•
Rating: Arena Santa Giuliana. Perugia. Around 20:00. The Young Fathers come on stage. They dance like madmen, presumably sing about strong topics, hot topics. Charisma and assault, two white and two black, almost everyone sings (the drummer beats like crazy, while the others moan, sigh, scream, curse). There's a lot of synthesized electronics, many samples. The fun is high, both for the audience and for the artists on stage. They say goodbye after three quarters of an hour of concert.
The best is yet to come, and it makes us wait. The best has a name: Massive Attack. They are the headliners, they have the biggest responsibility. They keep us waiting: they come on stage at 21:40, after a feverish wait from the audience, over whom clouds hover that threaten to open up.
Horace Andy begins "Hymn of the Big Wheel" and the crowd starts to warm up. The second song, when it arrives, needs no introduction, and receives everyone's approval: "Risingson", with an unmistakable Robert Del Naja. And certainly, Grant Marshall cannot be missing, who enchants and gains the trust of the audience, who dances possessed, just by pronouncing his first verses.
I was in the front row, and I can assure you that having massive speakers a little over two meters away is quite challenging, yet at the same time exciting, evocative. At times, it felt like my throat wanted to escape my body, my heart remaining for a few minutes in my throat.
After three/four songs (around 22:10) the sky, as foreseen, opens and torrents of rain flood the heads of the spectators. While on one hand, the concert risked being plagued by atmospheric precipitation, they also – and most importantly – helped the adrenaline and inspired synchronized movements to the music even more.
On a gigantic screen behind the musicians, information upon information, a cascade, a flood of quotations, phrases, news reports, both in Italian and English, chosen and edited through a sort of intelligent cut-up, which, in the perspective of Massive Attack, makes sense, because the band conceptually conveys a precise imagery, full of noir, espionage, computer, socio-political suggestions, which, combined with lights sent to the audience in the form of flashes (an epileptic at a Massive Attack concert would meet certain death) give a clear message: we are surrounded and submerged by information, often trivial and unnecessary. Simultaneously, however, information, in the minds of Massive Attack, is vital, and everyone should have access to it, all indiscriminately, which represents a noble concept, from a humanitarian point of view. Unfortunately, it is clear that the musicians' position is blatantly leftist, and, even though they do not drift into apologetics or the promotion of certain political parties, they make you understand what the truth is – their truth – from which one should build a better world.
The main message is one of love, even if it may not seem so obvious. I had the feeling of attending a musical-filmic event, recalling the atmospheres and concepts of The Matrix: a true happening, cathartic and enlightening.
The sky, after about twenty minutes (around 22:30), calms down, and all soaked, yet euphoric and "tripped out," the spectators/listeners remain connected. The Young Fathers return to the stage, introduced by Del Naja as "the best band in the world." Two more songs, very charged, albeit standard, very similar to the previous ones, and they leave again, giving way back to the "Bristol boys." When the first beats of "Angel" start, the Arena erupts into cheers, a triumph, lit with magic. A Horace Andy in a state of grace, delighted by the scene, recites the few verses of the song and becomes, at that moment, the King of the Night. With the following "Inertia Creeps", the situation gets even more intense! More than "moving up slowly" ... I thrash around like crazy, fully involved, completely taken by the music, by those sampled sounds recalling Egypt, the Middle East. An incredibly charged track, which Del Naja starts filming himself with a camera, with face distortions, manipulated on the big screen. The twelfth song on the setlist, "Safe From Harm" sees the triumphant entrance of the divine Deborah Miller, who enchants the audience. The encore consists of three moments: "Take It There", the wonderful "Unfinished Sympathy", of monumental beauty, and "Splitting the Atom", a track that, years ago, introduced me to the English band, from the last album, of 2010, "Heligoland"
A lived concert, an unrepeatable experience. To those who haven't seen them, I recommend not missing the opportunity for a possible next stop in Italy. A "massive attack" that teaches, in a gray period like ours, that music is made to provoke reflection, but also to dance, to sing, to meet, to share, to experience collective orgasms through art.
Loading comments slowly
