Suinage
Live al "Mattatoio" - Carpi (Mo)

THE REVIEW

A trio, just to confirm overused clichés.

But let's go in order.
Love at first sight rarely turns into lifelong bonds; more commonly, it fades exponentially fast, sometimes leaving excellent memories that last a long time.
I assume it will be the same for Suinage, but for now, I enjoy this unexpected breath of fresh air, despite the band's not-so-happy choice of name.

If we must label them at any cost, we can stick them with the "Power Pop" label, but only for convenience. In reality, the "name of the thing" is of very little importance.
What matters is the continuous miracle of a way of interpreting rock that surprises every time as if it were the first.
Energy and vitality become for certain bands the only possible outfit, almost a way of being that pervades them.

The impression left after seeing them on and off stage is that Suinage is part of this fortunate minority. And considering they come from the "deep Brianza," which has little energetic, except the desire to work like mules, theirs is quite a virtue.
As already mentioned, the trio rarely disappoints, and when they show up with a Rickenbacker bass (always wanted, never owned), a Gibson "devil" guitar, and a drum set with only one tom, the performance is almost certain.
The event in which Suinage participated was a sort of marathon featuring five bands, starting in the late afternoon. For this reason, and due to an unusual time, they played in front of a sparse audience, composed mainly of many fan-friends and a few young alternatives with-drink-in-hand. It should also be said that the venue, which for a very brief and remote period was a hotbed of ideas, was not the ideal "location" for a band of this type.

But fear not, once they grabbed their instruments, the three delivered a performance that greatly satisfied expectations. An hour of well-played tracks, filled with all the "colorings" that live, if the blood still runs in your veins, make you tap your feet and nod your head:  drum tempos often doubled, and then the guitar well-pumped - just a distortion pedal and, I think, a compressor or booster - but never too distorted, and above all, an intense desire to play that oozed from every pore, which more than made up for a few execution smudges and a voice not always up to par.
The icing on the cake, however, was the choice of two covers to include in the concert.
Power Pop, we said: more a style of rock than a standalone genre, but if we really want to find fathers, they lie more in the "mod" sound than in blues rock, more Who than Rolling Stones, closer to the punk of 1976 than to the contemporary hard rock.
And so what do these guys pull out
The Joe Jackson of 1979 with "On Your Radio" and an Elvis Costello from the same period, whose title, unfortunately, could not be identified, both revisited and offered with all the energy they, luckily, have.

During the return trip, with the car radio screaming a surviving noisy cassette, I realized I hadn't even bought the CD at the required counter.
Done and done, I got the silvery disc in record time and I can add that the live performance suits Suinage much more than the admittedly good studio recording, and this, if there was ever any doubt, is yet another confirmation of the worth of these three guys.