•
Rating: I let my emotions settle for a few days before tackling this review... the last time I saw Marlene was in 1998, I stopped following their trail because I no longer "recognized" myself in what was the new path. I didn't like the imploded nightmares of "Ho Ucciso Paranoia," and I appreciated even less the soft search in subsequent works. It was a painful but inevitable detachment, I thought, occurred violently… resentful towards the greatest Italian rock band, of all time. I didn't understand where they wanted to go or perhaps I simply didn't like it, preferring to cling to memories of wonderful evenings in sometimes unlikely places, like the Beer Festival in Arluno (a small town in the Milan hinterland) or like the first time at the Gorky hall in Bologna back in 1994 supporting Disciplinatha, just after the release of the marvel "Catartica"... thus the opportunity to return to one of my greatest loves was fortuitous and above all I owed it to Eugenia.
The place (Parco Gondar) is magical, a splendid pine forest with a magnificent concert structure behind it, though the organization of the Cube Festival was somewhat less so (about two hours late on opening...!!!!), but fortunately, the wait was lightened by the camper-artist/songwriter Antonello Papagni and his Girovago Tour. Once inside, Carlo Chicco entertained the audience with his DJ set, before the electro-funk performance of the Milanese duo Serpenti (which, in my opinion, weren't suited to the anticipation for Marlene Kuntz... without intending to detract from their performance). Finally, the awaited and dreaded moment, around midnight, arrived. The new five-member formation left me a bit flabbergasted, even though the multi-instrumentalist Davide Amodeo shattered all my reservations with an exceptional stage presence and sonic impact, as did Luca Lagash Saporiti with his pulsating bass, powerfully supporting the entire architectural structure designed by Cristiano and Riccardo's guitars, all perfectly in sync with Luca's drums. A beautiful, compact, and cohesive formation that proceeded in a raw and lacerating sonic amalgam... "it really seems they have restarted from where I left them more than 10 years ago," I think, and the mystique of the moment gifts me the cathartic triptych "Festa Mesta", "Sonica" and "Nuotando Nell'Aria"... breathtaking...!!! I know, I am an incurable nostalgic, and the (good) times gone by cannot return (and it's right that it is so), but even in the more recent pieces, I see a certain rebirth of the Sonic Phoenix, sublimated in the duet that Skin gifts to us (and perhaps also to them) for "La Canzone Che Scrivo Per Te" or in the magic of "Impressioni Di Settembre", which, in the final sonic chaos, seems to fit like a silk glove over Cristiano's skeletal thrashing.
There are also more intimate moments like "La Lira Di Narciso" or "Fingendo La Poesia", which strengthened by the new formation, seem less inconclusive, as well as genius pieces like "Uno", "Canzone Di Oggi" and "L'Odio Migliore" assume the traits of perfect and (practically) timeless pieces. As the concert unfolds, my nerves relax, and a joyful smile dumbly forms on my face, so much so that I am moved in the sole encore, which they reserve for one of their oldest and "most violent" pieces, for which leaving the cement under the stage after an exhausting "Ape Regina" gifts me emotions I thought truly lost in the folds of time... my constant wanting a bit more makes me ask aloud for a "Lieve" during the final applause, which provokes a grimace on Cristiano's face and a smirk on Riccardo's, but honestly, I couldn't have asked for more in my return to the sonic temple of Marlene Kuntz, who in August 2009 confirm that feeling that under the skin accompanies me from the long “cathartic” listens of many years ago... theirs is the best Italian rock, of all time. Too bad immediately after the stage is "invaded" by Motel Connection, for the dancing joy of a large part of the audience, even though it doesn’t minimally scratch the joy I have given myself... at 03.00 the DJ set by Skin hasn't started yet, and we decide to leave the pine forest of Parco Gondar, Eugenia visibly happy and me with a wonderful peace in my heart.
I had to exorcize some hidden demons in the darkest recesses of my guts... some others I had to shoot down in free flight between the neurons of my brain... others I carried with me, in the hope that something would get rid of them on my behalf. I owed it to myself after so many (too many) years and above all, I owed it to a special person...
Loading comments slowly
