Santo Niente

Meeting Umberto Palazzo feels like reconnecting with an old friend; catching a Santo Niente show, every single time, feels like diving back into the alt-rock emotions of twenty years ago.

In a world that changes ever faster, Palazzo's presence gives us something to hold on to: his music remains untouched by the passing of time, even as it keeps evolving relentlessly.

Umberto now ranges from the electricity of Santo Niente, to the refined songwriting of his solo career, all the way to the desert atmospheres of Santo Nada, without shying away from forays into electro territory.

A genuine character, often deliberately "against the grain," who over the course of his career has given life to some of the finest Italian musical ventures of the last twenty-five years — but on this cold February evening, the spotlight is on the project through which he's developed the largest number of ventures.

Umberto is back in Rome just a few months after a fine solo performance (that time accompanied by Sandra Ippoliti); this time we find him on stage at Stazione Birra, in the capital's south-eastern outskirts, an event that (judging by the venue's line-up) seems intent on certifying the promotion of this loose cannon of Italian alternative rock into the pantheon of the "classics"

But his output remains resolutely out of step, darting like a stray shard across genres, forever in search of adventurous spaces.

Before the show there was, of course, room for a pleasant chat, in which Umberto talks music across the board, ranging from the fine debut of Canada's Metz to the roots of bluegrass, from the history of American radio broadcasting to the current state of health of the contemporary independent scene, always displaying a cultural background and an innate curiosity that's hard to find in so many younger artists.

At 10:40 pm it's time to take the stage. The band chosen by the venue for the opening act has bailed out, a sign of the times, so the evening belongs entirely to Santo Niente, and right from the very first notes of the storming "Fiction" you can feel a damn positive tension in the air.

The band is young, completely overhauled since "Il fiore dell'agave," and proves tight and effective: Lorenzo Conti is the perfect guitar foil to Umberto, while Tonino Bosco (bass) and Federico Sergente (drums) provide a powerful, metronomic rhythmic backbone.

The set is a roller-coaster of fiercely abrasive episodes and more atmospheric ones, in the best tradition of the Abruzzo-born outfit, with guitar sounds that unmistakably evoke the alt-rock imagery of the '90s, often not too far removed from the early Marlene Kuntz (though Palazzo's artistic path began well before Godano and Tesio's).

The setlist draws from the band's three albums released so far, with the balance tipped slightly in favour of the second one, which stays in focus for the first part of the set: "Fiction"/ "E' aria"/ "Come ombra"/ "Dimora".

Naturally the crowd warms up most of all when the definitive classics hit, those "Cuore di puttana" and "Elvira" (strategically placed at the end) that defined "La vita è facile" (worth remembering that "Elvira" already featured on the first, mythical Massimo Volume demo).

But relatively more recent compositions too, such as "Luna viola" and "Occhiali scuri al mattino", warm hearts and get bodies moving.

A no-frills show, free of special effects, with Palazzo leaving his polemical streak and anti-SIAE campaigning confined to social media: on stage he'd rather let the music do the talking, leaving the speeches to whichever Bono Vox happens to be around.

Umberto plays today with the same rage and intensity with which he used to carry some of these songs around in the '90s, but Santo Niente doesn't want to be just a nice story for the incurably nostalgic fans of the Italian independent scene of twenty years ago — rather, it means to build on those foundations to sketch out new horizons.

And alongside him is an entirely new line-up, made up of young musicians who hold their own against the historic band.

The man behind the outfit explains the reason for the change:

The renewal happened spontaneously. The line-up that recorded "Il fiore dell'agave" is practically the same one that made "Tuco" (the album released by the parallel project El Santo Nada, ed.).

After a while, the members of that line-up showed more interest in pursuing the El Santo Nada project, and we found ourselves forced to make choices because, due to overlapping work commitments, some of them couldn't carry both projects forward.

So the guys who are with me now stepped into the game — incidentally, they've always been friends and fans of Santo Niente.

The changeover was so natural that we honestly barely noticed it: everything happened completely painlessly.

What's more, they're young and know how to hit hard, and they've already got considerable experience: the rhythm section is the one from Zippo, a band with about ten European tours under their belt; on top of that, all three of them used to play in the post-rockers Death Mantra For Lazarus.

The only preview of material that will appear on Santo Niente's new album, due out next September, is "Cristo nel cemento", the only track that existed before the new songs were written.

A track that in its first part musically ties itself to the past, before drifting further and further away until it reaches pure, atonal, noise-driven abstraction.

It will be the opener of the new album, about which Palazzo doesn't give too much away regarding content, though he does let slip that it will be a project very different from previous ones, with few tracks but long running times.

It's pointless to ask him for too many previews: it's clear how much he cares about preserving a certain element of surprise:

The album will be surprising, especially in terms of sounds and instrumentation used: only one track out of six overall will be based on the concept of a classic rock quartet.

The sounds can't really be described, and don't ask me to try to explain them to you – I can only reveal that while “Sei na ru mono wa nai” and “The agave flower” were played entirely live in the studio, recorded direct with no overdubs, and “La vita è facile” was a work in which studio production prevailed but still originated from a rock trio, the new album was born in the recording studio, and the work of arrangement, production and especially experimentation is hugely important.

It will be a literary and sonic journey, a kind of listening path.

My only concern was to create an unprecedented sound and take a step forward compared to how rock music is perceived today in our country.

If these are the premises, we risk finding ourselves in front of the Italian “Kid A”, a kind of year zero for the national indie scene.

We'll see, but in the meantime it wouldn't hurt if whoever holds the masters to Santo Niente's first two albums, out of print for ages, gave them a reissue, perhaps timed to coincide with the release of the band's fourth album.

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