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Rating: I took a few moments of reflection, lying on the grass, looking at the sky… starry. The same sky that a few hours earlier was angry and threatening to unload its full load of electric rain. The pale stars confirm to me that I have witnessed a memorable event, one of those evenings that reconcile you with yourself.
Goran Bregovic, with that rogue sidelong glance, is a showman, a storyteller, a great artist. The horn section (composed of eight elements) appears on the grass at the sides of the stage, equally divided, and begins to warm up the audience, while above takes place the vocal section, formed by the splendid solo voice of Vaska Jankovska and two backing vocalists, in traditional attire (Balkan… ???). The percussionist and singer Alen Ademovic places himself in the center of the stage, behind his Goc (a bass drum adorned with a small snare drum and a "Chinese" cymbal) and starts beating the time and lamenting in a rotating litany.
The introduction is over… it is time for the protagonist to take the stage. Bregovic climbs onto the stage just before ten o'clock (he will come down well past midnight… !!!) in a white suit and with a smile that seems perfunctory, but that gradually will show to be of conscious mastery in being able to entertain and make people sway.
He sits down on the chair, picks up the electric guitar, turns on the laptop, introduces the evening in an almost perfect Italian, and kicks off the dances with “Polizia Molto Arrabbiata”, an incredibly fun piece (and not just because of the amusement of the lyrics); the songs follow one another at a frenetic pace, now fast and festive, now calmer and more reflective; the music unleashed is an incredible mix of Balkan harmonies, hints of modern rock (post… ???), gypsy brass bands, klezmer electronics, and Bulgarian polyphonies.
All expertly orchestrated and ordered by a modern and ancient artist at the same time, able to make children, young, and old literally jump, exactly like at gypsy weddings, from which he has drawn remarkable inspiration. The setlist unfolds among his "classics" such as “In The Death Car” and “Money” (from the soundtrack of “Arizona Dream”) or “Underground Tango” or “Wedding Cocek” (from that of “Underground”); even though what's looted is his work “Tales & Songs From Weddings And Funerals” with the “violent” “Coctail Molotov” standing out.
Bregovic does not disdain a couple of forays into the distant past, taking two tracks from his debut (the soundtrack of “Time of the Gypsies”) and lets himself go entirely in the encores… the evening is coming to an end, the band returns to the stage after a few minutes' break and Bregovic announces a piece he likes to sing after having a drink (and sips a glass of whiskey… ???), with “Mjesecina” starting (which seems like the revisitation of one of those drinking songs) followed by the final "Kalashnikov" which literally sets the audience below on fire, so much so that it's repeated twice… Wow… that's all I can think and I decide to take a few moments of reflection, lying on the grass, looking at the sky… starry.
The same sky that a few hours earlier was angry and threatening to unleash its full load of electric rain. But Goran managed to make even it smile.
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