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Rating: Actually, it wasn't a true concert, Vinicio's at Angelo Mai... well... compared to the other artists who took part in this marathon to save from the clutches of the City of Rome, this wonderful place where art and culture have become its beating heart, his was.
A small concert of about half an hour, a small gem within this "celebration-protest": and he has always been an active supporter of this place, a point he reiterated tonight as soon as he took the stage of S.Giovanni. He entered from the sacristy of the small and incredibly crowded (!!!) deconsecrated church of this former boarding school in the heart of the Monti district in Rome (abandoned for about fifteen years and occupied on November 17, 2004, by the Popular Committee of Struggle for Housing), at about 4:30 in the morning, give or take.. - forgive the mental haze, but I had been there since 9 in the evening... - he entered, as I was saying, with his half-cylinder hat, and that buffalo sheepskin we recognize from the cover of his latest work "Ovunque Proteggi" and immediately sat down at the old, uneven piano, giving us his back.
His entire group was with him, including a guy who played a thread... I can't recall what it's called right now, but I guarantee he was great at playing it, this transparent plastic thread. He sang almost exclusively old songs, including "Con Una Rosa" and "Ultimo Amore". At the end of the second song, some jerk tried to break this kind of totally unexpected spell (oh yes... even though his presence was rumored, it was not confirmed) that had been created, pushing towards the "altar", meaning towards the musicians, all the rows of people sitting on plastic chairs.
In a split second, all the people found themselves standing with chairs over their heads, amid screams and whistles. Vinicio, at that point, had already risen from the piano and was heading back to the sacristy, quite rightly. The concert, barely started, was already compromised. After 10 minutes during which the organizers, unprepared to manage the crowd in such conditions, continued to yell into the microphones "everyone sit on the ground, this is not the impression we want to give to Vinicio!! if you continue like this, Vinicio won't come back!", he, slowly and gently, takes his place again and, looking at us and blessing our calmness like a Pope who had drunk a bit too much "blood of Christ," invites us to universal love, and to snap our fingers like revolutionaries, rather than clapping them, as if we were at a circus. Just so... to return to that surreal atmosphere that had been intertwined from the moment he sat at that piano.
And we return to that beautiful and familiar atmosphere like the one I sensed during nearly all his concerts that I happened to see and listen to. After the fourth or fifth song, he says goodbye and introduces the band. But he cannot leave... the whistles and the "VI_NI_CIO! VI_NI_CIO!" start again in full force, shaking the walls and the curtain drapes on the sides of the nave. I think that this ancient and picturesque little church might not withstand the impact, but evidently, he thinks the same: and indeed, they all come back, and give us an encore.
Wow, what a surprise, Vinicio.... I return home at dawn, I am sleepy, but I am happy and smiling while driving.
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