Bar Italia seem to be speeding through the music scene with their second LP release this year, The Twits, following Tracey Denim earlier in 2023. Bar Italia work live. The allusive nature of the band, which already existed from their get go being shadowed with the lure of being signed to Dean Blunt's record label, is only exemplified after seeing them in the flesh. Faith Hussain reviews...
The lighting of the venue absolutely worked in their favour to break up songs that would have felt
very much like a blur of sound because of their similarity in tone, granting individuality to each track
so their energised audience could really digest what they’d just heard. Just streaming the band is
a completely different experience because you lack the sensory change to divorce track from track.
The lighting was set to a dark red, commencing with the up-tempo tracks Calm Down with Me and
My Little Tony from their latest album, matching the aura of the distorted bass and erratic
drumming and appearing angrier and stylistically post punkier than the rest of The Twits. The
bathing of such songs in red made them feel argumentative to me; The Twits album does have an
element of anger about it even in more rhythmically eased songs like Twist. Their lyrics capture
feud.
"Bar Italia’s lyricism is very conversation heavy, leaving the audience feeling like they are people watching in a busy city"
The very abrupt change to a harsher white lighting and slower pace of song effectively calmed the
hectic storm produced by their earlier tracks, with notable mention to Twist. Bar Italia’s lyricism is
very conversation heavy, leaving the audience feeling like they are people watching in a busy city.
Twist especially captured the obvious move to a more shoegazey style (highlighted by the lighting
change). Seeing Nina chanting with her tambourine to the lyrics “I won’t bore you with the details of
what happened…” perfectly encapsulates the very real everyday hum of conversation we only
overhear snippets of. The white light really produced a trance state in which I felt like I was
eavesdropping into a private conversation between the group members without knowing the full
plot, or in the words of Nina “details of what happened”. I almost felt guilty for being granted access
to what seemed like such an intimate chat.
The change to red lighting yet again was marked by the introduction of songs from Tracey Denim,
like Nurse! (one of my favourites from Bar Italia) in parallel with tracks from The Twits, like
World’s Greatest Emoter. There's definitely a difference in their last album compared to The Twits.
Nurse! presented itself with a funkier bass and to me sounded like a ballad to the 90’s grunge
scene, reminiscent of the anger of a lost youth with Sam’s mention of “haven’t felt this way since
you were twenty one”. It feels delicate and sad: an ode to an unwanted nostalgia. World’s Greatest
Emoter however, acoustically is more energised and delves into youth again, with Sam saying, not
singing, “Wasted your look, tryna keep it young…” maintaining the bands verbal style of energised
overheard conversation without directly addressing any intimate details of said conversation. This
track plays like something fresh out of a messy garage formed band. It’s angsty instead of sad,
conforms to the albums general theme of distemper and delves into something more post punky
than Nurse!.
"Their music seems incredibly personal with hidden secrets, so crowd interaction was rightly so kept to a minimum"
Upon arrival the band seemed nervous with little crowd interaction, and immediately after finishing
their set swiftly left which slightly confused me and some of the crowd as I wanted to ask them a few
questions. Upon reflection however, this makes perfect sense. Bar Italia are an allusive band and
considering the nature of their lyricism and track titles, I think we are not meant to know the
inspiration or meanings behind their songs. Their music seems incredibly personal with hidden
secrets, so crowd interaction was rightly so kept to a minimum. Their physical presentation at this
gig only added to their shadowy persona.
Bar Italia whisper lyrics of everyday life. We are given no explanation because we don’t need one,
we aren’t meant to read into lyrics like we would with other artists. We are meant to only overhear.
Faith Hussain
Edited by Alice Beard
Cover image and art courtesy of Faith Hussain
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