Article by Simona Ventrella Photo by Giorgia De Dato
On a cold and almost rainy Sunday in November, the Magazzini Generali in Milan transformed into an enormous post-industrial echo chamber, where dazzling lights and smoky atmospheres set the stage for a high-intensity evening. In this suspended space, i Nation of Language they have intertwined enveloping synths, restless beats and a metropolitan romanticism that seems carved in neon. The Brooklyn band, a young reference of the new dark wave and synth pop wave, is back on tour and in Italy with its elegant and tormented magnetism, confirming itself as one of the most inspired and sinuous presences of contemporary electronics.
The trio, made up of Ian Devaney, Aidan Noell and Alex MacKay, opened the concert with a contained but ready to explode energy. The first songs immediately enveloped the audience in a synthetic embrace, between waves of keyboards and deep bass. like a slow emotional awakening. A crescendo of liquid synths and synthetic drums that immediately made the nostalgic, futuristic, irresistibly human tone clear. Even the audience, collected but full of expectations, breathed that silent excitement that precedes the moments that count.
Devaney, with his calm yet emotionally charged voice, was able to effortlessly move from more reflective passages to melodic explosions, making every word vibrate. The synths acted like futuristic strings, sometimes soft, other times boxy, but always perfectly orchestrated. An evident chemistry emerged between the members: while maintaining a balance between rigor and freedom of expression.
The setlist retraced the entire discography of the band, creating a single narrative thread between the different songs. The beginning with “Spare Me the Decision”, was a moment of bittersweet suspension, with that refrain that seems born to resonate in the speakers of an old car parked under a street lamp at three in the morning. With “Solo Obsession” and “Rush & Fever” the rhythms became tighter and the electronic groove began to pulsate, dragging the room, while the frontman's charismatic voice oscillates naturally between moments of intimacy and sudden bursts of energyto. Even the arrival of “The Gray Commute” lights up the room like a neon that suddenly sizzles: the bass is incisive and vibrant, while the voice seems to float between melancholy and sharp lucidity. The audience, here, abandons its initial caution and begins to move as a single rhythmic creature.
The central part of the set is a return to the songs that have built their cult. “Wounds of Love” in which the band shows off all its alchemy, between pulsating bass and synths that seem to travel on luminous rails, but it is with “Across That Fine Line”, perhaps one of the most explosive moments of the evening, which definitely lights up the Milanese audience. Its synth lines, shiny as metal, are a counterpoint to a beat that pushes forward, dragging everyone into an electro-romantic vortex. The live performance is constructed with obsessive care, lights that do not steal the scene but sculpt it, a clean and layered sound in which each melody finds its space. The frontman, with his measured but magnetic presence, leads without imposing himself, letting the fragile, precise, splendid sound textures carry the audience along.
The ending is a slow but inexorable crescendo. And when it arrives “The Wall & I” as a closing, the evening takes on the flavor of a farewell that doesn't really want to be a farewell: a long emotional coda that vibrates in the air even after the last chord. The concert of Nation of Language it was a small journey between past and future in which nostalgia does not weigh and current events burn. A night in which Milan allowed itself to be seduced by a synthpop that doesn't wink, but hits straight, precise, magnetic. The evening highlighted the growth and artistic maturity of the band, capable of combining vintage synthesis
Click here to see photos of Nation of Language in Milan or browse the gallery below
NATION OF LANGUAGE – the lineup of the Milan concert
Spare Me The Decision
Only Obsession
Ruch & Fever
I'm Not Ready for The Change
Under The Water
On Division St
September Again
This Fractured Mind
In Another Life
The Gray Commute
Wounds Of Love
Across That Fine line
Inept Apollo
In Your Head
Encore
Stumbling Still
Weak In Your Light
The Wall & I
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
