Afterhours in concert in Modena – review

Tonight, September 9, they are at the Afterhours concert, on the Modena leg of their “Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Tour 2014“, a concert, also part of the “Festa Ponte Alto” events program for Modena’s provincial Festa de l’Unitá.

Flashes. The word I will associate this evening with the afterhours concert is lightning. I get into the car I scan the sky and see only lightning. How strange I say to myself, they were not giving rain today. Perhaps it will be the influence of Manuel Agnelli who wants to remind us that this is an opportunity not to be missed at all.

On the journey between me and the concert arena, there are some small snippets of daily life that make me think:

• Just a slight hint of rain and people flee
• party rides are empty, people prefer slot rooms
• That smell of roasted meat at the bonfire will never go away from this place

I arrive unfortunately with the concert already started but around me I see an almost full arena, signifying that Modena despite everything appreciates Afterhours.
The stage, compared to Battiato’s much more minimalist concert, is relatively more set up with background lights, the full band towering over us at center stage. The thing I really appreciate is the variety of the audience-I see many children.
Kudos to such rare parents who will hopefully make these children love music, all of it.

The second word I will mark down this evening is: charge. It fits remarkably well with the flashes that accompany us during this first part of the concert. And even a violin on stage espouses for the cause. The air I breathe around is steeped in prayers that rain will be avoided at least until the end of the concert, and I am sure it will be. It would be the perfect ending, especially in this week of political uncertainty and in this PD place, as if to say: we, despite everything are there.

“All the energy…“sings Mr. Agnelli “all the energy…”
Afterhours is one of those bands that until tonight I had heard alas only on record and never live, mea culpa. Somewhat like it was in April for Enrico Ruggeri’s concert, in which I realized how much music I had missed in recent years.

Here I am surrounded by these raw but penetrating, almost scratchy sounds. The colors that dip into this mood are red, white and blue. That is: charge, neutrality and calmness. This performance is how I see it. Calm, charged and neutral.

Is that perhaps why he embraced all this audience tonight?

With each song change, a guitar change is a must. I love these subtleties. How I am appreciating the care in the sound, the guitars so hard and raw, not to mention the drums that carry with a great pat and a definite, sharp Groove.

The evening has heated up considerably, in the first rows the pogoing begins and at least half the audience takes Manuel’s place, who by inciting the mass fuels even more this musical fire that has come to life under the stage, there will be no shortage of other numerous such moments throughout the evening. And that seems fair. They deserve it, they have a crazy charge.

The lightning flashes leave us. “All our prayers have been heard” , I hear stated in unison around me. A few minutes pass and we are swept away by a cloudburst. The concert is interrupted. The rain, at least for now, has won.

It looks like a war on culture, in all its forms. The rain tries to wash us away but it doesn’t, on the contrary… The audience remains compact under the stage and this lash of water has inflamed the already high-level atmosphere even more. The public wants more, not enough for them. It promises to be a fiery finale.

And it is. Mr. Agnelli and the band re-enter the stage and throw just the right amount of gasoline on this uncontrollable fire that is the Modena audience. The last part of the concert is a serene delirium imbued with freedom. Again this evening, culture won above all else. It’s rain has only helped inflame this performance arena even more.

The concert is over. It is a big party, now no longer flowing rain but highways of beer and smiles. Good night Afterhours, good night Modena.

Source Photo PdMoMag – Photo by Antonio Tomeo and Dante Farricella for PD Modena

I’ve always dreamed of being able to write freely about music. The article you have just read is part of my project which I called maim (union of words thank goodness so be it); menomasia is not just a musical column, but it is at the same time the hope of being able to continue to pursue music, the real one, experienced in live shows. Outside the traditional commercial schemes.
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