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Rating: Mark Kozelek in Italy is a small event, considering the little inclination the Ohio songwriter has to perform in our country: he hadn't been here since 2001. In this 2011, he decided to come for two dates, and it matters little if the locations are not among the most renowned (the parish of Sant'Ambrogio in Villanova di Castenaso and the Cinema Teatro Nuovo in Varese, it just lacked live @ Semaforo)
I don't want to bore you with too many introductions that interest no one and go straight to the performance: our man enters the stage, greeted by a thunderous applause, sits down and begins to tune the guitar. To open the dances is one of the ghosts of the great highway, Glenn Tipton, and it's immediately emotional. The setting of the parish and the absolute silence in which Kozelek plays (strictly without a pick) his six strings create an unreal atmosphere, where the voice stands out above all: beautiful, enveloping, sometimes sullen, sometimes incredibly powerful.
Among the tracks from the latest "Admiral Fell Promises", Kozelek dives into the past and pulls out of the hat a stunning version of "Take Me Out", remodeled, like all the classics he will propose in the evening, in his new style. In this first half of the concert, there are some mistakes, due, as he admits himself, to the jet-lag fatigue. Mistakes that can easily be forgiven given the overall quality of the piece performances and the incredible ability to make the strings of the soul vibrate that only one of the greatest songwriters of the last two decades can have.
But it is in the second part of the set that the real emotions come; Mark now talks to us about Katy, his muse who is no longer here, taken away by cancer while still young. He talks about her in the dark despair of "Heron Blue", in the magic of "Moorestown", in the poignant "Blue Orchids" ("A burning star over long lost highways / my fallen love died so young / and all the gifts you gave I have them / And all you're love I'm still holding onto"). Katy still lives in the verses of "Katy Song", the absolute pinnacle of the performance along with "Moorestown" and, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful songs ever penned by a songwriter. Applause, Kozelek stands up and leaves the stage, on which he soon returns asking us what song we'd like to hear. After various requests like "Mistress" or "Lord Kill The Pain", he invites us, with a middle finger, not to request Red House Painters anymore: in the end, he takes a liking to a girl, from whom he asks what to play. And it will be"Carry Me Ohio" and "Summer Dress" to beautifully close the evening.
An acoustic guitar, six nylon strings plucked and true emotions, those with a capital "E": this is Mark Kozelek today. Let's hold onto him tightly.
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