Article by Nick Matteucci
“What a horrible life it would be if one were a fan of Raveonettes and suffered from epileptic seizures, perhaps even asthma”. This is just one of the scattered considerations that can be made after the concert that the Danish band held at Monksa club with a low ceiling and where the scenic effect was achieved to perfection. Let's be clear, the writer is a lover of neo-psychedelia, which from a certain point in the 2000s dilated like pupils on acid in the underground scene and of which the band on stage in Rome (the only Italian date) was definitely among the main exponents at a European level.
On the other hand, however, I also think that perhaps a listener not accustomed to this sound and the live approach that derives from it could easily say after a quarter of an hour of concert things like “but you are crazy, how can you stay in here?”.
The point of the niche is this, it definitely won't appeal to everyone, but if you like it you will love it. The concert of Raveonettes it doesn't make compromises, it's choosing to be overwhelmed by waves of sounds and hypnotized by the lights. The Danish band speaks very little, but plays a lot and loudly. The concept of their sound is summarized in the minimal but very effective guise they choose to have on stage, a harmonious hybrid between cold and heat, darkness and flashes.
The room is flooded with smoke, dry ice obviously, there is so much of it that you don't even need to go and drink. Sune Rose Wagner, Sharin Foo and their drummer Jacob Hoyer they play by heart, so they can do it even in the dark and very often do. Moments alternate in which you can barely see the silhouettes of the musicians and the people next to you in the audience in the softer phases of the songs, which however are always a prelude to the storm, when the waves of sound and stroboscopic lights arrive from the stage and flood the fluctuating and jumping audience.
The band's shoegaze influences are heard loud and clear, together with 60's echoes from Summer Of Love, creating that alienating mood that the angelic voice of Sharin Foo helps maintain between the human and the otherworldly at the same time. This play between darkness, light and shadow, favored by the lysergic sound and the messianic presence of the blonde singer, who metaphysically stands among the clouds like a priestess of Midsommarfavors the opening of a portal to another dimension, where real perception turns into a labile concept.
So much so that when the Raveonettes decide to pay homage to the Velvet Underground executing Venus in Furs I distinctly hear someone say “We are in New York in 1967 and this is Nico” and I believe it.
It will not be the only tribute made during the evening, particularly poignant and noteworthy in fact is also the cover of I Wanna Be Adored of the Stone Roses, to pay homage Gary “Mani” Mounfieldwho died last month.
Covers have long been a vice that always brings great joy, with a very recognizable trademark as if they were the New Wave of psych-gaze. The repertoire of the Scandinavians, however, is not limited to this, with a twenty-year career behind them they have their “classics” to show off for the joy of the onlookers, from Love In A Trashcan And Red Tan taken from Pretty In Black (2005) to Aly, Walk With Me, Hallucinations and of course Dead Soundextracted from the next Lust Lust Lust (2007) which marked the consecration of the band. There is also no shortage of more recent songs from the latest studio effort Pe'Ahi II, by which they were performed Blackest, Killer and Speed itherefore no concert opener Strangecloser to the end of the setlist.
The performance overall was uniform and compact, with nuances within it that probably only those who are true admirers of the genre can grasp, certainly an experience not for everyone, but if in doubt, definitely worth trying.
THE RAVEONETTES – The live lineup in Rome
Blackest
Killer
Speed
That Great Love Sound
Red Tan
Sleepwalking
Love in a Trashcan
You Say You Lie
Attack of the Ghost Riders
Veronica Fever
My Tornado
Hallucinations
Dead Sound
Endless Sleeper
Sisters
Strange
Venus in Furs (The Velvet Underground cover)
Aly, Walk With Me
Encore:
The Christmas Song
Last Dance
I Wanna Be Adored (The Stone Roses cover)
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
