Ever since the first time I heard Måneskin’s “I Wanna Be Your Slave” (and their excellent cover of The Four Seasons’ “Beggin’”), I was hooked. There’s something about the sounds of Damiano David’s voice that just captivates me, and the entire band just has a tight, catchy, fantastic sound that I can’t seem to get enough of. I didn’t get to catch them when they played the Masonic last November, so believe me when I say that I was not going to miss the Italian band’s first US arena tour. The Rush! World Tour came to Oakland Arena this past weekend (on Friday the 13th, no less), and I couldn’t have been more excited to hear them live.
After getting to the venue and picking up a truly terrible tiny pepperoni pizza and a quick drink, my friend Kerri and I settled into our seats and awaited the show. Much to our delight, there was no opening act: when the show started, it was Måneskin who appeared, and we were ready! I don’t know all of the band’s catalogue, but it turned out that it didn’t matter: even songs in Italian were delightful. Interestingly, I noticed that there was a different, distinctive quality to David’s voice when he sings in his native tongue compared to when he sings in English. I noted, “I may only understand one word in twenty, but it’s beautiful.”
After “Honey (Are U Coming?)” and “Supermodel,” I happily got to enjoy the live version of “Beggin’,” (which I honestly thought was an original Madcon song until Måneskin covered it). My notes on the song are: “fucking stellar” and “better live!”
Throughout the show, David continues to flirt with the crowd while removing his silver cool guy wraparound shades (circa the early aughts, maybe?) as little as possible. In fairness, though I found them to be hideous, they’re no doubt designer, and the guy is only 24 – of course he wants to look cool. (Though Kerri said they made him look like ‘a cross between Bono and Puck from The Real World.’)
The next song, David said, was very special, as it was the “first one we ever play live from Rush!” The song was the unreleased “The Driver,” after which the band took the long way around the venue to get to the B stage for their acoustic set.
After acoustic versions of “Time Zone” (which was awesome) and “If Not For You” (which prompted me to leave a heart emoji in my notes), they returned to the main stage for “I Wanna Be Your Slave,” which was thoroughly satisfying live and at such volume. At this point, I noticed that guitarist Thomas Raggi had a cigarette positively dangling from his lips – I found it very retro, and something I haven’t seen in a hot minute. (Europeans tend to smoke in greater numbers than we do in America these days, don’t they?)
I didn’t catch the exact words David said next, but I watched him put on a pair of devil horns, and essentially, he was asking the crowd to “fuck this shit up” on the count of four… the song, he said, was about stereotypes about Italians. It was, of course, “MAMMAMIA,” and it was followed by a fantastic cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble.”
“Ever run out of insults? Just send them this next song… they’ll understand.” That was the intro for “Bla Bla Bla,” which features lyrics like “I hate your face but I like your mom’s… You play it smart but you look so dumb” and “You said I’m ugly and my band sucks… But I just got a billion streaming song.” The song is one I wasn’t yet very familiar with, and it’s a banger live, to say the least. For the next song, “Kool Kids” (the last song of the band’s regular set), a group of fans were picked to join Måneskin on stage. Before they were escorted off the stage, I noticed a few of the fans bowing to members of the band, a la Wayne’s World: “We’re not worthy!”
After a few members, the band reappeared for an encore that started with a great guitar solo by Raggi. The penultimate song of the evening, “The Loneliest,” didn’t just bring tears to my eyes – I was actually crying. Fortunately, as I was hoping they would not end such a brilliant show on a sad note, they reprised “I Wanna Be Your Slave.” I might have expected to not want to hear a song they’d already played earlier performed a second time, but as it’s ridiculously catchy, it turned out I was happy to relish it one more time before heading home for the night.
All in all, Måneskin was absolutely amazing. My fandom level with this band has increased exponentially now that I’ve seen them live, and I can’t wait to catch them again!
