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Rating: Plastic Made Sofa: they have the honor and the burden of starting the show. Fresh, dynamic, complete with a fan club following, in a half-hour show they manage to engage the audience, proving that the new Italian music flag-bearers don’t have to be Lost or Sonohora. Their repertoire is quite varied, enjoyable and well-blended; their album is coming out these days, and I think I'll follow the advice they have repeated many times (with some insistence) and go look for them.
Gomez: I didn’t know them and I regret it so much. Friendly and never clichéd, they delivered a dynamic live, having fun and entertaining an audience that was pleasantly engaged. Personally, I really appreciated the alternation of singing between the three guitarists and the easy way of their performance.
Gossip: what can I say about them, I've never particularly appreciated them, but live they are really remarkable! The rhythm section is good, but the singer definitely steals the show: a real stage animal, with a powerful voice and undeniable stage presence. The lady moves with a style all her own and also manages to gracefully recover from a tumble off the stage, continuing the show among the crowd that appreciated this unexpected off-script moment. Also much appreciated were the hints of "Betterman" and "Jeremy" inserted between songs by the generous singer who, at the end of the performance, greeted the Italian audience with "I Will Always Love You," sweetly fading at the end and truly heartfelt.
Skunk Anansie: another group with a singer with golden vocal cords. Skin takes the stage dressed like a capercaillie, with a strange puffy jacket on the sleeves and a black hood with a crest. The show of the resurrected band is wild. The audience is wild, and the moshing begins non-stop (in which, to my great surprise, my mom has a certain style…). Skin is in great shape and proves to be a real magic man: she repeatedly tries to nibble on the poor guitarist who doesn't know how to escape her, then shifts her attention to one of the cameramen, gets supported by the audience, commenting that Italian guys are beautiful and strong, and finally does a mini crowd surf on the enthusiastic crowd. All of this between one vocal virtuosity and another. What can I say, great lungs!
Ben Harper and Relentless7: As soon as they take the stage, a very warm ovation erupts. As a tribute to Italy and the city hosting them, the Relentless7’s drummer wears a t-shirt with the Lion of Saint Mark, the guitarist a t-shirt with "Italian Stallion" written on it, and Ben, being socially engaged as he is, wears a t-shirt reading "Io non me ne frego" in support of the anti-poverty campaign launched by the NGO "Coopi - Cooperazione Internazionale." Mr. Harper is terrific and his new band is truly worthy. Their show was impeccable, filled with Harper’s well-known guitar virtuosity that delighted the cheering fans. Needless to say, the highlights of their performance were the duet with Vedder on the notes of a gripping "Under Pressure" and the beautiful "Diamonds On The Inside," spine-tingling.
Pearl Jam: here I am shamelessly biased. I admit it and pride myself on it! The 2 hours of their show were pure adrenaline. They love Italy and it shows, they love performing and it’s evident, but above all, they love music and they convey it in a pure, genuine, and gritty way, defying the passing years! The set list includes: "Given To Fly", "Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd)/Corduroy", "World Wide Suicide", "The Fixer", "Small Town", "Breath", "MFC", "Even Flow", "Present Tense", "Do The Evolution", "Unthought Known", "Porch", and still "Red Mosquito" together with Ben Harper, "Just Breathe", "State Of Love And Trust", "Arms Aloft" (Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros), "Jeremy", and to close "Got Some", "Once", "Black", "Public Image" (Public Image Limited), "Alive" and "Rockin' In The Free World" also with the participation of Ben Harper and the Relentless7.
Good old Eddie "motherfucker" Vedder, as he called himself at the end of the concert, with his inseparable bottle, his stage adventure companion, entertains the audience with his "do-it-yourself" Italian, which he admits is terrible (but I've heard worse) and gives his all without reservation. McCready is phenomenal, a great guitarist who does nothing to put himself in the spotlight except play superbly. Cameron, Ament, and Gossard do their dirty work, precise and irreplaceable, among the best rhythm sections in the world.
Thus concludes the HJF 2010. Only negative notes of the day: 1) the rain and the wind that threatened to shut everything down halfway through the schedule; 2) the recklessness demonstrated by the organizers who made the area under the stage available to only 1,000 spectators (perhaps even less), much to the general discontent, heightened by the fact that it was evident that the area could contain, at a minimum, double that number.
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