Podgorica Live Review: EB presents Montenegro

Last night, Karin Park, Fil Lavin and The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble performed at Crnogorsko Narodno Pozoriste Theater in Podgorica, Montenegro.

The show was sold out. There was an immense demand for tickets in Montenegro’s capital, also because the tickets were offered at an affordable price. The concert featuring Karin Park, The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble and DJ Fin Lavin took place in a 382-seat venue, the capital’s National Theater – the Crnogorsko narodno pozorište. You have to bear in mind that only few artists ever pay Montenegro a visit on their tours. So, also for this reason, the debut concerts of Karin Park and The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble were highly anticipated by the audience. It became most visible at the small bar at the back of the hall: Everybody wanted to drink, so the small bar that usually serves audiences at classical concerts eventually collapsed as they basically ran out of drinks. But even more notably, here everybody was dancing.

Below: Podgorica’s local hero Fil Lavin aka Filip Jankovic

Karin Park delivered a strong performance together with her brother David on drums – as reference points Fever Ray and Robyn come to mind. Perhaps it is no surprise that all three are of Swedish origin. Without attempting to play down Karin’s captivating vocal performance, I want to put special emphasis on David Park and his drum sound. Using his feet, he triggers sounds and effects, while he plays the drums with his hands. No wonder that the Park siblings received standing ovations after their set – cheered by the ever-enthusiastic Podgorica audience.

Below: Karin Park

Following next: The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble (watch the video of their live set at last year’s Electronic Beats Festival in Vienna). If you have ever been to a concert of The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble you’d know that their subtle orchestral music, touched by electronic sonics, doesn’t seem to fit into such an euphoric backdrop. But by persistently intensifying their repetetive and hypnotic music, Brandt Brauer Frick and ensemble managed to lure the audience into a whole different musical world. They probably played some tunes faster, or they may have added the electronic sound elements less subtley than usual. Be it as it may – they built up a completely different kind of tension compared to the dark electronics of Karin Park. And again: dancing people, including the security guards, at the bar and standing ovations by the audience when their set had finally come to an end.

Below: The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble

Due to the National Theater’s curfew at 11:30 p.m., most of the concert-goers, all the film crews as well as some of the artists went to the nearby Alan Ford Caffe to continue the party to the sound of DJ Fil Lavin of Montenegro origin – the same DJ who had been spinning tracks in between the concert slots at the Electronic Beats presents Montenegro just an hour before. To me, that was the most beautiful aspect of it all: that the party continued and that these two spaces were mutually linked thanks to Lavin.

Here are two links:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151242735314536.477832.8657329535

https://www.facebook.com/events/118204625004114

Published November 25, 2012. Words by Max Dax.