Fake music created on the table, filled lips and novels written by artificial intelligence; even the abolition of excise duties on petrol, the million jobs and the happiness they promised us do not exist. So, in a historical moment in which the whole world is fake, there is nothing truer than the cracked version of something. We don't even have faith anymore so we might as well create our own personal mysticism, a liturgy to survive in our poor homeland.
I think it's the first time that this publication has spoken well of a cover band, that mysterious object that social pages like Giovanni all'heavy make fun of. This is not the case. First of all: Supersonic Tribute Band, since 1995, is not a cover band but a cult, as are Oasis. At least it is for millennials like me, those who tried to queue online to get a Wembley ticket and didn't succeed and above all for those who couldn't afford to donate an average Italian monthly salary to the concert of a lifetime. But I say, can we give up the dream? Like hell! And then we're good at making do.
Photo: Ray Banhoff for Rolling Stone Italia
I repeat this to myself while driving while I miss all the exits of the ring road in the direction of Magliana Vecchia: Casal del Marmo, Boccea, Montespaccato. Apparently The Walking Dead. I land in a total non-place where the vegetation is eating the concrete and the streets are bombed: sudden vertical concrete walls block the landslide of the hills and the huge words and a few bands of some football curve incite the ultras to make a mess. Pasolini in the car with me shakes his head… When at the Ibis they ask me for six euros for the tourist tax I ask if they are serious. They laugh at it too. Too much Rome. But it's not Rome here, my friend will tell me hours later, it's there ggungla. Between Ciampino and Magliana it seems like a story by Aurelio Picca, the barmaid roars, a dog that looks like a coyote cuts in front of a three-wheeler and melons fall off, the plaster sheds crusts, and yet there is an air of life. Middle Eastern and Mediterranean women at the same time, you don't understand if they look at you curiously or don't even see you, leopard miniskirts and males (no alpha, more) with two arms that weigh as much as me populate the area. One word too many here and they will corral you, unlike the Maranza in Milan.
And I drove three and a half hours to come to the concert with my friend: Luca. That we have been friends precisely because of Oasis, for twenty years. I'm not the only one, among the audience I will meet a peer of mine from Umbria up to 18 year old kids, all with the original 65 euro t-shirt, the glasses that Liam had in 2008, etc. As with the real Liam, teenagers are the new target of this nostalgia phenomenon. And the band tells me that it's normal, that there are those who go to see them in other regions.
Photo: Ray Banhoff for Rolling Stone Italia
The place is basically an American pub: you eat burgers and there's a nice stage. I wonder if the owners know what awaits them. It's been about two years since one of the most important Italian underground musicians, one of those who left his mark, someone you would never expect, sent me videos of an Italian Liam Gallagher. It's better than the English ones. We are both huge Oasis fans. From the first moment I noticed the level of perfectionism of this Liam, who now manages to tune his voice exactly like the Liam of the 2025 tour, suggesting a character study so precise as to border on perfectionism.
But the story is crazy. Cristian Colagiovanni and Massimiliano Colagiovanni, aka Liam and Noel, are brothers, for real. The Instagram bio reads: Real Oasis Experience since 1995, chosen by MTV for the broadcast Total Request Live in 2005. Two brothers, same look, instruments, sound. And their Gem Archer is the third brother too. Three brothers from Scandriglia, near Rieti, are connected to three brothers from Manchester (in reality the third Gallagher brother is Paul, not Gem, but who cares!). «And I was born on December 25th and I had to call it Christmas» (Noel), Massimiliano explains to me smiling. But they weren't always Oasis. Massimiliano studied to be a tenor and performed Gregorian chant at the Pantheon on Sunday mornings. Simone Colagiovanni rejoined the band after five years, I didn't understand why, «he works on some things with the computer» Cristian tells me. The keyboard player was born in 1960, bald and strong, but to go on stage he wears a wig and fake beard, so much so that the brother of Jay Darlington of Oasis wrote to him on Instagram to tell him that he looked the same. To Giancarlo Lombardozzi, understand? From Feretino.
But the hype is high right from the soundcheck. There's a Japanese guy with his wife who strips and wants the photo with Liam, who clearly lends himself. «There's Kawasaki oh», he tells me. I call Liam Liam because he's the closest thing to Liam I've ever seen. He plays, disappears, plays pranks. But then everyone is serious. The concert is the mass.
Photo: Ray Banhoff for Rolling Stone Italia
The ears immediately ask the bill with Noel's '75 Hiwatt and Gem's AC-30. I'm halfway through the volume and they're scary. Gem has four Gibson Firebirds, all like the real Gem. He explains to me that Vero Gem doesn't play one overdrive and then switch to another, it simply adds them together adding saturation to the previous sound. Here is the “wall of sound”. Noel is such a perfectionist that he spent a fortune on a phaser pedal that he only uses for seven seconds on The Swamp Song. This is what it means to truly care about something: you do it well. She doesn't wear a wig to put on makeup, she doesn't have the same ring on her finger to mimic. Their facial features change when they enter character. I'm on my second draft beer on an empty stomach and I'm as excited as I was at the real live show. You understand, it doesn't matter that this is a tribute band, here we practice the ritual, we go beyond. I look at Cristian, so handsome and sincere, who doesn't even eat pasta (“Nun magna mai prima de sonà”, Giancarlo tells me) and I tell him: oh, I'm excited.
I ask Columbiabut Noel explains to me that the setlist is made (by him) and cannot be changed, as the real Noel would say and I immediately respect him. Here we are and in fact the lineup is perfect. At first people sit and the bouncer doesn't let in anyone who doesn't have a booked table but the band immediately pushes and throws them down Hindu Times, Bring it On Down, Married with children, Morning Glory And Cigarettes & Alcohol before he goes out with Luca to smoke. Liam is a powerhouse. Charismatic, he switches from Roman dialect to Mancunian, addressing the audience in strict English. Tambourine on his head, posing statuesque in silence, with the parka bought at the inauguration of Pretty Green in London. He says “Scigarettes” exactly like “shhhiiiiineee”. Luca pops out his eyes and shouts: “Fuck, they're the same!”. The eighteen-year-old Chinese laughs, jumps, dances. Her friends almost cry. But what is it? We are really enjoying it.
Photo: Ray Banhoff for Rolling Stone Italia
When I return Liam is off stage, because as in real Oasis concerts, when Noel sings his brother stands next to him. The great thing about this tribute band is that not only do they have a real Liam, they also have a Noel who is the real Noel. Then maybe I was exhilarated, maybe it's like when you meet someone in a nightclub and the next morning she seems different, but during the ritual we are hypnotized, we no longer see the office, the mother-in-law, the parking fine that has expired, in that moment we are rock and roll stars thanks to these six crazy people. They are spectacular. At that point there are three rows of people jumping and screaming, there are some kids who could be my children and know the songs by heart. On Slide Away And Live Forever we are all very happy. Luca is wearing the Manchester City Brother t-shirt and hugs me for a photo, I'm apparently close to collapse and in the front row the seven-year-old daughter of a friend of the band sings all the songs in English. In English!
The concert also works for a truly prodigious rhythm section. Bruno Visintin is the half-Roman, half-Venetian Alan White who has been playing since he was 4 years old. Roberto Caterina on bass, a metronome. Other than Guigsy. When we are at Champagne Supernova I tell Luca that it's the last one and he just says: too bad.
Photo: Ray Banhoff for Rolling Stone Italia
It ends better than it started, all sweaty and hugging each other. I remember once talking to Liam and asking him what his one fear in life was. He didn't think about it for a moment: «To get old and stop playing with my brothers». From today it's a bit mine too. Even if “you and I are gonna live forever”, outside the ring road and the grace of the gentleman, with the ball distortion. Eternals.
Before the world ends, get your butt off the couch and if you're nearby go and see them, all in places where the navigator can reach them. Next dates: 7 June Magreta Festival in Modena, 20 June Mood Summer Cosenza, 4 July Bolsena Beerock Festival, 18 July Rignano Flaminio (Rome), 25 July Serrone (Frosinone). Waaa!
