Friday 9 February 2024

Italy 2024 - La Sad - Autodestruttivo

 

(Click here to view the video, as it's not available on YouTube yet…)

For those of you who still haven't partaken of its joys, Italy's Sanremo Festival is a thing of absolute beauty. Five long nights of showbiz, chit chat, local in-jokes and star interviews - and somewhere in the middle is a thirty act song festival that almost accidentally decides who they're going to send to Eurovision. It is utterly bonkers, and the unbeatable highlight of the TV year in Apocalypse Towers.

This year has been a gem. We've already seen John Travolta awkwardly doing the Birdie Song dance, seemingly against his will, Russell Crowe effectively calling him a wanker on live TV, some stunning tributes to musicians who have passed, and a whole lot of spine-tingling songs scattered amongst them. But among the beautiful ballads and curious oddities that only Italians fully understand sits this bit of strangeness.

La Sad are kind of like what you get if Busted hung out with Yungblud and had a night in watching Green Day videos. But despite the very unpunkness that all suggests, they've do really have something about them. Of course, they're mainly playing dress up as they groan and grumble their way through a song about youth disaffection, but you can't help but think that the costumes are starting to seep into their souls and they're slowly becoming, at least in part, the very thing they're aping. In my day-to-day punk rock world this lot would get laughed out of even a half-gnarly noise dungeon and chased down the street by amused crusties. But in the tuxedo-and-glitter surroundings of Sanremo their antics have been like a breath of silly fresh air. Gawd bless 'em for having a go!

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