With an entry like no other, the first and second trumpet players of Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Band entered from the back of the Concert Hall at QPAC on May 9th 2019 for a fantastic night of gypsy-balkan music. You can only expect the audience to go wild with numbers like Balkaneros, Maki Maki, Bella Ciao and Kalashnikov as well as newer songs from the album Three Letters from Sarajevo such as Duj Duj, Made in Bosnia and Pero. Not only was the Wedding and Funeral Band a beautiful display of tradition through costume and presentation but through the way that they played their instruments with such passion.
With the rich brassy sound coming from the trumpet and tuba it isn’t hard to find the beat, even if you don’t understand the language the songs are sung in. With the rapidly changing pace of the brass band and the beautifully delicate female vocals it was easy to sink into the beautifully intricate fusion of the gypsy-balkan sounds that were played in the Concert Hall. The drumming and vocals by Muharem-Muki Redzepi with Goran Bregovic foot-stomping and finger wagging in time to the music was the cherry on top of the cake. The fusion of sounds was unstoppable and the energy unreal. Everyone in the room got up to dance after Balkaneros kicked up and from then it was party time until the end.
There was a great mix between throwing in old crowd favourites as well as delighting the audience with new tracks from his album. There were hints and flavours of various different balkan and slavic cultures thrown into the mix which kept it interesting and ultimately attracted a wide range of audience members across many different cultural groups. Bregovic aims to celebrate the sounds of Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures as referenced by the Three Letters in Three Letters from Sarajevo album title. Bregovic is infused by many cultures himself being born in Bosnia to a Serbian mother and Croatian father and represents this diversity through his energy and musical presence on stage.
It really is all about the music and Bregovic aims to get these various cultures to feel the underlying beat and look at similarities rather than differences. With audience members going wild and getting to the urge to jump out of their seats to dance to this rapid brass band beat that makes you want to shake every part of your body in any kind of way. It was Kalashnikov that was the final track to play that night after a bit of encore-ing that was gladly cheered on by the entire room. After all, it was a night everyone will be remembering and as Bregovic says himself “If you don’t go crazy, you’re not normal!”
May 9, 2019
Concert Hall, QPAC, Brisbane
May 10, 2019
Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
May 12, 2019
Perth Concert Hall, Perth
May 13, 2019
Sydney Opera House, Sydney
May 14, 2019
Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne
Joanna Letic