Ligabue, Apollo Club, Milan – Live Report :: Ondarock

He ran the year 1995. After a “purifier” trip to the United States, Luciano Ligabue returned home and with a new band in tow tried to give a steering to that car that two years earlier, with the release of “survivors and survives”, seemed to have swallowed between the dirty and distorted guitars of the early nineties. Then, over the years, that dark and rough album will be rediscovered and re -evaluated is a whole other story. In that present, now quite far away, Ligabue was experiencing a delicate phase, “transition”, as he himself recalls during the exclusive Milanese event at the Apollo Club of 13 March last.
In reality, the separation from the illegal immigrants and the historic producer, Angelo Carrara, the warm response of the public and criticism to the exit of “survivors and survival” and the showy drop in presences at the concerts of the famous Neverending Tour will prove, in hindsight, the fuel that two years later would have restarted that car in cream.

Today, thirty years later, in the first part of the event at the APollo Club – exclusively dedicated to the press – Ligabue announces a gigantic exit: six hours of music, edited and unpublished, to celebrate the anniversary of a record to which, he admits without turns of words, “he owes a lot” and often rethink “with a sense of tenderness and a pinch of admiration” for what Ligabue embarked in 1995 and an attitude that over time have understoodly failed.
With the gang, Ligabue says on the small stage of the Milanese club, he chose to marry a sound Timeless, “classic, but never fashion” and it is difficult to blame him. “Happy birthday Elvis” is like a suit with a white shirt and tie and for this reason in ten years it will sound exactly as it sounds now and that is how it sounded thirty years ago.

One of the novelties that brings with it this thirtieth anniversary is to be able to listen to the fourteen songs of the historic album in a new version, more “naked”, without even the presence of bass and drums, with the intent – specified precisely by Ligabue during the meeting – to approach as much as possible to the ancestral form of those fourteen songs, which were all written with an acoustic guitar resting on the legs.
Once the press conference has ended, the Apollo Club has also opened its doors to a hundred members of the historic Fanclub, the Bar Mario. About an hour after the conference, in fact, Ligabue rose again on stage to give the very small Milanese public a preview of the acoustic reinterpretation that will be released on April 18, offering eight tracks on fourteen. The atmosphere, intimate and harvesting, gave the event the characteristics of a family party, rather than a promotion meeting or a concert for the fans. In fact, two anniversaries are celebrated – the birthday of Ligabue and the anniversary of his fifth album – does not seem to be a simple coincidence at all.

With Mel Previte (acoustic guitar and sax) on his left, Poggipollini (classical guitar and acoustic guitar) on his right and Fornciari (keyboards) behind him, Ligabue fished from the classics, how “do you have a moment God?”, “Some nights” and “light”, but it has also ventured into less beaten soils, as “the sky is empty or the sky is full” Open the set – and “The strength of the band”, rarely performed live during his career.
The execution of “light” is particularly suggestive, with the solo of the saxophone of Mel Previte at the end, as if to greet with a warm embrace the few elected assiepted in front of the Emilian singer -songwriter.

A gift that Ligabue made (and has made itself) on the day of his sixty -fifth birthday – with the family and Barbacci, producer of the 1995 album – turning his gaze to when he was thirty -five years old and everything seemed obvious, natural, probably even simpler, more fascinating, more “lighter”.

(Photo by Alessandro Bremec)