Joe Lally
Live @ La Casa 139, Milano - 18.10.2007

I remembered him just like that. 

Blue wool hat, faded jeans with a simple black t-shirt. He was shy, always in the background on the scene next to Guy Picciotto and Brendan Canty, now a front man in his own right, 44 years old and with a humanity that overwhelms you with its simplicity. He has a fever, but he has a great desire to express himself, to present his new pieces from his upcoming work due at the end of November (it will be titled "Nothing is Underrated") and also to offer pieces from his debut album "There to here", released by Dischord in 2006 where he was accompanied by friends/lifelong companions who, for once, play in the background (the same Guy Picciotto, Ian MacKaye, Amy Farina, the latter already together in the Evens, and at the console the great Don Zientara, sound engineer of Fugazi).

Joe loves Italy so much that he decides to stop in Rome, where he meets Zu, embarks on a tour with them this year, and today we find him at the Casa with an extraordinary drummer like Gioele Pagliaccia and Dave Stone, former Melvins, on guitar and noise.

It is an intimate concert, vaguely Slint-like in some respects, simple bass lines, a drum played with incredible mastery, and never gratuitous guitar inserts. The monotone voice perhaps leaves some puzzled, but Joe is like that, he is a minstrel who wants to tell stories, the poverty of the Argentine favelas or his scream against the war. The audience is really surprised by how much energy can be expressed while always staying on tiptoe like a timid guest. An hour and a quarter of pure emotions, with Gioele Pagliaccia standing out with a simple set of bass drum, hi-hat, a ride, and snare, working only on the tuning keys of the latter and on the hardware, incredibly reminiscent of Soul Coughing. A true genius. Dave Stone, on the other hand, seems like Thurston Moore's nerdy brother: very thick glasses, cigarette pants. Nothing to do with the powerful sounds of the Melvins, he confines himself to providing just inserts.

An open experience that of Joe, who manages to combine the avant-garde jazz core crossover of Zu, with Dale Crover and who knows what else in the future. Fugazi made music just for the joy of playing. It is what remains of that experience, never explicitly declared over. For now, Joe leaves us without any nostalgia. He closes this evening among friends, amidst 40 people, with the antimilitarist Sons and Daughters, only with his unamplified voice.