Melting Clock - Crazy Bull Café, Genova
19th October 2024
The timing of the launch of Melting Clock’s second album 'Altrove' on 4th September didn’t quite fit with their live schedule and the first available date to play on home territory following its release was over a month later on19th October at Genoa’s Crazy Bull Café. I first heard about the mooted event while watching a video conversation between guitarist Simone Caffè, keyboard player Sandro Amadei and producer Andrea Torretta posted on Facebook before the official announcement and made sure that weekend was kept clear for a trip to Italy.
Unfortunately, Crazy Bull seemed to have gained a reputation for presenting musicians with on-stage sound difficulties which I first heard about the day before the Melting Clock gig and was subsequently confirmed when I met up with different band members before their performance. Complaining of an inability to accurately monitor what other members of the ensemble were playing could easily cause problems for the most straightforward music but when you play carefully layered compositions with odd time signatures, the potential for missing or mistiming cues might spell sonic mayhem.
Despite their warnings that the performance might not go exactly to plan when they’d lined up guests to appear on stage with them, I remained quietly confident that their professionalism, instrumental mastery and the presence of Torretta mixing the front-of-house sound would overcome any problem – I’ve witnessed their confidence grow steadily over the last seven years and they were still on a high after a headline appearance at the Crescendo Festival in France in mid-August – but I became a little concerned when GC Neri, who had put together an improvising hard rock/heavy psyche band under the banner of The Blue Brains for the support slot, complained to the audience about the difficulty he was having with the on-stage sound.
Any concern was misplaced because the sound in the hall was really good and if the band did make any mistakes, no one in the audience picked them out. We were treated to 'Altrove' in its entirety and in the correct running order, interspersed with tracks from 'Destinazioni'. If there was anyone present who had only heard the debut album they wouldn’t have had to worry about Melting Clock’s musical direction because opening song 'Vernice', like 'Destinazioni's first track 'Caleidoscopio' (the third number of the set) is an excellent example of the band’s definitive sound. In the past I’ve often found it hard to differentiate between the guitars of Caffè and Stefano Amadei but the latter’s recent acquisition of some new equipment resolved the problem and Torretta’s deft handling of the mix provided clarity to all the instruments. Alessandro Bosca’s bass has been too loud when I’ve seen them play in the past but it was nicely balanced on this occasion, allowing space for subtlety and locking in with Francesco Fiorito’s seemingly effortless drumming when required; I think Sandro Amadei’s keyboards play a more prominent role on the new album compared to 'Destinazioni' and that was reflected in the live mix without ever being over-dominant.
The sextet responsible for recording 'Altrove' have added violinist Hanako Tsushima Semini to the line-up as a permanent member of the band – the album’s orchestration included parts for violin which were ultimately played on keyboards - so the first actual guest to make an appearance was Irene Manca, a singer-songwriter who has worked with Finisterre, another Genovese band, providing vocals on 'The Great Gig In The Sky' at the Sondrio biennale. Never having heard her sing before, I felt her interpretation of 'Caleidoscopio' compared favourably with Emanuela Vedana who, in my opinion, has the best voice in rock. The next guest vocalist, appearing on 'Strade Affollate' to duet with Vedana, was Davide De Martis; De Martis co-wrote the song with Caffè 30 years ago which made his appearance rather special.
Panther & C. vocalist and flautist Mauro Serpe has been a staunch friend and supporter of the group for a long time so it was no surprise that he would be included amongst the guest musicians – I’ve seen him adding flute once before in 2018 when the Panthers shared the bill with Melting Clock – but on this occasion he also took on lead vocals for 'Banalmente' and 'Sono Luce'. While I always thought he’d been influenced by Peter Gabriel’s flute playing, his inner Ian Anderson was also on display! Manca returned to sing on 'Antares', the song which best illustrated just how good Melting Clock were when I first saw them at the Porto Antico Prog Fest in 2017, and her performance showed she was a fully qualified substitute if the band were to play without Vedana due to impending motherhood.
Bookending the gig with two tracks from 'Altrove' provided a nice balance to the evening and as 'Tramonti di cenere' and 'Endurance' are probably my favourite tracks from the album, it was a great way to end. They had planned to play 'L’occhio dello sciacallo' as an encore but were required to wind up because a queue was forming for the next scheduled entertainment! It may not have been totally perfect but it was still a fantastic show and they were enthusiastically supported by a good-sized audience. There was palpable relief from the band for having avoided any major errors but from an audience point of view there was no sign that anything was amiss as everything appeared to go swimmingly. The one problem with the performance that I noticed was Caffè's evident difficulty with his left hand which he would shake from time to time as if to relieve pain. His expressive soloing showed that it hadn't affected the quality of his playing but he later indicated a problem with one of the tendons.
If the sound problems affecting the musicians on stage could be resolved the Crazy Bull would be an excellent venue and though the audience may not have been aware of the issue, it's not conducive to getting the best from artists when they are placed under unnecessary pressure.
I personally enjoyed the whole occasion which was easily worth the trip. It's always good to see Melting Clock but this was made extra special by the inclusion of the guest musicians, dubbed ‘the extended musical family’. Their integration not only added something to the music but also represented a display of camaraderie that sums up the prog scene in Genoa. I also think it’s important to thank everyone for making me feel part of that scene.