Tropico: the dark side of “Sesso e samba” and “Italodisco”

It's not a cliché. Tropic it really is “the dark side” of “Sesso e samba”, “Italodisco” and all the other Italian pop hits of recent years, from “Guaranà” by Elodie to “Cenere” by Lazza, from “Ma Tonight” by Marco Mengoni to “Casa mia” by Ghali. Would you ever say that behind hits that have racked up who knows how many millions of streams on the platforms and earned platinum records there is an artist who is inspired by the great Roberto Murolowhich mentions the iconic ones Almamegretta and who goes around playing together with a band which includes real gray eminences of the Neapolitan music scene such as

Andrea De Fazio (Nu Genea drummer), Gigi Scialdone (bassist of the cult band Fitness Forever) e Torok (on keyboards with Luchè)? For Davide Petrella the Tropico project is not a simple side project, a project parallel to the author's activity for others. If anything, it's the opposite: “I come from a really tough background, this stuff isn't obvious”, he says to the audience gathered under the Rock in Roma stage, where last night he inaugurated the summer tour linked to the album “Call me when the magic ends”, the second – after “Non Existence of Love in Naples” of 2021 – published under the pseudonym “born in Cuba after a series of coincidences that I took as signs”, chosen to differentiate his activity as a singer-songwriter from that as an author.

The 38-year-old Neapolitan musician he came a long way to wear the playmaker's shirt (maybe the number 77, like the Napoli star Khvicha Kvaratskheliawhich he mentions in “Che mme lassat' a fa”, driving crazy the non-residents originally from the Neapolitan city who arrived at the Capannelle Hippodrome to cheer for him), a role to be added, if necessary, to the one as a hard-working and silent midfielder, and to see your face on the cover of a record. The kilometers traveled in a van touring Italy far and wide together with his former band, Le Strisce, have tempered his character. His work as an author has allowed him to win the respect of artists and professionals.

In the songs in the setlist he sings about his gray areas and those of his city and perhaps it is no coincidence that the theme of darkness represents a sort of hidden thread that links the songs together, from “Dint or dark” to “Anema and night” (“Murolo revolutionized Neapolitan song by removing all the useless frills from the songs, reducing everything to the guitar and the voice: that's what I tried to do, trying to write a song that could remain strong even without the superstructures”, he explains), passing through “Small dark”.

Jacket, shirt and hair slicked back, Tropico looks like a crooner next door, who however unleashes himself on funk and electronic rhythms, backed by a superband that includes, in addition to those already mentioned, seven other elements: .“Call me when the magic ends”, “Love for a night”, “There is no love in Naples”, the concert is to be enjoyed.

If you are wondering if by chance he also sings live some of the hits that have made him one of the most sought after and requested hitmakers of Italian pop – among the potential hits of this summer he signs, in addition to “Sesso e samba”, also “Karma ” by Kolors, “Peyote” by Articolo 31 with Fabri Fibra and Rocco Hunt, “Mezzo Rototo” by Alessandra Amoroso and BigMama, “Come un Tuono” by Rose Villain and Guè – the answer is no: “This is my home”, says Petrella to the kids who bought a ticket to hear him live, as if Tropico was a place for him to return to for the physical need to breathe.

LADDER:
“Dint or Dark”
“Little Dark”
“And things happen sunnà”
“Drunk with life”
“North area”
“Piazza Garibaldi”
“Call me when the magic ends”
“Girl”
“Love for an evening”
“We don't want to get big”

“Egotrip”
“What the hell is he doing”
“Anema and Night”
“We loved each other so much”
“Carlito's Way”
“Doppler”
“Naked”
“There is no love in Naples”
“I remember you and me”
“Gotha”
“It's important to have a vision”