Guitarist Artur Zubarevof performs in a pub in Vinnytsia amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The band, Susidy Sterpliat (The Neighbours Will Endure), is on a 12-stop tour of the war ravaged country.
Image: Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP
Although war is still raging, 30-year-old Nadia Kukla is managing a punk-rock band's tour around Ukraine.
Her biggest challenge is the daily air raid sirens that sound across the country to warn of Russian bombing. "If the air raid alert lasts longer than an hour, we have to cancel and reschedule," Kukla said.
The band, Susidy Sterpliat (The Neighbours Will Endure), is on a 12-stop tour. One of the gigs was in the western city of Vynnytsya, in a pub just opposite the site of a terrible Russian strike on July 14, 2022.
Missiles targeted an army concert hall, killing 27 people, including three children, and wounding 202 others. The building still lies in ruins.
Members of the punk-rock band Susidy Sterpliat drummer Oleksandr Pavlov and guitarist Artur Zubarevof conduct a sound check ahead of their concert in a pub in Vinnytsia.
Image: Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP
In a war-ravaged country, the power of cultural resistance is striking. Performances continue and many artists - those who have not been mobilised - collect money for the army.
In the dressing room just before the concert, drummer Oleksandr Pavlov, 28, and guitarist Artur Zubarev, 27, were in excellent spirits.
The duo, formed in 2017 in the southern city of Mykolaiv, wants to make "joyful" music whose lyrics "don't necessarily make sense" but "give you strength", Pavlov said.
Since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, culture in unoccupied parts of Ukraine has been undergoing a "renaissance", according to many figures in the sector.
Audiences have turned away from Russian and Russian-language output and there is a thirst for Ukrainian content, which has boosted musicians' incomes on streaming platforms.
The duo, who used to sing in Russian before switching to Ukrainian, says they now have more fans.
While they refuse to compare themselves to soldiers risking their lives, the two rockers still consider their work part of the resistance against Russian aggression.
"There's a struggle to take over our land but also our heads," Zubarev pointed out.
That night, the guitarist said he hoped to "set the room on fire".
Around 260 people turned up for the show, many of them teenagers.
The warm-up act, Krash Test, a trio from the northeastern Sumy region which has been particularly devastated by Russian bombs, immediately got the audience moshing.
They performed a punk rhyme about a "neo-Nazi girl" - "a typical Ukrainian girl" who "drinks the blood of Russian babies".
The mockery was aimed at Kremlin rhetoric, which compares the Ukrainian government to a Nazi state.
Several times, the crowd could be heard shouting "F**k the neighbours!" - both an insult and a celebration of the headline act.
Then Susidy Sterpliat came on for their set of fury, shouting and joy. On stage, Zubarev wore a transparent black skirt. Pavlov was shirtless, his face covered in sequins. At one point, a pair of knickers flew onto the stage.
They played an ode to drunkenness, a nostalgic ballad about the summer of 2021 and a track about addiction that had the whole audience singing along.
At the end of the set, there was an auction, the proceeds of which will go to the doctors of the Azov brigade.
Formed in 2014 by a group of ultranationalists, the unit has acquired a heroic reputation in Ukraine since the invasion, taking part in some of the toughest battles.
The first auction item was concert tickets and the right to get drunk with Susidy Sterpliat.
Two spectators engaged in a bidding war. In the end, they both won the privilege - one for 15 000 hryvnia (R6 750), the other for 11 000 (R5 000) - a lot of money in Ukraine.
Finally, Pavlov put his underwear up for auction. With his back to the audience, he took it off - although he had a second pair underneath. The item, bought by Anastasia, 17, raised a modest R1 350.
During the concert, the teenager said she felt the "best possible emotions".
Nazar, 19, left the bar wearing a pair of red knickers on his head.
He said the night's music had helped him forget "the madness".
"The situation is very stressful and a lot of people close to me are fighting," he said.
"It helps to detach oneself from it and return to the time before the war." | AFP