It’s not very often that there are concerts close to where I live. And it’s even rarer to have one of my favourite artists perform so close to me. So, when I saw that the incredible Tom Morello and The Last Internationale were to play at the amazing Castle in Villafranca, I had no doubts but to go and tell you all about it. The doors were opened at about 20:10, and The Last Internationale started playing at 20:30, very punctual. I like it!
I have seen my fair share of concerts, but to this day I still have to find someone who has a better stage presence than The Last Internationale. They give every ounce of strength they have to the audience and to the music they play. Lead singer Delila Paz has a sensational vocal range, capable of shifting from very soft and charming vocals to more powerful and throaty ones. She often engaged with the audience and even spoke a few words of Italian! That is something that the audience appreciated a lot. One of the fans told her to say “Daje”, (which is originally a common word used in Rome to incite something or someone), and after she repeated it, she said “Now we connected!“. We can’t forget the rest of the group, though. Edgey Pires is a master of guitar and entertainment, moving, jumping, shouting and having the time of his life on stage. It’s so great to see performers having fun with us! Pierre Belleville on drums is another force to be reckoned with: he drums and keeps the rhythm as if his life depended on this; last but not least Andrés Malta alternates on bass with Delila and plays keyboards too. This group will go quite far, so let’s keep an eye on them! A funny thing happened while they were playing: a little bird landed on stage, probably fascinated by the music. Well, who could blame him? In the closing track “1968” Delila took a trip and visited the audience, asking us to sit down and hear her sing. That was absolutely precious!
Setlist:
- Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Indian Blood
- 1984
- Wanted Man
- Hard Times
- Running For A Dream
- 1968
Since time flies when you’re having fun, just when we were all warmed up it’s time to change, and at 21:29, with “Bella Ciao“, an “Italian folk song” as Tom Morello described it later in the evening. Then, he and the whole band arrived on stage, joined by Morello’s 13y.o. son Roman. Tom and Roman wrote together the first song they played, “Soldier in The Army Of Love“, the whole audience went crazy! What a spectacular group of talented people Morello has. They all seem very cohesive, professional and skilled. He then delighted us with an acoustic set that involved us in the audience as well. This was especially in “Keep Going“, where we were encouraged to clap and say “Hey!” to the rhythm of the song. Before this started though, he said that usually when the guitarist tunes the guitar it’s the most boring moment of the show, and so he asked us to be as loud as we possibly could to counter this. For 17 seconds the crowd screamed, and Morello appreciated this a lot. While I was thinking that the surprises were over, Morello was joined on stage by Måneskin guitarist Thomas Raggi and they played “Gossip“, wonderfully sung by Carl Restivo. To “Kick Out The Jams“, he also invited Delila of The Last Internationale! Oh my, so much talent on one stage! The audience loved this and cheered for quite a while. After playing a medley of songs from his days in Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave (including a touching prayer to Chris Cornell), then he let the audience sing the unmissable “Killing In The Name“. His set ended with the cover of John Lennon‘s “Power To The People“, in which he asked us to jump so hard, that we might cause an earthquake. The audience obviously obliged, and the night as well as the magic of music unfortunately ended. But now, we’ll have all those wonderful memories to remember by. You want a taste of freedom? Keep going.
Setlist:
- Soldier In The Army Of Love
- Vigilante Nocturno
- Testify / Take The Power Back / Freedom / Snakecharmer
- One Man Revolution
- Secretariat
- Mary Celeste / Cato Steadman
- The Road I Must Travel
- House Gone Up (acoustic)
- The King Of Hell (acoustic)
- Keep Going (acoustic)
- Black Spartacus
- World Wide Rebel Songs
- Let’s Get The Party Started
- Hold The Line
- Gossip (with Thomas Raggi)
- Kick Out The James (with Thomas Raggi and Delila Paz)
- Bombtrack / Know Your Enemy / Bulls On Parade / Guerrilla Radio / Sleep Now In The Fire / Bullet In The Head / Cochise / Like A Stone
- The Ghost Of Tom Joad
- Killing In The Name
- Power To The People
