If he wasn't amongst us already, somebody would have to invent Roberto Cassani, he's such a blast of fresh air in a tired, self-regarding world. A native of Milan who married and settled in Scotland some years back, he performs his material with raw throatiness in a voice that slides between Joe Dolce-like amusing foreign fellow and extremely idiomatic Scots English. In America, this cd would be plastered with 'parental advisory' stickers.
Recorded live in Perth at the end of last summer, Chicka Boom 'Live' has all the atmosphere of a rowdy pub gig; sometimes the guys at the back get more involved in their conversations than Roberto's rants but then he'll gather them back in and everybody will be joining in with a beery chorus of 'We ain't gonna vote for you!'. He's irresistible, really, wearing his working man's perspective on his sleeve but wrapping it in such broad good humour that you can't help but be on his side. I saw him at Belladrum Festival last year, with a marquee full of half-drunk punters grinning broadly; laughing with him, at him and at themselves for joining in. He's totally in-yer-face, but you'd have to be overly prim to be alienated by him.
Tackling the subject matter of everyday life, Roberto casts an eye over drunken women, the office party, the internet and other familiar, everyday stuff, bringing a good-humoured lairy knowingness to it all. Ferociously strumming his guitar and exploding his stream of words into the microphone ( 'Come closer!' he exhorts his audience, at the outset. 'But watch out! I spit!' ) sometimes something like a song emerges; he's more storyteller than musician, though, with a stream of gags that are difficult to catch all in one go and football crowd choruses, easily learnt and easy to join in with.
|
There's that many good lines, everybody will find their own favourites, but for me nothing tops:
'Money, when accumulated, will change your personality/ - And that's a bloody fact -/It turns you from working class angel/ Into a pretentious ridiculous twat!'
Subtle, sensitive and intensely musical it ain't, but Chicka Boom 'Live' has more raw fun and atmosphere than anything you're likely to have heard in a month of Sundays, so hoorah for Roberto Cassani, a real one -off.
(www.nessmp3.com/music/biscuitsandgravy)
|
