Bombiakas (Lithuanian for "bomb shelter"), the city's only true underground rock venue, reopened Feb.24after being closed in January by city fire inspectors uneasy about the club's lack of ventilation, electrical hazards, and suspicious heating system. Interestingly, the club was shut down days after a profile on it appeared in the daily newspaper Respublika. A 5,000 litas-renovation later, Vilnius' haven for dark-clad subterraneans is back, sporting a new paint job, a ventilation system, and loads of ambition.
The club is actually a bomb shelter, hence the name, and is rented from the Vilnius municipal government for 2,000 litas a year. It is a symbol of the small but growing underground sector in the capital city. Vilnius, and Lithuania in general, are not known as optimal places to hear live music, especially live music of the underground variety (punk, ska, grunge, etc…). Most of the live music venues are either restaurants with a stage, where officious managers micromanage bands and complain about loud volumes, or discotheques inhabited by suspicious types dressed in black gangster wear.
Bombiakas has live music shows on Saturdays and a DJ on Fridays. It is attractive not only to Vilniusites.
"People from Australia, from the Czech Republic, from Poland and from France have visited Bombiakas. I want all people to know about Bombiakas," said Paulius Rimkauskas, the owner.
This is a far cry from the club's proto-punk beginnings, when it was dark, unpainted, smoky, and not exactly clean or legal. Now everything is above ground (pun intended) - the club has a Web site and has received copious attention from the press. Lithuania's largest daily, Lietuvos Rytas, recently published its own article about the club.
Since its opening three and a half years ago, Bombiakas was shut down twice, and was, and still is, a breeding ground for oddities.
"When it was opened the first time there was a fight outside this club, the police came and took 16 people away accusing them of vagrancy," said Jonas Cevinskas, the club's manager. "Another weird case was when a man just disappeared here. He was lost here and people were searching around for him but couldn't find him. We closed up the club on Saturday. When we opened it on Tuesday, he was there waiting."
Its magnetic appeal to the dispossessed and its Bermuda Triangle-like qualities aside, Bombiakas is a great venue to hear real alternative music, from punk to ska to blues grunge. High-profile bands like Overkill or Radiohead probably won't end up on the bill at this joint.
On the night this reporter visited, a Vilnius alternative group, Ubezhishche, a regular act there, was on stage. Playing an eclectic set of original music as well as disparate and soulful cover songs, this unit had already been tagged an "unknown foreign alternative band" by Respublika. But the crowd still loved it, screeching themselves hoarse after each tune. Fame only goes so far at Bombiakas.
Cevinskas reports that bands have come from as far away as Switzerland, Australia, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, and Chile. To go to a club like Bombiakas, it's probably necessary to cross one of Lithuania's borders, and not to Belarus.
"Belarus sucks," said Rimkauskas. "There are not any other [legal] underground clubs in Lithuania. Maybe sometimes there will be festivals, but only sometimes. I'm talking about Klapeida, or Vilnius or Kaunas or Ukmerge."
Ironically enough, other venues in town that attract larger acts seem to be, at least for the moment, less safe than Bombiakas. The group Overkill recently played at the Kablys concert hall and a fire erupted. Sirens raged into the night, and the place is closed indefinitely.
http://www.hardcore.lt/bombiakas
Please enter your username and password.
2024 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy
