Early 2013 progrock friendly venue Cultuurpodium De Boerderij hosted
Le Orme (goose bumps during the epic
Felona E Sorona), today another Italian progrock legend
Premiata Forneria Marconi was presented
in the same venue, so a big hand for the organisation!
|
| Franz Di Cioccio |
You would expect a sold out house with such a legendary and worldwide acclaimed Italian progrock band, but only
around 250 spectators (mainly male, 40+) teamed up ... what a shame. Do you prefer just another cover band playing
Genesis,
Pink Floyd or
Marillion? Nonetheless, the atmosphere was great, the band was very
inspired and the crowd was highly positive. In fact it was party prog time all the way; a very pleasant celebration
of the best Seventies PFM.
The recent PFM features two members of the famous seventies line up, drummer/singer
Franz Di Cioccio and
bass player
Patrick Djivas. This duo was surrounded by a bunch of outstanding musicians:
Marco Sfogli
easily changes from warm 12-string Ovation to heavy electric guitarwork,
Lucio Fabbri delivers one after
another awesome violin solo and
Alessandro Scaglione colours the varied PFM music with a range of sounds,
|
From left to right: Lucio Fabbri,
Patrick Djivas and Franz Di Cioccio |
from soaring strings and sparkling classical piano to sumptuous church organ and cheerful Mini-Moog flights. And
let's not forget the vocals by
Alberto Bravin (also keyboards), what a strong voice, especially in Italian.
My highlights during this memorable evening ('una notte particolare') were
La Carozza Di Hans (excellent
interplay), a hilarious drum duet by Franz Di Cioccio and second drummer
Roberto Gualdi, a long and harder-edged
guitar solo in the
Prokofiev cover
Romeo And Juillet, a great built-up violin solo, culminating
in
Rossini's
William Tell Overture and, of course, the crowd pleaser
Celebration with
a jumping Franz Di Gioccio as the conductor of the singing crowd, we loved it!
My conclusion: in the late Seventies the album
The World Became The World (1974) by PFM was the first non-UK
progrock album I bought, today I witnessed a PFM gig for the very first time in my life, it was unforgettable, full circle!
Erik Neuteboom (edited by Astrid de Ronde)
