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.
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