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Rating: Friday, December 3, 2010, somewhere in the middle of the Po Valley.
Five o'clock in the afternoon, freezing cold, nerves on edge, and a concert waiting for us.
Meeting point reached, we were all there: three men, two women, the car, and the desire to get to Turin as soon as possible given the weather, the journey (400 km), and the rush to arrive on time!
“Let's go!” we set off perfectly on schedule, barely 10 km in and Barbara screams: “Damn the tickets! Holy sh... I forgot the tickets!”... Panic, curses, inappropriate comments towards the lady, and a U-turn modelled after “Bo and Luke”!
Back towards the centre, drop the friend as close as possible to home, gently urging her to move her lovely behind, under the threat that if she didn't hurry upon her return, she'd be sodomized (and if she was into that, we'd be screwed!!!).
The girl comes back in a hurry with the tickets and a magniFico container full of biscuits she made.
“To make it up to you!” she says,
“Well, girl, you really nailed it”! Forgiven! ... Always because of her butt?
We set off again, the Swans await us, Turin is far, and time is running out!
Highway at full speed (to hell with the speed cameras!), NIN too (I don't love them to death but the car isn't mine!), Piacenza, Alessandria, mandatory Autogrill (...I can't do without travel Coca-Colas), Asti, and finally Turin!
Avenues, counter-avenues, can't make heads or tails, maneuvers that not even Kovalsky would dare, Viale Unione Sovietica,
“I like this one!” I say,
Viale Vittorio, La Mole, Via Mantova, Espace!
"Here we are!" much to our delight!
You should know that I don't even like the Swans that much; I was and remain practically a newbie, and I believe I will remain so. However, I had a sort of Voyeurism telling me “you must go!”... or maybe it was the charming young travel companions?.... Who knows! Your choice!
We arrived just in time, really just in time!
Blackshaw had just finished playing, “thank goodness!” I ponder to myself; not even a moment to sneak into the theatre when a long, deafening Feedback intro starts what I consider one of the best concerts I have ever attended in my life!
Distortions, white noise, entrance of instruments “step by step”, still electric reverberations growing like a dizzying spiral perverse and irrational bringing the already few and increasingly dazed (even scared, at least some) audience to press towards the stage while other people (?) much more cultured and educated sit with an intellectual and high-minded look on the chairs at the back of the hall.
It calls for a “screw them, what the hell are they doing here!” thought passing through the minds of those fifty crazies who are, not only physically; under Michael Gira's feet!
I repeat, I have never loved these guys that much but the decibels are through the roof and Thor Harris (he really impressed me) on percussion goes at it like a Viking on the oars of a Draken (blame the name I think), Phil Puleo mistreats the drums like a Neanderthal man smashing rocks, Chris Pravdica abuses the bass with a primordial precision that is inhuman, Christoph Hahn strokes the Steel guitar with a baboon's technique but the skills of a god, and finally Norman Westberg acts as a binder as if he were a tube of Vinavil all at a tank-like pace!
And Gira? Well, I wouldn't know, I've never seen one of his concerts before, but if he's done better, it means he's the Lord himself!
Recitative, dreamy, participative, sincere, angry, permeated with hysteria sometimes violent, sometimes playful; above all, filled with the desire to do what he knows best, which is Rock!
“Really Cool!”
Translation, the band is in more than brilliant shape!
The songs press on, the noise too, hysteria grips me, and my calm dance becomes hysterical as the concert takes shape; from hopping, it goes directly to the macabre and aggressive dance of the Pogo (bland but still hysterical!) interspersed with a healthy beer and a chat at the bar with a rather interesting girl (I tried but she wouldn't even consider the idea!!!!! Maybe the smell of sweat? Or am I really too unlucky?), while my ears scream at me that it would be time to return to quiet!
Indeed it would have been wise, but the tunnel was already entered and so back to the hall to jump, dance, reflect on what's been said and hinted at, until the Band says “Enough now!”!
“Eh!, but how?, I had just started to get into it and now this one is starting to hop next to me!?!”
“OUT! OUT!”
It's encore time!
A perverse dark theatrical Talking Blues opens the doors to Gira's most intimate hells with a depressed and introspective interjection (I think it was a Classic because of the participation of my neighbors!) with a conclusion that is dramatic and virulent as if the Band had to tear their skin off!
According to friends, all the “Hits” are there (but what do I know!), and the unpublished ones too, but I was not very interested in this because rightly or wrongly, I understood, at least in part, that these guys still want to kick ass and do what we/I love so much!
Midnight and something, maybe one, Gira comes out to sign autographs at the entrance and sell various gadgets, cigar in mouth, and Texan hat on head!
I tried to say something to him but my tongue too swollen allowed me to exclaim something like: “One of the Best Concerts I've seen in my life!” with the smoothness of a steel bar!
Result?
I am sure he didn’t understand a thing of my most sincere compliment!
Having concluded the fetishist phase we hit the highway for the return journey, weather like wolves, snow, ice, and Autogrill until home.
I am satisfied, indeed, dumbfounded and happily surprised, I did not have many expectations but instead I was wrong and big time!
Few bands, and among them the Swans, have left me so terrified and pleased at the same time!
A somewhat fried brain tells me: “It was worth it!”
Four-thirty at home, “Damn, at six I have to get to work!”, my ears are ringing a lot, after an hour I get up and go to work, I can't even see the pans, I can't even hear the people, and everyone is asking me “What did you do last night?!?!?”........
But after all, this is another story!
LETHAL!
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