Sunday, June 10, 2012

New Goblin live in Brussels. Review.



This blog has given to me the opportunity to get in touch with some people (before unknown) that have proven to be incredibly friendly, enthusiastic and empathic.
Peter, a Belgian Goblin fan, is certainly among these persons. Few months ago he knew from my blog that New Goblin were about to perform a concert in Brussels. Peter attended the concert last Tuesday and sent me his review, here it is:
New Goblin – Live at the Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium – 05.06.2012
Being a Goblin fan ever since I first laid eyes and ears on "Zombi - Dawn of the Dead" almost 25 years ago, I was ecstatic to learn this highly influential Italian prog-rock band would visit Belgium, for the first time ever.
To be precise, "New Goblin" consists of Goblin founders Claudio Simonetti and Massimo Morante and Goblin member Maurizio Guarini, along with Daemonia members Titta Tani and Bruno Previtali.
For this venue, the Ancienne Belgique had filled the main hall with seats, which resulted in a capacity of 730 people.  It wasn’t completely sold out, as there were still tickets available on the evening of the event.
Arriving a couple of hours early, I was able to obtain a nice seat in the front row, since security had informed me it was not allowed to stand in front of the stage.  This may seem strange for a rock concert, but this show was somewhat ambiguously promoted through advertisements stating: "Goblin plays live to film / Dario Argento: Profondo Rosso".  So when people picked their seats, they did so in the same manner as if they were going to watch a movie.  I suspect some may have been disappointed in this regard.
I had the feeling that most people in attendance were fans of Dario Argento’s films (and rightfully so!) while the minority knew of the band’s early non-soundtrack efforts such as "Roller" or "…Bagarozzo Mark".  The main theme from "Suspiria" was clearly the moment everybody had been waiting for.
 As I expected, the show itself was very similar to the "Official bootleg" live DVD and "Live in Roma" CD.  So imagine the same set list (closing with the encore "Zaratozom") and the same video images projected on the background.  Excluding all solo moments there was little to no improvisation.  Which is exactly what was a bit lacking: while the original Goblin could be pigeonholed as a progressive rock band with jazz elements and hypnotic percussion, New Goblin often more resembled Daemonia with its heavy metal (or hard rock) influenced sound walls and chord progressions.  And that is just an observation, not a complaint, as I simply cannot say anything negative about this powerful and (for me personally) emotional performance.  It was truly a privilege to see these legendary musicians at work.
 The band seemed to enjoy playing and held together very well.  While Simonetti brought along a Jupiler (typical Belgian beer) on stage, Morante proved he hasn’t lost that magical touch.  It’s simply a blast to watch Simonetti and Guarini dueling/complementing each other with their keyboards, still favoring the 'phat' analog Moog sound and hitting the ivory as if it were child’s play.  I also appreciated the amount of music that was actually being played live, because they could have easily used more pre-recorded midi tracks or tapes like many musicians prefer nowadays. 
Yes, there were occasions where not every player was absolutely in sync, the sound mix could have been better balanced in some places and one has to wonder why footage from “Suspiria” was accompanying the theme from “Tenebrae”, but honestly I couldn’t care less: this was an evening to cherish forever.
 Maybe it was due to the fact that the majority of the crowd only recognized the soundtrack music, or that we were forced to sit down the entire time, but the ambiance in the room was not entirely overpowering, maybe even somewhat subdued.  I must admit however, it is typical for a Belgian audience (of an older generation) to be polite and respectful, rather than go berserk like a teenager having his first beer.  But had there been the opportunity to stand up, it would certainly have improved the party-quotient in the room.
 After about 90 minutes, when the first (and sadly last) encore was over, I left my seat and got up close to genuinely show my appreciation to the band.  Luckily, others had followed and Simonetti quickly realized the crowd wanted more, so he announced that the band would come out shortly to sign some stuff and talk to the fans.
Which is what they did.  All of them sported enough English language skills to have a meaningful conversation, and they gladly signed whatever we handed to them.  For a band that’s been around for nearly 40 years and doesn’t really have a strong Belgian fan base (if any), they still went out of their way to please us.  I hope they know just how much we appreciated their friendliness, generosity and patience.
 Overall, I applaud the organizers for setting up this event as I can’t imagine Goblin being very well known here (hence the deliberately 'confusing' advertising methods mentioned above) and I sincerely hope they will bring us more Goblin in the near future.”.



A big thank to Peter for his in-deep review and for having tried by every means to get me a poster of the concert. Eventually he succeeded, thanks to the courtesy of Claudio Simonetti that gave to Peter his own poster for me. So many many thanks to Claudio Simonetti too!!
Simonetti while was in Belgium gave some interviews, here are the links to a couple, the first in french with soundclips, the second in english.
http://www.agendamagazine.be/en/blog/sound-horror