Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Location: Pordenone / Deposito Giordani / Italy
Concert date: January 26, 2013
Attendance: 800
Ticket price: €18.00 / €22.00
Almost exactly a year after part of the Rockline crew caught the legendary Le Orme and Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso in Pordenone on March 24, 2012, the ‘Footprints’ (Le Orme) were back at the same venue, this time alongside New Trolls, another cult band from the golden age of Italian progressive rock. Even though none of these Italian prog heavyweights have had any major commercial success since the late seventies, they’re still hugely popular back home among all lovers of good music, and a few of them, mostly through new studio releases, even manage to hit the high artistic standards of the old days (Le Orme and New Trolls among them). So it was no surprise that the hall was almost completely packed, although a few fewer people showed up than last year, when Le Orme shared the bill with the equally beloved Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso.
First to treat us with their stage presence were the Venetians Le Orme, who are once again a trio made up of the only original member, drummer Michi Dei Rossi, keyboard genius Michele Bon and bassist/vocalist Fabio Trentini. The legendary singer Jimmy Spitaleri has meanwhile gone back to his band Metamorfosi, and guitar virtuoso William Dotto was no longer on stage either. Both were guest members on last year’s tour supporting the latest Le Orme album »La Via Della Seta« (2011), a concept masterpiece about Marco Polo’s travels. With their presence they significantly widened, and in places even improved, the overall sonic collage, but the legendary band is now back to being a trio. Spitaleri is one of the best Italian rock singers and it’s a shame he didn’t extend his collaboration, but even without a proper singer and guitarist Le Orme are still a fantastic band. Besides, they spent most of their career as a trio anyway. In addition to his inspiring work on bass and acoustic guitar, Trentini holds his own quite decently in the vocal role too. Michele Bon is right now one of the best Italian keyboardists, the ideal successor to original keyboardist Tony Pagliuca, and it wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to call him the Italian answer to Keith Emerson. Bon was like an octopus, constantly hopping between the hammond organ, mini moog, electric piano and guitar synthesizer, and he sent waves of excitement through all the prog connoisseurs in the crowd as if it were nothing.
The band’s chief and elder statesman Dei Rossi, still one of the finest drummers on the Italian prog rock scene, kept busy besides his abundance of passionate rhythmic finesse by keeping the mood in the hall up, mostly with all sorts of joking quips between songs. Le Orme opened their set with the instrumental »L’Alba Di Eurasia« and »Il Romanzo di Alessandro«, the opening tracks of the aforementioned album »La Via Della Setta«. No surprise there, since it’s a truly excellent album, fully comparable with their best work from the seventies. Considering that this year marks 40 years since the release of Le Orme’s masterpiece »Felona e Sorona« (1973), their most treasured studio achievement, it was to be expected that most of the setlist would be built around songs from this classic of Italian progressive rock. And that’s just what happened, so we got to enjoy the sounds of timeless »Felona e Sorona« evergreens such as »Sospensi nell ‘incredibile« »Felona«, »Sorona«, »L’Equlibrio« and »Ritorno al nulla«. Of course, alongside unforgettable classics like »La porta chiusa« and »Sguardo verso Il Cielo«, their biggest hit »Gioco di Bimba«, which brought them international fame in 1972, was not missing from the evening either. Le Orme once again lived up to their long-standing reputation as one of the best Italian live bands ever and, over the hour and a half or so that their set lasted, sent us into complete ecstasy on the wings of their symphonic prog epics, with a heaping helping of keyboard virtuosity courtesy of the incredible Bon.
New Trolls, the next legendary band from the golden age of Italian prog rock to play that night, thus faced a pretty tough task: keeping up, or even topping, the unique atmosphere that had settled over the hall after their peers’ set. It should be mentioned that, for legal reasons involving former members, New Trolls performed under the name La Storia New Trolls, which is sad in its own way, since this has been happening to them practically their whole career, ever since they first (temporarily) broke up in 1972. As a result, there are currently two feuding versions of this legendary band. New Trolls always swore by a grand orchestral sound, which they used to shape their distinctive ‘baroque rock’. In the past they worked with a symphony orchestra several times, but that night bringing an orchestra on stage was obviously out of the question. So the band’s unofficial chief, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, keyboardist and flutist Vittorio De Scalzi, who was in such incredible spirits that he was practically bouncing off the walls on stage, stood in for the entire orchestra.
Keeping him company from the original New Trolls lineup was the no less legendary Nico Di Palo, once one of the best Italian guitarists ever, whom many compared to Jimi Hendrix in the late sixties and early seventies. After a tragic car accident, half of Di Palo’s body is paralyzed, so the poor guy has trouble walking and can no longer play guitar, which is why he now plays keyboards with one hand and acts as an additional singer. And despite the cruel blow that robbed him of playing his favorite instrument, he’s damn effective at it! In 1971 New Trolls became great innovators when they discovered symphonic prog rock in the baroque manner and started creating grand, solemn orchestral arrangements, which is what they’re still most admired for today. Their greatest achievement is still »Concerto Grosso N. 1« (1971), which, as expected, they played almost in full that night, delighting us in the best possible way. There were also pieces from »Concerto Grosso N. 2« (1976) and »Concerto Grosso: The Seven Seasons« (2007); both albums are stylistic follow-ups to their greatest masterpiece, though they’re nowhere near as popular or admired. In an evening of pure perfection, which continued after Le Orme’s set through the whole La Storia New Trolls performance, it’s hard to single out any one song, but the fantastic version of the evergreen »Shadows (per Jimi Hendrix)«, dedicated to the legendary guitarist, was still ringing in our ears long after the show ended.
Half joking, half serious, Di Palo at one point in the evening declared his old friend and occasional rival to be none other than Giussepe Garibaldi, which Scalzi took as a compliment, since being called Italy’s greatest folk hero even today is no small thing. At the same time, he poked fun at himself too, quickly adding that he had left the military flag at home, so he brought a flute tonight instead. The seasoned, white-bearded multi-instrumentalist, who looks a bit like Professor Alonsius Alonisis, the vampire hunter from Alan Ford, plays flute just as well as keyboards and rhythm guitar, and he’s also an excellent singer who, unlike most Italian prog rock singers, sings quite decent English, almost without the often distracting accent. New Trolls do have quite a few songs in English, but Italian lyrics still won out by a slight margin that night.
The contribution of the rest of the band must not go unmentioned either. Besides bassist Francesco Bella and drummer Giorgio Bella, the standout was the excellent guitarist/vocalist Andrea Maddalone. And those magical vocal harmonies, another New Trolls trademark, were sung by all the members of the band. Riding on De Scalzi’s untamable energy, La Storia New Trolls even ended up overshadowing the excellent Le Orme.
To close the show, members of both bands joined forces on stage and played selected classics from their shared history such as »Adagio«, »Giocco Di Bimba«, »Una Miniera« and Sguardo verso Il Cielo«, and the hall erupted once more among the thrilled ‘proglovers’. We were especially blown away by the virtuoso duel between Bon on guitar synthesizer and Maddalone on electric guitar. It’s also become something of a tradition that whenever peers and old friends from the Italian prog rock scene share a stage, they reward their loyal fans with a joint performance. Hats off to Scalzi and Di Palo for reviving old musical bonds and together creating what you could call the ideal live incarnation of New Trolls, even if they aren’t allowed to perform under their real name. The same thanks for a splendid show go to all the members of Le Orme, led by the indestructible Dei Rossi, one of the musicians most responsible for keeping the Italian progressive rock scene alive and still evolving in ever-new guises and shades.
It’s always pure pleasure and a balm for body and soul to catch a show by legends of Italian progressive rock who, even in their golden years, are still livelier on stage than plenty of much younger, musically comparable bands. On top of that, their distinctly Mediterranean take on prog always carries an incredible ambient warmth, something so-called ‘musical successors’ from the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian worlds often lack these days, so you almost always leave their gigs with a wonderful sense of inner fulfillment.
Setlist
LA STORIA NEW TROLLS:
1. Montecalvo
2. Quelli Come Noi
3. Visioni
4. La Prima Goccia Bagna Il Viso
5. Allegro
6. Barock N’ Roll
7. Shadows
8. Vivace
9. Le Roi Soleil
10. Il Treno
—encore—
11. Adagio
12. Giocco Di Bimba
13. Una Miniera
14. Sguardo Verso Il Ciello
Photo Gallery
