On March 20th, 2024, we were lucky to be able to attend Joker Out’s show in TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht during their See You Soon Tour through Europe. As their last tour included two cities in the Netherlands, The Hague and Amsterdam, fans did not have to wait long to see this rock band live again. Fans queued up both inside and outside the venue all afternoon, in the hopes of getting a good spot during the show in TivoliVredenburg’s Ronda, with a capacity of 2000 people.
At approximately 6 p.m., the lucky fans with early access tickets got to enter the venue to attend Joker Out’s exclusive soundcheck. The excitement in the room was palpable even though it was nowhere near full yet, and this small group of people erupted in cheers when Bojan (vocals), Kris (guitar), Nace (bass), Jan (guitar), and Jure (drums) walked on stage. The band explained that during the soundcheck, they would play two songs that are not on the main setlist, providing fans with an exclusive experience. They started off the soundcheck with ‘Proti Toku’, a song from their first album Umazane Misli. The crowd went wild when they heard the first tones, dancing along and warming up for the rest of the night. Before the band started the next song, they took some time to joke with the crowd and give fans the chance to give the band some gifts. One of these gifts included a fan-made shirt for Bojan, which he said he would wear during the main show. The second song the band chose was ‘A Sem Ti Povedal’, an emotional love song. After this, they had to finish up the soundcheck quickly: doors were already opening for general admission! But before they ran off stage, Bojan couldn’t help being his jokester self, jamming on the drums before leaving.
For this tour, Joker Out created a competition for opening acts, so that a local artist could open for their show on every date of the tour. The first opening act of the night, Dutch alternative rock band Lorem Ipsum, was the lucky winner for the Netherlands. They started their set at 7 p.m., as scheduled. With not many people knowing this band yet, there was not much opportunity for the crowd to sing along. Nevertheless, lead singer Michelle’s vocals got the crowd going during their songs, making them dance along. She became somewhat emotional, as she explained: “In December, I went to see Joker Out in Amsterdam, as a fan, and now I’m here opening for their show!” Michelle’s excitement was infectious for the crowd, and a few dedicated fans threw friendship bracelets on stage. Then, sadly, time was up for their short, 30-minute set.
After a 15-minute break for the stage crew to set up the stage for the second opener of the night, JC Stewart came on stage, greeted by loud cheering from his fans. This singer from Northern Ireland already had a more established fan base in the Netherlands, and he likely gained even more fans during this set. Starting off his set with ‘Break My Heart’, his strong vocals immediately got the crowd clapping along, with his fans singing along loudly. This made him remark that Utrecht was a lot louder than Amsterdam in his experience and that the Netherlands is genuinely one of his favourite countries to perform in. The crowd was lucky to hear some new songs, one of which had its debut in Utrecht. However, what really got the crowd going were the last two songs: a cover of Britney Spears’ song ‘Baby Hit Me One More Time’, and his single ‘I Need You To Hate Me’, which many non-fans had heard played on the Dutch radio before. The whole crowd was singing and dancing, and oh so ready for Joker Out to start their set.
This finally happened at 8:30 p.m. sharp, as scheduled, and as soon as the lights dimmed, the crowd went wild. As the band came out, people who attended soundcheck immediately saw that Bojan was indeed wearing the fan-made shirt: a white blouse with a cut-out heart surrounded by red gems. He even had someone leave a lipstick stain in the middle of the cut-out, which was a bold touch to his amazing outfit. They started their set with some older songs from their first album, ‘Gola’ and ‘Vem Da Greš’. “We’re going to have a very multilingual show tonight,” Bojan said since many of the Dutch fans were singing along to the band’s songs in Slovenian, a language they are not familiar with. However, the band added to this even more, teaching the crowd to say “anata ga suki” and “watashi mo”, which is Japanese for “I like you” and “I like you too”, for their song ‘Tokio’. During these parts of the song, fans sang these Japanese sentences back to the band, pointing at them to emphasise their love for the members.
The band made it a point to interact a lot with the crowd, picking up flags and gifts from the crowd, and Bojan showing off his impressive catching skills with fans throwing friendship bracelets at him. He revealed that they are going to release a new studio album in October, and they gave the audience a preview of this with two new, unreleased songs: ‘Šta Bih Ja’, a heavier song that got the crowd jamming along, and ‘Bluza’, a more easy-going song. The crowd sang along extra hard during their more popular songs, such as ‘Katrina’ and ‘Plastika’. Another one of these songs was ‘Demoni’, a song about your demons coming out when you’re alone at night. This was emphasised by the band’s movements, which had a slightly creepy, possessed-like vibe.
Before playing their most recent single, ‘Everybody’s Waiting’, Bojan asked the crowd if anyone had ever suffered from panic attacks, hinting towards the subject of the song. Many fans in the crowd cheered and raised their hands, which made him chuckle, especially because most of these people were packed in the front row. The start of the song was just Bojan on the stage, behind a keyboard, and then one by one, the other band members came out to add their respective instruments to the song. This gave a personal touch to the emotional song. After this, the band switched to their classic ‘karaoke’ song: ‘Umazane Misli’. During this song, fans are allowed to sing a verse of the song in their own language. Bojan jumped into the crowd and went from fan to fan, letting the crowd hear versions in Dutch and Frisian, but also the band’s own language, Slovenian. This made the show extra special, letting fans interact intimately with the band and their music in such a way.
The setlist would not be complete without their Eurovision hit, ‘Carpe Diem’, which had the whole crowd singing and jumping along. And of course, Joker Out’s half-Dutch band member, Kris, spoke to the crowd in Dutch, making this show extra special for Dutch fans. Finally, they ended their set with a slower song, ‘Novi Val’, during which all band members walked to the front of the stage to look into the crowd and allow them all to interact, including the drummer. All in all, it is no understatement to say that Joker Out provided their fans, both old and new, with an unforgettable night full of singing, dancing, and jumping, and lots of interactions between the band and the crowd. Anticipating their return to the Netherlands soon, we’ll also be on the lookout for their new album set to release in October!
