I am back from the Bratislava trip ... it took some 5 hours and something on the train from Prague yesterday, just to be on time in Blava (as they abbreviate the city name), have some coffee and look around a bit.

It is actually funny, last time I was there was in mid-90s, after the split of Czechoslovakia, all was familiar and infamiliar at the same time (like getting used to the Slovak curency for instance, which otherwise is almost 1:1 to the Czech crown / koruna).

I am actually wondering whether Pryxfus and the Polish tribe were there : when coming for a drink to the restaurant next to the hall I had a feeling that there was a Polish group sitting just in the far corner ... I hope he / they made it over, because he / they always make the set list of the gig correct and I will need assistance in this respect for Bratislava gig anyway.


Btw. Weather was shit - just on Friday we had blizzard in Prague and similar weather waited for us in Bratislava (at least it wasn already that strong).

Anyway, on entering the Bratislava PKO hall I was amazed how laid back it was in there ... just a couple of security guys, lots of drink places and thus no queues, and not many people. Which perhaps surprised me most. The PKO was built in the old times, I think, so in a way it felt a bit like coming back in years.

The hall was almost half-empty well up to the beginning of the concert, which amazed me most, plus I heard lot of Czech around (it is true that from places like Brno / border regions it takes some 2 hours and less to go to Blava) ... but apparently the place started to fill just before the Soulfly gig.

Anyway, there was one thing fairly strict : ban on the cameras ... well, people with mobile phones inbuilt cameras were safe and so were those not using flash, like myself (you will see the resulting shit soon ) ... I mean they were people using flash further in the audience, and that was ok. but in my part just in front of the PA tower (which on top of everything split my view and I could either see Max and Bobby, or Marc and Joe ... but not all in one time) the security were keeping eye on us .....

Meaning, sorry guys : the shots are even more shit than usual ... but then I got some rather psychedelic and mysterious shots which with some more editing work on them I will be able to use for special occasions, like for instance X-mas and Happy New Year cards. See : i am trying to be positive here.

Right ... first came Slovak KONFLIKT : http://www.konflikt.sk/ ... they mark themselves as punk, though ^by looks^ they are more metal, and I myself mark them ^anarcho-metal^ - by lyrics they are punk / anarcho stuff, by sound they are more rock / metal. Be it as it may, I like them - last year gig at punk Antifest in Svojsice was really good, yesternight in Blava they seemed not to have enough space as it were, but in my view they still did very good.







See what I mean by psychedelic shots ? If you wanna see how they actually look like, the Antifest shots turned out a bit better To be cont.

Next came Linea 77 from Italy : http://www.linea77.com/. They made also support for Soulfly gig in Prague. At first I didnt know what to make out of them (my first time hearing them) ... the sound and performance was alright, some ^kind of core^, but for some time - until the ears got used them - they sounded a bit monotonic, but as the gig developed, I started to like them. I also guess the lyrcis are pretty important which means, this is the kind of band you need to get to know a bit better /i.e. hear / see more than just one time) ... but then they are the kind of band / music which actually inspires you to get to know better / see more time and check out their CDs, which in itself I think is a recommendation.

Also, the audience accepted them well and in many instance I had a feeling that many already saw them before, probably in Prague on Feb. 20 with Soulfly.



To be cont.

And then came Soulfly ... from people's talks I got that to many it was their first time seeing them (one girl at Ladies ... you know these ^rest-room^ chats ... said that her boyfriend burst into tears the moment Soulfly came on the stage not believing that this is actually happening).

The setlist was roughly this :

Intro
Babylon
Prophecy
Seek'n'Strike
Roots Bloody Roots
Execution Style
Jumpdafuckup/Bring It
Arise Again
Carved Inside
Drum Jam - Max and Bobby
The March (?)
Frontlines
Back To The Primitive
I And I
Innerself
Eye For An Eye

Edit : + Living Sacrifice, Tribe, Fire



But I really need correction here ... my disadvantage was the PA minitower just in front of me which produced a bit distorted sound plus ... Soulfly compared to Astoria gig sounded more ^melodic^ ... but it may be that from that PA mini-tower I got some lines more stressed, as it were. Plus the Brazilian influences / rhythms were kinda more present than other time.

And now the shots (Btw. there were unsually hell lot of official photographers so I hope there will be official shots on the net : in such a case i will re-post them) ... This is what you get if you try to get Max without flash and techno-tricks ... Pure essence of Max

I mean ... reading of those images is pretty straightforward : Blessed be Max !



And here is a selection ... I will do the official shots search ... plus perhaps people who were there have somethign more decent to offer and will post it here !

And Blessed be Soulfly !


Oh well, sorry for the dizzy shit ... The gig was awesome. I must admit I was leaving Prague in rather zombine condition after lot of stress and crap i am going through in work .... The Soulfly gig made (as always) wonders : a re-energizing, re-vitalizing effect one can hardly find elsewhere / in other bands. Leaving the hall I jumped on taxi to get to the bus station (good thing about Bratislava - Prague connection is that there are buses coming almost every half an hour after midnight, which makes Bratislava perfect place for going to concerts) ... the taxi driver made questions / comments about what was there, which a) made me coming to Bratislava for a mere couple of hours, b) made me shining like Max on that shots above

Anyway, the bus went for almost 6 hours . but that was primarily due to frequent coffee and piss stops (in the middle of snowing actually) and also crappy conditions on the highway ... I was back at home at 7 am.

So ... next gig is Sepultura and In Flames in Prague on Easter Monday ... and when it comes to Soulfly, I will have to check the dates, but for sure it is With Full Force and perhaps couple of other summer fest.

Good night !


Oh, just a dress code comment :Max was wearing several shrts, incl. Slovak football dress (?) and perhaps also ice-hockey dress ... Bobby was wearing Konflikt t-shirt throughout the whole concert.

D¡ky za feedback !

As for the Czech / Slovak crown ... ehm, they may have special rates at railwaystation ... it looked almost 1:1 .... oh oh oh ... sorry, I changed some remaining Euro and I got almost what I would get in Czech koruna


Do we have Topvar fest somewhere on the forums ? I was considering going there but then went to Trinec last year, apart for club gigs.

Do you remember (better than myself, that is ) the setlist for Bratislava ?



Jo Konflikt : yeah I know they have mixed level of acceptance (especially among punks ), be it as it may, Antifest performance was actually pretty good.

What Slovak band would you prefer to see playing with Soulfly (for instance) ?

="toxygen":24zslnux said:
aren't you missing tribe there?
and i do not remember them playing born against anarchist also...
you are also missing fire
also living sacrifice...

Diky za feedback : ... je fakt, ze se jednotliv‚ koncerty lisej př¡pad od př¡padu: a kolikrat taky hodně z lez¡ na tom, kde člověk zrovna stoj¡. Ja jsem si tentokr t naběhla s tou věz¡, č¡mz mi převazovaly určit‚ linie ...

Osobně nejleps¡ koncerty, ktere jsem se Soulfly zazila byly kluby minuly rok v Chemnitzu a Berl¡ně (taky jsem sem d vala ^review^, jenze je to pryc ... ackoliv jeste to m m nekde na sv‚m f¢ru).


Co se tyk  Čech, tak např. Třinec minuly rok byl zvukově sice velmi dobry (zrovna tak kdyz dělali předskokany Black Sabbath, z kterych jsem pak odesla ... resp. nemohla jsem vydejchat Velvet Revolver - to bylo nad moje s¡ly !) , ale z nějak‚ho důvodu se drzej tradičn¡ho reperto ru (hodně Sepultury, např¡klad) ... Jak to bylo letos v Roxy nev¡m, setlist jsem nikde nečetla.



Jo a jestě pozn mka : ten koncert včera mě nakop zpusobem, ktery jsem fakt potřebovala, takze člověk vn¡m  pak (někdy !!!!!) určit‚ věci m‚ně kriticky.

Ps. to others : Sorry for the Czech / Slovak chat

and in a few months a bootleg?

lol

glad you all had a good time?

NO. Because, Gloria captured a camera :]

Sorry guys but i wasn't on Bratislava show. On saturday was snowy weather. I didin't wanted travel 350-400 km in my car in blizzard.

I hope to see them in summer this year.

The show kicked ass ! What can I say... FRONT ROW CENTER ! and Max signed my Slovak flag earlier that day. I did take some photos with my mobile phone but the quality is rather poor except for 2,3 pics but Hey, at least sumthin'

Damn, and I almost caught Mark's pick.

...looking forward to the next tour !!! \\,,/ \\,,/

Yeah, I remember... But I still regret that I didn't take a picture with him, and I could have...Oh well, next year or maybe even sooner...