Article by Umberto Scaramozzino | Photo of Davide Merli
Two years ago we rejoiced for the unexpected arrival at home of the Slam dunkthe British festival which has now become an beloved brand for the world of alternative music. Last year we complained, confused for the failure to confirm the Italian edition despite the great success of the first edition. This year we still exulted, for the return that avoids the idea that it was an isolated case, an experiment as an end in itself.
The lineup is rich, varied, valuable again. The stages are two again, but this time the city and reason change: the second edition of the Slam Dunk Italy is al Kozel Carroponte of Sesto San Giovanni, in the province of Milan. Although the Romagna bathing setting of Bellaria-Igea Marina who in 2023 had made “good the first” to thousands of people, the Venue of Sesto San Giovanni turns out to be one of the most congenial for an event of this dimension and everything seems to be working on a wonderful, has been lost.
The inauguration of both stages is entrusted to Italian bands, respectively the Hopsydian on internship 1 and the Stain The Canvas On internship 2
Neck Deep & Landmvrks – Humility and Baguettate on the teeth
It does not happen every day to see such a funny band, talented and aware face the stage with so much humility. It is not a facade: i Neck Deep They earn with a smile and with great professionalism every single instant of those forty minutes spent on the first stage of the Slam Dunk, despite deserving a slightly higher position in the program billboard. They are practically the first international band that performs and almost have the flavor of the proverbial “Dulcis in Fundo”, but the choice of the organizers is all in all also strategic. Why? Because in this way all the ticket owners present themselves at the gates in the early afternoon and the carroponte, instead of filling themselves with waves, is already dignity alive from the early bars. And the Neck Deep concert is practically perfect.
They do not win the best band prize of the day, just because there are in lineup Landmvrks. With all the necessary excuses of the case for the title of the chapter, it must be said and reiterated that in recent years France has proved to be a prolific forge of exceptional bands, with a sensational shooting. Among these, the Landmvrks even manage to stand out, well aware of being at the beginning of a path that appears increasingly ineluctable. Authentic furies.
The ATARIS & The Used – Nostalgia roglia
The fresh chapter of the day closes and the melancholy one is inaugurated. There is something in Attaris of unusually elusive. A sort of engineering of musical nostalgia, which for a strange oxymoron seems also totally involuntary. Easier to hear it, than to describe it. But when the American pop punk band is on stage it is as if the hands started their swirling anti -eral dance, canceling a couple of decades. In part this chronological inversion is due to the total record freezing, which traces the latest album of unpublished ATARIS (“Welcome The Night”) to the distant 2007. In part they are the themes, sounds and images that accompany this sweet-dowry pop punk that never tired. Then comes the perfect cover of Don Henley's “The Boys of Summer” which is also the most successful single from Atis and the weather stops being even relative: it simply stops being.
Nostalgia still remains a bit of the carroponte: enough to give the public of the Slam Dunk the highly anticipated performance of the The Used. That it is not known why, but despite being fully active along the entire career, they make many millennials say that this is a “old old” thing, ignoring for a moment that there are still those who follow the AC/DC on tour. Of course, they celebrate a quarter of a century of career and still do it in the name of a label that – unlike many colleagues – are held tight, with pride. “We have been an Emo band for twenty -five years“, He says Bert McCraken Which seems to call a generation of broken hearts and disoriented spirits. And the public replies, perhaps making the most exciting segment of the day.
Zebrahead & New Found Glory – Punk entertainment
Nobody really, nobody, entertains like the Zebrahead live. They are the perfect band to enjoy a summer concert made of pogo, crowd surfing and Sing-Along without large inhibitors.
On stage they show off the counter of a very equipped bar so as not to leave the musicians dry, while a couple of inflatable boats materialize on the stage to make browsing on the audience literal and to sign various new contracts with what will be the new patrons of the next dates of the Zebrahead headliners.
They do not need new fans instead i New Found Glorywhich while remaining far from our stages for over eleven years, when they come back they find a hard core of fans who can't wait to embrace them. They too are masters of punk entertainment, perhaps only slightly more composed and repetitive than that of the much more crazy colleagues who precede them, but no less memorable.
Caskets & A Day to Remember – the headliners who don't disappoint
Despite being a band with still much to demonstrate, i Caskets They take the headliner slot of internship 2 with great personality. Perhaps they suffer more than all the sound limits of the second stage, in some totally inadequate situations-especially if the memory of the Beky Bay of Bellaria-Igea Marina who had hosted the last edition and which every year welcomes the Bay Fest. Not bad: the caskets do their own, with a shot that has very few rivals in the day and a scenic presence that is anything but taken for granted for an active band for a handful of years.
Then it's up to the name that alone would justify the entire festival and which basically takes charge of most of the turnout: the A Day to Remember. Italian fans deserve this headliner show that for too long has been denied him, for the most disparate reasons. And the band led by Jeremy McKinnon It does not disappoint. It always seems that they are twenty on stage, although the band's sound is compact as if to play it was a single great multifaceted instrument. To accompany there are as usual smoke, flames, confetti and rolls of toilet paper that fly from one part of the carroponte to the other. There is all the typical repertoire of the party to remember of the American combos, which shows off the excellent grafts of the new songs and everything is played with the hits of the past who made them one of the most successful bands in the history of metalcore.
Finally, let's try to answer the initial question: but such a festival, we deserve it? Probably not, since it is enough to remove a pair of large -caliber headliners to significantly make the numbers deflate and resize the clamor that instead would have rightly had to surround this precious second opportunity to host a brand like Slam dunk. Perhaps we continue to take for granted the alternative music of quality and to think stupidly that the festivals must be only diluted or checked Bazaar reviews with music a lot in the kilo. Meanwhile, we cross our fingers and hope to be able to see at least a third edition. Come back soon, slam dunk! We already miss you.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
