“From Europe with Rock: Brezno” – The Craggy Collyde Diaries

02.12.2023

Travelling to central Slovakia is a delight, especially when the country is lying under a vast expanse of snow. The drive through the mountains some way past Bratislava always fills me with an excitement that perhaps my Slovak compatriots don’t quite understand as they are well used to it by now. It is indeed particularly beautiful as the darkness begins to fall around us on the motorway towards Brezno. 

We travel through some towns we’ve already stopped in this year, such as Banská Bystrica, before arriving in Brezno (the name deriving from the Slovak word for “birch”), a pretty little town but with very little going on this Saturday night. Soon we turn up at the legendary Bombura NKP club, our venue for this evening’s entertainment. The club is based in an old liquor factory that is still run by the same family as back in the First Republic (with a break during the communist period in between). It’s certainly one of the nicest places we’ve played this year, complete with an impressive Scalextric set-up in a room out the back. The venue is owned and run by a guy called Maroš Pavúk (that’s Maros Spider to English readers), and he does a good job of it, but the whole town is certainly quiet tonight.

A friend of Veronika’s who is from the area mentioned how the good days for rock clubs are past. It can be said for so many venues in the smaller towns of these republics, but there’s always someone here who will enjoy it. And it has to be said that despite the constant hard work and complications, turning up in a small town I’ve never been to, hanging out with friends and playing music we love is a magic all of its own.

Jablko Noci are the band joining us tonight. Fronted by twins and backed up by their uncle on the drums, their music can be described as rather alternative. It’s certainly a very alternative set, largely instrumental with lots of different sounds and tech, and it’s difficult to pin them town to any particular genre. They also have another band, Večerný Motýľ, that features our very own Veronika playing percussive instruments (this includes a triangle but no cowbell). It’s interesting to consider how we will follow them but, of course, it turns out fine. People in small towns know how to drink and have a good time. We decide to run through an alternative set ourselves, playing many songs we don’t often do live, including particularly “In the Shade of the Wild Oak Tree”, which gets one couple slow dancing like it’s a school disco in 1990.  

It’s time to leave and go back to the accommodation, so we try to get the waitress to pour some beer into plastic bottles for us to take with us, only they’ve run out of beer. Tom’s hungry, but Brezno is one of those places – every kebab house and pizza place is closed before 12. Petrol station breakfast tomorrow, then.