KALASHNIKOV, MINORANZA DI UNO, SOVIET ORDER ZERO, LA HAINE – SAN GIORGIO DI NOGARO (UDINE), 10/10/15

On Saturday night, October 11th, there was a concert in San Giorgio di Nogaro  (a godforsaken town in southern Friuli), in the small but warm self-managed social space called Tai Gjai, where initiatives like this often take place.
The bands that played during the event were : La Haine, Minoranza di Uno, Soviet Order Zero and Kalashnikov and each band had around half an hour to perform. The event was based on the militant anti-fascism, in fact in the late afternoon the book  “ I Resist! Ten years with you, ten years without you” , published by Redstar Press and edited by Associazione Antifascista Dax 16 marzo 2013, and in small part by Mutuo Soccorso Bandito, was presented in the main location.

The book talks about the murder of the antifascist activist Davide “Dax” Cesare, killed because of his politic membership by 3 fascists, and the facts of The Black Night of Milan ( where cops had brutally and with no reason battered  the young murdered man’s comrades, as they rushed in the hospital, and then tried to save their face accusing the battered victims of  “attempting to take away their friend’s corpse”). Moreover the book gives a ten years panoramic of the antifascist history of Milan and plentiful references to other emergent neo-fascism victims and an idea of the average weak psyche that the dogs in military uniform can be proud of (also defined as institutional fascism or “government deads”), with awesome colored photos and illustrations made by the comic book illustrator Zero Calcare.
After the presentation, the place assigned for the concert became very crowded with people. The first band that opened the event was La Haine, a young group from Udine, author of a post-punk/shoegaze/noise genre very different from the other performing groups. They turned out to be a nice surprise, with an energetic and gritty style (if with post-punk you thought that I meant things like Joy Division, no way,you were wrong… For sure there’s the undeniable influence of the famous Manchester band on the quartet, but the UK Decay seems more appropriate in this case) and a considerable scenic presence  (instruments falling down, drum sticks thrown by the drummer, the singer almost ate the microphone, distortions and casual noise in the endings….. Therefore, the punk attitude following the late 70’s British bands ).
I Minoranza di Uno, from the Gorizia area, have presented a good old school hardcore punk genre, that lasted an average of 60 to 90 seconds and lyrics shaped on a purely libertarian style, with great lyrical qualities. After all, it’s important to stress the members’ origins, which are from two bands  from the same region: Il Teatro delle Ombre and Spacciatori di Musica Stupefacente, both excellent bands with lyrics tending to a singer-songwriter style.
On the other hand, the Soviet Order Zero, from Milan, played a great hardcore DIY, with a more metal attitude, playing an awesome cover of the Spacciatori di Musica Stupefacente, very appreciated by the audience.
The Kalashnikov, from Milan, clearly the acme of the evening, proved to be over the (remarkable) expectations, rather than on top. Very soon the situation, already fully warmed by the great the previous bands, became chaotic. Those who wished to calmly follow the concert had found themselves swearing, considering the satisfying chaos and pogo that shaped in front of the musicians, with people screaming together  with the singer “Sonia Contro la Grande Distribuzione”, “Quando le macchine si fermeranno” and “Metropoli”.  The collective was born in a squat in Milan in 1996 and has granted a good number of awesome albums written in the last years (“Dreams For Super-Defeated Heroes”, “Angoscia-Rock”, “Living In A Psycho-Caos Era”, “Vampirizzati Oggi”, “La Città dell’Ultima Paura”, the split with Contrasto “Come Il Soffitto di Una Chiesa Bombardata” and the last work, created in may 2015, “L’Algebra Morente del Cielo”).
They consider themselves a collective as they believe that it’s the term mainly used to describe their case, overtaking the definition of band or musical group into which the individuals try to play their own instrument, while the Kalashnikov prefer to opt for a combination of people active for a goal, with the exaltation of the ideas and not for the single hedonism of each one.
Their attitude, the booklets contained in their  CDs and their material distribution politics are a proof of that. Their style is libertarian in the content as well as in the form and substance,  ignoring the usual easy slogans, even embracing a “progressive” approach , without moving away from punk.
This doesn’t mean that  the band is similar to the post-hardcore of some bands that pretend in vain to be original, instead becoming shoddy and giving sensations of deja-vù. The Kalashnikov are more then this, going beyond the definition of punk, achieving results with no comparison. Their hardcore has multiple shades and a certain kind of basic experimentation ( as a proof of that the unusual keyboards, that few punks bands can command with the same efficacy), the lyrics are full of poetry and romanticism ( and also based on the charge of the alienation caused by the capitalism and the prevailing authoritarianism…the group/ collective, for this reason, calls itself “romantic anarcho-punk”). The techno-instrumental ability is remarkable ( increased by fully or partially fully instrumental songs as “I Vermi della Terra”), the singer’s voice is bright and rich…. In other words, for sure one of the most original and talented groups in the present Italian scene.

The evening was, as I already said, warm, the percentage of alcohol for the non straight edge and the unlucky drivers was remarkable and being in a small space wasn’t a penalty, on the contrary, an enrichment.
An anti-fascism flag dedicated to Dax, with imprinted “Antifascism is anticapitalism  – Dax resist!” was hung during the whole concert. So, the best way to close is to, first of all, invite the readers to visit the social space taj Gjal and remember the comrade to whom the event was dedicated to: Dax lives and fights together with us!