Nikola Sarcevic, Bit By Bats @The Greenroom, Phillip(01/03/2007)

Sun 4th Mar, 2007 in Gig Reviews

As the crowd’s size and anticipation grew, lead singer Owen Eszeki from Bits by
Bats stepped onto the stage wearing pointy, black, shiny witch-esque shoes, followed
by bass-player Peter J Gravestock. But where oh where was Ben Macklin,
their drummer? This fact even seemed to puzzle the band! It was a little bit shaky and
nervous start, but they were off and seemed to do fine with the missing void and gave a
compelling performance. Half the crowd seemed to forgive them and understand their
predicament and cheered them on encouragingly, while the other half seemed
disappointed and slightly un-impressed – some even trying to beat-box to help fill whatever
their ears were missing. Their music was at times impressive with multi-talented Owen
singing and playing the theremin with the neck of his rocking guitar, but at times his vocals
would break a little.



Finally, the shiny-headed Nikola appeared with his acoustic guitar. The crowd
clapped and cheered, but seemed a bit divided, as some didn’t quite know what to expect
from the ex-Millencolin punk-rock singer gone solo. There was more that had changed. Not
only had Nikola gone acoustic, but he also had taken a more romantic path with his music –
which was immediately apparent when he opened with a very pretty and delicate love
song. Part of the crowd was made up by Millencolin fans (mainly males in their mid-20s),
who funnily enough knew all the lyrics and sang out loud with pride along with the I-love-
yous. It was definitely interesting to watch and one wonders whether they would have sang
along with as much enthusiasm, had the person on stage not been that famous ex-punk-rock
singer. Who knows, maybe secretly these guys always wanted to sing heart-filled lyrics and
now finally they had an outlet where they didn’t have to worry about looking soft. It was
clear that Nikola had gone on a great new journey – which seems to be more in-touch and
reflective and show a softer side of himself.



The music was very nice and lovely and you could really tell that Nikola meant every word,
as he squinted his eyes and belted the words out, full of inspired passion. Henrik Wind B> backed him up and complimented the smorgasbord of love ballads with lead guitar,
keyboard and harmonica. Even though it was sometimes hard to understand what he sang
due to his Swedish accent, it was clear what he was trying to convey in his songs, as his
emotions were expressive and honest. It was a pity he didn’t sing a song in Swedish and
bumped up the mood with a few more upbeat songs, with perhaps a slightly different
message other then his devotion and love. At times the crowd seemed either bored or just
so inspired – it was hard to tell which – but it was obvious they loved him, because when he
finished his set, they sure did cheer him back onstage for an encore. The crowd left
peacefully and the couples left hugging, fully re-inspired with romance by the beautiful
singer Nikola Sarcevic and – who knows – maybe he even touched a few hearts that
became wonderful romantics overnight.