The stage has a black carpet and is framed by an equally dark structure, with white writings. In the center, a piano and a bass. The people of the public are seated, attentive, composed: some smoke, others whisper to the neighbor’s ear. It is a really full of the mouth of gentlemen, until the moment the applause starts.
Nick Cave sits on the piano. A brief gesture of the arm facing the public and a smile. A big smile, which confirms to those who came to see that yes, he is there, he is here for them, but above all with them.
Start playing “Girl in Amber”. The space is filled with essentiality.
I find myself in the public, I breathe the scent of the style, the depth and also the stars.
The frame is Piazza Sordello in Mantua, a suggestive medieval square surrounded by the walls of the ducal palace, the cathedral and by buildings decorated with capitals and colors that evoke together lightness and power, history and art. Despite being summer, the air is fresh. A light breeze takes away the clouds and also makes the moon closer to us.
The lights transform the black of the stage into a triumph of elegance.
Elegance, yes. And Nick Cave with him really has a lot.
It has dark eyes, light, ethereal skin. Black jacket, white shirt, black pants and white socks. And smiles.
As he plays, someone closes his eyes, lets himself be transported by the notes: who knows where he goes, in which world, made of dreams or memories.
The song “Balcony man” accompanies those thoughts that float in the air.
I still observe, and I stay with my mind in that place. I keep my eyes well open, I look for a gesture, something unexpected.
The singer, after each song, interacts with the public. He does it even before starting: he explains why he wrote that text, what he moved, what he tried. He tells of his love for music, born the first time he listened to Leonard Cohen.
A electrocution, an irresistible passion that pierced his heart.
He found an example, a model, a guide.
RB Dette has become a singer -songwriter who brings elegance and contained in the world. It’s not a little, huh?
I wonder how many people have received that impulse, that blaze of passion. Those who remain nevertheless trapped in the “but what do you want to do” or “I will never make it”.
My mind is still there, he discovers unexpected things.
Questions that I haven’t asked myself for some time, answers that I didn’t give who knows how much, and then …
Nick Cave smiles again: among the public there is his wife. He looks for her with his gaze, he sees her in the front row, despite the dazzling lights.
He tells how you find it in every word, even if he does not write about her or for her. But his wife is inside his music.
It is moved and the public applauds.
And they are there, sitting. I observe.
I wonder how significant this applause is.
We beat our hands, we make thanks to the emotion of a man who speaks without slogans, hashtags or well -packaged copy. A man who makes his emotions a tool to give emotions.
We exult for a gesture of tenderness.
How long have I since I see authentic gestures? I wonder.
How many times I see only heads bent over their mobile phones, between group chat – work, asylum, pilates … chat without passion. Chat and that’s it.
And I go back to the word passion.
For art, work, someone or something.
That makes us move. That makes us applaud. That passion that does not remain buried by doubts, fears, conventions, by “I’m afraid of making mistakes” or “I don’t have time, I have to make a post”.
Nick Cave still plays.
His hands move read, the black jacket emanates refinement.
On stage there is a black carpet.
And above there are the stars.
Next to him, Colin Greenwood the bassist of Radiohead, an elegant and discreet presence, who decorates every magic note.
People close their eyes again, who knows where their mind brings them to which world.
In the meantime, I ask myself questions.
Questions that float in a poem full of music.
I smile among people. Sigh.
I understand I found what I was looking for: something rare.
Something true.
Something unexpected.
