Bugo

We had interviewed him just a month ago, asking what we should expect from his pre-summer tour. We find him again in the middle of the night, on a scorching evening, jumping around like a madman on the stage of the Mamamù Rock Festival, having fully kept his promise to make us dance (in some way or another) throughout the whole show.

Indeed, a Bugo performance is a unique experience. It's impossible to resist the formidable charm of the eccentric talent from Novara, and this year there was also the live impact of his mighty seventh gem, “Contact”, an album packed with a frantic run of excellent songs, made even more dynamic by the production of his holiness Stefano "Stylophonic" Fontana.

Bugo's innate ability to blend funky, stark and melancholic folk, electro-disco dadaism and a wealth of ironic vocal digressions builds up the anticipation for what will prove to be one of the most heartfelt performances of this first half of the year.

Taking the stage in the hour or so before the headliner's arrival were a series of little-known Neapolitan acts, among which the beloved Atari certainly stood out, though they left nothing particularly memorable behind, aside from a charming (and gutsy) robotic cover with echoes of Daft Punk.

Once the customary support acts had quickly cleared the stage, Bugo came on deep into the night (around two a.m.), wearing an ethnic-style poncho, skinny jeans, patch-embroidered shoes, and that perpetually mischievous, jokey grin plastered across his face. Backing him were three excellent musicians, strikingly alike (backstage I discovered two of them are twins), all in jeans, small glasses and a white t-shirt reading "Bugo" in alternating mirror-image lettering.

Things kicked off with the stylophone-driven "Nel giro giusto", and the opening trio of songs was drawn entirely from "Contact" (the album most heavily raided for the setlist). Bugatti was in great form, joking around, moving about, constantly "bickering" with his poncho, playing with his laptop like a kid, and when the crowd chanted in unison "Io mi rompo i coglioni", he laughed like a madman, poking fun at some guy in the audience desperate for a love dedication. Charming and sparky, he was also able to turn the acoustic "Che diritti ho su di te" into a big electric ballad to be belted out at the top of your lungs, before leaping about like a madman on the drums, and wrapping everything up by leaving a thunderous, proudly cheesy-disco loop spinning in the air.

At the end of the night, backstage, I found an even more likeable, approachable guy, albeit a rather tired one after the long afternoon drive from Modena to Naples (proof, if any were needed, that here's an artist who fully lives his work).

What certainly stays with you after a Bugo show is the deep, genuine warmth with which the songwriter from Novara connects with his audience, along with his considerable skill as a musician and the professional care he puts into the sound. As for those last two qualities, we had no doubts about them long before this show either — it's no coincidence that Bugo has been one of the finest Italian talents around for almost a decade now…

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google