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Rating: Jamiroquai in Genoa? You mean someone bothers with us? I can't miss it... And so I find myself at the Arena Del Mare, a suggestive setting for this event, located in the fair area of Genoa, just a step from the sea, indeed.
After having reluctantly digested the ticket cost (30 EURO), I arrive in front of the stage. There are no supporting bands, just unbearable and deafening House music that allowed numerous young women present, and not only them, to unleash in dance. Half an hour late, and so at around 9:30 PM the lights go out, and I witness an intro made of electronic sounds very suited to the atmosphere. The musicians make their entrance on the stage, acclaimed by the audience, and it's on the first notes of "Canned Heat" that the charismatic Jay Kay makes his entrance.
The atmosphere becomes electric, the entire audience is immediately swept away by the band's groove and lets go in more or less successful dances. The band's frontman is no less himself, and he wriggles (as he will for all the 105 minutes of the performance), indulging in very spectacular jumps (dangerous for his teeth) and poses at the edge of the comic. The audience is ecstatic, a short break in which Jay greets Genoa and says a few sentences that only a few chosen ones had the privilege to understand, and here arrive in quick succession two old hits, "Space Cowboy" and "Cosmic Girl." The band, consisting of six members (including Jay) and three backing singers, proves more than up to the task, and so, aided also by perfect sounds, every single artist has the chance to stand out for good technique, and even the stage presence, although overshadowed by the unstoppable singer, provided a good backdrop to the ensemble.
Exceptional the vocal technique of the three black backing singers, who with their voices so typically "black music," daughters of the great Aretha, reached high artistic levels.
The concert goes on smoothly, moving through the more electronic sounds of the latest album "Dynamite" without ever forgetting the old glories, like "Alright," offspring of the genius mind of the long former-bassist Stuart Zender.
The little guy in the green cap also gives us a funny sketch during an instrumental part, kicking a soccer ball three times launched to him on stage by the fans (spreading panic among the front-stage lighting crew, whose reflectors worth thousands of Euros were missed by a few centimeters on two out of three occasions).
The choreographic quality of the concert further rises on the initial notes of "Use The Force," during which the darkness is broken by the lightsaber (or for common mortals, a blue neon) wielded by dear Jason. We also draw from the first album, and here's the title track "Emergency On Planet Earth," followed by another title track, "Travelling Without Moving."
The audience is not satisfied, but at the first notes of the very famous "Virtual Insanity," it starts to become clear that the show will soon end. And after a series of applause, the nine musicians disappear from the scene. Is it possible for a group to abstain from the now-common practice of saying goodbye, leaving the stage, and then returning "by surprise"? Certainly not. And it is with great pleasure that we all were able to witness the last song of the evening, the groovy "Deeper Underground," enjoyed by everyone except our internal organs, shaken by the power of Matt Johnson's synth bass on the lower notes. Now they've really left. I turn and say to a friend: "What an amazing concert..."; I stop: that damned House music again...
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