Nerorgasmo
Live a El Paso 1993

The raison d'être of "Live a El Paso" should be sought not so much in its objective artistic value but rather in its historical significance. Taken by itself, out of context, it is nothing special: little more than an authorized bootleg, recorded with the limited means available, with a quality that calling "amateur" would be flattering. Yet, over time, it has probably become the most famous live in the history of Italian punk. It is the concert of Luca Abort dressed as a Nazi, the concert of the famous "Società nazista" speech, which for the Italian hardcore scene is roughly equivalent to the Sermon on the Mount. It is, above all, the testimony of the last Nerorgasmo concert with Abort on vocals.

"Nerorgasmo" was the last great masterpiece of the glorious saga of '80s Italian hardcore, the swan song that closes the circle, the requiem before passing the baton to the new blood: 1993 is, in fact, also the year of "Pislas" by Paolino Paperino Band, of "Giugius" by Senzabenza, of the debut of Derozer and Crunch, all bands that marked the decade. And if "Nerorgasmo" represented the death of one scene in favor of a new one, "Live a El Paso" is the tombstone, the funeral attended by all, veterans and newcomers; not by chance, Abort, in other recordings of the period, starts each concert by greeting "all the kids of the city, from the new fifteen-year-olds to those who have been around since the beginning."

About the live itself, as already mentioned, there is not much to say. It is a faithful snapshot of the reunion concerts that crowned the release of their only LP, from which almost all the tracks are replayed (inexplicably missing are Nato morto, Ansia, and Io mi amo, while Spirale and Banchetto di lusso are played a second time in the encores) seasoned with a handful of covers that pay homage to the band's influences (Sex Pistols, Stooges) and by Abort's interludes with the audience, which definitively demonstrate how Bortolusso was a frontman of rare charisma within the scene. Nerorgasmo, Distruttore, Giorno, Passione Nera, Freccia, Mai Capirai taken from Blue Vomit; you all know the songs, so I won't linger on them and I'll just say that live they do not lose a gram of energy compared to the record. It's a bit sad, then, that the band's great form is penalized by the rawness of the recordings, inferior even to the already low standards of underground punk; yet, it is a negligible defect compared to the miracle of having the direct testimony of a crucial moment in the history of Italian punk.