4th september
1999- Arena Parco Nord, Bologna, Italy
Bandlist:
Tre allegri ragazzi morti
Verdena
Punkreas
Lit
Hepcat
Sick of it all
Silverchair
Joe Strummer and the
Mescaleros
The Offspring
The Indipendent Days
has been a very well organized festival, all the 9 bands alternated themselves
without problems and delays, but the rain. It rained a lot, massacring all
the people, also us, who came back to the hotel along with 10 kgs of mudd
spreaded EVERYWHERE and without a square cm of dried skin. The rain fell
down without rest for the last 3 and half hours of the festival, no truce,
becoming a real storm. The festival crowd has been the best
thing: 10000 and more truly bloody fans of not just punk-rock, who
welcame all the bands, and tireless and very wet, took part to every
single song, trowing'em in a wicked pogo, also when it created a wide liquid
muddy pool from the 3rd row. The splash-pogo has
been the real king of the night.
The italians 3 Allegri Ragazzi Morti, in a great shape, opened the gig: respect the time of
the Beach Bum Festival (2nd of july 1999) they looked more rocking...as they
were more run in than in the past. The audience appreciated all their songs
and not only "Occhi Bassi" the hit of their new CD, which video is
broadcasted by MTV e TMC2 (the italian music channel). This means that the
band is growing up with huge and serious fans who go beyond the commercial
promotion. The best track was our favourite one "Fortunello", featured on
the stage by a "clown" (who is Fortunello). Verdena, another italian band who attended the second stage at
Beach Bum Festival and yesterday moved up with merit to the main one, went
after them. Verdena have a great future: not only they do a high level music,
we define them between the early Smashing Pumpkins and Placebo, but they
also have a lot of good musical ideas. They are powerful and cleaver musicians
too. The best young group on the italian scene. Much better than other, very
well promoted but stupid and meanless bands who are always broadcasted by
musical TVs. The crowd welcame them in an enthusiastic way. But the italian
band who really triumphed yesterday was the Punkreas: audience
ovation!! All the people knew their lyrics and sang all their songs. It was
whole a wild slamdancing. GREAT!!!!! After the Punkreas the non-italian
bands started to play: the first one it was the very good Lit, from Orange County, California, USA, who proposed pieces
from the old and the new albums. Their music style is close to the one of
Lagwagon and Blink 182, but more powerful in the intros. The singer, flaming-red
dressed, looks like the young version of Joey from Lagwagon and, along with
the blond guitarist, is the main element of the band. Lit provoked pogo with
the kids singing their songs.Then the Hepcat went on stage.
The mythic ska band, who is with Hellcat records, played for 45 minutes.
Of course the enviroment was too punk-rock to be totally involved in their
music,no pogo and crowd surfing, but everyone danced having a lot of fun.All
the people sang the chorus "Lallalllallalalalallla" of their hit song. And
finnally, for just 3/4 of 1 hour, Sick of It All stepped the scene, the best band of the festival along with
Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros. SOIA kicked ass a lot more than
the other. They are the best on the Hardcore scene and one of the greatest
live band. They don't need soap bubble, old style funny sketch, special effects
or a punk rock version of Obladì Obladà, to catch the crowd.
They have a sound power and they are bloody communicative! Pogo and
crowd surfing were both violent, in a positive way of course! The people
went crazy. Hardcore is not easy listening and commercial, but SOIA make
it edible and fun for all since a lot of years. They played "Call to arms",
from their last album, one of our favourite, US vs. Them, No future and many
more. While we were arguing about their show with other people agreement,
saying that "They are the best, no one compared to SOIA" one kid stopped,
all infalted and totally exausted by the pogo, saying "Well done! They are
Gods!" with a so crazy sight that we started to laugh a lot. What about
Silverchair? the audience was shared in two. There were a lot of disappointed
fans who waited for them, after the Silverchair cancelled, this winter, their
show in Milan at the last minute (there were people come from 1000 km for
them.....). There were also bored guys. Actually we are not fans of Silverchair,
they look like too much to Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but we enjoyed their gig.The
singer seems a poseur.... maybe it is just a wrong impression, so Silverchair
fans sorry! The people didn't understand when he asked them "Give me an alleluja!!!"
so they answered "Yeees!". Silverchair "Give me an alleluja!!!" The crowd
"Yeah!!!". Silverchair "Want you give me a allefuckingluja?!?!??????" So
the crowd, who didn't understand a single word answered "Yeah!!!". After
them went out Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros. It has been a great emotion, for all the people who know
and love the punk history and for who lived the punk '77 period, have the
chanse to see again or for the first time the singer of that mythic and unforgettable
band called The Clash!!!!! All the crow hotly welcame him and his band. Joe
Strummer himself, at the end of his performance, thanked a lot the italian
audience, telling that he needed it because the night before in Germany they
had a "Bad night". If the Mescaleros songs didn't inflated so much, the Clash
ones, from "Rock the Casbah" to "London Calling", "Bankrobber" and
"I fought the law" (and law won), made the panic. All sang and you could see
the strong emotion the songs provoked to the fans...it rained a lot and this
Londonish weather like made the gig very suggestive... You should have not
loose it! What also impressed us a lot was the humanity and simplicity of
a man who made the music history and created the punk movement. Is this truly
genius?
After Joe Strummer and
The Mescaleros we waited for 60 minutes under a heavy and pelting rain (of
course to play the Offspring
now need of a supertechnological stage) and then they came. Pogopop is very
polemic with the Offspring, because they have lost their heart and the truly
feeling of the music. They purposed the same clichè of the last concert
we've attended in Rome, last february. Nothing more, nothing less. It seems
now that these bands, Green Day included unfortunately, raised the success,
must restrain their live performances into rigid schemes, prefixed and in
a repetitive way. No place for the spontaneity, neither to say "Hey guys,
thanks for waited for us for so long time under this cold rain!". There are
some bands, like Bad Religion, that even if they signed for a major, they
didn't sell their souls to the devil beheaving just as a gold eggs hen, keeping
their indipendence in their choises. Actually the Offspring were never been
so good live but until 1997 their concerts were honest and very funny...We
love them because songs as "Gotta Get Away","Bad habit" o "Smash" o "Jennifer
lost her war" etc etc. are unforgettable and bloody dragging and we'll never
fed up to listen them. What will remain of their Indipendent Days gig will
be the pogo in the mudd under the rain, nobody will forget it. The only bis
they made was "Why don't you get a job", punky version of the Beatlesian
"Obladì Obladà", which horrified all the first hour and truly
fans, like me. We do think that a group must evolve in its carrier and
change (even if the Ramones remained the same for all their artistic life
without boring anibady!!!) but improving! Anyway we do still love the Offspring.
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