Article by Marzia Picciano | Photo by Luca Moschini (Hiroshima Mon Amour)
Disclaimer, due: yes, it is yet another article that I dedicate to Paolo Benvegnù. But this time it's different.
The piece I was missing, after interviewing twice Paolo Benvegnùupon the release of his latest album of unreleased songs, It's useless to talk about love, and then a few months ago, for the re-edition for the twentieth anniversary of Very Small Fragile Films, I admit, it was seeing it live. An opportunity finally arose MilanNovember 21st, for the date of Santeria Tuscany 31 of the anniversary of Piccoli Fragilissimi Film – Reloaded. In an authentic version, Paolo and the band, and from time to time, city by city, guests who collaborated with him on this year's re-edition. For the Milanese date, a Tooth perfectly blended in the dense intensity of the live performance, in an evening of water and snow, while an internal storm was unleashed on stage.
Because if I have at least learned to know Paolo Benvegnù more on these occasions of discussion, with rivers of words that I find myself hearing from him every time, never tired of the countless identical questions that will be asked of him, always ready to offer a new nuance , a new perception, is that of the scope of this infinite scope of metaphysical thoughts, we, who in the end are aimed at multiplying everything (cit.), do not emerge completely alive. Handle with care, because it is overwhelming. A bit like his poetic prose, because the one he uses to sing, his lyrics, are poetic yes, but they are also a very long speech, what he does, what we do in our apparent silences, when we are caught up in anything but. A river of words in fact, which knows little about the rules of the perfect refrain – but is this why we like them so much in the end? That we're still here listening to the live performance of a record from ten years ago, exactly as per the record's set list?
Of this great discourse to ourselves, would we ever be ready to make it a shared moment that is not a solitary walk with music blasting in our ears, a perfect thought of catharsis, a my fault all ours and above all very secret? What mad, masochistic lambs and stupid wolves we are. Of course yes – obviously not everyone, there are also those who have a happy and normal life, who don't need to hurt themselves, but those people aren't us, aspiring toxic characters from any story à la Sally Rooneyus in Santeria Thursday evening or anyone else who comes close to experiencing such a concept or concert, wherever Benvegnu decides to play.
Because the only thing I can tell you is: go and see it, friends of masochism but also happy people. Go and see him live while you can Small Fragile Films. Maybe you didn't like the latest albums, maybe it's not your genre, but I tell you: give yourself a free lesson on how to empathize with us, a world of chronic or hypersensitive misfits who hide behind poetic ambitions or bitter sarcasm. We, the circles in the water forced to put aside our days spent in bed looking for distractions so as not to look inside ourselves, by the resolute, to take action, do something.
Nothing is missing, the band, Paolo in uniform and red tie, the employee or the master of ceremonies of this great meeting of people to whom this album has given something, deeply marked, or of those like me who found themselves rediscovering it after having met Benvegnù, and therefore live, shot in the face like compressed air, to use a phrase that I find ideal for this experience. I was saying, even Tooth abandons his irony, and how he walks on the serious, dense stage to accompany Benvegnù on When She Passes By and duet with him on Even if I don't want to. There is an intensity of people, voices, sounds, this concert. I have rarely felt such intensity. Circles In The Water it is pure free sharing of malaise, joyful in its effort to get out of it. Even at the end that Collini monologue which is nothing else Ariosto Island it seems to perfectly fit the spirit of a record from ten years ago. Is Benvegnù still him? Or is it that we are faced with an album that has actually left its mark a bit?
Allow me to bring another theory. In a world of hermeticisms or subtexts, or worse, an abuse of Sorrento's ready answers that always leave us with the doubt of not having really grasped (as well as always making us feel a little stupid if we don't grasp everything) the extreme prose of Benvegnù , these Small Fragile Films that literally invade our synapses instead saying everything, detailing it as much as possible, well, it's a salvation.
We desperately need someone to tell us the story. The one where we can stay in bed, but still manage to look inside ourselves. Not to run away again, to force ourselves to work, to put our heads into ideas, battles, words and poems that are not ours – someone or something that allows us to be weak in a vertical sea without feeling absolute shame. And maybe always leave us with a streak of irony, because that always saves too.
Could these be the famous multitudes that Paul always talks about, that strange force that allows us to come together and make things happen, in our diversity and complexity? How can we get together and sing this blessed album from beginning to end, and remember that period that was a little strange, a little gray but which is so irremediably part of us? Well then you understand. Run and see it and don't miss it.
Paolo Benvegnu – The setlist of the Milan concert
Journalism
The Vertical Sea
You and me
The Feeling of Things
Flames
I burn
Only For You
The Minimal Joys
Suggestable
What are clouds
When She Passes (with Tooth)
Even if I don't want to (with Tooth)
Circles in the Water (with Tooth)
Catherine
You prefer silences
Ariosto Island
It's just a dream
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
