Lou Reed

A friend of mine, well aware of my passion for the compositional mediocrity of Lou Reed, gave me a ticket to make up for the terrible experience I had the misfortune of going through last year in Turin, when Lou Reed put on the usual pay-for-my-holiday-in-Italy concert, alongside his partner Laurie Anderson. But that's another story…

The theatre is packed and the tension is palpable. Lou takes the stage at 9:15 pm, with a punctuality worthy of a sex maniac… Contrary to what I'd been told, he's not accompanied solely by his guitar but by a four-piece band. From left to right: Mike Rathke (electric guitar and piano), Jane Scarpantoni (cello), Fernando Saunders (bass, electric double bass, drums and vocals, unfortunately: never heard anyone sing worse. Never heard anyone flaunt their technique so vulgarly) and "Anthony", a gigantic (and laughable) tenor who accompanied the great man's performance with pointless vocal acrobatics, trills worthy of the worst Tracy Chapman, and little "poses" straight out of the Kessler Twins.

The "Transformer" kicks off the dancing with a blazing version of "Sweet Jane" that pleasantly fires up an audience made up of many, many young people, contrary to what the "great" Gloria Pozzi reported the next day in the Corriere della Sera…

Songs follow from "Berlin", from "New York", from "Ecstasy" and even from the latest "The Raven", along with a triumphant string of Velvet Underground covers. After "Sweet Jane", the great man then performs a slow, sweet rendition of "Venus In Furs", recalling the demo version included on the splendid "Peel Slowly And See" box set… Images from my childhood flash before my eyes, and I'm overcome by the beginnings of emotion that will find release a few minutes later, to the notes of "All Tomorrow's Parties".

At one point I felt as if I were alone, in a dark room, contemplating the physical manifestation of my Music, of my Rock. Reed goes on delighting the ears of an audience now in raptures with a poignant (if unnecessary) "Sunday Morning", the tribute the Velvet Underground had to pay to the Beatles in order to break free from pop and grant musical dignity to noise, thus inventing modern rock.

The show continues with "Candy Says", the track that opens the Velvet Underground's third, self-titled album, performed with ridiculous fervour by "Anthony", the effete tenor who, for the whole concert, did everything he could to make Reed's music seem grotesquely baroque… But never mind.

Another mistake in the Corriere article by the usual Gloria Pozzi concerns the presence in the setlist of "Walk On The Wild Side" and "Satellite Of Love": neither was ever played (but do these "journalists" even bother to watch the concerts they're reviewing? I don't think so…). Reed closed the show with only a decent rendition of "Perfect Day". A fine concert, in the end, even if the days of "Sister Ray" are gone forever. Or maybe not…

P.S.: the centuries-old Fernanda Pivano, front row, was absolutely magnificent!

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