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Rating: Rustico live.
"I told you we should have turned right!"
Tonight, the fog had another appointment, but we did our best to get lost regardless, among rice fields and identical Pavia farmhouses, all made with the same mold. Luckily, I downloaded the route from the site to reach Ortosonico, an arci club (which will come as a total surprise) halfway between Milan and Pavia. Using the map like a treasure map, my friend Plummer acts as the navigator, and eventually, after an endless stretch of dirt road with real craters that would deter anyone, we arrive at point x.
After just having hosted Vic Chesnutt and his Six Organ project... Tonight from S.Francisco we have Sleepy Sun with only one (magic) album to their name and the engine of their parked van still warm. We arrive a bit early, we realize it when Massimo, one of the managers, asks if we want to eat with them; we gladly accept.
The surprise is that "them" referred to the band!
Perhaps accustomed to the terrible American diet, the six plus a roadie devour the dishes of Lomellina cuisine, along with meat cooked directly on the fireplace and a good red wine. Amazed, we begin to get into the mood and move to the other room where the already decorated stage stands out and some guys finish off the last steaks left on the fireplace. After less than an hour, the band repays us in the best way possible: by playing...
The live performance is something cathartic. The "song form" as we all know it gets lost between the red walls of the venue, giving way to immense improvisations and long mantras ("New Age" and "Sleepy son") in which the six, each in their own way, contribute to enriching the short repertoire available to them today.
All the tracks from the debut album "Embrace" (2008) are reviewed as well as some excerpts from singer Rachael Williams' solo work.
If there's one thing that struck me more than anything else, it's this last one: the voice of Grace Slick in a tiny girl's 160 cm body who could very well be the girl who takes the bus or metro in front of you every day.
Three guitars: two electric, one acoustic, bass, drums, two singers: Rachael, also playing the recorder and tribal percussion instruments, and Bret Constantino with harmonica and the aforementioned acoustic guitar for that extra folk touch.
One cannot help but think of Airplane (above all) but also of the darker Doors with the space touch that the Krautrock bands of the '70s (mainly Can and Hawkwind) knew how to shape.
Pure psychedelia of Sleepy Sun, the kind that makes you float in the air leaving as the only point of contact with the ground an empty shell, stripped of the free spirit that is spinning two meters high.
Guided by six shamans.
The same free spirit that dwells inside all of us but needs the right spark to explode in the chest and soar like an aura.
From the purely technical side, there's plenty to be astonished by with the continuous ups and downs and the numerous tempo breaks that leave you speechless. All those sought-after sounds, created in the studio and captured on the record, were executed without digital aid, now present even in live performances. Only the piano, which is missing, is replaced by flute and vocalizations.
Anyway, more electric live than on record, as it should be.
Those who go crazy for Black Mountain, and have the sick and primitive fluid of Blue Cheer in their veins, (by chance also from Frisco) I believe have already grasped and know what kind of evening it was.
Me and the few attendees enjoyed an intimate concert like few others: some sitting in front of the stage, others standing by the sides of the room, some with a foot against the wall, some like me and the "old" Plum sprawled on the long red sofa sipping medium beers.
Jacket sleeves now make way for short-sleeved t-shirts, allowing for the last two "very dilated" pieces for the few present and to show off the perfect instrumental blend, shaped around the new and old continent. At the end, after the duration of a soccer match, the six guys are saying goodbye not before thanking for the food and wine. The usual compliments (sincere), a toast, and a couple of chats with Rachel while she signs the inside of the record for us, then they rush off to dismantle the stage and load the rented van that will take them to Switzerland.
The certainty is that we witnessed a unique event, in an atmosphere that calling confidential is an understatement. The boundaries between the Pavia countryside and the west coast of the States have never been so close. Power of the evocative music of "Our" and a fireplace.
I saved quite a few euros for the transoceanic flight, crossed the Atlantic, made a coast to coast in a few minutes reaching the hills of S.Francisco, all while sitting comfortably on the red sofa probably placed there by Massimo.
All for 5 euros.
Take that Ryanair, this is a real low-cost Friday.
Thank you Sleepy.
The opinion of Commendatore Bossolazzi:
For the atmosphere, the welcome, the music, the beer, and the steaks. But I will also remember this night for the clutch that almost gave out on that country road. Five (nespole) for those who were there!
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