Nik West Plays BitefArtCafe Tonight, Ljetno Kino Friday
Nik West opens BitefArtCafe's fall season tonight, and Friday brings Max Juricic and Ljetno Kino with guest Rok Juricic and songs recorded with Vlada Divljan.
The stage at BitefArtCafe belongs tonight to a bass that sounds like it’s leading its own band, and to a mohawk shaped like a bass clef above it. Two days from now, on Friday, that same stage will hold a violin, a cello and a man who spent four decades playing in Azra, Film and Vjestice, and who now says no band has ever given him as much freedom as the trio he built on the island of Brac. Just 48 hours apart, two completely different worlds of sound: that’s the opening of the club’s fall season at Mitropolita Petra 8.
BitefArtCafe steps into this year with a milestone: 25 years since it opened its doors in 2001. The season kicks off with a run of nine concert nights, from tonight through November 27, as part of the Musicology Barcaffè Sessions series. Tickets for both shows are sold through Bilet.rs.
Tonight’s headliner is Nik West, a bassist and singer from Phoenix who has worked with Prince, Quincy Jones, Santana, John Mayer and Bootsy Collins, and who is best known for a viral cover of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” that earned her public praise from Steven Tyler and Lenny Kravitz. She, in fact, opened for one of his shows in 2024. Ahead of her, Belgrade band BACKSPRINT takes the stage, blending country and blues as part of the Musicology Showcase by Lenovo: doors open at 8:30 pm, BACKSPRINT plays at 9, and Nik West comes on at 10 pm. Friday night belongs to Max Juricic, who carries Azra, Film, Vjestice and Le Cinema behind him, and for the last 17 years, Ljetno Kino, a project that started as a trio for shows in coves along the Brac coastline that classic rock gear could never reach.
That very minimalism, Juricic says, is what shaped the band’s sound:
“In some strange way, I’ve managed to play whatever I want with Ljetno Kino, however I want, and for the most part, wherever I want.”
When the concept grew into a fuller lineup, with Vlada Divljan calling it “acoustic punk,” it also picked up the emotional weight the whole band carries on Friday: alongside Juricic on vocals and guitar are the Argentine Bernabe brothers on violin and Manu Romero on drums, plus Stane Kovacic on cello.
A special guest will be Rok Juricic, Max’s son, an actor and singer who will perform several songs Ljetno Kino recorded with Divljan himself. For Juricic, that collaboration remains one of the most important stretches of his career:
“My collaboration with Vlada is the dearest and most relaxed part of my career. I put together a big band that looked forward to every meeting with Vlada, and we played, traveled and recorded with that same joy every time. When he passed, the sadness came, and in that sadness he left us a memory of joy.”
When a son sings his father’s songs, written together with a man who is no longer here, that isn’t nostalgia sold off a stage. It’s the continuation of a conversation Ljetno Kino has been carrying on for two decades now. Juricic doesn’t shy away from saying the comparison between generations doesn’t favor young musicians today:
“In the eighties we were chasing a better future and didn’t realize the best was already behind us, while today a young musician has everything figured out from the start. Having a good band still strikes me as the best lifeboat against an ugly reality.”
Asked what a club show means next to arenas and festivals, he answers in a single line: “If it worked out that you play clubs instead of arenas, there’s a better chance you’ll stay normal in this business.” That’s the best description of what BitefArtCafe is offering this season: a room small enough that everything can be heard, and a name big enough that nobody has to choose between quality and intimacy.
What’s Coming Through the End of November
After tonight’s and Friday’s shows, the season keeps going with barely a break:
- September 29, the finale of the Musicology Showcase by Lenovo, with the Kosta Paunovic fusion quartet, ZHIVA, Bvana and Dzezeri iz Lagune, Usto Funk, Elena Vasova, Zasto Kafka?, Vuk Starinec and the Lara Kalapis quartet
- October 9, Vanna
- October 15, PJ Morton
- October 16, Ana Stanic
- October 30, Psihomodo Pop
- November 4, Kovacs
- November 27, Kyoto Jazz Massive
Nine names across nine genres, from funk to rock, tied together by one idea: for a quarter century, this club has believed the best concert is the one that happens within arm’s reach of the crowd.
