Stadio
Canzoni Per Parrucchiere Live Tour

Strange group the Stadio. Strange individual Curreri, leader and author. And they are strange for a bunch of reasons. First and foremost for the fact that someone, with an enviable “sense of song,” and with the ability to surround himself with the right people, has written some very important pages of Italian songwriting, rarely hides behind the name of a band. Especially in a country of unrestrained and hysterical individualism like Italy. Then because, despite having written music and sung, Curreri is inexplicably not included by most among the ranks of singer-songwriters, where the parallel (even if certainly more important historically) Battisti rightly dominates as a founding father. If a singer-songwriter is someone who sings and writes (not in the restrictive notion of “always writes everything”), Curreri is a singer-songwriter, and also one of the good and important ones.

But, given the necessary premise, let's move on to the album. A live one. And, you know, a live album can be very clever or it can be a big, unpalatable cop-out. Here we are in the first case. Firstly because the Stadio have never been overindulgent with live albums (although they could have...being practically always on tour...), even if they might be criticized for an excessive passion for collections. Then because everything in this live sounds incredibly good. From the real sounds of the band and the voice, to the freshness of the musicians and their “joie de vivre.”
Pezzoli, the only other original member along with the leader, still has an enviable drumming touch. And here all his characteristics are present, never intrusive or off-key: syncopated tempos, great tom-tom variations, beautiful cymbal and snare sound. Guitar, bass, and keyboards do their job excellently, perhaps with some overly pyrotechnic displays in the guitar solos. But, it’s forgivable. Willingly forgiven.

The set list, then, is absolutely commendable. The key stages of the Stadio's career are well covered, never trivial, with clever arrangements and without unnecessary repetitions of the originals or songs already present in the excellent previous live album.
A slightly debatable point might be represented by the presence, almost in full, of the latest studio album, albeit a work of very interesting ballads and excellently written, but very recent and whose memory is too fresh. Then again, you know, tracks from the “tour album” are often, if not always, performed identically, with the risk, even in this case, of creating unnecessary duplicates.
Let's not blame the Stadio, however...: the great De André has been guilty of the same sin several times, and more than rightly, it has been forgiven.

There are two completely new pieces, and both are very successful. The first, “Fammi Stare Con Te,” is the classic ballad from the Stadio, already heard and also for this beautiful, certainly superior to the “desperate need for love” that was the unreleased track of the previous live. The other is “Con Le Mie Lacrime,” an improbable cover of the immortal “As Tears Go By” by the Stones. Improbable and beautiful: how one can make a Jagger-Richards track into pure “Stadio style” is incredible, inconceivable, but objectively successful.
Further and concluding highlight is “porno in tv,” an old gem written by Curreri in collaboration with Dalla, and present in the splendid and now very old “la faccia delle donne” (in my opinion one of the most beautiful and important albums of the beloved and underrated eighties). Here much more funk but equally entertaining.
For the rest, the other gem of the album is constituted by a medley announced by a charmingly Emilia-style chat by the leader. And it's not just any medley, but the combination of three commercially very successful songs written for others, namely “Prima Di Partire Per Un Lungo Viaggio,” decent but never a masterpiece, “Un Senso,” a "stadiano" jewel donated to the latest Vasco, to enrich a very modest album like “Buoni O Cattivi” (here curiously performed with a slightly different chorus...one should check the original draft...bah...) and above all the splendid “Dimmi Che Non Vuoi Morire,” one of the most beautiful songs of recent years, heard so far only from Pravo's historic voice.

The rest is pure live. But, as you may have understood, not (or not entirely) just a commercial operation. But a fun album, played and sung excellently, with an almost youthful energy. Placed there to remind us that in Italy, despite the many idiots that dominate the radio and charts, there are still those who can write songs. Pure songs. Listen to them, sing them, but never banal. Simply beautiful.