To see the Italian prog act
Quel Che Disse Il Tuono on a Dutch stage wasn't that easy as it seemed in the
first place. The band was booked by the people of the amazing ProgFrog team to promote their excellent debut album
Il Velo Dei Riflessi (2020, see
review) in the Netherlands. The concert was planned for the 5th of July
in 2020 together with
Cellar Noise, another amazing prog act from Italy. But as we all know the gig had
to be postponed because of the pandemic that was going around all over the world. Then it was planned for the
11th of October the same year. But the corona virus was still going on so they had to cancel it again. No more
concerts for 2020 could be planned and also 2021 was very uncertain if any concert would take place. Towards the
end of the year the green light was given to organise any gigs for bands. But everything was already fully booked
on the ProgFrog calendar that eventually the 30th of October in 2022 was chosen as the date it finally would
take place. However not with the earlier mentioned Cellar Noise. They were replaced by another fantastic
Italian prog act. Namely
Karmamoi. However it was not the end of the continuing story of getting Quel Che
Disse Il Tuono on a Dutch stage. Next up came the news that also this band was not able to come to the Netherlands.
On short notice
Il Segno Del Comando (another Italian prog act) was found to step in and take the journey
to the low lands together with Quel Che Disse Il Tuono. So finally in the end everything turned out right and
both bands climbed the stage at 't Blok in Nieuwerkerk aan de Ijssel to make their first live appearances in the Netherlands.
Il Segno Del Comando
The music of Il Segno Del Comando isn't the typical Italian progressive rock that most prog heads like to listen
to. They didn't copy the music of the famous Italian prog rock acts like
Premiata Forneria Marconi,
Banco
Del Mutuo Soccorso or
Le Orme. This band from Genoa started in 1995 as a studio project with the aim
of reproducing the sound and the atmosphere of bands from the seventies like
Goblin,
Il Balletto Di
Bronzo or
Jacula. The name is derived from a 1970's novel by Giussepe D'Agata and Italian TV series
of the same title that dealt with occult matters, reincarnation and the supernatural.
Normally the band consists of six musicians.
However the father of keyboardist
Beppi Menozzi just recently died and therefore wasn't
able to take the trip to the Netherlands.
So the band had to adjust the songs they were going to play to a five
piece unit. Meaning most of all that guitarist and keyboard player
Davide Bruzzi would be doing all the
keyboard parts by himself. This he did in an excellent way as it turned out. Just as all of the other musicians
managed to give their best performance possible. The setlist contained songs taken from all of their five recorded
studio albums. The music the band played from those albums is rather complex and you'll have to take the time
to discover the beauty of it. Because you'll hear in the initially chaotic sounding music some very beautiful
prog rock passages with elements taken from space rock, opera, gothic, metal and zeuhl. Most of the compositions
deliver heavy and bombastic atmospheres with blistering guitar soli and thunderous drums. This is topped with
outstanding, often passionate Italian vocals done by the great lead singer
Riccardo Morello. The main man
behind the band is without any doubt founder member and main composer bassist
Diego Banchero who got a
solo spot during
Aseità. The band gave a strong performance in which most of all the interaction between
the two guitar players Davide Bruzzi and
Roberto Lucanato got my attention next to the fine keyboard work
done by Bruzzi. Difficult to mention any musical highlights, because all songs were rather strongly performed.
I guess the most important of all was that all five musicians on stage can look back on a great first concert
in the Netherlands. The audience just loved them and that's all that matters.
Quel Che Disse Il Tuono
Quel Che Disse Il Tuono was founded early 2019 in Milan and released their strong debut album
Il Velo Dei Riflessi
one year later. The most well know musician in the band is
Francesca Zanetta. Most of those
progheads who visit the Progfrog concerts know her as the guitar player of
Unreal City who plays the Mellotron
as well. This band already played three times at 't Blok. So when she entered the stage she welcomed her audience
with the words ?long time not seeing?. Keyboard player
Niccolò Gallani might be known to some lovers of
progressive rock as well. Because he touches the keyboards in the earlier mentioned Cellar Noise, who already
released two excellent albums. The rhythm section which can be heard on the album is no more in the band and replaced
by the youngsters
Brandon Garro
(bass and vocals) and
Fabio Forlani (drums). It was rather obvious that the four musicians would do the
entire debut album. An album which is most of all influenced by the progressive rock from the early 70s, especially
Yes,
Genesis,
King Crimson,
Gentle Giant,
Camel and
Pink Floyd. Meaning
lots of Mellotron, guitar and synthesizer solos. All compositions from the album got great live renditions. Most
of all the opening tune
Il Pradigma Dello Specchio and ending tune
Loro Sono Me were done in an
excellent way.
Loro Sono Me even got a nice surprise at the end by including a short part of King Crimson's
Starless.
They even had one more surprise in store by playing
The White Toad Majesty from
The Lost Vision of The Chandoo Priest album. An instrumental album which was made by Francesca and
Niccolò during the lockdown. The audience loved them so much that they had to come back for an encore.
However all tracks from the album were already done and probably no new compositions were rehearsed so they had
to play one song one more time. I asked Francesca to do the opening tune one more time, because I like this song
so much. Thank God she confirmed that they were going to do
Il Pradigma Dello Specchio as the final song
of this excellent Sunday evening concert. Again done in a perfect way. I could not have asked for more I guess.
Looking back, I can only say that both bands entertained me and the rest of the crowd in a perfect way. So I
can only say thanks to both bands for taking the long journey from Italy to the Netherlands to play their music
in front of a great audience. Also thanks again to the amazing ProgFrog team for giving those two Italian prog
act a stage to show all of their musical talents. I guess we all had a blast on a rather Sunny Sunday afternoon in late October.
Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen)
