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Rating: ...yes, yes, the long journey went well, but let's get to the point.
I arrive in Rome at an unspecified time, I felt I was near the Alpheus but couldn't find it, I wanted to get there without asking for directions to satisfy my stupid need to feel in control of my path, but I had to give in, and then decided to ask three young guys who were smoking a cigarette in front of a bar for directions, they seemed like "Alpheus" types, I asked, but none of the three knew anything, I thanked them, and as I was heading back to my car, I heard a voice, "WAIT YOUNG MAN", I turned around and saw a lady in her mid-sixties, I approached, and she started giving directions reassuring me I was close, "after the bridge turn right, after the fourth traffic light turn left", from the olfactory examination she must have been on her fourth or fifth Campari & Gin, the situation didn't smell of alcohol but of pulling my leg, however I was way ahead of time so I could afford to take the risk, I decided to follow her directions. Magically, I found myself in front of the concert venue. The next one was of fundamental help. I parked, tipped the damn illegal parking attendant, and went in.
Part One - Transitional - Rating 3
A dear friend told me that Alpheus is not a good venue, bad air and lousy audio, and I confirm everything. I hadn't even reached the main hall and you could already smell a strong aroma of sweaty armpit even though there were only fifteen people inside excluding the staff and including myself, the audio was even worse, staying near the stage felt like standing next to a jerk's car with a hobby for sound systems and lots of money spent on sub-woofers, too enclosed (and this applies to all three performances). The Transitionals were two, bass and voice/guitar/right mouse button to start the track, they played four/five pieces of pure Drone Doom Metal, with a formula not too different from that of Nadja, counting to 4 before the explosions that started the mighty melodic vibrations. The singer often pulled out a horrible vocal effect, somewhere between Robocop's Voice and the Daft Punk effect, not very original, but pretty good. First break.
And it is here that dear friends Autopilot from Sorrento and Michoos What from Padula arrive, a few chats, just a bit of irony about football loyalties, a look at sweaters and t-shirts, and the Dalek are already on stage. The party can begin.
Part Two - Dalek - Rating 4
The Oktopus appears on stage in a white butcher's tank top (cit.) and stands behind two Macs connected to a Chaospad, MC Dalek enters sipping cola, greets and thanks the Isis, focuses, and silence falls in the hall. Again tz tz tz tz and a shockwave pushes us all three meters back. I didn't know their songs well, had only listened to "Absence" and was left with only "Distorted Prose" well impressed, which they obviously didn't play, but I still had to bow to the quality of the tracks created by The Oktopus, who periodically wiped his face lifting the tank top and delighting the audience with a very stiff belly well decorated. MC Dalek often urged the now larger but fairly shy audience, apart from those (many) who came specifically for them and thanked the Isis again. A Christ passes by me, stands to my right, and starts nodding his head up and down to the rhythm, it was him, Aaron Turner, he humbled my 185 cm and Mich's 190. We thought about a very approximate Five Questions, but nothing to do, he seemed really taken by the Dalek's performance and we didn't feel like bothering him, we were caught very, very unprepared. The New Jersey duo, in the meantime, continued to make heads move but, although recognizing a very high artistic value, in the end they bored me, 50 minutes at the same pace are too much for my ears, they can only work for me if it's "Jerusalem" by the Sleep. I go outside (may the enthusiasts forgive me).
Part Three - Isis - Rating 5
After the Dalek's performance, just the time to play "Children of the Grave" and "Monkey" by the Low twice, and the Isis are already on stage. Turner wearing a t-shirt from Have a Nice Life, and I feel like quoting it. The ambient of "Hall of the Dead" starts to be heard, an opening that was quoted at 1,00000000000000001 but still very impactful. They are really very faithful to the studio versions, both melodies and sound, the drummer is the only one with the license to vary, both for the difficulty of the breaks and for the free addition of a double pedal, which he crushes live. Each track is a nine/ten-minute boulder. Aaron felt much more comfortable doing growls, where he was truly imposing and baptized the front rows with small graceful drops of saliva, in the melodic parts he moved a bit away from the microphone allowing hearing and not hearing, but paradoxically, live the singing improves. They come out from "Wavering Radiant" at the third track, proposing the immense "Holy Tears", and it was there that the bassist started to disappoint me, okay you play bass like it's the fourth guitar reducing the fullness of the pieces, okay you appear with an unthinkable polo buttoned up to the Adam's apple, but come on, in the only track where you do something technical, you turn your back... Damn it! Finally, the eagerly awaited "Panopticon" moment arrives with "Wills Dissolve", and it was the mischievous track that divided the debaseriot opinion, some would have preferred "Dulcinea", but personally I'm for the egg today so I settle with good taste. We go back to WV, with "Ghost Key" and my favorite from the album, "Threshold of Transformation", where the Bostonites show they can easily imitate Pink Floyd without becoming ridiculous but making you elevate to float through the blue meanders of the Alpheus, and then the darkness...
They leave. But how? Already? So soon? At the best moment? GET OUUTTTTT!
They return, perform the immense "Carry", and he is so spirited to make the "Oceanic" piece the peak of the concert, indeed, the tip of the iceberg, because it's only an illusion, poor deluded ones like me who expected "Celestial" or "So Did We" must accept their way of doing things, eight tracks ten minutes each, that's how they do it and we have to be content. Lots of greetings, lots of thanks, and byeeeeee!
A lot of devastation remains due to the impact with an imposing wall of sound that leaves you destroyed. But destroying oneself to observe people experimenting can only be good for your health (and here I refer to all three groups).
23 Euros well spent.
The setlist.
Thanks to my friend Celesis for the kind concession of the photo.
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