Miro Tolla of the punk band Nihilobstat, who practiced in the Prístavný most garages in the early 1990s, about to be interviewed outside the same garages by budding documentarian Tomáš Bulánek . (source: Tomas Bulanek)
On any given night during the warm months, you can walk from Bratislava’s city centre, past the downtown skyscraper jungle, down along a stretch of road next to the cranes and piles of iron ore pellets at the city’s Danubian port, and behind a disused scrapyard. There, you will find groups of people, aged anywhere from 18 to 60, drinking beer and dancing to hardcore punk music, thrash metal, techno or hip-hop.
This is the legendary space under Prístavný most—two rows of roughly 50 storage units that have stood since the 1980s. Here you will find Koncerty na Garážach, a venue that provides a space for Bratislava’s underground music scene to thrive. But the story of the sound from the garages stretches back decades, to the 1980s.
This is the story explored in a new documentary: Sound from the Garages, directed by Tomáš Bulánek. Currently in production, the film aims to gather archival content—posters, photos, and, hopefully, video—dating back to before the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when everyone still lived in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Echoes of the 80s
Tomáš Bulánek, a musician and self-taught filmmaker, has been working on the documentary for some time. He is conducting interviews with people who were part of the scene in the 1990s and early 2000s, many of whom are now in their fifties. “I’m focusing on the time up to the early 2000s,” Bulánek explains, “when I started putting up shows there and releasing music.”
The garages themselves were built in the late 1970s or early 1980s, and bands began rehearsing there almost instinctively. “It was cheaper and easier for them to get that place,” Bulánek says. The first official gig with a poster took place in May 1994, though unofficial gatherings likely happened even earlier.
Roman "Hulo" Huliak, who has played guitar in the band Iné Kafe, recalls those early days. “I started playing in garages in 1994 with the band Punishment,” he says. “In 1995, I joined the band Testimony. We were part of this place that later became a cult spot, a place where you could play, try things out… We didn’t really discuss it, and the place didn’t have any other meaning. Now, after 30 years, the place is somewhat ‘interesting,’ but they are really just garages.”
A poster from an early hardcore punk festival in 1994 (source: Tomáš Bulánek)
Nazi punks stay away
The 1990s were a turbulent time in Bratislava, with neo-Nazis and the mafia posing significant threats. “There were big problems in Bratislava with neo-Nazis and the mafia, which were intertwined,” Huliak recalls. “Even bands like us practiced in the garages with the knowledge that they could appear at any time, and it would happen. It wasn’t much of a happy period.”
Despite the challenges, the garages became a cultural hub for the underground punk-hardcore scene, though they weren’t limited to one genre. Metal bands, alternative rock bands, and others also rehearsed and performed there. For example, the singer from the band Hex was part of the scene. “It wasn’t only about punk and hardcore,” Bulánek notes, “but they were the main things.”
