Incubus - Milan review November 2011

INCUBUS, Assago Forum in Milan (15.11.2011)

“PLEASE DON’T WAKE ME UP FROM THIS INCUBUS”

It has been 15 years since I started listening to this band and, differently from a huge part of the audience present on the 15th of November to the Assago Forum in Milan, this was the fourth time I’ve heard Incubus performing live.  I’ve been following them since the beginning, when a Rasta-Brandon Boyd performed screaming “A certain shade of green” in “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.”; since they produced their first album entitled “Fungus Amongus”, an onomatopoeic and alliterating couple of words defining their intriguing rock sound.

Time makes groups and people change according to the evolving music environment, discovering new sounds and becoming more eclectic: Incubus went through a long path of changings during the past years, producing Masterpieces such the album “Make Yourself”; passing through a more melodic and melancholic “Morning View” to an angry “A crowd left of the Murder..”; reaching the top of experimental music in “Light Grenades”; finally landing on the soft melodies of “If not now, When?”..
As the lead guitarist of the group said on an interview: when Incubus play their songs “it sounds like 13 different bands are playing 13 different songs... Every time we're about to start making a new album, I tell myself, 'Okay, this one's going to be cohesive,' and it never happens."
This is the truth; this is how they really are: they cannot be classified, they cannot be described using a simple and unique definition, they cannot be reclosed into just one genre!
 
As I was saying before, this was the fourth time I heard them live, and to be honest, at the beginning I was not sure about their show to come due to the fact that the previous two performances I attended had not been “over the top” but, on the contrary, they had been quite disappointing and under tune.
Moreover, with the release of this new soft and melodic album, I thought this would have been a quiet and uneventful show: this time they really had to surprise me!

Some minutes after nine o’clock, in a cold November evening, Brandon Boyd and his band opened with the exploding “Megalomaniac” followed by the great “Pardon me”: the crowd was on fire, the energetic performers I remembered arose.

I was just thinking about the title of their last album, “If not now, When?”: the moment for striking me was just this precise occasion!

The concert was superb: an inspired front man, followed by his fellow musicians, performed old songs melt with the newest ones and the atmosphere was incredible.

I felt the audience vibrating under the old tunes of the amazing “Drive”, “Stellar”, “Anna Molly”, “Nice to know you”, “Love hurts”, “Are you in?” and “Wish you were here”; screaming when the exploding “Certain shade of Green” took us dancing and becoming extremely excited; all these songs were performed with the new “Adolescent”, “Promises, Promises”, “Switchblade”, “If not now, When?” concluding with “Tomorrow’s food”.

The performance was perfect and the sounds too, the crowd was entranced hoping this would have never ended.  This was the best live-Incubus I have ever attended!

Maybe they have grown up and matured, maybe they wanted to jump back to the old young and rocking Incubus; I don’t know, what I know is that this show was worth one’s while and I will definitely recommend everyone to participate in enjoying the incredible atmosphere they are able to create, next time they will come to Italy!


Review: Caterina Boiardi
Photos: Enzo Mazzeo
http://www.enzomazzeo.com