Viva Belgrado, 04/02/2017, Moscow

I thought it would be some kind of a sausage party, but there were some pretty chicks in there.

I came to Vermel Club not too late to see the first Russian band of this night performing. The band was called -1 (just try to google it). After I did a double pint of beer they started to sound much better than before. The next Russian band Mayak followed the path of -1. The only difference is that I never listened to them ‘before the beer’. For me them both sounded cool and, frankly, I expected less from Russian bands. Before the Viva Belgrado set I’ve managed to find myself some good place to stay at the right side of the stage (if I stayed at the center it could end up in hospital for me as the people moshed and slammed and crowdsurfed there – and I was not prepared physically for such actions).

On the way to wardrobes someone before me noticed that the wi-fi connection in Vermel Club was down, and this was commented sarcastically by a semi-drunken guy standing aside of the queue: “That’s because the Moscow hipsters just need to learn something about the band they’ve come to look at”. Anyway, though the audience was more familiar with the songs of Russian bands, Viva Belgrado were treated as the stars of the night ‘by default’. Songwise and soundwise it was predictable as the songs of Cordoba-based combo were definitely more detailed, more sophisticated, more spacious than those of their local peers. They presented the tracks from "Flores, Carne" and "Ulisses" in equal proportions. Throughout their gig I was all happy headbanging to the familiar sounds.

Right after Viva Belgrado finalized their set I came close to the stage to greet Candido (vocals, guitar) but when I started to talk to him he seemed like he didn’t even get that I spoke his native language. Maybe it’s because there were other persons speaking to him in English, and he never expected to meet Spanish-speaking guy amongst them. Or [more likely] I was just too tongue-tied. Later I met Alvaro (drums) in the hall and talked to him a bit more. He was really nice guy to talk to.