Thursday December 4th
We fly into Zagreb, which it seems is to be cold and wet for
the duration of our visit, but we refuse to be downhearted. Firstly, Zagreb is a lovely, friendly city
and secondly, on previous visits we have had to contend with snow piled high on
the pavements and snowploughs clearing the runway so that we could return to
the UK, so a chill in the air and a little (ok, at times a lot) of rain will
not deter us. Oh, and thirdly, we are here for the Sonic Bullets Festival, to
celebrate twenty years of The Bambi Molesters, who, it is no secret, are my
favourite band in the whole world.
We make the short bus journey from Zagreb airport to the
centre of town and walk to our hotel, pausing only to remind ourselves of the
precise location of the entrance to the Tvronica Kulture, just so we know
exactly where to go tomorrow night. Safely checked in, we make our way to Jelaćić
Trg, through the bustle of Dolac Market to our favourite Zagreb bar, Ro and Do.
Which is about to shut for the afternoon! However, the barman takes pity on us
(looking like drowned rats might help here) and we get our first Ožujsko of the
trip. The barman is clearly in a hurry, though, so we head down the road for a couple
more in Carpe Diem, before returning to the hotel.
Being creatures of habit and weak of will, we are back at Ro
and Do in the evening, where a different barman questions the wisdom of
ordering Ožujsko and points us instead towards Crna Kraljica, a really
rather excellent dark lager. He is also good enough to suggest The Royal India
as a good place to eat and this also proves a good choice, so we promise to
return for a nightcap after we’ve eaten. This is proving to be a good trip
already.
Friday December 5th
We breakfast in the hotel, then head out to explore the city
some more. Just north of the central station a large and complicated open-air
ice rink is being prepared and we make a note to return to watch the opening
later in the day, before heading for the Croatian Parliament building, where we
wonder at the apparent lack of security, as a petition of some sort is
presented outside the main entrance.
Nearby Lotrščak tower is next on our agenda, to watch the
midday gun go off. We’ve witnessed this before, so I prepare myself by sticking
my fingers in my ears, but to no avail; the gun goes off and I still jump out
of my skin!
We’ve arranged to go the Tvornica Kulture for 4:00pm to say
hello to The Bambi Molesters and it’s lovely to see them all again. They’re
understandably excited about tonight and also about the just-announced January tour
of Brazil, but they’re also pretty busy, so we make our excuses and head back
into the city.
It is the season of Advent and Zagreb really does look
beautiful as night descends; trees bedecked with white fairy lights, Christmas
market stalls, stages and bandstands offering entertainment and everyone, or so
it seems heading for the opening of the open-air ice rink. The crowds are such
that, to be honest we see very little of the ceremony, although we do catch a
few glimpses of some quite spectacular ice dancing, but it’s cold and we’re
hungry, so we don’t hang around for too long and make our way to Zrno Bio
Bistro for a rather excellent vegetarian meal.
Tvornice Kulture
We’re at the venue for 8:30 and have a short time to spend
backstage where we chat with the band and get to meet Chris Eckman and Hrvoje’s
brother, amongst others (and Hrvoje also hints that maybe, just maybe, there
will be new Bambi moletsers material next year), but first band of the night, B
and the Bops are about to take the stage so we go out to see them.
We’ve been to the venue before, but on that occasion the
main room was out of commission for some reason and The Bambi Moletsers played
in a tiny (and packed) adjacent room, so this is our first real look at the
venue proper. It’s pretty huge with a capacity of 1800 and feels fairly
sparsely populated at the start of B and the Bops’ sparky rockabilly set, but
it fills gradually and by the time My Buddy Moose hit the stage is beginning to
feel pretty full.
My Buddy Moose frontman, Luka Bencic is part of The Bambi
Molesters live band, so we’ve met him on a few occasions and it’s really good
to finally see him in action with his own band, who kick up quite a storm and
get a good reaction from the crowd.
And so to the main event. It’s a twentieth birthday party
and The Bambi Molesters set includes highlights from the whole of that period.
They open with Wanganui and for the next 45 minutes are at their dazzling,
spellbinding best. In addition to Luca, the band are joined by the excellent
Soldiers of Love horn section, so for much of the set there are seven of them
on the stage, weaving their magic. Point Break, Farewell Malasaña, Theme From Slaying Beauty,
Siboney, As the Dark Wave Swells, a simply stunning Invasion of the Reverb
Snatchers… And the band seem to be having a wail of a time.
Then Chris Eckman takes to the stage and we’re not watching
The Bambi Molesters any more, but instead The Strange. It barely makes a
difference, to be honest. OK, this isn’t instrumental music anymore, but the
band’s grasp of drama, dynamics, atmosphere and melody remains the same and the
crowd is completely in their thrall.
A note for gear enthusiasts; I’d been wondering how Dalibor’s recently
acquired Rickenbacker would work with The Bambi Molesters, since we’ve grown so
used to hearing him play a Jazzmaster, but he plays the new guitar throughout
this portion of the show and it sounds mighty fine to me and it returns several
times later in the night.
The Strange section of the evening lasts for around 25
minutes and then we’re back to The Bambi Molesters to take us through to beyond
12:30, when they close with Malagueña.
The crowd want more, of course and we know we will get it, since there’s been
no Latnia yet and, sure enough they return to play it, with Chris Eckman joining
on acoustic guitar to make The Bambi Molesters an eight-piece for the finale.
I can’t really be subjective about the Bambi Molesters; I
love their music and I like them very much as people. Every time I’ve seen them
has been special to me in one way or another, but this show was awesome. I’ve
never seen a surf band play to such a huge and enthusiastic audience and I’ve
rarely seen one play as well. Tonight will live long in my memory.
As they finally leave the stage, the crowd starts to thin
quite considerably, but The Bambis clearly want to party and have invited along
one of their favourite bands, The Flaming Sideburns to close the show. We watch
maybe 20 minutes of their raucous, rocking garage set, before giving in to
exhaustion and staggering back to the hotel. In our defence, we have an early
start in the morning and I am due on stage in Brighton in around 20 hours and
we have to make the house ready for our guests Surfer Joe and his band, but
that’s a whole other story…
