Rakes

A pleasant, enjoyable evening on Tuesday at New Age in Roncade, probably the best live club in the entire North-East: on stage were the Rakes, one of the most interesting acts of the English wave that followed the explosion of danceable rock spearheaded by Franz Ferdinand (whom they also supported back in the winter of 2005).

The music played by the London combo, led by Alan Donohue, proves especially effective in a live setting, not least because the frontman has such an original and entertaining way of dancing and moving that he ends up winning over even the most static members of the crowd. The band's sound, a fast, jerky rock built on obsessive chord patterns, draws on the more famous Strokes and Franz Ferdinand, but honestly, even though their repertoire is nowhere near that level, the Rakes have a way of playing and holding the stage that makes them easy to warm to.

Shortly after the set by Arezzo natives Thank You For The Drum Machine, the headliners are seen signing autographs and selling their latest record, "Klang", though Alan, the singer, used to the thousands of spectators back home in England (they even sold out Brixton Academy in London with around 5,000 people two and a half years ago), seems a little disappointed by the poor turnout, which in the end, also due to the particular day of the week, amounts to no more than 200 people, mostly aged 20 to 25.

Excellent choices from the DJ, who shortly before the Rakes' live set unleashed the soundtrack to the legendary "Distretto 13: le brigate della Morte" by the great John Carpenter.

The Londoners kick off around eleven with their new single, the slow-burning "Light From Your Mac", backed by a nicely throbbing, metronomic bassline. The atmosphere only really heats up from the second track onward, "Retreat", even though on this occasion the vocals are too high-pitched and the venue's sound system is so powerful you can feel it rumbling in your gut. With "We Danced Together", the standout track from the second album, it's impossible to stand still, not least because the interplay between bass, guitars and drums is excellent.

In all there are the band's usual four members on stage, plus a fifth player who handles keyboards, guitar and, depending on the need, even sits in on drums for one song, pounding away hard alongside drummer Lasse, which gives the show a very spectacular effect.

Alan starts moving and dancing in his own unique style - that of a drunken puppet - only from "1989" onward. He's the main attraction of the show, not just for his wild eyes and his lopsided movements, but because he sometimes plays with the mic stand, sometimes staggers about, and at the end of some songs jokes and interacts with the crowd. At the start the singer asks what songs he should play (most people shout for "Strasbourg"), after "That's The Reason" he asks whether Italy is a country of romantics, and right after that pretends to demand that a girl prove her romanticism to him at the aftershow, then dedicates the song "The Woes Of The Working Woman" to the many young women in attendance, and finally good-naturedly teases us by saying we're mostly famous for the mafia. His bandmates hold their own well, coming across like a version of The Strokes playing their own distorted guitars but in a harder, more enthusiastic and engaging way, even if Jamie, the bassist and "pretty boy" of the group, seems worried about moving too much for fear of messing up his hair.

The most successful songs are the ones taken from the first album, though the crowd dances, sings and sweats throughout the whole show, driven by the tireless band's rock-solid riffs. The lighting design is also excellent and never intrusive.

The encore and closing number, at the stroke of midnight, is what Alan calls "our favourite song", the well-known "Strasbourg". The Rakes, just as I'd had the chance to see for myself back in the summer of 2005 at Spazio 211 in Turin, when they weren't yet famous and played as support to another fine act, British Sea Power, are one of the few pop-rock acts around today capable of being even more astonishing live than in the studio.

Ride the wave of great music

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