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City in Desert

Belgrade band Darkwood Dub had a concert in the city that does not recall a similar event in its recent history

by Ana OTASEVIC

NIN, Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, June 21, 2001

The twenty-minutes long report by B92 TV entitled "Nearby", on the concert of Darkwood Dub in Kosovska Mitrovica, held on June 10 in very hot weather, was a unique chance to find out more about the daily life of this city of unusual present and unclear future, currently hidden behind stereotypical news reports. The Belgrade team of musicians and reporters was hosted by the youth from Kosovska Mitrovica, in their twenties, who are no different from young people of their age anywhere else in the world. They wear hair dyed in bright colors, prefer cyber-style sun glasses and sport music tastes formed by listening to satellite broadcast TV channels from abroad. A tour of Mitrovica in an old Mercedes before the concert revealed to the guests some unexpected scenes - "normal" life in the streets despite of unavoidable "wire" decorations, young, urban guests in the cafes, stores with unique souvenirs for the KFOR "tourists", who order T-shirts and glasses with names of their girlfriends, as well as those with insulting references to the NATO soldiers, kids wearing T-shirts saying "with Red Star to death" from the local soccer fan club... Excellent Latin beat from a café some fifty meters from the famous bridge tempted the music editors from the Belgrade radio station to swap their impressions with local DJs.

The Darkwood Dub concert, organized after an invitation from the Mitrovica youth, was the first such event in the Serb part of the city in the last few years. Most youths on the streets of Mitrovica were not aware of the popular Belgrade band, as they live in a media blockade and do not have much information about the new trends on the Serbian music scene. Besides a weak signal of the first channel of the Radio TV Serbia, Radio Kontakt, an ANEM member, is the only electronic medium with a news program. However, "kids from Mitrovica are proud of their urban history and always like to point out that a part of the EKV [Belgrade new-wave band popular in the eighties] live record was recorded here," says Darkwood Dub bass player Vlada Jeric. The concert was held in the courtyard of the Technical High school, and the opening acts were a dance group of five girls from Mitrovica and the local band Loona Park, which in addition to its own songs played its covers of some songs by Nirvana and P.J.Harvey.

For security reasons, the concert started in the afternoon, in strong sun, but that did not stop the band from playing for the full three hours. Zoran Kesic's camera recorded several hundred fans who were literally fired up by the band lost in a crazy dance interrupted only by mandatory cold beer resupply trips and dousing with cold water. The moment when the audience joined the band in singing of the chorus of their song "city in desert" was especially touching. "I do not know whether before this concert they had a chance to hear our music, but we were surprised by the number of visitors," says Jeric. "I cannot compare the atmosphere at the concert with atmosphere at any other place because the energy of Mitrovcani is much higher than anywhere else. Every moment of this concert was precious because the audience was excellent. They need a lot of things and above all not to be forgotten by the people from the rest of Serbia, and that they come here more often, as we were told many times. The best impression I will carry from Mitrovica are these young people who want to live the way they like, despite everything," says Jeric.

The idea to hold the concert came from the Dutch non-governmental organization Community Building Mitrovica, which is active in both parts of the divided city. They say that this concert is only a beginning of their serious work and that they hope that bands and DJs from Serbia will show more good will and desire to visit Mitrovica. Their idea is to bring life in both parts of the city to some semblance of normalcy by organizing cultural events. In the Serb part of the city this organization employs young Mitrovcani who have decided to stay in their city. As one of the "heroes" of the program says, "why should Belgrade be any better than Mitrovica; we just need you to come here to fill up the space..."

Translated on October 18, 2001