•
Rating: The CCCP are alive and fighting with us!
That phrase might be a bit overused by now, but how much truth lies in so few words. The legacy of a musical group (only musical?) like CCCP Fedeli alla Linea seems that in the last twenty years practically no one has inherited it, and the more time passes, the more one realizes how unique and perhaps unrepeatable that experience was.
A story made of fundamental chance encounters, a narrative that makes a virtue of necessity and turns the placid Po Valley into a land of improbable pro-Soviet punks fascinated by the Sufis of the East. An epic parabola destined to end swiftly, too intense and "geopolitically" characterized to last longer than necessary. The paths of the people who wrote that story would cross again many times, each time with different signatures, but perhaps never as much as in recent times.
Among the various performances toured by the three members of the historical core, namely those of "Ortodossia", "Compagni, cittadini.." and "Affinità-divergenze", Umberto Negri's, besides being the latest in terms of time, is certainly also the most unexpected. Literally disappeared from the musical radar after the release of the 1985 masterpiece, Negri returned to the spotlight a couple of years ago with the publication of the book "Io e i CCCP", a substantial photographic tome that collects the primordial sensations of a group immediately too improbable not to make a mark. Black and white photos thus gather years of concerts between the "Rozzemilia", which at the time was truly "rough", and the rest of Europe and Planet World often more imagined than real. And "Io e i CCCP" is also the title of the show that Negri has been touring for about a year now, a historical-non-nostalgic excursus on the beginnings of Emilia's most famous punks. A white screen on which to project some vintage images from times gone by, naturally taken from the aforementioned booklet, standard bass and drum machine, and the young Francesco Casabianca on guitar: let's go!
And here they come again, after thirty years of beauty, on stage with authentic classics like "Live in Punkow", "Mi ami?", "Radio Kabul" and "Punk Islam", songs visited and revisited over the years, but here in really very close versions to the original formula. No nostalgia of any kind, be clear, we are here to entertain and have fun. "The CCCP didn't do politics, they did the poetics of politics": a well-orchestrated recitation, a show, indeed, no coincidence there were also Artists and Showgirls on stage, how not to get there before the rest? What!? Still thinking Ferretti was a Soviet ambassador in Emilia? Come on... What also surprises, besides the beautiful set list that truly retraces the most significant tracks, those of the EPs and the first two albums, is the total humility with which Negri lends himself to his role, with no regrets for what could have been and was not, but rather happy to be back on stage to tell his "version of the facts". And even under the stage, faces are happy, especially the faces of those who were already there at the time and still remember well the shows (the term "concerts" would be reductive) that CCCP were capable of.
The TNT in Milan, a former workshop squeezed between two tall buildings in the residential area of south Milan, at the end of the evening, will count the beauty of about forty patrons, really low numbers, but the general atmosphere gives the impression that here no one expects big numbers but that the important thing is to spend good moments listening to some old classic all together.
Small note: please, let's refrain from any controversy about the religious-political choices of some former singer, accept it, please. "But a CCCP reunion? Impossible!" Could it be true? In the meantime, if Mr. Negri passes by your area, I would recommend not to miss it.
- Umberto Negri: vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, drum machine
- Francesco Casabianca: guitar, drum machine, keyboards, second vocals
Setlist:
- Trafitto
- UN
- Radio Kabul
- Tu Menti
- Annarella
- Manifesto
- Curami
- Morire
- Allarme
- Militanz
- Emilia Paranoica
- Noia
- Io sto bene
- Live in Punkow
- Per me lo so
- Mi ami?
- Punk Islam
- Spara Jurij
Loading comments slowly
