Article by Marzia Picciano | Photo by Andrea Ripamonti
It is no coincidence that the first track of MARASSIlucky(issim)o album by the Genoa band composed of Maurizio Carucci, Simone Bertuccini, Olmo Martellacci, And Rachid Bouchabla (and in live Giorgia Sudati) who turns 10 this year and is therefore taken all over Italy to – rightly – celebrate his birthday (as well as a real act of defiance to what was thought of the “indie” music of the then young Millennials) began his speech with “If today's young people are worth little, what have the elderly left us?“.
It's the first time I've thought about it, here in front of the concert stage, compact and yet very crowded.Arci Bellezza of Milan, on this very humid evening in mid-January.
Some epiphanies always happen too late compared to the moment in which the events happen.
After all, we are not always ready for the times we live in, we lack the overall vision, we are lost on the details. The Ex-Otagoto tell the truth, in knowing how to navigate beautiful and ugly seas, they have always had on their side the advantage of those who live facing the sea: they have strong and smooth skin, and they always seem young, always on time, like last night too, fresh in pulling down in front of a crowd of barricaded fans, track after track, the euphoric rush of MARASSI. Confirming, therefore, that it is a record that does not age, and probably never will.
Just to say: at a certain point Carucci asks: who was there at xax, and who is here today for the first time? Here are the hands of last-minute fans, proving the attractiveness of the band and its creation. Maurizio himself said it in the interview held in his Cascina Barban: Our Skin it is still tattooed on the skin of very sensitive fans. And, among other things, I couldn't find a ticket for resale, not even by mistake, not even on a day of crazy strikes.
Let's take a step back.
I return to Rome, 2016, I live in a pied-à-terre (not to say a pardon) on Viale Eritrea, my friends and I have a checked floor, a heating system you can't trust and nice and unpredictable neighbors to host in a small, ramshackle and impervious garden as only vegetation can be in Rome. Although indie-pop was expanding in those years, like the universe (semi-cit.), in that house few records were listened to and learned by heart. One of them was MARASSI.
His success had always seemed to me an absurd proof of valor.
We were, and I was, very fond of Half SeasonsPernazza had left the band, a fundamental leg of our heroes seemed to have been lost and instead four years later they brought out a sort of manifesto of what was now the way in which the almost thirty-year-olds understood the rebirth of pop in Italian alternative music.
MARASSI it was a fundamental change of pace.
It introduced samplers and a necessarily more engaging sound, a driving force behind the desire to jump and dance that was not to be taken for granted for a type of music like the one in question. In wanting to try to represent the new young vitality of the homonymous neighborhood of Genoa, Carucci and the band managed to cross a national collective feeling, a necessary shaking off of responsibility towards the sacred fathers, the desire to say one's word of value and have fun doing it.
Ex-Otago become what they are today, they identify the sound that makes them recognize them, they see Sanremo (with a piece from Sanremo which is still miles ahead of the proposals of today's winners of the festival), they re-record MARASSI bringing us the feats of all the representatives of indie music of the period, they produce other records, they reflect, in the meantime their songs solidify in the hearts of their fans (or on their skin as we were saying).
Ex Otago concerts then become a ritual.
The more the attachment to the songs increases, the more Maurizio cares, between one joke and another, to explain them, to talk about the need to return, to reduce to a minimum, to stop and reflect. I always wondered if all Ex-Otago fans really understood the philosophy behind the band and the harsh and pure reality that our heroes tried to tell in a poetic yet tremendously iconic way, their vision on making music. It's not for me to say, but I like to think that there is a basic alignment.
The Milan date was no less than this long sequence of rituals, with a band always passionate about people and warm (and a special mention for Giorgia Sudatiwhich I loved); it was despite the pauses (more or less true, since Congratulations is from 2024) and the palpable perception that the Otaghis are reflecting and preparing something, and in fact yesterday a first step of Albon Baffewritten for the occasion on Maurizio's t-shirt, the enigmatic title of a new piece.
Yet the tour of MARASSI and the date ofArci Bellezzanet of the final incursions of various pieces from other albums (including a representation of Half Seasons, Patricia) have maintained their declared intent, to celebrate a record and a way of being, and to demonstrate, in my mind yesterday more than ever, how relevant it still is, how unfortunately some things have not changed, and how ultimately history and its misfortunes repeat themselves cyclically, while values succumb not far from us.
We are still angry boars.
We still try to swim in the sea, we are amazed at the wisdom of plants, we try to never betray ourselves.
The tour is sold out, and if you don't have a ticket, I tell you: look for it, try it. Or go to Genoa on July 16th. And remember why you haven't aged either in ten years.
Click here to see the photographs of the Ex-Otago concert in Milan (or browse the gallery below)
EX-OTAGO: the setlist of the Milan concert
INTRO
- The Young People of Today
- Angry Boars
- Our Skin
- Relax
- Sea
- When I'm With You
- The Eyes of the Moon
- I dreamed of being an Indian
- Not Very Far
- It takes a lot of courage
- Central Bar
- Costa Rica
- Patricia
- Albon Baffe (intro)
- Children
- With you
- This night
- When I'm with you (acoustics in the crowd, mood greetings)
OUTRO
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
