Tarantella and Techno; a Year of Live Music in Lockdown Italy

In my last post, I talked about the crisis that many venues across the world are currently facing as a result of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

Italy was the first European country to be stricken by the virus and a strictly-enforced lockdown was introduced on 9^th March that lasted for over three months (a government form was required to leave home and even outdoor exercise was banned at one stage).  Either side of this and the current restrictions we find ourselves experiencing, I have been extremely lucky to still see my fair share of live music in Italia. 

Gigs have been a very different proposition since the pandemic but hats off to the many venues, promoters and artists who have been trying their best to creatively stage fresh and interesting shows, in far from ideal circumstances. 

Below is a rundown of some of the weird and wonderful gigs I’ve experienced over this past year, plus links to how you can find out more about the artists and venues in question. 

Edda – Officina Degli Esordi, Bari – 18^th January

My first gig after moving to Bari. Formerly the frontman of Milan’s Ritmo Tribale, Edda is the reformed bad boy of Italian post-punk.  Having overcome a serious drug addiction, Edda now makes emotive electro-tinged power pop, typified by ‘E Se’ and ‘Signora’.  From what I could gather in-between songs, he likes to tell a good story too. 

Listen to: Edda – ‘E Se’

Dardust – TPO, Bologna – 22^nd February

Let’s start with the positives.  TPO is a fantastic venue in the North West of Bologna – a converted industrial building that’s now a cracking multi-purpose arts space.  Props to the venue for having reusable beer cups too. Now imagine an Italian Calvin Harris with a pencil moustache and you’re halfway there with our friend Dardust.  An Italian producer from the Marche region, he’s clearly a talented chap and the crowd lapped up his live show.  However, at one stage he had a visual of marching demonic-looking bagpipers on the big screen behind him for an entire song.  Genuinely terrifying. 

Find out more: TPO (Teatro Polivalente Occupato), Bologna

Listen to: Dardust – ‘The Wolf’

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Sunday night jazz jam – Binario69, Bologna – 23^rd February 

Bologna was one of the favourite cities I visited in 2020.  I planned to stay for four days and ended up spending seven.  I loved its mixture of history, left-wing politics and vibrant student counterculture.  Binario69 is technically a members-only club for those in the know (I had to sign up and pay a small €10 joining fee – you receive a membership card in return).  Tucked away on a small street behind Bologna Centrale station, it’s a laid-back space where patrons sipped cocktails, played board games and listened to Sunday night afro-jazz performed by local musicians.  Prior to the Covid lockdown, Binario69 hosted live music most nights of the week and is now running a crowdfunding campaign in order to stay open.

Find out more: Binario69 crowdfunding campaign

Francesco Manfredi Quintet – Palazzo Pesce, Mola di Bari –  20^th June

The first gig post-lockdown #1 and held in the sumptuous former family home Palazzo Pesce in Mola di Bari.  After the stringent safety measures upon entry, the concert took place in the sunken garden outside the house with clarinettist Francesco Manfredi and his group paying homage to the songbook of New Orleans’ Sidney Bechet or to quote Manfredi; “the first clarinet player of hot jazz.”  The concert I attended was timed perfectly to coincide with the sunset that evening too.  Blissful.

Listen to: Francesco Manfredi and friends – ‘Si tu vois ma mère’

Elena Matteuci – Diocesan Auditorium Vallisa, Bari – 8^th July 

Classical piano virtuoso Elena Matteuci and young violinist Sebastian Zegame paid homage to ‘La Tarantella’, an ancient form of Italian folk music that originated from the Taranto region of Puglia. The bite of the local Tarantula spider was said to make its victims hysterical – a condition known as Tarantism. It was thought that the victims’ only hope was to be revived through the power of music and dance – hence the creation of La Tarantella. There was also a fitting tribute to Ennio Morricone who passed away two days before the concert and an interpretation of ‘Cinema Paradiso’ as the encore. 

Listen to: Elena Matteuci – ‘Scherzo n.2 op. 14, Clara Wieck-Schumann’

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Strebla – Extreme Music Academy, Bari – 18^th July

Bari’s Extreme Music Academy didn’t have the easiest of starts to life as a new live music venue, opening its doors halfway through the relentlessly tough year which is 2020.  The venue is on the outskirts of the city on the edge of an industrial area by day and red light district by night.  Don’t let its location fool you though as this new venue is a gem – especially if you are partial to metal and punk.  It boasts a large 200-odd capacity live room with a decent soundsystem, an outside courtyard where people hang out between bands and a bar with cocktails named after various metal and rock icons.  “Uno Lemmy e uno Soulfly, per favore”.  I went to the opening night and Bari’s Strebla were the highlight – unusual post-punk / math-rock with staccato time signatures. 

Listen to: Strebla’s Instagram page

Find out more: Extreme Music Academy’s mission statement

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Ellen Allien – Sound Department, Taranto – 8^th August 

Taranto was another city that I unexpectedly took a liking to during the summer – two days soon became one week.  I was surprised to see that Berlin techno legend Ellen Allien was DJing at the Sound Department venue on the Saturday night of my stay.  Sound Department is located out of town near to the naval docks and is built predominantly from old shipping containers.  At 4am in the morning and without warning, the security staff suddenly winched the metal sides of the venue up towards the sky and then removed the roof to convert the club into an open-air arena as the sun came up.  A very cool concept.

Listen to: Ellen Allien – ‘True Romantics’

Game of Sax – Parco Archeologico di Taranto – 10^th August

La Notte di San Lorenzo is a night in August that’s famous in Italy supposedly as a chance to see shooting stars clearly in the night sky.  Taranto’s Parco Archeologico, a modest green space, famous for its ancient Greek remains hosted a midnight concert from local musicians Game of Sax to celebrate the occasion.  The locals loved their rendition of Domenico Modugno’s classic ‘Nel Biu Dipinto Di Blu’ and sang along to every word.  About as different to watching Ellen Allien two nights before as it gets. 

Find out more: Parco Archeologico Delle Mura Greche

The Comet Is Coming – Locus Festival, Locorotondo – 14^th August 

Locus Festival is arguably Puglia’s most established major music festival.  Since its inception in 2005 it has welcomed a wealth of musical greats including the late Gil Scott-Heron, Lauryn Hill, David Byrne and Sly & Robbie. The 2020 event should have been headlined by Little Simz, Paul Weller and The Pixies but Covid unfortunately put paid to that.  However, a smaller, ‘limited edition’ version of the festival was still held in the grounds of Masseria Ferragnano, a fortified farmhouse on the edge of Locorotondo.  Social distancing, temperature checks and directional queueing systems were in operation in full force but it actually worked quite well and still felt like a ‘proper’ festival.  The only difference being that the audience had to remain seated on plastic chairs for the duration of the performance.

I’ve seen The Comet is Coming and the various other projects of their bandleader Shabaka Hutchings a number of times in the UK so had an idea of what to expect.  The boys even learned some rudimentary Italian for the occasion though!  

Listen to: The Comet Is Coming – ‘Summon The Fire’

Find out more: Locus Festival 2021 (excitingly, Devendra Banhart is the first name confirmed for 2021’s festival)

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Domenico Tagliente – Chiesa di San Domenico, Mola di Bari – 20^th August

One of the more unusual live performances I have experienced, Domenico Tagliente took over the huge organ at the Chiesa di San Domenico in Mola di Bari and re-interpreted Giorgio Moroder’s score of Fritz Lang’s ground-breaking 1927 silent film ‘Metropolis’ whilst the movie was projected onto a big screen inside the church.  Eerily atmospheric.

Find out more: Domenico Tagliente’s Instagram page

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Fake Jam – SMIAF Extreme Sports Festival, San Marino – 4^th September

I only stopped off in San Marino City for one night as I drove back to Bari from the UK (a stunningly beautiful place but if truth be told, a tourist haven) but I lucked out with the fact that Fake Jam were headlining the outdoor music stage of the SMIAF Extreme Sports Festival that very night.   Hailing from Bologna, they brought a lot of support with them and specialised in a brand of Parliament and Earth, Wind & Fire-inspired jazz funk.  Excellent and unexpected.

Listen to: Fake Jam’s YouTube channel

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B. Fleischmann – Teatro Kismet, Bari – 17^th October

B. Fleischmann is originally from Vienna but him and his band are now based in Berlin.  They make marvellously quirky, offbeat pop music with typically Berlin-esque techno inflections.  The show was part of the annual Time Zones Festival, a longstanding annual event in Bari and surrounding areas since 1986 that showcases alternative and non-commercial music – the festival’s motto is “on the paths of possible music”.  This was my first visit to the impressive and modern Teatro Kismet too but sadly the last show before the strict Covid measures were reintroduced in Puglia and all live music ordered to stop. 

Listen to: B. Fleischmann – ‘You’re The Spring’

Find out more: Time Zones Festival

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As you can see it’s a somewhat eclectic bunch of highlights but I feel fortunate to have seen such a breadth of artists in what has been a very testing year for live music.  Another mention also goes to the two squat spaces Casa Occupata Via Garibaldi in Taranto and Ex Caserma Liberata in Bari; I went to a bizarre gig at the former where the performer was playing pots and pans with a drumstick, as well as a synth running through his laptop (it was actually pretty cool).  The latter is a cultural hub in Bari and seems to also be home of the city’s small but passionate dub and reggae scene.  I went to a dub party here in February and a lot of the faces there also came to the brilliantly-named Bari Hill Carnival soundsystem in September.  

It’s very interesting that so much of alternative culture in Southern Italy is associated with the squat scene (“una casa occupata”) – something that is a dying breed in London compared to its 1970s peak and famously its associations with the punk, new romantic and acid house movements.  What do Joe Strummer, Bob Geldof, Boy George, the Sex Pistols, Annie Lennox and Depeche Mode all have in common?  They all lived in squats early on in their careers. 

With promising news about the development of Coronavirus vaccines circulating, hopefully live music will be back in earnest in 2021. 

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