Four sold out dates and an avalanche of emotions: Emilia Romagna starts again from Vasco

Eleven dates for 5 cities, all sold out, and a spectacular start to say the least: in Bologna, the city where he wrote masterpieces such as “Ogni volta” and “Siamo solo noi”, with four dates at the Dall’Ara stadium. For all – 6, 7, 11 and 12 June – sold out. The city where Vasco studied at university and did theater had been waiting for him since 2015 and he couldn’t wait to embrace him again.

Before continuing south with a series of double concerts from Rome to Palermo and then to Salerno, to go back up again towards Rimini, the commander indulged in Emilia Romagna with four unforgettable evenings, with an epic flavor, accompanied by the sensation of participating along with a grand renaissance.

Yes, because Emilia Romagna, so badly hit by the floods that brought thousands of people to their knees a few weeks ago, destroying homes, businesses and disfiguring the landscape, really needed his words, that “look me in the face when you talk to me” which needs no explanation because it communicates more than any other caption.

An avalanche of emotions that right from the entrance of the “komandante” onto the stage of the Bologna stadium exhorts the population to have courage and to face reality, a reality that is safer than any lie. “And if there’s something you don’t like”, why not, tell the moon, or Vasco, “it may bring you luck”.

Intense minutes that never seem to end and that envelop tens of thousands of people in an unspeakable way, old and new friends who have been following the “kom” for a lifetime or who perhaps have only recently discovered it, all accompanied by the awareness of having facing something more than an artist. A life partner, a confidant, a person with whom you can talk, capable of really listening to you: this is the magic of Vasco, the imperturbable alchemy that characterizes his relationship with the fans and with the music itself, the indisputable ability and never failed, over the years, to play with rock, between irony and provocation. Irreverent, futuristic, dry, melancholic. Suspended between nostalgia for the past and past loves and the desire to live in the present without ever giving up.

This is the energy that Vasco transmitted to Emilia Romagna during the four concerts in Bologna, inviting it to pick up its pieces and move forward, because “if the end of the world doesn’t come, we’ll see each other in June anyway, in a year, because I always come back here”.

The stadium burns to the notes of Albachiara and all around, amidst fireworks and pyrotechnic displays, confetti rains down. A spectacular scenography with V-shaped big screens and to accompany everything, as always, the best band in the world: Vince Pastano on guitars and musical direction, Stef Burns on guitar, Alberto Rocchetti on keyboards and backing vocals, Matt Laug on drums, Andrea Torresani on bass, Antonella D’Urso on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, Andrea Ferrario on sax, Tiziano Bianchi on trumpet, Roberto Solimando on trombone, Roberta Montanari on backing vocals, and guest star Claudio Golinelli known as il Gallo on bass.

An honest and sincere rebirth for a heterogeneous, international people, varied in age, class and culture, of all origins. The people of Vasco, who have followed him in over 800 concerts in all these years. 13 million total viewers for a heritage of 200 existential songs, songs that have always adhered to the historical moment that saw them born, authentic and coherent.

Six years have passed since 2017 which saw the king of Italian rock triumph in Modena Park gathering 225,000 spectators without even a scuffle – they were all there to hear his music and that’s it – six years, but time in Emilia Romagna he seems to have stopped, and during the evenings in Bologna one breathed that magical air again, the atmosphere that Zocca’s ex-boyfriend always manages to create when he comes home. And never as in this unfortunate spring of 2023 did the Region need him.