Hard&Heavy Pohoda in Garage stage
Again this year, we will place the smallest stage in the heart of the festival grounds — symbolically opposite the main stage — in the form of the cult area of the music scene - a garage. On Friday and Saturday early mornings after midnight, this will be the place of performance of the great bands carefully selected by Denis Bang from The Wilderness. The curator himself is a guarantee that there will be a lot of pressure on your ear drums produced by Shallov, Distax, Nagy&beni, Our Stories, Genuine Jacks, and Mental Tension.
30. April 2018
Mental Tension was founded two years ago by members of the bands Downtream, Boiling Point, Fyasco and former skaters. The band had been extraordinarily productive, as, besides a number of concerts and a European tour, they have also managed to release two albums. When it comes to music, the portal Punkgen.sk wrote: “A strong stomp hardcore power-violence with a pinch of rawness in the best sense. There is no diplomacy or embellishments, it is just raw music with a definite drive and destructive power.” The Garage curator Denis Bango wrote about them in an e-mail for us: “Overload, grind punk madness: D They play 13 songs in 15 minutes.” We recommend you try counting how many they will do in their 40-minute set at Pohoda.
Scream/postrock band Shallov has been up since 2014, when they also released their first DIY album “No place for two”. The second (first studio) album, Concrete & Glass, followed in January 2017. The German portal svbterranean.net wrote about them: “Their mix of scream with postrock is nothing new, but it does not stop fans from being completely surrounded by their compelling songwriting and authentic passion.” It seems that the band has managed to surround and persuade many people, as we received many recommendations to book them: also from “softie” Ela Tolstova of Elizabeth and the “tough man” Denis Bang from The Wilderness. The latter one said: “This is a very rare thing in Slovakia. Emo hardcore played live as from an LP. I organised their concert here in Trnava, they gave me goose bumps, and my girlfriend even had tears in her eyes. They can build interesting sound structures and create a great atmosphere.” Besides Slovakia and neighbouring countries, Shallov have also appeared in Romania, Croatia, and Slovenia. They will bring the songs from Concrete & Glass to Pohoda, as well as new stuff they are currently working on that has not been played elsewhere.
The 90ʼs grunge drive combined with the 60ʼs beat echoes and the 70ʼs proto-punk sounds are the cornerstones of the band Genuine Jacks. The scent of Black Sabbath is then just a cherry on the cake. Their second album, Candyland (June 2016), was included by Rádio_FM as well as other media in the selection of the best Slovak records, and it was awarded the nomination for the Album of the Year at the Radio Head Awards. They are currently working on the third album that is supposed to be released in early autumn. However, some of its pieces will certainly be played also in our Garage.
The Poprad band Distax was founded in 2010 and is inspired by bands such as Massmord, Adacta, Martyrdod, 3rdAge Attack, Hippie Killer, or Silence. The words of the portal Valhalla.sk quite describe what you can expect: “A dosage of melancholic crust and a grim atmosphere with a guitar pieces that go under the skin roll out on the audience.” Denis, the Garage curator, wrote about them: Finnish crust of the new school. Crust, a punk sub-genre, has certainly never been played at Pohoda :D A perfectly playing band, for me personally one of the best bands on the HC/punk scene for a very long time. It is also one of the few bands that gave me goose bumps at few their concerts.” Punk-type shivers could do you good also during a summer night at Pohoda.
The Trnava band Nagy & Beni has been up since June 2016. Nový Populár described their last yearʼs concert in Piešťany as “a quality rock underground of the 21st century from Trnava.” In their own words, they play a mix of punk, metal and rock underground elements that are difficult to describe as a genre. They try not to make it clear. Their lyrics are usually created using the semi-conscious process of linking speech phrases, onomatopoeic expressions, and simulation of psychotic states. Denis, who chose them for the Garage, says: This is quite an overstrained thing. There are moments when they remind me of the old Czech underground, and in other moments I feel the non-artistic working class punk. Their music is pretty crazy in places and I find it rather a sound painting. I was very pleased by their emergence, they are full in from the very beginning, they are serious.”
The band Our Stories is an instrumental blackgaze/math/post-rock trio from Šaľa. Their music includes post-rock guitar melodies, striking drums, and playful indie rock bass lines. Special about Our Stories is that since the early beginning, they were not defined by the common preference, but rather by the differences in the musical tastes of each member. They released the eponymous EP Our Stories in 2015 and gigs at festivals such as Family Fest, AKM Culture Days, and whoneedslyrics?! followed. The band is often likened to the famous Slovak band The Ills; the Garage stage curator Denis Bango described them so: “They are genre-related to The Ills, but I like this band even more.” Currently, they are finishing their debut, and the band will feature it also at Pohoda 2018.