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Rating: I hate the heat; and here it's scorching days, beyond all logic. I don't remember an early September so overwhelming in terms of heat and humidity.
I have a great desire to talk about a concert from many years ago, where the heat was in some ways the absolute protagonist. And then I will pay tribute to another of my musical idols: Nick Cave, who is about to release a new album, "Skeleton Tree" scheduled for September 9th. But let's go back in time, with my personal memory machine.
It was June 1994 and the concert was held in a very hot Palalido in Milan; tickets purchased well in advance and still kept with the utmost care. I went there with Marina. We arrived in front of the Milanese arena always well ahead of the opening time; the heat was already atrocious even though it was only the first day of June. Nick and the Bad Seeds had just released "Let Love In", one of their best albums of the nineties.
Finally, the doors are opened, we enter and position ourselves at the barrier, slightly to the left looking towards the stage; the heat increases and this is not good (you will see how it will end). The Milanese Carnival Of Fools had the honor to inaugurate the musical evening; skilled in their finely crafted Rock-blues. But we were all there for the Ink King and his Bad Seeds.
And finally, the awaited moment arrived: they climbed on stage from a side ladder just a few meters from where we were positioned; when Nick passed by, I shouted his name. He turns, and our eyes meet for a moment; I call him again, and he comes towards me and hugs me. I still remember the moment very clearly: Nick tall, so skinny it made you pale, wasted, and I believe not just on alcohol. A few seconds, he says something to me that I pretend to understand, but I don't know what the hell he's saying; it's a moment, and then he leaves me and climbs on stage where his mates are waiting for him. Imagine the astonishment of the people around me: everyone really thinks I know him well, since he hugged me and no one else... It's the truth. Those who know me know I would never lie when it comes to music. That's how it went, simply.
The concert begins, and they start with "Loverman"; Blixa is even more wasted than Nick, and in the first few songs, more than once they both lose their balance, falling on stage. The concert was intense and incredible, and online you can find the complete setlist. "City Of Refuge," the vocally terrifyingly emotional duet of "The Weeping Song," "Jack The Ripper" with its bloody and violent pace that annihilates you. Thus concludes the first part of the show, because it was an adrenaline-pumping and dramatic show like few others I've had the chance to see.
But the painful emotions are not over because, while the final encores start, Marina faints from the heat: she became dehydrated. Panic ensues, even though I became a first aider in the Red Cross just a few months earlier. Thanks to the decisive intervention of a couple of guys, we manage to reach the infirmary; within minutes, my life companion recovers; even though I got a big scare, to hell with Nick and his Bad Seeds!!! Who incredibly, by absurd coincidence, close their show with "Thirsty Dog..."
That's all.
And it's my habit, when I go to recount these old stories of mine, to dedicate the write-up to someone.
This is All for you: Pinhead, heartshapedbox... and Marina.
Ad Maiora.
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