“You don’t know: there are birch trees that raise their roots at night, and you wouldn’t believe that the trees disappear at night or that they become dreams. Think that there is a violin of love in a tree. Imagine a tree singing and laughing. Imagine a tree in distress and then it becomes life.” Alda Merini he didn’t know”Master of the party” while composing “Tu non sai”, but if time is an unusable concept, how do they sing Niccolò Fabi, Daniele Silvestri and Max Gazzè, then the female poet’s verses resonated among the metal branches of that tree in the center of her stage. Not only because of that tree that was born 10 years ago in the red world the Sudan it generated life and music, but above all because of that light installation, in the Roman night of Circus Maximusthe dream increased 50 thousand peoplemaking them sing, laugh, jump, cry and hug each other.
The three they met again – “one shot”, they assured them, this was the only chance to see them play together again – it was not self-celebration, because those three, friends for over 30 year, after naivety (and integrity) when they kept. they went up on the improvised stage of the famous Local, which musically saw them born. At the Circus Maximus last night there was a party, shared with fans mixed together, amid the dust of the Roman tournament and the sweat of those who came early in the afternoon to get a place in front of the barriers.
Three hours of concert, more beats less, with songs from the album (including “John in the world” something they never did live, and the amazing “Anna’s song“), plus each other’s hits and two or three songs each written between 2014 and today. To give a sign of the journey made in these ten years, each in their own way but each – they are keen to emphasize – with a better identity after that first trip to Africa.
Because history, it is worth remembering, went like this. Three friendsthe idea of leaving together without a pre-established musical destination, an adventure in South Sudan alongside Don Dante Carraro and Medicine in Africa – Cuamm, the encounter with faces, “insects and bullets above your head”, the inspiration for an album and a two-year tour in Italy and Europe. The film shown on the screens before the start of the concert reminds us of this.
But the story, like life, continued there for Niccolò, Max and Daniele. With linear but different paths. The first “Una sum of small things”, “Tradizione e betray” and the unpublished works and the orchestral work “Meno per meno” were published; the second “Acrobats”, “The world under my feet” and “Disco X”; the third “Maximilian”, “Alchemaya” and “Mathematics of branches”. “After you start again from the experience of 2014, each one is much more defined, with clearer ideas – explains Silvestri during the exercises – it’s about the fact that when you collaborate in this way, everyone is acting as the other person’s musician, almost. force to bring out your strengths and understand them better. And even now, 10 years later, this exciting trait has resurfaced. I wrote a piece last night.” “I was recording one this morning,” replies Fabi. “I want to retire“, Gazzè jokes, but not too much: “I thought I would spend the next 20 years writing music as a hobby. I don’t want to do anything that doesn’t reflect who I am in that moment.”
Another ten years on their shoulders which makes them find themselves “old, in a wise sense”, they laugh, but above all “in the know”. Never losing the spirit that gave birth to “Master of the Party”: that’s three friends who claim not to never argue (“we face problems, talk about them and solve them”), but continue to mess around and make fun of each other as if playing at the Circus Maximus, in his own city, in front of his together. 50 thousand people it was not a milestone in anyone’s career. “We’re not stadium people,” they joke. “It was very simple to meet again after 10 years – says Fabi – precisely because the character traits that distinguish us perfectly are compatible. We are very aware of our identity and this means that there is no need to expand it: no one ever invades the stage space of the other”.
In the era when auto-tune creates hits, these “old men” of the second Roman school claim their craft: nothing on everything created on stage was pre-recorded or packaged in any way. “No parachute. We are extremely anachronistic.” “The ladder it is the result of choices, clearly, we started thinking about it a long time ago – they explain -. We could have played for six hours, but we had to find a balance with the needs of a live performance, which requires time and path.” Nothing newas expected by more than one fan, but the drawers of the Silvestri house could reserve a surprise in the future.
At 7pm we start the opening by three young artists (“three women, not three chances”, explains Gazzè): Anna Castiglia, Emma Nolde and Daniela Pes, already very appreciated by critics. And then video with voice Gino Stradathat comes to mind when fans sign “Stop the war” and hung several Palestinian flags during the performance of Silvestri’s “La mia casa”.
And again, the video contributions of two lifelong friends, Paola Cortellesi (just before “A Mouth Closed”, a song in the movie “C’è Ancora Tomorrow”) e Lillofrom the imaginary hole in “Sotto casa”.
The audience laughs at their jokes, sings at the top of their lungs, cries to the tune of “Let us”, the song dedicated by Fabi to his daughter who died in 2010. One of the most touching moments of the evening. Gazzè also celebrates his 57 years, and so 50 thousand voices suddenly sing “Happy Birthday”. Photos of their youth can be seen on the screens, when they graced the club stage with a ban on performance covers (“and this was lucky”); but also the three of them in twenty years, “and who knows if we will succeed”.
Along with their instruments are their old friends: Roberto Angelini, Gianluca Misiti, Max Dedo, Ramon Caraballo, Piero Monterisi, Adriano Viterbini. With several hits on stage, from Rancore to Greta Zuccoli.
A big celebration, in short, celebrated around a tree. And in addition to the raised hands of the human tide that invaded the Circus Maximus, at midnight there are bright and grateful eyes of three artists who still have a quick buck and so much to say.