Blanco in the sports halls: an animal in a cage

«We are lives in jeopardy, disarray, crash / inside every one of my mistakes how much I cried», sings Blanco at the center of the stage of the Palazzo dello Sport, surrounded by a fog of smoke. The voice of “Brividi” chose the verses of “I love you, man” to re-present himself to his audience after an absence from the “official” stages, those of his concerts, which had lasted for three years. The song is the same as the one that opens “Ma'”, the album that at the beginning of the month marked the return to the scene of the (former) enfant terrible of Italian pop: a coherent, almost programmatic choice, because everything is already there within those verses. Growth, change, regrets, nostalgia. They are, after all, the themes around which not only the album revolves, but also the show that the album inspired and which Blanco is taking on tour in sports halls, re-establishing a bond with the public.

A more controlled dimension

Between sold out and multiple dates, the tour – which started from Jesolo – stopped yesterday in Rome (encore tonight), the first crucial junction while waiting for the Milanese double at the Unipol Forum on 11 and 13 May. The concert is constructed as a journey that starts from the emotional, personal and artistic chaos Blanco went through and tries to give it a shape. From “chills” to bruises and back again, one might say, quoting one of the verses of “Piangere a 90”, the song with which a year ago Blanco chose to break the silence in which he had holed up after the concerts in the stadiums of Rome and Milan in 2023, after having seen himself catapulted in the previous two years from his bedroom to the Sanremo stage and from the Sanremo stage to the Eurovision stage, skipping ahead and ending up swallowed up by too rapid a rise. We left him rushing into the middle of the stadium at the Olimpico, chased and finally tackled by fans, and kicking and punching scenographic elements just as he had done in Sanremo in the performance of discord on “L’isola delle rose”. Today we find him dealing with a more controlled dimension, from all points of view, with what is in fact his first tour in sports halls (in 2022 after Sanremo he immediately found himself in outdoor arenas). The show, curated by the London collective Ombra, is essential, almost raw: classic stage, few elements, Blanco at the center and around him the band made up of the inseparable Michelangelo, his producer, Carmine Landolfi (drums), Emanuele Nazzaro (bass), Giacomo Ruggeri (guitar) and Gabriele Bolognesi (synthesizers, keyboards and sax). “L’isola delle rose”, “Paraocchi”, “Ladro di fiore”: a handful of songs are enough for him to immediately get the concert into full swing. But the feeling is that in this new dimension Blanco seems like a caged animal.

A frame that’s too rigid?

Not because there is a lack of energy: quite the opposite. The feeling, however, is that the energy that has always characterized his music never finds a real outlet. “Even at twenty you die”, “Out of your teeth”, “Worse than the devil”: it is as if every movement of Blanchito was held back before the header, every shot interrupted before the break. The stage of the sports hall, too large to emphasize his wildest and club-like soul but at the same time too small to contain the energy he releases, ends up becoming too rigid a frame for an artist who has built his own identity on unpredictability, instinct, even error. Paradoxically, he seemed to be more comfortable in stadiums, even when his stride was longer than his leg. The cage is not only physical, but also symbolic: «The real rock’n’roll today is discipline. And I’m learning to be disciplined”, he repeated in interviews given on the occasion of the release of “Ma”. It is the awareness gained after the fall. But all it takes is for a small crack to open for everything to explode and the urge to explode takes over.

The cracks

And so the old Blanco, the most uninhibited and reckless one, appears on the notes of “Belladonna”, making big jumps on the stage and writhing. In “Maledetta anger” he descends between the barriers, climbs, leans out over the audience with a GoPro attached to the microphone which displays an almost Luciferian face on the big screens, deformed by tension and adrenaline. “Pornografia”, in a nervous and accelerated pop-punk version, runs without brakes: Blanco crosses the stage from one side to the other and for a moment he really seems ready to throw himself into the crowd. He will give up. Discipline will call him to order, ensuring that the old Blanchito remains only an intermittent presence, which coexists with a more controlled, more constructed, almost restrained side. He himself, at a certain point, defines himself as “bipolar” – musically speaking – and perhaps it is the most honest synthesis of the show: two souls chasing each other without ever completely merging.

The duets are to be seen again

“Piangere a 90”, sung piano and voice, is one of the crucial moments of the evening. “I don’t feel the thrill anymore, now there’s a bruise”, he whispers, and within these verses there are all the vicissitudes of these years. The performance is thrilling. Not everything, however, works the same way. The choice to keep the “remote” duets in the lineup leaves more than one perplexity. If Mina’s presence on record on “Un crumbiolo di allegria” is acceptable in terms of stature and history, the “non-duet” with Gianluca Grignani – with his recorded voice and physical absence on stage – on “Peggio del Diavolo” ends up being forced: as they say, a “cringiata”. The same goes for “Ricordi” with (or rather, without) Elisa, “Mi fai crazy” with Sfera Ebbasta and “Brividi” with Mahmood: moments that break the flow instead of enriching it. Better, perhaps, it would have been to choose: either sing them alone or leave them out.

A process still ongoing

Then there is a more intimate, almost unresolved moment. After “December 15th”, Blanco mentions a reflection on gossip: «Fuck all the useless gossip», he blurts out. «All I’ve seen around is…», he then adds, without finishing the sentence. It stops. And that unsaid remains suspended in the air. It is a suspension that also accompanies the finale, with the jazzy “Un posto Migliore” and “Ma’”. Because this return is an ongoing process, under construction. Blanco seems to have found a direction again, but the tension between control and instinct, between form and chaos, remains all there, visible. It is the tension of an animal that has learned to stay in the cage, but continues to test the solidity of the bars that surround it. Hoping that sooner or later they will give in.

“I love you, man”
“The Island of Roses”
“Blinders”
“Flower Thief”
“Even at twenty you die”
“Until they bury me”
“Out of the way”
“Damn Anger”
“Worse than the devil”
“Pretty Woman”
“You know what”
“Fireflies”
“Crying at 90”
“A bit of joy”
“Memories”
“Our song”
“Nostalgia”
“Los Angeles”
“Heavenly Blue”
“Woo”
“Pornography”
“Sleepless Nights”
“December 15th”
“You drive me crazy”
“Chills”
“A better place
“But'”