Google me prije nekoliko minuta obavijestio da sam na današnji dan prije osam godina svirao svoju prvu (i zasad jedinu) svirku u Tirani, u Albaniji.
Bend se zvao Motherpig i bio je moje malo čedo. Suštinski, ono malo skromnog znanja koje sam stekao svirajući posljednjih petnaest godina, ponajviše sam usvojio zahvaljujući Motherpigu. Bili smo jedan od onih nesretnih bendova koje niko nije smatrao svojim – metalcima smo bili previše pank, pankerima smo bili previše metal i apolitični, iako smo bili redovna pojava na antifa događanjima. Valjda je problem bio što nismo pjevali o parolama i floskulama.
Iza sebe smo ostavili nebrojeno mnogo split izdanja (veoma popularan format u hardcore/punk krugovima gdje se dva ili više bendova na jednom izdanju predstavljaju kroz nekoliko pjesama), a i dva albuma, svima drag “Nojev Let” i skoro nikome omiljen “Savršeni krug”, album koji je prošao kroz pakao loše produkcije, teških odluka i odlaska postave koja je za Motherpig bila ono što su Clarke, Taylor i Kilmister bili za Motorhead. Najbolje što je taj album rodio je omot albuma koji je nacrtao Enis Čišić, isti onaj Enis koji će netom nakon toga potpisati ugovor sa Marvelom i postati jedna od najpoznatijih strip njuški Bosne i Hercegovine.
Nakon izdavanja “Savršenog Kruga” grupu je prvo napustio gitarista Atlija koji se iz Osijeka, gdje je studirao (da, mi smo bili bend sastavljen od članova iz dvije države jer nismo mogli sastaviti bend u Sarajevu) preselio u Zagreb, pa je svirka, probavanje i snimanje postalo besmisleno. Bend je postao preskup za održavanje jer je i onako malo novca koje smo dobijali za svirke moralo biti podijeljeno na dva dijela, jedan za Atliju, drugi za bubnjara Aleksa i mene. Aleks je napustio bend malo nakon Atlije, upisavši muzički konzervatorij u Beču gdje sada živi i radi. Iako sam nastavio nešto raditi sa novom postavom, bilo je jasno da od toga nema ništa, pa je Motherpig i oficijelno ugašen 18. decembra 2016.
Odlazak Motherpiga u Tiranu bila je jedna od najljepših stvari koje su se desile bendu. Na put nas je vozila moja drugarica Adnesa koja je sebi vrata Dženneta otškrinula nebrojeno puta, čineći usluge prevoza i druženja sa bendom, često gubeći i vlastiti novac u procesu, baš kao i njena sestra Avdija koja se veoma često poturala od nemila do nedraga sa nama. Adnesa (u tekstu koji slijedi Madnessa) je bila i zaslužna što smo otputovali u Prag kako bi 2009. godine, koju smatram dosad najplodonosnijom godinom za svoj rokenrol, uživo pogledali svježe okupljeni legendarni Amebix.
Vratimo se na put do Tirane. Gubljenje, višesatno čekanje na granici, unaprijed upozorenja da ne gledamo tuđe žene i najtopliji prijem od publike koja je najvjerovatnije prvi put bend srela i čula upravo na tom nastupu. Taj koncert je, između ostalog, ono što je zapravo najdivnije u vezi sviranja muzike, bilo koje muzike, a to je da se upoznaš sa ljudima koje nikad inače ne bi vidio u životu, vidiš mjesta koja ti nisu baš na mapi, te proživiš nešto što većina neće nikada proživjeti.
Na ovom koncertu snimljen je i loš butleg koji nažalost iz tehničkih razloga nikad nije objavljen (prekidao je svake tri sekunde). Odlične fotografije našeg seta uslikali su Ela i Brisi – kad god ih vidim, podsjetim se koliko smo mahniti bili.
Ja sam za vrijeme Motherpigovog vijeka objavljivao i neku vrstu dnevnika koja se mogla pronaći na Motherpigovoj stranici. Pošto smo pucali na razumijevanje i od strane stranog tržišta, tekst je na engleskom, tako da mi unaprijed oprostite sve greške. Tekst je zanimljiv iz nekoliko razloga, a ponajviše jer je svjedok jednog vremena, nezrelosti, a samim tim i nevinosti koju imate kad ste klinac koji sanja svoj san u doba kada je Lemmy Kilmister još uvijek živ, stari bendovi se okupljaju, a ti si u mogućnosti da sviraš, gubiš pare i opet se provedeš fantastično, dovukavši kući kofer uspomena sa puta svaki put.
Gdje su sad? Atlija svira u bendu koji se zove Disbaja, opasno brzi mračni punk d-beat usmjerenja i album samo što nije. Znam da Aleks svira sa nekoliko različitih bendova, ali ne znam šta je od toga najaktivnije, dok vrijedi spomenuti da mu je i mlađi brat Ademir sada muzički zreo, te da je karijeru započeo (i nastavlja je) u grupi Pank Flojd.
So, beautiful and first (but not the last!) trip to Albania happened on July 24th and I have to write down few of mine (ours) impressions about country most metalheads and punks don't know anything about.
We've got contacted by Mr. Mero about two months ago, we've set up two dates, but couldn't make it and we finally agreed we can make it on July 24th. Motherpig left Sarajevo around 8 AM in the morning on July 24th. Our driver was Madnessa, our good friend and definitely the biggest help on this road adventure. You don't get too many girls willing to drive three punks through hell to heaven these days, don't you?
Internet and GPS calculations based on our speed and distance between Sarajevo and Tirana told us we will arive in six, maximum seven hours, but even the most sophisticated devices can't calculate effects of bad roads in Bosnia and border crossing jams. Our trip took more than 13 hours! Basically, it wouldn't be such a problem if it wasn't for a tremendous and horrible heat wave spreading all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania. I was riding a shotgun on a front seat, Madnessa driving, but those lucky SOBs, Atlija and Alex, they were CONSTANTLY sleeping and napping in the backseat, just waking up for cigarettes and drinking some water. I still can't figure it out how did they manage to sleep all day long.
We passed through Montenegro border fast enough and when we went through tourist heaven, a city named Bar, choked full with foreign tourists, it was really hard not to stop to take a swim in a beautiful sea, but we were already late and we couldn't afford such a luxury, so we continued. Maybe 15 kilometres before only border crossing between Albania and Montenegro road gets really, really fucked up. There are no traffic signs, nothing, it's one way road to the border, complete chaos. If it wasn't for our GPS system, we would never make it. Finally, when we got to the border crossing, a huge line has been formed. We've waited around two hours, surrounded by nervous tourists and local people trying to cross the border as fast as possible, which is quite impossible. The problem was that there should be 3 lines for 3 crossings but drivers made around six or seven different lines and as they were approaching border crossing they've tried (FUCKING RUDE!) to just drive back into regular three lines. After two hours of waiting we finally entered Albania. There's a small town or something like that, we passed through it and there was a wooden bridge we had to cross. This wooden bridge is even worse that those bridges from Evil Dead and Beetle Juice movies combined! Luckily for us (and Tirana's crowd!) we did it.
If you ever go to Tirana, be very careful, there are police patrols with radar control scattered all around the way and you don't want to get caught in a situation where there is you speaking English and Albanian cops speaking only Albanian (and occasionaly Italian).
To skip this road trippin’ stories, we've arrived to Tirana around 10 -11PM and missed the club, this time thanks to GPS. I've SMS-ed our organizer, Mr. Mero and after all the fuss, he managed to find us and take us to the club.
We've unloaded stuff from tha car as quick as possible and when we entered Alkimi Overworld Rock Caffe, we got a huge applause from the gathered people. Soon enough, local band called Silent Scream went onstage and performed bunch of cover songs.Young guys playing Metallica, Megadeth, Rage Against The Machine, Slayer songs. They have fucking awesome guitar player, this guy fucking rules, he's maybe 18 years old, not older, and he eats guitar, he shreds like crazy. They've been a bit out of tune here and then, but then again – who isn't? We are way out of tune. And most unfortunately they didn't play any of their songs, which is quite a shame, I would like to hear their songs. Maybe next time when we come.
We've took the stage by storm, opening with “Censorshit”, just to rush in with “Camp Arawak”, “Nuke ’em High” and “Kill Us All”. Easily, step by step, crowd started reacting more and more to our noise, so at some point, there were attempts of stage diving of 20 centimetres high stage, people caring each other on their shoulders, headbanging and moshpit. Really cool and warm atmosphere and we really gave our best, performing 23 songs and for the first time ever we've played the first song from our debut album. Song is called “Insomnia”. Also we covered Motorhead's “Killed By Death”, that's my wish coming true. When I watched myself on video (yeah, we shot the whole gig with camera!), it looked like I'm having an orgasm. Well, probably a Motorhead playing effect 🙂
We've also played “Flesh for Sale”, long forgotten song from Agathocles/Motherpig split, but this time, Atlija suggested we need to play it faster and it turned out to be a fucking awesome song. Just love it!
The greatest madness happened while we played “Promazin”. Everyone was jumping around, Gjergj (Mr. Mero) was grabbing mic and singing with us. Later he explained to us he got into us by pure mistake. He visited Korrozao's Myspace and there he saw our comment or something like that. Somehow, he thought we were Korrozao, and although he figured out he was wrong, he checked out songs on our Myspace profile, liked “Promazin” so much he decided to book us for show. Now please tell me more of those “Myspace-is-for-corporate-punks” bullshit stories.
We've played for one hour and fifteen minutes and people asked for more so we've played “The Stench” and “Kill Us All” again. We were completely exhausted, but the end wasn't even near, after the gig, bunch of people took photos with us, we were signing autographs, I haven't used any kind of pen or pencil in a long time (except when I'm having college exams which doesn't happen very often) and my hand got really stiff from signing all those autographs. Will not lie to you, I've enjoyed it completely because I saw people, although this was their first encounter with Motherpig really did enjoy all of our repertoire. And honesty is what I cherish the most about rock'n'roll.
Later, we talked to Gjergj (Mr. Mero), our booking agent for Albania, he told us we are third international underground band ever coming to Albania. First one was Zora from Italy, second came Korrozao from Brazil and we were the third. I'm really proud of that fact. In a way, we are part of Albanian rock'n'roll history and will try to be part of its future as well.
We fell asleep after taking a shower. Our hostel room was really sweet with wooden beds, totally comfortable. In the morning we went to have a breakfast and then we saw a bit of Tirana. It's colourful city, it reminds me a lot of Cairo (been there in May 2009), especially in the terms of traffic, drivers here make three lines out of two, nobody really gives a fuck about traffic lights and stuff like that. It's totally crazy, not so European, and I just like that kind of atmosphere. Want to return to Tirana to scout some more time through the city as soon as possible. Atlija said Tirana reminds him of Sepultura videos, and it does in a way, it has bad roads, we saw some kids setting containers on fire – total chaos, but then again, not chaos as something bad, but chaos as something wild. It's different, I really do advice you to go check out this marvelous city. Loving it!
Tirana will always stay in our heart as one of our best gigs, if not the best one for now. We will return any time we get a call from all of those pleasant and friendly people!
Just to thank Madnessa (Motherpig Road Crew) for driving us to Albania, Gjergj Mero and Alkimi Rock Caffe for being the most generous and nice booking agents man's mind can imagine, Brisi and Ela for all those beautiful pictures, Anatol for filming our gig. Silent Scream for supporting and last, but not the least – all of you Albanians who came to support us on our first gig in Tirana! WE LOVE YOU!
P.S. You can check out bunch of photos by Ela and Brisi on our Facebook page.