Italy is praised around the world for its landscapes, food, culture, style and everything else that seems to make life here a little better. I consider myself lucky to live by the sea in Apulia, filling these hot weeks with as many things as possible. Still, if there is one thing I will always make time for, it is live music.
There is something special about finally seeing the music that has stayed with me for months, through some of the best and worst moments of my life, including times when I struggled even to leave the house. On easier days, when nothing seems particularly painful, there is still always a song playing in my headphones. I rely on that.
I listen to plenty of genres, but the one that really lights something up in me is obviously emo and its many subgenres. I am a 19-year-old stereotype, yeah, I know, but I have my reasons. Italy has seen more prosperous times across its alternative music scenes. We still have promising new bands, but very few genres currently have a scene that can truly stand on its own. There is one exception…
Emo.
Our scene is vivid, there are people supporting it firmly, the DIY aesthetic is properly portrayed by both bands and fans, new bands contributing to this world every year. Every notable generation is involved, from the pioneering Raein and Fine Before You Came to the younger Radura and Stegosauro, they all support each other!
Knowing that, it is pretty easy to acknowledge that the concert culture is alive and well here, with shows being attended from all around the country, culminating in that July weekend in Umbertide, where the scene has its own 2 straight days for showing itself entirely, and that is the ‘Italian Party’!
Italian Party takes place once a year thanks to To Lose La Track, an independent DIY label that has been active in Italy for more than 20 years. The label books the bands and works closely with the people behind Piattaforma to organise the event, continuing a relationship that dates back to 2003.
The setup
Last year I wasn’t able to attend it as I was on a long trip with the European Union called ‘Interrail’, so I couldn’t let myself skip it this year too. Speaking with a close friend of mine named Sofia, she told me she was going to go there but there wasn’t any space for me in the car with her (turns out there was an extra empty seat but I’ve never really asked her why…). For instance, me and Sofia have a band with 2 other boys, Diablo and Davide, which will be the next characters brought in this story.
So there we were: me, Davide and Diablo, without a car because of various unfortunate accidents, desperate to go but with no idea how to get there. We had already started accepting that we would have to watch everything from a distance. Then an angel in human form posted a blessing on Instagram: “I have three empty seats for Italian Party. Does anybody want to come with me?”
Sofia spotted it and immediately reserved the seats for us. We obviously said yes, and so the journey began on July 25.
The trip
In the morning we met the 2 saviours (yes it wasn’t just one person, but we did not know until that moment). We hopped in the car and started our trip which was a six-hour drive, since we’re based in Bari, which is pretty far for Umbertide, located on the upper side of Central Italy.
We got to know the two people driving us and quickly realised how lucky we had been. They were respectful and easygoing, even repeatedly offering me the front seat after learning that I often suffer from car sickness. Everyone took turns choosing the music, so we listened to all kinds of stuff, and the mood in the car was genuinely good.
We passed Umbertide and continued to Città di Castello, where our campsite, Umbria Camp, was located. Our two rescuers were staying at a B&B in town, leaving the three of us alone with a tent none of us knew how to assemble. That’s how three men who have never pitched a tent begin to lose their minds…
We had less than two hours to get everything ready, and panic set in pretty quickly. We were completely lost at first, but somehow figured it out and finished in time. The result was far from impressive. I should probably watch a few tutorials before the next festival…
The Festival
We then headed to the place, ‘Piattaforma’ located in Umbertide’s historical city center. When we arrived the first band had already started, I didn’t even get to give them a chance, as soon as I stepped in the place they went with their last piece, sadly.
I met the rest of our group there, including Sofia, and we immediately shared a beer to celebrate the start of the evening. Marcovaldo were playing next, an established screamo band who have been around for more than a decade. The space was not full yet, and although not everybody knew the words, there was a decent group of people clearly familiar with their songs.
They had plenty of personality, from the vocalist’s long-sleeved top and extremely short trousers to the grey-haired guitarist, who reminded me a little of the stunning Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 4… Their playing was technically solid. It did not completely amaze me, but the experience was positive and their years together were obvious.
The real thing started with the next band, Radura.
The first thing I got to look at was a pedalboard, and not one you could easily forget… 3 rows full of 5 to 6 knobs pedals… never had the chance to look at something like this. I had to take a pic of it, so I asked the guitarist and did it!
With that many pedals, surely he had to be compensating for the absence of a second guitarist, right? I could not have been more wrong…
There were actually two more guitarists. Radura appeared onstage with three guitar players, a bassist and a drummer, with three members also handling vocals. I love their songs from beginning to end, so my expectations were already high.
Everything was so powerful that a real wall of sound formed onstage, matched by the wall of people pressing in behind me. They started with songs from their new EP and everyone was singing, although things had not become completely chaotic yet. That changed when they played their biggest song, “Quando Urlai Amore Nel Cuore Del Mondo”, taken from their split with Flowers and Shelters. Midwest emo and math-rock influences ran through it, paired with powerful voices and emotional screams coming straight from the heart.
Then I felt like my position wasn’t safe anymore, so I just jumped on stage and stood at the side of it with the photographers, and that might have been the best decision I took that day…
I didn’t want to get in the moshpit, I just didn’t feel like it, so I started taking some close pics.
The crowd went pretty wild as expected, with all kinds of people in the pit, and it was wonderful.
I honestly shed a tear for how good Radura was that day.
From this point on, there’s a slideshow of phenomenal bands.
Next were Scumma Do Mar, another band whose music has become deeply rooted in my ears: Neapolitan math emo with a genuinely beautiful voice, something fairly uncommon for the genre, and sharply controlled tempo changes.
They brought plenty of humour too, introducing themselves as the famous “Totorro e Peppino”, a funny mix between the band due to play later that night and the Neapolitan comedy duo Totò e Peppino. Their music draws heavily from their cultural background while also bringing Portuguese influences into the mix, which is quite a combination, I must admit. They also had perhaps the strongest connection with the crowd that evening, although Radura and the bands that followed gave them serious competition.
Scumma Do Mar finished with the song “Scendi” and left the stage. I didn’t move, not even to drink some water. No food, no anything. I didn’t care, because I knew what was coming… Fine Before You Came were next, and I was pretty hyped.
They had much more history behind them and, obviously, they were older, around their 50s, but I was still really looking forward to seeing them.
The moment they got on stage, I felt that something was different. They carried themselves differently and had a completely different presence. They clearly knew what they were doing, and they proved it immediately.
The first song was one of the newer ones. I didn’t know the lyrics, but I still cried. They made me cry with their very first song. It’s fair to point out that they completely ignored most of their older hits and focused on newer material, which was a little disappointing, but it was still the best performance of the day in my opinion. The vocalist looked so involved in every word that it almost seemed as if he was singing them for the first time. They were clearly having fun and said so more than once. They loved everything that was happening, and so did I.
Things did not finish here, even though I felt like my day was already made at this point, but actually there were still 4 bands left.
I was beginning to feel stiff and tired, so I decided to watch the next band, Stegosauro, from a chair farther back. Nothing against them, but this was already my third time seeing them in two years and they basically had no new songs.
Their take on math emo is clearly influenced by Cap’n Jazz and is usually very technical. This was not their strongest performance, with a few missed notes both vocally and instrumentally, but they did not have much left to prove. They are already well established within this scene.
At this point the article has to step away from the music for a moment, because I was starving. There were several food stands, and since I had no idea which one to choose, I asked Davide for help. He pointed me in the right direction. Ten euros got me a gigantic burger filled with practically everything imaginable. Approved food collab!
That decision meant I missed about 80 percent of Die Abete’s set, but from the little I caught, the crowd seemed to appreciate them.
From this point on my energy was disappearing fast, so I wandered around and sat down between sets. I wasn’t fully present during Crash Of Rhinos, although they seemed genuinely happy to be there and the audience clearly loved them. What I heard was interesting nonetheless, especially their variation on standard emo, driven by a prominent mid-range bass and bright, flashy guitars.
Between that set and the final band, I drifted away from the main area for a while. I started talking with some of Sofia’s friends from Northern Italy. Several of them are active in DIY circles, booking shows and organising events, so we began discussing possible gigs for our own band.
We went looking for water outside the venue but found none. Instead, we met several strangers, and quick conversations turned into a series of little side quests. Because of that, we completely missed Totorro, sadly.
We walked down to the river and stayed there for a while, until some friends of two girls we had met earlier joined us. By the time we returned, I was the only sober person left and the show had already ended. I was too tired to be upset. I only wanted to sleep.
The camping
Getting back to the campsite was fairly easy. Falling asleep was another matter. I had a tiny pillow and nothing else, so every position was uncomfortable. Davide had it even worse, since he did not have a pillow at all.
I woke up at 5:30 in the morning with a sudden urge to walk around the campsite and see what was there. Diablo joined me after a while, and we went for breakfast. I had a delicious lemon-cream brioche, exactly the kind of top-notch food I expected, while a little rain fell beside us.
The rain was manageable until it suddenly wasn’t. It started pouring as though we had punched Poseidon in the face. Davide was still asleep inside the tent, so we rushed back to rescue him before things got worse, threw everything into our bags and found shelter in the nearby bar.
Two hours later, our angels returned to save us once again and took us back to Piattaforma, this time for lunch with many of the people who had attended the festival the day before. We drank some good wine and ate local dishes, including pasta alla norcina with cream, schiaccia and gelato served with a piece of peach.
Eventually we got back in the car, and the couple drove us home to Bari.
I came back with the photographs, the memories and the people I had met, but also with some merch: a Radura shirt matching my girlfriend’s and a beautifully glittered cassette edition of their release. Mine was number eight out of only 100 copies.
All photographs taken by Gabriele Gargiuolo. Follow him on Instagram at @gabriele._gargiuolo.
