, I have to praise the good electric guitar solo.
After them, they had their performance White and Easy. It was the third band with a female vocalist and also the last. They played "Bad Love" by Clapton and "Steamy Windows" by Tina Turner. They were excellent, but the impression was somewhat incomplete because of the singer. Not because she sang badly, that was not the reason - but her voice sounded weaker than the previous two singers. Just because. I must say that the electric guitar dominated in both songs, which are not easy to play at all, because both 90% depend on the electric guitar, which is, of course, the case with Clapton. If you don't play Clapton's stuff at least as well as Clapton, you haven't done anything. The gentleman on the guitar did just that.
After them, he played White Rabbit the band. Heavy Metal band, with smoke hanging around them all the time. They were, of course, the loudest. Not too much, they weren't in the style of AC/DC, Guns 'N' Roses or Metallica, but they were quite okay. The gig was strong and good, but even so, they were far from the best of the night.
They were the tenth and last band of the evening Rokomotiva. Their choice was two great songs: the first was Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and the second was Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing". In both songs, the singer seemed unsure and could have done better. The first song was quite far from the original, but solidly performed. The second one was significantly better, but also quite far from the original. In the second song, the electric guitar was almost not heard during the vocals, and it should have been, while the solo was performed excellently.
In the end, it was the jury's turn to determine the final order with their votes and single out the three best bands. Gorica Nešović and Darko Mitrović announced how the jury voted: the third place went to the Venus Amadis group, the second place was taken by Nedjelja Popodne, and the first place was taken by the Square group. Grupa Square won first place, fully deserved, and I completely agree with the jury.
The winners of the first place, the group Square, celebrated their victory with an encore and played two more songs: the first was "Should I stay or should I go" by the Clash, and the second was "Back to Black" by Amy Winehouse.
Watch a video of their encore performance and performance of "Should I stay or should I go" by the Clash:
Overall a fantastic concert, if I had to rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it a 9,5.
Mihailo Ilić
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