Summer 2022, reviews of cultural events by some of our members
The National, Courtney Barnett
Lido di Camaiore, June 21st 2022.
I went to the see The National 's concert in Lido di Camaiore in June. It's the third time I´ve listened to their live performance. I must say, that their show has somehow become different from the previous ones. Maybe because of Covid, maybe the guys got older. The band played songs above all from the most appreciated albums"High violet" and "Trouble will find me". Perhaps Matt Berninger 's voice got a bit weaker, so the band decided to strengthen the arrangements by using loud guitars and a good rhythm from drums. Probably because of Covid restrictions, Matt Berninger didn't perform "Mr November" among the public, and unexpectedly the band didn't close the concert with "Vanderlyle", as it happened in the previous shows. But we must say, that it was an amazing concert and they successfully didn't repeat themselves.
Before the National, another interesting concert from the Australian rocker Courtney Barnett. I didn't know her, I'm very grateful to a friend for having quoted her as an interesting songwriter. It was a very good concert, filled with energy from the beginning to the end. A classic rock musician, a powerful voice, she showed also a remarkable experience in involving the public on the stage. The National, after, played a very nice song of hers. A pleasant discovery, for me.
reviewed by Luca Ferrano
July 9, 2022 Magic Night in Pistoia.
After ten years of absence the Gov't Mule, an American historical group led by the legendary Warren Haynes, former frontman of the Allman Brothers Band and The Dead, returned to the Pistoia Blues Festival.
Two hours of powerful, engaging and innovative electric blues with Warren's trusty Gibson dictating the law, assisted by a rocky and impressive rhythm section, Jorgen Carlsson on bass and Matt Abts on drums and by a keyboard player Danny Louis ( if necessary also rhythmic guitar and harmonica ) that embellishes the sound of the band.
14 pieces performed, four of which taken from their latest work in studio ( Heavy Load Blues ), three from the band's old works, one cover by Pink Floyd ( One of these days...amazing!! ), two covers by The Allman Brothers Band ( Dreams and Soulshine ), one cover by Blind Willie Johnson, Little Willie John, James Brown ( Sex Machine ) and a traditional ( Railroad Boy ).
14 songs played with passion, skill, intensity, desire to experiment and a crazy feeling between the four musicians, achieved through thousands of hours spent playing together on stage all over the world.
A Gov't Mule concert is not just an electrical blues concert but a compendium of the last fifty years of great rock music, filtered by the artistic sensibility of an extraordinary guitarist and vocalist!
The public of Pistoia greatly appreciated the performance of the group and paid the right recognition with open stage applause.
Long life to rock... Long life to Gov't Mule!
reviewed by Giorgio Franceschini.
A trip to Sarzana is always a pleasure. We met for a delicious breakfast and to look through Colombani's earlier catalogue before heading to the exhibition.
The exhibition inside the fortress was a cool cave of discovery for us. There is so much to intrigue the eye in Colombani's work; quirky subject matter, painstakingly executed miniaturist details in rich and gorgeous panels, powerful iconography.
Later, leaving, the sun and heat seemed to still the pretty town, banishing the demons, washing away the colours we had been bathing in, and we felt a wave of regret, that the riches we had left behind would be hidden from us, until the next exhibition. Thank you, Piero.
Virginia Podestà
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss / Carmen Consoli
Lucca 14th July 2022, - by Massimo Piludu
Pushing the sky away in Lucca
Vedere la sua singolare fisicità di performer sul palco è una grande, immediata emozione.
Nick Cave è, a pieno diritto, per scelta di vita e d'arte, l' interprete di se stesso nel film di Wenders dedicato agli angeli che volteggiano nel cielo sopra Berlino, ascoltando i pensieri dolorosi degli umani, nel desiderio d' incarnarsi comunque, pur d' entrare nel mistero profondo della vita.
La sua gestualità è leggera e aerea, oppure esprime rabbia e provocazione, in andirivieni rapido sul palco, per catturare ogni presenza del pubblico e tenerla avvinta col suono, la voce, lo sguardo magnetico. L'artista, instancabile, crea onde sensoriali e emotive. Vuole gli spettatori in comunione con sé, scende tra loro cercando, anche col contatto fisico, di trasferire energia e pulsazioni. Per alcuni pezzi, invece, quasi si apparta, solitario, al pianoforte.
La musica è coinvolgente, con strumentisti d'eccezione, un saliscendi dal rumoroso sperimentale all'armonia pacificante, alla sola voce. Una sapiente e inconfondibile capacità di mescolare stili e rivisitare generi, frequentati nella lunga carriera e ricca produzione. Un' anima lirica e dark si spande dai testi intensi.
L'effetto è un rapimento di circa due ore in una dimensione trasognata, anche visionaria, un ascolto di infiniti suoni impensabili, dalle percussioni tribali all'armonia ineffabile, che si addensano attraverso l' udito fino a renderti una cassa di risonanza e portarti al libero movimento del corpo.
Elda Belsito, July 2018
Seeing Nick Cave’s extraordinary physicality in performance delivers an instant and intense emotion. He holds the deeds in full, by right of his choices in life as in art, to interpret himself in the Wim Wenders film where angels swoop over the skies of Berlin to eavesdrop on the grieving thoughts of men, wishing that they too could nonetheless become flesh and enter into the most profound mystery of life.
Cave’s gestures are delicate, aerial, then suddenly angry, provocative, as he prowls the stage, pulling in every member of the audience, wrapping every soul in the sound of his voice, in the thrall of his magnetic gaze. The artist is relentless in his creation of sensory and emotive waves. He urges communion with his spectators, descending amongst them, seeking to touch them and pass on to them the pulse, the energy that he embodies. Then come other songs; he withdraws, solitarily, a pianist.
It is the music that pulls the audience along with it, the Bad Seeds, masters and commanders of musicianship, riding the currents of screaming experimentation through to havens of pacific harmonies, on to the solo voice. Skill is here, in a dextrous mixing of styles, and revisiting of genres that have played their parts in their lengthy career and prolific production. A dark and lyrical soul sings out the words of the harrowing verses.
For two hours we are kept captive in a dream space. We are accompanying visionaries, bound by infinite, inconceivable sound. Tribal percussion and ineffable harmony pour in through our auditory senses, until we are all sounding boards in moving bodies.
photos by Elena Grippino, Massimo Piludu, Bera Vogli, Carolyn Scott
