Article by Barbara Terrone
Another week, another day, and I might add I wish we were still in October. Instead we are already in mid-November, I remind you if you haven't noticed. It's Thursday andArci Bellezza of Milan plays Brook In Dekker accompanied by Stefan Wittich to percussion, preceded by the opening of Nyco Ferrari.
Heading towards Bellezza I think that while the shops are starting to place little lights and set up the very classic ones playlist Christmas, I still have to get used to the fact that winter has arrived. Oh mama how cold it is – or at least that's my perception. This non-winter arrived late but suddenly, from 25 to 5 degrees, leaving us more unprepared than other years. And it's not even that cold but the suddenness of climate change puts a strain on our bodies and our beliefs that everything is fine, it throws us in the face that something is strange. So, like an ostrich or a teddy bear, I can only be doubly happy to take refuge in the warmth of the homely atmosphere of Arci Bellezza. And it really feels like looking at the living room at home while we wait for the concert to open. Wait, have there always been carpets on the floor?! Is it possible that I've come here a thousand times and never noticed them?!
And suddenly theopening act, Nyco Ferrariwith Marco Campanale And Davide Ballanti drums (synthesizer) and guitar respectively. Nycojust looking at him starts to melt us, he seems to carry within himself a piece of the Mediterranean, bare feet and microphone in hand, he conquers us. He goes beyond warming up the audience because with his voice, his music and energy he keeps us glued to the stage. The ears remain suspended listening to his multi-faceted voice which mixes past and present and varies with the rhythm, he partly screams into the microphone, almost angry, partly he speaks with his persuasive and deep voice and partly he overwhelms us with the tones tall, wait, ah no it's just one singer, not three. “Thanks Nyco” for having opened the concert, the audience declares it with warm applause. He also says it Dekker who confesses that he is worried about not being able to match the same energy brought to the stage by Nyco that with Lollipop, that's how I'm made And Sunflower he made us sing and jump with him.
Blue lights, white socks with green stripes, face strictly hidden by the straw hat, guitar and obviously Wittich on percussion. It takes little to adapt to the change of pace and genre, we went from electronic indie pop to indie folk in just a few minutes. While Nyco had pushed us out of the thought streams of a blue Thursday evening, with Dekker we are back inside the room at home.
The opening song, Popped The Topfirst single from Dekker's penultimate album, Future Ghosts (of the tour of the same name), as the author declared, is a praise to talking to oneself. And in fact it is Dekker's voice that incites us and therefore also incites us to “break our fall”.
In any case, it's done now. The trip has begun. We slipped again”in our room”. For the first few songs, we travel guided by the orderly melody of the music, lulled by Dekker's sweet voice. Until he himself breaks the flow. With I Think You Knowa song with a little more notes grooveLet's go back to the present. The harsh truth that we don't want to admit, that cold shower when they put our backs against the wall, we know why we want to escape, take refuge in a safe place. Or we fight melancholy, distracting ourselves with the endless commitments of the metropolis, moving “back and forth”without stopping, until someone exposes us.
And then, after having pulled a series of internal crosswords out of our hearts, Dekker he decides, still hiding his face under his hat, so much so that I received messages on IG from people asking me “but where is the face?!”, with his tender dad style, to give us the story of the origin of the song Future Ghosts, single and album released in 2024: he wrote it under the great influence of his daughter.
In fact, she confesses to us, it was she who at a certain point, while they were playing, asked him an uncomfortable question, one of those questions that put parents in difficulty.
He asked him: “Dad, what happens after death?”
Dekker, not knowing how to answer, immediately turned the question back on her (he admits with a sly smile): “What do you think happens?” This unleashed the little girl's inventiveness: “ASo dad, when you die I'll put your ghost in a robot”. “Love, why in a robot, so that we will always be close?” asks the father. “No” replies the little girl, with that innocent cruelty of children “because then you can wash your dirty clothes.” With a laugh from the audience, touched by the sharing of this intimate and comical story, the music started again, the captivating stories about ghosts, the robots that do the washing machine and everything that BrookIn sings and plays to us from the single written with her daughter.
Change guitar, change album, let's go back to 2020 with Tathered, Wrapped Around from the album Slow Reveal. We accompany the music with our hands, we melt in the hypnotic rhythm of the drums.
Throughout the concert Dekker it lulls us giving us permission to be depressed, sad, ourselves. It normalizes melancholy, giving us pieces of its intimacy, of its history. Listening to the words of the songs, we can imagine pieces of his daily life, games with his daughter, disturbing thoughts, arguments, laughter, but also conversations with his wife, with whom he began his career as a musician, with whom together – history teaches – in 2003 they founded i Rue Royaleand I can't stop thinking about the fact that they said they started writing music as therapy.
In a certain sense this is also perceived in his solo music, which began in 2019. Dekker, as he has stated several times, writes first of all for himself and then, he hopes that his music can resonate in the hearts of the people who listen to him , and maybe heal some of their wounds. Even though he is enjoying success, his 2022 single Maybe October he has more than 34 million views on spotify, it seems that he would compose and play even if no one was listening or watching what he does.
We are happy with his decision to share his art, we savored it with all possible senses. He made us dance, sing, clap in time, and get emotional, all in a calm and sweet way. We found ourselves laughing, dancing and hiding our wet eyes several times, despite this, until the last piece in the set list, Maybe October, I had the feeling that he was restraining himself, that there was a passion that was struggling to come out into the open.
A feeling confirmed by Dekker himself when he returned to the stage for a highly acclaimed encore, which practically became a second concert. Returning to the stage after the usual short break, Dekkerfirst alone and then accompanied by Wittich, he finally let himself go and played with it Let's Pretend, and gave us an explosive charge, thanks to the high tones of A Better way (among other things, one of my favourites) in which he definitively let himself go, making speakers, hearts and walls vibrate. Well Dekker, thanks again and keep it up.
DEKKER – The setlist of the Milan concert
Popped The Top
The Love
I Think You Know
The Door
Back and Forth
Future Ghosts
Tethered, Wrapped Around
Hero Myth
Are we left to help ourselves
This Here Island
I Know, I Know
Too Young To Die
Small Wins
Maybe October
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
