Elisa

The glow-sticks held by the audience below resembled the ceiling of a kid's room with glow-in-the-dark stickers. Poetry, I know.

I went to my first Italian pop concert tonight, and it wasn't just any random artist but my favourite one, a singer-songwriter named Elisa. I first heard about her 10 years ago in a rather indirect way. My cousin Desy introduced me to some Italian pop songs by a reality-pop group created by the show Saranno Famosi ("They'll be famous"), probably most equivalent to the States' Making the Band but airing daily with a kind of The Real World-format since their everyday lives together were taped too. (I'm saying this as if I watched an episode but I never did.)

They did a cover of Elisa's song Luce so when I eventually returned to Vancouver that summer I Napstered it up and downloaded as many Elisa songs as I could find. Even though my Italian comprehension was iffy, the melodies and her voice made me instantly fall in love with her music. On top of that, she had (and continues to have) English songs--in fact, the ratio to Italian is probably 50:50.

When I first saw posters a couple of months ago advertising her upcoming concerts in Florence (since she's doing 2 different concerts at every stop of her tour), I immediately looked up tickets online. The cheapest ones I could find were around 80€ so I was sitting on the fence. I love concert experiences but I only fork out the big bucks (or any) for my favourite artists--but spending over $100 CAD seemed a bit over the top for me--that's more of a Metropolitan Opera budget (even though I fell asleep for more than half of the production!), and when you're a student in a foreign country like yours truly who would rather spend the money on a side-trip, it doesn't seem worth it. So I decided to let it be, ignoring my friends' advice to go and forgetting about it.

Then about a month ago, on a bit of a fluke, I inquired at the box office while getting tickets for another concert and was ecstatic to learn that I could get good seats for 40€. It made my life. I was hyper and jumping up and down, but like all sbalzi d'umore (if you have been taking notes, you would know what it means) it came and went, and even though today was the day of the concert I felt indifferent.

Indifference, I'll have you know, is the spice of life. Keeping those expectations low will guarantee a better experience than you thought you would have. It has rung true for so many occasions (my trip to Lucca comes foremost to mind) and it is the best advice I can give.

The first few seconds of the concert

Teatro Verdi, tonight's venue, is just a ten-minute walk from my apartment. I arrived early to get settled and had time to buy a pink Elisa wristband before the crowds got there. When I paid for the wristband, the merchandise guy asked me to pose for a picture and then gave me a sticker. I'm hoping my photo does not make it online; I did not doll myself up today.

My seat was in a box to the right of the fourth floor. I was next to a middle-aged couple and to the box on my right was a very passionate younger couple. I have the authority to say this because they were making out throughout the entire concert. It makes me glad I wore my thick-framed glasses because they blocked my peripheral vision...for the most part.

The concert was amazing and I'm so glad I went. Elisa played almost all of my favourite songs and a lot of new (or old) ones that I didn't know, mostly off of her new album Ivy. She also did a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins' 1979, which I was very surprised and happy to hear. (I later found out that this is on her new album so I guess it wasn't totally out of the blue.)

Elisa plays piano, guitar, and also tackled the drums and flute

Among the songs she performed that I knew were:

• Una poesia anche per te (A Poem also for You)
• Dancing, made slightly famous by its presence on the So You Think You Can Dance auditions a couple of years ago
• Heaven Out of Hell
• Almeno tu nell'universo (At Least You [are] in the Universe)
• Rainbow
• Gli ostacoli del cuore (Obstacles of the Heart)
• Luce (Light)

She apologized that she had a sore throat but I thought that she sang clearly and powerfully. She was captivating to watch even though she did not speak very much between the songs. After an intermission, she performed a few songs with a Florentine children's choir.

She also joked around with the Florentine dialect, saying foha for the Italian fuoco (fire)--at least, that's what I think it means. We had a laugh. I guess you had to be there.

Luce

At the end of her show she stayed around and signed autographs from the edge of the stage for about 5 minutes before leaving. Unfortunately I didn't make it down in time for this but I was so enthralled by the concert I just witnessed that it didn't matter. I was also in admiration of the Italian spectator (in general), who isn't scared to shout out things at the artist or sing along to the songs. On the other hand, s/he loves to talk during concerts and have public displays of affection.

Today's word of the day is fuoco, or "fire". Elisa's concert tonight had a water theme and the one tomorrow will be fire. I kind of really want to go!

PS. I took so many videos that my memory card quickly filled up and I had almost no space for pictures. I also didn't have enough space to film two of my favourite songs.