BABYFACE CLAN , Panican Whyasker, Animacionerite
09.04.2009, Blue Box club, Sofia

words by: Stefan Topuzov, photo: begemot.

I’ll have to admit that alternative music is on the outskirts of my musical taste. And even if my interest was limited, I could notice that there wasn’t pretty much any of it in Bulgaria in recent years. Last night I found out what had been missing. And it isn’t missing anymore. They’re back!

And se, after a long day full of work that proved bad enough to cancel out the positive effects of the warm and sunny spring day, I head to ‘Blue Box’. Upon arrival I am pleasantly surprised by the size of the crowd. Inside people with beers, vodkas and cocktails chat around the club and the merch stand.

Somewhere around 9 PM Animacionerite take the stage. Their arrival provokes all the fine looking chicks around me to start dancing. Note to self – ‘The chicks are worth getting further into that scene’.

The band delivers a solid performance despite the somewhat compromising sound.
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The guitarist makes some impression with his duct-taped mouth. ‘This is a protest against censorship’, I think to myself – ‘one silent mime who can’t speak but tells twice as much with his music’ (I scratch my beard proud of how smart I am). Towards the end of the setlist the same dude sings back vocals without removing the tape. Way to kick your own concept in the balls, dude!

The band also performs its best songs at the end – ‘Krasivata Lulu’, ‘Snowboard’ and the self-titled one. And excited female fan unleashes such a powerful shriek that damages my ears way more than a certain multi-hour power metal marathon by a certain power metal band in a certain seaside city has…

Next is Panican Whyasker. I won’t hide that this is where my sympathies lie, as this is the most rock-sounding band of the night. Another note to self: ‘From now on write ROCK only with capital letters!’

The stage goes dark. A thick smoky fog clouds it as three silhouettes show up and all of a sudden – BAM! An explosion of riffs. Nufri runs all around the stage, jumps around, goes crazy. Awesome contact with the audience. The sound quality also seems to have taken a leap. As I watch I cannot believe my ears! Super music, sound, and vision of a Bulgarian band all in one! Goddamn ROCK and roll!

As they had promise earlier on TV, the set was the expected Panican Whyasker setlist with all the mandatory songs – ‘Nair Plug-In’, ‘Bar Pukula’, ‘ROCK’n Roll Zombie’ plus a few brand new ones… ‘Showbusiness’ was the last one before the encores, while the actual last song was a brand new one that made my jaw drop in amusement.

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Drinking beer outside while having some fresh air robbed me of seeing the beginning of Babyface Clan’s performance. Note to self: ‘Damn!’

What I see is amusing. Nasso Ruskov’s stage presence is impossible to describe. Yes. But the music doesn’t make only him perform some hell of acrobatics on stage, but everyone in front of it starts dancing mad to the Clan’s rhythms.

After the first song however it is revealed that there are some technical problems. Nasso’s mic has some reverb effect that cannot be turned off. During the songs everything is OK, but the talks in between were incomprehensive.

And so fuckin’ what?! The show goes one. I recall hearing familiar tracks ‘Positive?’ and ‘The Robot’. ‘Romantica’ itself as well. The concert starts to go into the small hours of tomorrow (today, that is) and that seems to discourage a lot of people who had to go to work early. Lame.

But when it comes to being tired we must note that drummer Dakata is a hero – a 40 minute set with Panican Whyasker, then at least as much with Babyface Clan. The dude’s a machine!

There are two encores as well. The first one was planned – it comes after some serious applause. The crowd doesn’t seem to give up, though. They have waited a lot and they won’t let go. Babyface Clan come out and deliver a jam. Nasso notes they won’t be playing any dumb stuff for us anymore and that there is going to be a longer set next time.

Well, we’re waiting!