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The "svizzerata" in Belgioioso is a rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood; the stereotype is that you stop in Chiasso to buy weed to scent your clothes and try to smoke it in some secluded pasture away from the eyes of everyone.
Then, nicely hallucinated, you quickly return to the highway and rush home because you have to be back by two for The Simpsons.
I did my first "svizzerata" just two days ago, along with three other friends to see Dredg in Zurich.
And it was a bit atypical compared to tradition.
We arrive at five in the afternoon outside Abart and ask for some precise (and a bit cheeky) information to get in and see the soundcheck.
As expected, we are not-so-politely bounced.
After a tour of the city where I fall in love dozens of times (a bit for the city, the girls, and the Chinese take-away), we return and enter.
The venue is tiny, as big as the Csa in Pavia, we meet some Italians and a gigantic blonde Swiss with a newly purchased Dredg T-shirt. A support band whose name I don't remember tries to mix melodic emo-core with a voice copied from Brian Molko.
After two songs, they turn out to be too saccharine and monotonous. Plus, the eagerness to see Dredg, which was palpable in the air, was too much.
The technicians place a myriad of effects and a workstation on the floor, a keyboard next to the drums, and a strange five-string flat guitar on an amplifier that Gavin plays with pliers and a steel tube.
They start, and it's all just as I expected; the music envelops and permeates you, giving you goosebumps.
The venue explodes, and not even they, who were expecting such a warm welcome, go all out, infected by our enthusiasm. Drew, who is - to put it Almost Famous style - the one with the mystical aura, intertwines his bass lines with the workstation effects, Dino, when not busy astonishing us with his drumming, also plays the keyboard while keeping rhythm with his feet, and the guitarist, damn, the guitarist is monstrously good.
The guys put their souls into it and play songs from all the albums, not favoring the latest one.
Despite having the setlist right in front of me, after three or four songs, I completely lose myself in that indefinite dreamlike universe they manage to create before our eyes without us realizing it.
Unfortunately, all things have an end, and so does this journey in the company of Dredg, who close (after an encore) by leaving one by one, dismantling the pieces of Dino's drum set that he keeps playing, then destroyed by Drew's kicks (clearly drugged out).
As I make my way to the exit, I start thinking that it must be really great to be able to travel the world offering such beautiful and engaging music.
Damn, I envy them so much.
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