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Rating: Dick Laurent is dead.
Without dwelling too much on the questionable organizational efficiency proposed by the Municipality of Milan, marked by Delvaux-like ZTL zones and iPod-like volume limitations, I will describe the two hours spent in San Siro last Thursday.
The adoring crowd greets the trio as they step on stage at 21:00:00 CET (to find similar punctuality, one must go back to the window cleaner in The Simpsons episode 2F08 - "Fear of Flying") and when, above all, the naive Italian audience is still partly outside cursing the gentleman. The intro of "In Chains" allows the pilgrims to internally visualize their evening dreams in a waltz of shining eyes, until the words "The Way You Move.." break the trance in favor of a resonant roar. The first three songs are exactly the first three songs from the new album; in fact, after the aforementioned follow "Wrong" (a single that personally tired me after a few listens) and "Hole To Feed" (which I consider one of the most successful of the recent work).
Dave is warm, energetic, and has just undergone surgery following a bladder cancer, if I remember correctly.
After the first "promotional" block, the evening comes alive with a parade of old hits, undeniable hits like "A Question Of Time" or "It's No Good", to name a few. But that's not really the point.
Corbijn is the art director of this polyhedral circus that is life; he is "The One Behind The Wheel". The band persists in its performance, the images behind them start to give chills. Martin splits into a sort of mirror universe, caressing us with "Little Soul". A hyperreal, allegorical, hallucinatory black and white, a highway of meanings. On the left is Martin Gore, I mean in the left part of the visual setup. He is perfectly recognizable and filmed. But on the other side, and here rather than referring to the big screen I think of our "other side", who is staying tonight? Who is the guest, the stranger with the guitar finely outlined in light? Because, at that precise moment, I feel I have things to clarify and that Anton Corbijn is a genius ("It's focusing itself inside of me / A singularity")??
After a poignant acoustic "Home", in my opinion one of the peaks of the evening, the story of the latest feats continues: "Come Back" is followed by "Peace", the second single of Sound of The Universe. This time Corbijn does not surprise, or perhaps better said, decides not to surprise, opting for one of those packages styled "images to accompany peace songs", lots of black and white, many hands indissolubly tied by brotherhood, lots of summer of love. Truth be told, in this instance, the images take a backseat such is the overwhelming impact of the song on the audience. One could almost say that the live version is another song compared to the studio recording. A pleasant surprise.
A few songs and a lot of sweat later, the notes of "Policy Of Truth" unleash all the Corbijnian symbolism, sinuously and coldly represented by multicolored balls, dark and orderly, longing for affection, relentlessly thrown onto a sickly white and so dirty. As the piece progresses, they are let fall from that urn that once contained them all.
That stage animal named Dave Gahan is captivating and now naked; he is the little man who, while talking to you, is also at your home and picks up the phone to prove it; the tight black pants are little more than a second skin. From his methadrine smile, he utters few syllables and spreads them with arrogant humility, inviting you to sing. From the hills once treaded by kings, from court jester, he has been projected into sci-fi spatial curtains, or at least this is what his new ShuttleMan outfit asserts in video impression. The song is called "Enjoy the Silence".
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