Marci su Roma Fest (Rome, 3rd November 2018)

Festival name: Marci su Roma
Date: 3rd November 2018
Location: Trecentosessanta Gradi, Rome
Price: 6 €






The day after the doom metal night with Abysmal Grief, I changed completely musical genre in order to destroy my ears (AND MY BONES!) with a HC punk festival called "Marci su Roma", that was taken at the Trecentosessanta Gradi punk pub (also simply known as 360) in the area of Rome known as San Lorenzo. The occasion was very good for every HC maniac worthy of this name since 9 Italian bands (coming from Central to North Italy) were in the bill to offer a festival destined to last a lot of hours (a tenth band called Social Trauma was supposed to play but they didn't play). So, many people from every corner of the Nation came in my city, and I must say already that this festival has been fantastic also since it gave to all of us the impression of a Italian HC scene very united and full of solidarity. This also because, in these days, San Lorenzo, a historically antifascist area, is living a very critical socio-political period, as many of you knows. Without explaining the reasons, in San Lorenzo the atmosphere was (and still is) very hot, and it isn't a case if the slogan of the festival was "Gli unici stranieri: fasci e sbirri nei quartieri" ("the only foreigners: fascists and cops in the blocks"). Ended the description of the contextual conditions, it's time now to see who's who (Conflict, anyone?)!


Of the 9 bands, I saw only 4 of them, also because I went to the pub at 9 pm circa, so relatively late since the fest was supposed to start 2 hours before. Anyway, after drinking a good beer (and also some red wine offered to me by a totally drunken guy coming from Venice!), the first band I saw has been the mighty Contrasto. Hailing from Cesena, this band is a pure demonstration that hardcore punk isn't only a kind of music but something more: in fact, they are always ready to promote anarchist activities and also to play within occupied centres and squats. Additionally, their lyrics are an amazing combination between pure poetry and call to revolt, as again shown perfectly through their last release "Politico Personale", that, for me, is one of the best HC punk albums released in 2018.

Speaking about their show, they started with a spoken word intro in which the singer explained the sense of this fest by mentioning also the fukken events recently happened in San Lorenzo. Then, they destroyed the stage with their versatile hardcore punk able to be very violent but also singalong, by playing even the newest songs like "Credere obbedire crepare a testa in giù" or "Colpirne uno, Colpirne cento". The response of the public? Great, since the most demented maniacs moshed all the time!

After unfortunately losing the HC legend Impact, I saw in action Cimex. There are very few infos about Cimex since I know only that they are drinker anarcho-punkers from Treviso that are reunited recently, and that they released an outstanding album in 2002 titled "Per te solo rabbia". I confess I remember not so much about them (maybe because I was already a little drunken?) but, surely, I remember a lot of fury, a lot of moshing heads (included me), a lot of stage divers from everywhere...and a lot of beer on the floor, so moshing was a suicide (as it's fukken classic for the 360...)!

Among the few Roman bands in the bill, Maxcarnage emerges in a particular way. If you remember well, I lost them in occasion of the Go! Fest #8, so, this time, I had absolutely to see them...and the result is that I had a lot of fun by seeing these 4 exploited men! The reason of this enthusiasm doesn't simply comes from their music (an unpredictable hardcore punk with many different influences coming from grindcore, power violence, thrash metal etc...) but from their completely demented and talkative singer! You have to think that, additionally to trying a conjugate the most known Italian blasphemy (WTF?), he did EVERYTHING on and under the stage, including moshing, throwing himself on the floor, surf diving...and even walking (LITERALLY!) on the walls...and all this always while he was screaming! Plus, don't forget that, slowly, he undressed song after song until to stay only with his underwear! If all this wasn't enough, I remember that Maxcarnage played an absurd version of "I Want to Break Free" by Queen! In other words, the show by them was the funnier of the entire fest!

Ended the delirium by Maxcarnage, it was the turn, at 2.30 am circa, of 5 Italian guys that now resides in Berlin, Germany: Speed Kobra. Unfortunately, many maniacs, at that time, left the place and no one moshed anymore during the last 10 - 15 minutes of the show of Speed Kobra. Shame, because they kicked a lot of asses thanks to their scrapping crust'n'roll assault. Strong of an album titled "Human Annihilation" (2017), of them I remember a very angry drummer, a singer that screamed face to face with the public, and a guitarist (that played an endless solo during a break due to technical issue with the drums) who incredibly looks like Luis Maggio from Sudden Death!

So, the fest has been very long since it lasted from 7 pm circa to 3 am, involving, in addition to Impact, also bands such as Intothebaobab, Marnero (that presented their ambitious new album "Quando vedrai le fiamme sarà giunta l'ora"), Grog and Ira (first live gig ever, they'll play on 15th December 2018 at CSOA Spartaco to support Closed Speech). I hope I will manage to see live all them soon or later. Anyway, even though I think that Marci su Roma was to be organized at a bigger place (like CSOA Spartaco, for example) since 360 is too little for this kind of events, the fest (that was a benefit for Faqtotum, "an art and comunication laboratory") has been successful and full of crazy and funny people and, surely, no one of us will forget easily one of the best HC punk festivals that have been happened this year in Rome Caput Mundi.