KINO, Belgrade

The KINO band, one of the most influential bands of Soviet rock, performed in Belgrade in the Blue Hall of the Sava Center.

Victor Tsoi, frontman of the band Kino (Kino) and “Russian Jim Morrison”, who tragically lost his life in a traffic accident in 1990 at the age of 29, is far less well-known than his Western colleagues. The band continued to exist without its frontman, but not literally. An authentic voice was heard from the restored matrix, while videos of the famous vocalist, set in the present, were played on the LED screens. Thirty-five years later, the members of the band performed in Belgrade in front of hundreds of Russians in emigration, but in front of a few domestic audiences. Only the one who was in the Sava Center that evening can describe what really happened. The magic of modern technology and the sounds of the past were pure madness.

Revived past

Not only that Viktor’s baritone, as a leading actor of the Soviet rock scene from the Perestroika era, is never more relevant in the current social climate, but also the fact that all Russians over thirty these songs marked their lives. A live concert and impeccable, individually tailored visuals that made every single song a real history in a small way. Currently consisting of two bassists, Alexander Titov and Igor Tikhomirov, responsible, respectively, for the earliest and later part of the creation, the famous guitarist Viktor Kasparyan, as well as a drummer and another guitarist,

Kino divided the set into three parts – the first with songs from the more mature, late part of their career, the middle one, which returned to a relatively carefree time of a more naive, early sound, and the final one, left for the band’s key songs, considered the canon of Soviet music rock and roll.

They very thoughtfully started with the track “Vopros” from the latest album “Molnii Indry” (“The Lightning of Indra”) (2025, First Music Publishing) composed of old songs in a new guise, the band slowly brought the audience closer to an unusual setting that resembled something between a cinema screening and a classic rock concert.

Complete technical realization: Studio Berar Rental

Photo credit: Lev Rubenshtein