Live Performance Review: Blonde Redhead, Thursday 26.03.2015 20:00, Orion, Ciampino, Rome

Blonde Redhead, for the uninitiated are a trio of musicians from New York. They are: Kazu Makino from Japan on vocals, guitars and keyboards, and the twin brothers Simone & Amedeo Pace from Milan. Simone is the drummer and Amedeo does vocals, guitars and keyboards.

I find it hard to describe to people what their music is like, though Wikipedia terms them as American Alternative Rock with elements of dream pop, nu-gaze & psychedelic and experimental rock. I tend to think of them as electronica and I feel it is justified to see some of what they do as coming under this banner. Despite this being how I term them, I also have a sense that this in no way conveys breadth of what they do. Blonde Redhead, to date, have done nine albums. The first five I don't rate and only discovered in retrospect. The sixth, and in my view still best album they have done, is 'Misery is a Butterfly' (2004). This album has sweeping strings, a sense of grandeur in places and melancholia throughout. I regard it as being perfect.

Since then the group have produced a further three albums all of which I feel to be very good, though not quite as good as 'Misery'. These subsequent albums are '23' (2007), 'Penny Sparkle' (2010) & 'Barragan' (2014).

Blonde Redhead are not particularly well known in the United Kingdom, and they are the final artist/group that I am presently aware of who I had not seen though was very keen to see, so I decided to treat myself with a trip to Rome to see them.

Ciampino is a small town just outside Rome and the venue is small with a capacity of approximately 1,000. It did feel to be particularly pleasurable to see them in such a small space, though the venue was clearly not full (a local at the gig reckoned this would largely be due to the fact that it is difficult to get public transport out to there from Rome). As usual I was in the middle of the front row.

There was a support, who's name I didn't catch, they were okay though every song progressed in a similar manner.

The group's set covered a good selection from across their last few albums. I was delighted that they did several songs from 'Misery' and also performed a good range of other songs I am familiar with. There is clearly a very good connection between the musicians particularly between the two brothers. Kazu comes over as a very shy lady though a very able performer. The performance was very absorbing, causing a sense that although I was tired having spent the day walking around Rome, I would have happily have stood there listening to them for hours.

There was only one slight blip in the whole show. During the encore, they had just begun to perform 'Melody' from 'Misery' when Kazu stopped the others and went over to speak with them. I am not sure what the issue was, though it was dealt with and then she asked the audience if we wanted them to restart the song or move on to the next. Happily the audience asked for them to begin the song again. I like the fact that a musician stops the performance to enable getting it right, rather than just bumbling through and trying to just move on. The only negative about this was that it appeared to affect Kazu's mood and at the end of the gig she appeared lost in her own world though quite sad and Amedeo went to comfort her and to assist her off-stage. I don't feel this really detracted from the performance, though it is not nice to see a performer get upset.

The performance was very good and the crowd seemed to love it, though I can't quite say it was excellent. I am though very glad that I went and did greatly enjoy myself. Though the downside is that I now have no musicians left who I have a burning desire to see, which I have to admit feels a bit odd.

09.5/10.