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Rating: Jason Noble doesn't know anything about me.
He doesn't know that I spent Friday afternoon hoping for the snow to stop falling, or that last night I argued on the phone with my girlfriend while driving.
The Ratatoj is a youth club in Saluzzo, where they sell fair trade products and organize concerts.
Last night's concert featured Fuh and Three Second Kiss, two very experienced and 90's-oriented bands.
The first to take the stage were the Fuh. The last time I saw them was in Cuneo about two weeks ago at the atmospheric location of the deconsecrated Church of St. Chiara during "Spazi Acustici".
They performed some of their tracks acoustically, and I must say I didn't find them very engaging.
This time the set is electric, and it shows us a strong and determined band with an enviable compositional ability.
The tracks performed are from their recent debut album, "Dancing Judas," released this year by Smartz records/Escape from today after their demo "Extinction".
Fuh is a young band that has grown under the wing of Canalese Noise records, a brave label from Roero that predominantly produces noise music, which I hope to talk more about in the future.
During this time, Fuh has played a lot of gigs, contributing to strengthening their stage confidence as well as their sound.
We are talking about a band, in a few words, that perhaps deserves more attention than it already has, and to get an idea, watch their video on YouTube "Free Money" and correct me if I'm wrong.
But I'm not wrong.
The tracks follow each other in a monolithic and nervous manner showing the coordinates of our guys, which can be succinctly summed up as all the good American alternative rock of the '90s.
I'm referring to Shellac, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Don Caballero, and so on, everything that in the nineties united noise and innovation, without sacrificing anything to the d.i.y. spirit.
In some cases, their riffs have the backdrop of the immense desert of Kyuss and the rhythm section is a cross between Kim Gordon and Todd Stanford Trainer.
The end of the live show is dedicated to tribal drums and a forest of distortions.
The Three Second Kiss, on the other hand, (Massimo Mosca bass and vocals, Sergi Carlini guitar, and Sacha Tilotta on drums) take the stage immediately after, turn their backs to the audience, prepare, tune, and start with immense synchronized bursts.
Visually sparse and bony, with basic equipment, these Sicilians play post-hardcore reminiscent of Jesus Lizard but much more dynamic.
They feature time changes, pauses, and dissonant chords.
There are few effects, and it almost seems that in their rhythmic intersections and divergences, the TSK play polygons.
A live performance played excellently indeed.
And if what I've told you about them isn't enough for you, know that you're wrong.
Because TSK was formed in Bologna in 1993, they've played both here and in America with June of 44, Steve Albini has mixed two of their albums, in America their albums are released by Dischord, they participated in the "All Tomorrow Parties" in 2002, and if all that is not good enough for you, you're idiots.
Currently, their latest album, "A Long Distance," is out on African Tape, a very interesting label with one foot in America and one in France.
For both performances, what was truly sacrificed was the vocal setup, whether because it was crushed by the rest of the sound or because the English language used by both doesn't always allow immediate expressiveness for the audience.
What's also lacking is a certain taste for the single song, pop if you will, where one or more tracks stick in the listener's ear.
The effect was thus of a long jam made up of songs not always distinguishable.
And unfortunately, this is not good.
But who knows, maybe even the early Husker Du had this effect on their stunned listeners.
Probably good music is like good cooking: when a dish is done well, there's not a single recognizable ingredient that covers all the rest, all the individual ingredients contribute to the final taste and those who are eating try to recognize them, but can't, something seems familiar but they can't pinpoint it.
But maybe it's me demanding too much.
We don't live in a perfect world because there, in a perfect world, cancer wouldn't exist.
And Jason Noble wouldn't have bone cancer, in a perfect world.
Musicista and multi-instrumentalist Jason is forty years old, with fifteen years of activity in the independent music scene (Shipping News, Rachel's and Rodan) behind him.
A few months ago, he was diagnosed with bone cancer, a very serious sarcoma for which experimental treatments are used.
Now imagine an independent scene musician in the American healthcare system, with what money does he undergo experimental bone cancer treatment?
Thus comes the idea of two benefit dates organized by Carlini and Julien Fernandez (founder of the label Africantape Rec.) as has already been done in America.
For this reason, last night on the Ratatoj stage, Fuh (Canalese noise rec) and Three Second Kiss performed, and the ticket price of eight euros went to charity.
This evening February 6th instead, at the Interzona in Verona, Io Monade Stanca (Africantape Rec.), Hell Demonio (Wallace/RobotRadio Rec.), Three Second Kiss (Africantape Rec.) and Uzeda (Touch and Go Rec) will play: the proceeds from the evening will be entirely donated to financially aid Jason Noble's treatments.
The Uzeda will come directly from Sicily for the Verona event.
Voluntary donations in favor of Jason are possible through this site.
And that's all.
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