Wire

A great show and a strong turnout on Thursday, October 9th at Init in Rome, a venue that has already made a name for itself over the past few months (and promises more treats in the weeks ahead: El Guapo, Erase Errata, Nina Nastasia and Damo Suzuki Band) thanks to its excellent booking, a credit to the venue's management as well as to the drive of H.U.P. concerti. I show up around 10pm outside the entrance, where I run into the valiant Oscar Bronsky; there's already a decent little crowd gathered, good people, alongside the usual faces from the Roman dark-wave scene, faces marked by the years, dusting off their leather jackets and biker jackets with badges from 15-20 years ago, plus some younger folks… olé!

The opening act goes almost unnoticed, and around midnight Wire take the stage, initially in near-total darkness, launching into a surprising rendition of "12 X U" from "Pink Flag", their debut, sung by a visibly agitated and nervous Colin Newman. I actually knew they'd be playing a few tracks from their acclaimed debut, but an opening like that still caught me off guard… The show carries on with "99°", the magnificent closing track from "Send", and I decide to move as close to the stage as possible, both to take some photos and to warm up a bit physically… So, egged on by the great, long-lost Flavio Zapruder, I find myself right up against the stage, pogoing, dancing and sweating like a madman, swept along by the band's sonic violence: "Mr. Marx Table", "Read And Burn", "The art of stopping", "Agfers of Kodack" are the fuel that gets us moving in a jerky, epileptic frenzy (to be clear: the ones actually moving are me, my friend Flavio, and four splendid, wasted lunatics - everyone else looks like they're at the theatre).

Among the tracks drawn from "Pink Flag" I think I can make out at least "Strange". Live, the band recreates the magnificent wall of sound of the "Send" album, minus some of the electronic overdubs called for in production, so the guitars have a rawer, more penetrating tone. Lewis is practically a hooligan who seems ready to smash a pint glass in your face at any moment, Newman is a nervy agit-prop figure, Lewis a glacial post-punk Fripp, motionless yet astonishing in the way he builds and chisels the songs with his guitar, and Gotobed is essentially the skeletal engine driving this machine, dusted off to great effect. What's more, it's incredible to see how they look, so visibly marked by the years, yet so resolute and precise in delivering a sound that has very little to do with revivalism, even though the set closed with a rendition of "Pink Flag" that literally takes your breath away.

It's worth noting that this year Wire gave us the chance to approach a gig by a band with such a long history hoping to hear their music as it sounds right now, neither a sad, repetitive revival nor some halfway house between nostalgia and a desire for something new that isn't within everyone's reach. At Init that night there was no room for nostalgia, only for an explosion of beauty.

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