When too many dad-rock cliches are barely enough

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Maneskin
Hordern Pavilion, November 22
Reviewed by MICHAEL BAILEY
★★★★

Let’s face it, Australia is never going to host the Eurovision Song Contest – we’d have to win it first.

But on this night, the 5500 of us crammed into this shed got an inkling of what one of those flag-waving, fanatical Eurovision crowds must be like.

Maneskin, four reprobate rockers from Rome, gave Italy its third Eurovision crown in 2021. In doing so, they gave themselves an international breakthrough which, if the ardour of their Sydney reception is any guide, has transcended that of the typical song contest winner.

Maneskin rocked the Hordern Pavilion at a sold-out show on Wednesday night.Credit: Ruby Boland

Yes, there was a big contingent of Eurovision nuts here, including the guy in the mosh pit holding up the “Play Ja Ja Ding Dong” sign. (Eurovision in-joke – look it up.) Plenty of Italian flags, too.

Bassist Victoria De Angelis.Credit: Ruby Boland

But judging from how ballistic the crowd went when Thomas Raggi walked out alone and started thrashing the riff to Don’t Wanna Sleep, what was really being celebrated was the resurgence of rock ‘n’ roll that Maneskin represents.

And mamma mia, can they play the stuff. It’s a tribute to Raggi, bassist Victoria De Angelis and drummer Ethan Torchio that no other instruments were needed to enrapture us for two hours. That’s despite an audience divided between youngsters who knew only charts dominated by shiny pop before Maneskin came along, and those old enough to own CDs by The White Stripes, whose Seven Nation Army seemed the template for this show’s uptempo material.

Even frontman Damiano David can’t help air-guitaring to Maneskin.Credit: Ruby Boland

For Maneskin, that four-to-the-floor beat was just another cliche to love. The same went for archetypal frontman Damiano David, whose sex-and-drugs lyrics rarely strayed far from the rule book of rock. Thankfully, neither did his powerhouse lungs, snake-hipped dancing, penchant for crowd-surfing and nose for a hook (biggest hit I Wanna Be Your Slave was nothing but hooks, and naturally Jet’s Are You Gonna Be My Girl? was the people-pleasing cover de jour).

Then there came the moments Maneskin broke the mould, producing a proprietary brand of rap-rock that sounded most strident in Italian (Eurovision winner and instant party starter Zitti E Buoni), and the schoolyard chants of Bla Bla Bla and Kool Kids, which rallied the crowd surprisingly hard for songs that are undeniably an acquired taste on record.

And of course Maneskin know their way around a power ballad. The Loneliest’s sweeping melody should adorn their encores for years to come, but it was in Trastevere – just David and Raggi on an acoustic B-stage – that the grain in the frontman’s voice rubbed most meaningfully.

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