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Rating: "Luca Romagnoli, is he serious or just pretending?".
This is the first question I asked myself at the end of the MaDeDoPO concert I had the honor (or the audacity?) to attend last Saturday (September 8) in the stunning setting (so to speak) of the former slaughterhouse in Sava (TA).
The answer I gave myself is that Luca Romagnoli (for those who don't know, the lead singer and fine wordsmith of the Abruzzese group) is pretending.
Although, a bit, he is serious too.
After all, the world of great songs is full of people who "pretend" more than "are".
The first one that comes to mind, and no one accuse me of blasphemy, is a man named Tom and surname Waits.
You know the story, spread by someone envious, that claims the man from Pomona is actually practically a teetotaler and, worse yet, always has been?
A bit like the insinuation about Bukowsky made by the MaDeDoPO singer himself in their hit "Auff".
At this point, having clearly and definitively clarified that Luca Romagnoli is pretending (although a bit, he is), I can move on to talk about this concert.
The first quick judgment I feel like giving is: it was a great concert.
The second judgment, a bit less quick, I feel like giving is: the album (the latest, "Auff") does not do justice to the "impact force" of the songs contained in it and their ability, when performed live, to "shake up" (my neologism) the audience and force them into a kind of Saint Vitus Dance syndrome (La Notte della Taranta is just around the corner) in an irrepressible punk-sexual-revolutionary ecstasy (I saw an elderly lady with a plate of orecchiette in hand who at one point threw the plate in the air, rushed to the stage, and started moshing hard!).
In short, the combination of Romagnoli's lyrics + the rhythmic base of the supporting trio (especially the drummer, in my opinion really phenomenal) made us all angrier and "meaner" (apart from the pause of "kindness" and existential reflection induced by the beautiful and moving performance of "Il numero otto").
The third judgment, even less quick, I feel like giving is: Luca Romagnoli is an amazing front-man (that he was a great "poet" I had already guessed) with an interpretative and "storytelling" ability worthy of the greats.
His "self-spit" in the eye during the frantic rendition of "Macedonia" was truly a "great" idea that left me stunned (given the character he is one might think of him as a great admirer of certain D’Annunzian practices which are also related to the "self"...).
With aspirations of a maître à penser (see the nod to his latest "vegetarian conversion", perhaps why done within a former slaughterhouse), but maybe this is not his most positive side.
To which I personally forgive even certain "gratuitous" outbursts, like that "more cum, less cops" shouted as a farewell to the audience at the end of the concert (much to the horror of mothers with children).
In short, at least for that Saturday night, I shouted it too (during the performance of "Signor Poliziotto"): fuck the cops!
In the end, it was all a joke (I repeat: Luca Romagnoli and his band are pretending).
The problem is explaining that to the carabinieri who showed up just before the end of the concert at the entrance door of the former slaughterhouse, ordering to stop using the excuse that it was late.
But I'm sure one day they will become fans too.
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