San Siro Live (Deluxe Edition)

Album review

Following the chart-topping success of their fourth album, La Finestra (2007), Negramaro released their first live album, San Siro Live, a CD/DVD package recorded live on May 31, 2008, in front of tens of thousands of people at the massive football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy. The DVD half of the package includes the entire 21-song concert performance, which includes all of the band's four Top Ten hits to date, "Mentre Tutto Scorre," "Nuvole e Lenzuola," "Parlami d'Amore," and "Via le Mani Dagli Occhi." Among other featured guests, the Solis String Quartet joins the band on five songs. The DVD also includes a variety of documentary material. The CD half of the package includes eight highlights from the concert performance. More notably, it includes four previously unreleased studio recordings, the best of which is a symphonic rock cover version of Domenico Modugno's 1968 hit "Meraviglioso." There's also an acoustic version of "Blucobalto," one of the previously unreleased studio recordings, appended as a bonus track. This new studio material is produced by Caterina Caselli, with whom the band has worked exclusively since second album 000577 (2004), and it's all of high quality, though the English-language guest feature by U.K. rap duo Mattafix on "Your Eyes-La Finestra" feels out of place. The chief attraction of San Siro Live, however, is the full-length live concert DVD, something all fans will want to see, especially since the CD includes only a third of the concert material.
© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo