A little while ago, i was invited to perform at Sombor and this was my opportunity to participate in such a small Vojvodinian town, as well as visiting it for the first time. It is located an hour away from Novi Sad and just close in-between the borders: Croatia from the West and Hungary from up North.
On that gig, it has been revealed to me that i would be performing along with Sombor's newcoming local act Getintherobot, Idiedthisfebruary and Quasarborn from Novi Sad. Before the announcement, the local folx wanted to invite me as a surprise guest, because one of the member celebrated their birthday that day. However, the organiser blew that surprise for all of us, thus having my name on the poster for all to see. Although the outcome was so lame, i was, nevertheless, very happy to be performing along with my good friends at one gig. I've always wanted to perform along with them as much as they want to perform along with me, and this was a dream come true.
Anyway, as i came to Sombor by bus, Klemo, the guitarist of getintherobot and his girlfriend came to pick me up and showed me around the town. It was all clean and the scenery was all green, which was however ridden by right wing corruption. They'd tell me all the stories of how the entire town being full of drug addicts and how the pair have faced oppression from the police, simply for looking differently. Not only that, i was also told that the Russian people who took refuge in Serbia, aren't even allowed to do anything they'd want, e.g. touring with the band, otherwise, they'd be deported back to Russia (unless they have a dual citizenship), which is, in my opinion the most depressing thing i've ever heard.
As we made it to the Dve Krigle Debele venue, we've waited for the boss to open up at 6PM. The February's and Quasarborn (both from Novi Sad) came to and we all took time to practice once more, as well as doing a sound check and getting warmed up while people are coming around. Since some of our sets are pretty short, the entire event begins at 10PM.
After the thorough discussion between the organisers and the bands, they decided that i, as Eva Ras, would start the event. I didn't know what would come to this, but i didn't mind about it. Duka of the February's insisted he'd be in charge of taking pics of my set with my camera, and did so with amazing results. Strahinja, the bday boy and the bassist of the Robots had this to say about my set:
"The opener for the gig ''Lament Over Sombor'' was Eva Ras.
A one-man ''jack-of-all-trades-of-balkan-emo'' screamo project by Filip.
He enters the stage with his exorcism-like performance which indulged the crowd with huge amount of shock and took everyone by surprise (since that kind of shows are not usual in this place).
As the body rises so does the ambient of the nightmarish/gloomy background music which introduces us into the starting track for the night. With raging screams and thundering instrumentals we enter the emo night through Filip's genius design.
Through his setlist we stumbled upon various kinds of screamo songs including a cover of Placebo's Nancy Boy, which brakes every form of toxic-masculinity and brings out the light out of him and shines upon all of us present in the venue. Short but remarkable is how would i put it for his show, since really it was a show, not a gig.
Listening his performance for the first time live was one of the best gifts i could imagine for a birthday party, since i grew my music-listening experience based on his lists.Unforgettable and impressed, i cannot wait for the next show and hopefully, will be able to attend one!
Thanks for great time, Eva Ras!"Special thanks to Stefan for the pics!
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| Strahinja, celebrating his bday. |
Up next is Novi Sad's Prog Thrash Metal band Quasarborn. Now, Prog isn't my thing, per se, neither do i hate it. BUT to my surprise, i realized that Dimitrije of Nabod is playing for the band. You could tell that he's been pretty busy lately. Anyway, Quasarborn kicked off and got everyone headbanging for good 30-or-so minutes. And as i got out for the fresh air, someone else told me that one of the members crowdsurfed, to my surprise. So, they pretty much ate up most of the venue lol.
And finally, Novi Sad's Idiedthisfebruary were the last to take the stage. Every time they hit off, they come off more brutal than ever before. The crowd got more rabid, everyone moshed, thrashed and grabbed the mic to sing along, more crowdsurfings emerged. It was a fucking beautifully intense shitshow <3
The gig in Sombor for me and everyone else on board is definitely something unforgettable this year. I've met so many new people there and visited the town for the very first time, it's been quite an adventure. Looking forward to performing there in August again. MAKE VOJVODINA EMO AGAIN!
