Italy Rocks!

I was at the Camden Barfly last night where I had been dragged by Italian friends to go see “the bestest Italian band ever”…

I missed the opening band, Indigo Joe, and entered the room as Indi Forde was playing. And that was a very good surprise! The singer has a very strong voice, catchy tunes that do NOT sound all the same (this is actually quite rare these days), and a tendency to masturbatory guitar solos (we all have that, don’t we?) that were actually good (that, we don’t all have…). The rest of the band was doing its job perfectly, and I must say the drumming was particularly inventive. This is a band I will definitely go see again!

Then Electric City walked on stage, and as I saw them with their tight jeans and sophisticated haircuts, I got very worried. And I was right. These Franz Ferdinand would-be did entertain the crowd, but their music lacked any depth or feelings, especially with that annoying two-time drum beat. To be honest, there was one song in the middle of their set, called “Medicine for the people” or something like that, that did show some promises, but overall nothing impressive. Looks isn’t everything.
Note to the singer: Making monkey faces and pointing to the roof doesn’t make your music any better…

Finally, AfterHours came onstage. Now, this is a band! Too much of it actually, as their noisiest songs got a bit lost sometimes in such a small venue. But a great gig overall, both the songs in Italian and the ones in English of equal strength. I particularly appreciated the way they rescued the show when their keyboard died in the middle of one song, and they ended up dancing amongst the crowd. That was cool!
These guys definitely deserve a bigger venue, where I am sure their sound would fully develop. Some people surely are sorry they weren’t born, say, english….