I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 29, 2022] Måneskin

Back in May of 2021 I was pretty excited that Måneskin won Eurovision 2021.  I am in no way a Eurovision watcher, but during the lockdown I decided to do some dives into recent Eurovision happenings.  Måneskin was unusual–a rocking band who were glammy but heavy.  Their song “Zitti E Buoni” had it all (in a tidy three minute package).

I enjoyed the song, played it a few times and then kind of forgot about them.

So it was weird when, a few months later, my daughter became obsessed with them.  I realized that in 2022, it’s easy to be obsessed with a band from a non-English speaking country, but it still made me happy because obviously I am obsessed with lots of bands from far away places.

Måneskin announced a small concert in October 2021 and I missed out on the announcement and it sold out very quickly.  That sucked because she would have loved to see them (and it would have been pretty cool to see them in a small club before they toured the States).

It took almost five months for Måneskin to announce a proper U.S. tour.  There was no way I could miss out on these tickets and I grabbed them immediately.  She was thrilled and I was pretty excited to see them as well.  I was somewhat surprised, but not really, that it sold out.  But I was a bit more surprised that they announced a second show in Philly.

That one didn’t sell out and as the show approached, the idea came to us to go to the non-sold out show instead.  There was also the possibility of a few her friends going to–we may have been our own crowd.  Various things came up and it turned out to be just my T, S and me.  But i did manage to sell our Monday tickets, so it worked out.

I found out that there was going to be no opening band, which is pretty wild.  I also thought that it would be awesome to get right up at the stage–I was sure my daughter would love to be right under bassist Vic.  But it was a tough schedule to manage.  Doors opened at 7:30, with an announced show time of 8:30.  But the internet told me the weren’t actually starting until 9:15.  I really didn’t want to wait in line at 7:30 and then wait over an hour for the band to come on.  (and we heard that someone waited for three hours).  I initially imagined if they went on at 8:30, that if we arrived around 7:45 it would be pretty good.  But with the 9:15 start time, we decided to get there later and take our chances.  We arrived at 8:15 and the line was down the block. I have NEVER seen a line at the Fillmore so long before.

Fortunately it moved quickly, but it also meant  that all of those people were ahead of us.

We wound up being about half way to the stage which wasn’t too bad, actually.  Strangely, the merch line was nonexistent, so S. kept out spot as we bought a short (the merch was a little disappointing to be honest).

Then we stood and waited.  I always feel bad for T. because she’s shorter than me (and I’m pretty short myself).  So it’s hard for her to get a good view. We wound up in a pretty good spot though, with no giants among us.

After a wait, the lights went down and the band ran on stage.  They rocked right from the opening notes of their new (as yet unreleased) song “Kool Kids.”  They were active on stage–walking around to both sides so everyone could see them.  And they looked glamorous in their stage clothes.  They all seemed to be having a great time, too.  So much fun!

They followed it up with the Eurovision song–who would have guessed that would be second and it was crazy hearing an audience of people singing along in Italian.   They followed it with another song from the Teatro d’ira, Vol. I album which I know that T. knew.

When we first arrived I wasn’t sure if the crowd was actually fans of the band or if it was just the place to be that night–hip and trend Euro band.  But this audience knew their Måneskin.

After this song, singer Damiano David and bassist Victoria De Angelis removed their outer layer.  Victoria was not wearing only pasties as she sometimes does, this time opting for a leather bra.  They still looked great.  Damiano explained that the shirt was like a prison and it upset his nipples. And the next song “SUPERMODEL” was all about nipples so it made sense.

After the song he asked if everyone was having fun.  This was good he said because up next was the saddest song ever: “Coraline.”  It’s in Italian so I have no idea what it’s about.  Coraline, I assume.  But we all got pumped up again for “Beggin'” which sounded even bigger than on record.

Indeed, I couldn’t get over how great they sounded.  Even when it was just Vic playing the bass, or Vic playing and guitarist Thomas Raggi soloing, the sound was still really full.  It was mixed very well.

He then told us (Damiano is the only one who spoke–I gather Vic is also fluent in English but the other two not so much), that they were going to play the song that set them on the path of rock n roll.  When they first started as a band, they weren’t exactly sure what they were going to sound like.  But the song “Close to the Top” set them on the path to rock and roll.  It was a pretty simple song, but it rocked.

As did “I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE,” which go the audience crazy.  It was at this point during the show that the guy in front of us decided to wave his shirt over his head.  Clearly he wanted the band to see the brilliance of whatever was this T-shirt.  However, we were pretty far from the stage and there was no way the band could see it and really all it did was block the view of everyone behind them (ie. us).  So that sucked.  I was about to tell him to knock it off, but he stopped (for a while).

After the pretty “VENT’ANNI” they played “For Your Love.”  This song had a lengthy guitar solo and Damiano took down one of the spotlights and walked around with it–aiming it at Thomas who had climbed onto Ethan Torchio’s drumset.  He pointed it at he crowd and generally had fun with it.

They played three new songs.  “Gasoline” starts with a thumping bass that was Vic’s chance  to shine and “Touch Me” has a full on classic rock feel, with a shift mid song where the song takes off and Thomas and Vic face each other on their knees and rock out.

Then he told us about the origins of “MAMMAMIA.”  That whenever people asked where they were from and they said Italy, people would always say “Oh Italy, Mamma Mia.”  So they wrote a song about it.  I was hoping he’s growl “Because I’m Italian” but he let the crowd sing it instead.

For much of the show, I think  that Vic and Thomas were if not on the crowd, then at least on the floor behind the barriers (we couldn’t see so I don’t know exactly what happened), but for the final song, they invited about 30 people on stage all dancing around.  It looked fun, but I had to admit that after 30 seconds of being on stage, you really have to keep up your excitement or you look really bored up there.

Before introducing the song, he said he was sorry to say this was the last song and then he paused and the whole band looked at a section of the crowd and he said something like “this is our first fight on the whole tour.”  Leave it to Philly fans to get in a fight.  He settled things: “Don’t fight each other–especially not other Maneskin fans.”

After a break, Thomas came back out and played a lengthy guitar solo.  He looped a few guitar parts and it sounded really full.  The solo was pretty impressive to start with (I didn’t realize he was such a good guitarist).  As soon as I started to get a little bored by the solo, the rest of the band came back out and they played “The Loneliest,” their new single.  I was surprised that they were going to end the show with a slow, sad ballad, but I needn’t have worried.

Because they started the opening of “I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE” and played it AGAIN!  That’s right, an encore of a song they played already.  S. and I agreed that if you have a kick ass song t hat everyone loves, then why not play it twice?  Everyone was psyched to hear it again.

Someone started throwing balloons around the crowd a few songs from the end and we managed to snatch one (it was quite large), so that gave us yet another souvenir of a really really fun night.  While it would have been great to be a little closer, it was still an amazing show.  I have to wonder where they will be playing next time they come to Philly.

1. KOOL KIDS ♦
2. ZITTI E BUONI ⊗
3. IN NOME DEL PADRE ⊗
4. SUPERMODEL ♦
5. CORALINE ⊗
6. Beggin’ (Four Seasons cover)
7. Close to the Top ß
8. I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE ⊗
9. VENT’ANNI ⊗
10. FOR YOUR LOVE ⊗
11. Gasoline ♦
12. Touch Me ♦
13. MAMMAMIA ♦
14. LIVIDI SUI GOMITI ⊗ (Fans on stage)

    Encore:

15. THE LONELIEST ♦
16. I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE ⊗(Reprise) 

♦ new as yet unreleased except as singles  album Rush! is due in 2023.
⊗ Teatro d’ira, Vol. I (2021)
ß Il ballo della vita (2018)