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Rating: Bern, Bologna, Milan, Turin.
I had been waiting for this moment for 6 years, after having seen them also in '96 and feeling a sense of liberation and enjoyment when in Milan Mike smashed the guitar on the amplifiers at the end of "Porch".
25 songs in Bern, 25 in Bologna, 27 in Milan, 29 in Turin.
Concerts of about two and a half hours experienced in different ways: in the front row two meters from Eddie in Bern, comfortably in the stands enjoying the human wave of the stalls in Bologna and Milan, once again with the Ten Club bracelet in Turin amidst the chaos.
In Bern 5 songs from Ten, 5 from VS, 3 from Vitalogy: a dive into the past that's only so because days, months, years have passed, certainly not the desire to play, have fun, and entertain.
Two songs to warm up in Turin and then, one after another, ALL the songs from the last album, in the exact order of the CD: original and never done (I believe) before then.
59 different songs spread over the four dates: only the classics "Alive" and "Even Flow", the energetic "Do The Evolution", and the new ones "World Wide Suicide" and "Severed Hand" always present.
Rare gems scattered here and there: "Garden" and "Low Light" in Bern, "Alone" and "Present Tense" in Bologna, "Man Of The Hour" and "Crazy Mary" in Milan, "Tremor Christ" and "Blood" in Turin.
Covers without shame of playing other people's songs, because certain songs belong to everyone: "Rockin' In The Free World" by Uncle Neil in Bern and Milan, "Baba O'Riley" by the Who in Bologna and Turin, "Picture In A Frame" by Tom Waits in Milan, plus hints included in "Daughter" and "Yellow Ledbetter": "It's Ok" by Dead Moon in Bologna, "Another Brick In The Wall" in Milan, "Little Wing" by Jimi in Bern.
Moments of hilarity for not taking themselves too seriously: the sequined jacket and Bush mask that Eddie wears on stage in Bologna to sing Bu$hleaguer, the tumble in Milan on the amplifiers and I'll include the "My Verona" to the notes of "My Sharona" hinted at the Arena.
I wasn't there, but it's as if I was, under the rain like that group of guys I met who, renting a bus, hit all the European dates: Australians like Randall (an explosive cross between a wrestler and a metalhead) and his quiet wife Darcy (who herself describes her husband as "a character"), a Norwegian who already in Turin had his arm completely covered with the wristbands of reserved tickets for the Fan Club, the Egyptian with his flag inscribed with "Tremor Christ" bursting with joy when Eddie rewards his persistence by changing the setlist to fulfill his wish, and finally the Mexicans who in Turin throw a Lucha Libre mask on stage, Eddie wears it and becomes a kind of dancing Rey Mysterio for two minutes.
Meeting Stone in the streets of Bologna, stopping him just to compliment and shake his hand and seeing his surprised face when I tell him they're amazing: he widens his eyes and exclaims "oh...thanks, man! thank you so much!"
No Stone, it is I who should thank you, because for fifteen years now, through a strange twist of fate, you've managed to put into words and music the emotions of myself and many other people: I've said people because I've often seen middle-aged people in line to enter, and I want to become like that.
Maybe I won't drive 1200 km in 24 hours to be in the front row in Bern, eating junk food and sleeping in highway stations next to truck drivers, but I know I'll see them again and that every time my heart will skip a beat, because passion is something you have inside, and to hell with the picks, setlists, tambourines, and everything else they throw from the stage to reward the brave ones in the front rows who endure shoving for two and a half hours.
I'm not looking for fetishes, I'm satisfied with what they make me feel and what they represent for me.
And all the rest? The criticisms, the comparisons to the past, the (alleged) inconsistencies in some of their attitudes and behaviors?
"Non ti curar di loro, ma guarda e passa" said Dante.
It was the third canto of the Inferno, while right now I feel like I'm in Paradise.
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