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Rating: Unusual choice of location in Bologna: the Macondo. A mythical setting from Garcìa Màrquez's novel 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.' Just as mythical is the setting of the agghiastru (in Italian wild olive) in Sciacca, the place from where our storyteller more than fifteen years ago began his artistic journey.
I remember that Agghiastru, a few years ago, while mingling with fans after the shows, expressed the need to find a new artistic identity free from any musical label, and not just that. This evening in Bologna represents, as per his biography, the definitive confirmation of the maturation of that need: "the image is precise, clear. A man with a lunar skull curved over the piano groaning about failed romantic relationships, and life gone worse." Clearly, his usual irony isn't missing, which makes everything truly intriguing, beyond the music itself. The room is packed. In a corner of the venue, there is a piano with a small lamp casting a dim red light. Even more red are the hangings descending from the walls... and red is the wine contained in the long-stemmed glass prepared for the Sicilian storyteller. Entering the scene discreetly, he places his hands on the ivory keys. Notes rain down here and there along the entire keyboard, let's just say it's a familiarization phase with the instrument, the murmur of the room, and evidently with himself. He seems to whisper to himself with a sigh, "alright, let's do it," because you should know this is his first solo/acoustic show under the name 'Agghiastru.'
It starts with 'L'incantu.' It's immediately apparent that the evening is intensely intimate and charged with pathos. Elegant in his phrasing with long fingers, but also violent in the song's final crescendo. Agghiastru invites the audience to give him a hand, actually two... People start clapping along, albeit not in sync, mixed with the clinking of glasses, as 'Stravìa' fills the piano. Beautifully done, he's not alone in that corner, as I feared, but instead participates with the people in an intimate encounter open to the emotions of this inner journey. It’s a succession of tracks from the debut album 'Incantu', performed with passion and in a new acoustic guise, but what’s most engaging is his showmanship. Many chats between songs, jokes, laughter, "look at how I've ended up after meeting Her, that kind of Her we all meet in life and then lose, to whom we dedicate the best curses, I weighed one hundred and twenty kilos before..." In fact, he is physically startling for his thinness, perhaps excessive. The new 'Saru_Mantici' is beautiful, talking about a post-war storyteller who, despite frequenting all the beds of the most beautiful girls in town, didn't know what true love was. Here, it felt like witnessing a Vinicio Capossela-like performance... But here comes the more theatrical part. There’s laughter and singing with 'Vitti 'na Crozza.' He places a skull on the piano and starts the sad melody, playing with the stereotype of the cheerful and sunny Sicilian people. The well-known song, clearly, is about a dead person lamenting not having found burial. Again, the audience's hands are protagonists with 'La Morti'. Not supported by the band, which would have enhanced it with tribal drums, Agghiastru throws himself onto the piano creating an unexpected and compelling impact. Even 'Sangu' is offered in this acoustic guise with the Sicilian satyr pounding, striking, and assaulting the keys. There’s also room for 'Nichea' performed with the cane piccolo "which produces a bittersweet music like my land."
There are also three guitar and voice songs: 'Suli', 'Fruscura', and 'Tintu'. The entire show, very dynamic for a solo/acoustic concert, is a blossoming of instruments impeccably governed by Agghiastru, of contraptions (roses, music boxes, skulls, bleeding sheets, cowbells) and theatrical interludes, making time fly by incredibly fast. In the audience are fans of Inchiuvatu, well, in the final part he dedicates to them 'Addisìu', 'Agghionna & Scura', 'Veni', and 'Ciuri', as well as the final 'Scuru'. It seems twenty-five tracks were performed, for two hours of an absolutely original and emotionally impactful show. Even alone, Agghiastru really confirms himself as a stage protagonist, indeed it seems hard now to consider him solely as a musician (he would prefer the term 'musicante') precisely because his performance crosses into theater with great ease.
Maddalena Van Hausen
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