Davide Van De Sfroos: the Forum becomes a dance hall

It’s been 25 years lined up since Davide Van De Sfroos (Davide Bernasconi) in his solo career. His professional activity, after his youthful punk experiences, had begun a few years earlier (1992) within De Sfroos. After the experience with the group ended in 1999 “Brèva and Tivàn” (the name of two winds of Lake Como) the first album signed with his stage name. In a quarter of a century Davide has built a notable and solid fan base located mainly in the north west of the country, in particular Lombardy and Switzerland. But he has also made forays into southern Italy and Sardinia where he enjoys a good following. In 2011 he played (very well) the Sanremo Festival card by presenting “Yanez” but not even on that occasion was he able to place himself perfectly on the national market. He deserves it.

But it doesn’t matter, that’s fine, because every time Davide calls his “people” they respond and the celebratory concert at the Forum (where he arrives for the third time) becomes (as often happens at his live shows) an occasion for celebration, a great convivial moment . But this is the strength of folk, which is the territory that the Laghée singer-songwriter frequents better than others. In his songs (as in his books) he talks about a people, a world, a land, a culture that he knows and frequents, of which he is an active part.

What music other than folk, popular, truly free-range music, can be the soundtrack for a party. So to celebrate an important anniversary… what a celebration it is.

With this spirit, with the desire to share, to dance together, to sing songs that his audience memorizes, Davide Van De Sfroos approached the concert at the Forum and fully achieved his objective.

Although the space allowed for ample spectacular solutions, it was preferred to maintain a certain sobriety, therefore no distractions from the music, just a lighting system worthy of the place, some projections behind the band, the normal screens and nothing more. There was music, the songs that commanded and dictated the rhythm of the evening.

Rhythm: it is he who is the master, who marks the entire concert, granting only some space to more delicate ballads (“The mythical Thor”, “Akuaduulza”, “New Orleans”, the acoustic trio “Oh lord”, “The smuggler’s lullaby”, “40 pass” and in the encores “Sciur Capitan”, an anti-war anthem told by a soldier who shuns it). Davide then brings his other passion to the stage: the blues. And to interpret it for the occasion he invites some of his old friends, the guitarists Maurizio “Gnola” Glielmo – a great interpreter of the genre – and the Sardinian Francesco Piu who, in addition to the dobro, tries his hand at the electric, he who prefers the acoustic. “Uncle Toni’s machine”, “Ventana blues”, “Paradiso dello scorpione”, are songs in which the Mississippi makes its delta in Lake Como, without forgetting that “the devil’s music” was also the soundtrack of the Afro-American celebrations.

There is therefore a lot of rhythm and you can also see it physically, plastically with the irrepressible parterre, jumping and moshing. But even behind the human mass under the stage, there are those who twirl in couple dances just like in the best dance halls: waltzes, mazurkas (but also funk), everything is an opportunity to dance happily.

In essence, the celebratory concert is what it should have been, a moment of celebration, an opportunity to get together and in (an apparent) lightness, retrace the journey of twenty-five years of music, from the beginning (“Manicomi” again by De Sfroos) to “Manoglia” (from the latest album) walking through time with those songs that characterized Davide’s path. Songs that characterize him and that have allowed this close bond with his audience (the people he actually sings about and whose lives he tells about without place, like those of many others). a lineup that certainly won’t have satisfied everyone, many will have felt “defrauded” of their favorite. It is therefore difficult to get everyone to agree also because his production (10 studio albums) is very substantial.

In addition to this unique live performance, the celebrations also include an anthology album (“Van de best”) in which he collects 49 songs from his story re-proposed in a new version played and re-sung with different arrangements compared to the originals and written specifically for this collection.

Ladder

Ki
Pulenta and galena frieze
The shaman
New Orleans
Handle
Uncle Toni’s car
Song of Amur
Frontale miner
Asylums
Oh Lord
Smuggler’s Lullaby
40 passes
The mythical Thor
Ventana Blues
Scorpion paradise
Grand Hotel
Yanez
Ballad of Cimino
Curiera
Akuaduulza

Medley
William Tell’s son
Cowboys in Milan
De Sfroos

Encore
Sciur Captain
The dance hall
Cyberfolk