•
Rating: The Organization
For 5 years, the Heineken Jammin' Festival has been the main Italian festival, and the entire organization appears well-tested and synchronized: never artists late according to the schedule, never useless waits for the audience gathered in several thousands to watch the show. The great heat is managed with the free distribution of packs of fresh (and cold!!!) water, something totally absent elsewhere.
The Line-up
What can I say…? Compared to previous years, there was real disappointment. Due to Friday traffic and the ALLMETAL day on Sunday, you'll find reviewed ONLY SOME of the various performances that alternated on the HJF stage in Imola.
Friday
METALLICA
I arrived very late at the racetrack due to the cyclopean traffic jam on the Bologna ring road. Metallica had just taken the stage (so no Placebo, Flint, Stone Sour!!!).
I have to say that I know the band only fleetingly, just because they were the myth of Beavis and Butthead (along with AC/DC). So I didn’t really... get excited to hear them play, especially now that they have followed more... commercial logics.
The choice of songs is aimed at pleasing the die-hard fans, nostalgic for the times when James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich were joined by Cliff Burton (the group's spiritual guide, who died in a road accident during the 1986 tour). It opens with two tracks from "Masters Of Puppets", continuing with "Ride The Lightning", the title of the 1984 album.
The new bassist Robert Trujillo seems to blend well with the rest of the band composed of Kirk Hammet on guitar along with the already mentioned Ulrich (drums) and Hetfield (voice and guitar).
The recently released album (St. Anger) is present in the setlist with only two pieces. In contrast, the great Metallica classics that go back to the debut album Kill 'Em All with "No Remorse" and "Seek & Destroy" are not missing. Also not missing will be what has become a classic piece of their repertoire, "Nothing Else Matters" from the Black Album.
The most ardent fans will not have been disappointed. The choice of songs was really excellent, ignoring the more commercial releases. For "purists".
Rating 4/5
Tracklist:
Battery
Masters Of Puppets
Ride The Lightning
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Frantik
Creeping Death
St. Anger
No Remorse
Seek & Destroy
Blackened
Harvester Of Sorrow
Nothing Else Matters
Damage, Inc.
Sad But True
Enter Sandman
Saturday
SETTEVITE
The Italian band, reaching their third album, has the burden and/or honor of opening the day. A troubled life that of this group that has changed several members during their history, which begins in the distant 1993. They've sung a bit in English and a bit in Italian until they challenged the impossible with the cover of Matia Bazar’s "Ti Sento" (for me, Ruggiero's voice remains unreachable, sorry for that!). The band plays well, vocalist Lella has energy to spare and blends well with the rest of the group. Not bad.
Rating 3/5
Tracklist:
Out Of Control
Never Die
On MY Knees
Fuoco
Ti Sento
ZEN
Roman band born in 1998 came to light during the emergency festival in 2000, the year they placed a track on Vitaminic which was downloaded by hundreds of guys all over Europe. In 2001, their first album "Pornstar" was released, from which they played two tracks during their appearance on stage. For the record, the album was sold for 5 Euros to lower the cost of CDs and discourage piracy.
They present a well-blended power pop, which perhaps some of those present (not me because I wasn't there) remember from the previous edition of the festival. The impression is that they have always played together. Not bad either.
Rating 3/5
Tracklist:
Choose To Live
I Was There
Brand New Day
Letters
This Time Around
Soldier In The Desert
ANOUK
"If you look like Claudia Schiffer and have a decent voice, maybe you can break through." That's how the NME commented a few years ago on Anouk Teeuwe's album, famous in all fitness centers in Europe thanks to the single "Nobody's Wife".
She is now almost unrecognizable, incredibly overweight (we discover later that she is pregnant). She's always had a more than decent voice, and this characteristic is definitely felt on stage, where she is accompanied by decent session musicians.
The sound is rough and Anouk's voice stands out in the suffocating heat of the Imola racetrack.
The album "Graduated Fool", released in March, was recorded with only electric guitars and no samples, all to give the album a more "Hard" sound. This is also felt from the stage.
Ok, but when are the next ones coming??
Rating 1/5
Tracklist:
Disconnected
Too Long
Everything
Nobody's Wife
Don't
Sacrifice
Hail
Who Cares
Searching
I Live For You
The Dark
THE MUSIC
Maybe it's because I love Led Zeppelin and go crazy for the sound of the Gibson Les Paul, but I really like these Kids. Their average age is a headache: 17 and a half years old!! How can such a young band be inspired by the groups probably preferred by their parents? And play like a band of experienced musicians??
I don't know, but they can. The four students from Leeds take the stage almost disinterestedly, perhaps disappointed by the audience starting to crowd against the barriers waiting for Bon Jovi who doesn't even know who these adolescents with such an English accent are.
Robert Harvey, clearly "Robert Plant" inspired singer, wears on the occasion the Paolo Rossi jersey, from the World Cup won 4 years before his birth.
The music is overwhelming: a well-assembled sonic machine in which Harvey's shrill voice stands out. It starts like on the record with "The Dance", a ballad with a thrilling rhythm. Then "Jag Tune" B-side of the single "The People" which made them famous worldwide. On this track, the already cynically exposed limits by the British press become evident: it's tough for the vocalist to hit such high notes leading to frequent laryngitis. Some high notes of "The People" are better listened to on record. Already the record: sounds almost identical to what you hear live, especially "Take The Long Road And Walk It," performed divinely. Overwhelming.
Rating 4/5
Tracklist:
The Dance
Jag Tune
The Truth Is No Words
Getaway
The People
Take The Long Road And Walk It
Disco
The Walls Get Smaller
DAVE GAHAN
I was curious to see the performance of this artist who has accompanied my life with fleeting appearances: from the terrible 80s (in my opinion the worst ever musically speaking) to the present days he was there, with "meshed" brush-cut hair, then long, then long with tattoos, then with the handsome and damned beard.
A few years ago I was struck by a stupid video in itself: it was "It's No Good" from the album Ultra, in it he played a sleazy small-time singer of a band performing in shady venues where things always go slightly wrong. That character, a stage animal, even led me to buy that album.
And the same is what is presented on the fiery stage of Imola. Movements of a consummate sex symbol ignite the atmosphere. He has fun and senses the audience's response, to whom he grants some swaying. His voice is powerful, he opens up his diaphragm and fills the sultry void hovering over our heads. The musicians accompanying him on stage seem like old junkies dragged out of some filthy subway.
It starts with three tracks from the solo album "Paper Monsters" including the single that's in Heavy Rotation on MTV "Dirty Sticky Floor" whose atmosphere is not much different from the sound of the latest Depeche Mode.
Then a leap back in time with "A Question Of Time" from 1985 (Black Celebration). Some more tracks from the album and then another leap to more recent DM with a sublime "Walking In My Shoes".
Then, after a couple more solo tracks, a grand finale with "Personal Jesus", "I Feel You", and finally "Never Let Me Down Again" (Music For The Masses).
I never would have said it. Unmissable.
Rating 5/5 ++ (plus plus)
Tracklist:
Hidden Houses
Hold On
Dirty Sticky Floors
A Question Of Time
Bitter Apple
Black And Blue Again
A Little Piece
Walking In MY Shoes
I Need You
Bottle Living
Personal Jesus
I Feel You
Never Let Me Down Again
BON JOVI
…no, come on, let’s not kid ourselves
TRICKY (DANCE NIGHT)
One of the fathers of the Bristol Sound (together with Robert 3D Del Naja of Massive Attack) performs at the traditional Dance Night in Imola. The prolific Adrian Thaws also known as Tricky comes out on stage shirtless, along with his new muse, Costanza Francavilla, a Roman singer (here wrapped in a captivating evening dress) who accompanied him throughout the new album (also singing in Italian). To be honest, even though I own all his albums, after the great "Maxinquaye" in 1995 he bored me gradually, except for the great song "Girl" from the penultimate album Blowback played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There was a time when whatever album I bought, he was there: the Whale (then disappeared), PJ Harvey, Massive Attack. He and that unmistakable hoarse voice (like Tom Waits, I say "like", don't stone me because I mention the great...) that you barely hear in the background of the vocalist.
A journey into the new album Vulnerable and then back to my favorite song "Black Steel" from Maxinquaye.
Tricky is really good. Whether you like it or not, he is really unique, with his annoying self-proclamation as the best. He sings often turning his back to the audience. His voice is sometimes barely perceptible, but he is the leader, he is the one pulling the strings.
Also nice "Christiansand" from the challenging "Pre Millennium Tension", here well interpreted by Costanza.
It's hard to define Tricky's performance as "Dance Night". Very often you find yourself gazing at the sky, seeking a star to hang some images, lulled by the multifaceted music produced by the band on stage.
All well orchestrated and led by the master. To be contemplated.
Rating 5/5
Loading comments slowly
