Comeback Kid + Short Fuse + Respect For Zero + The Memory @Traffic Club, Rome

Comeback Kid’s European tour touched Italy in the end of January for two strong shows in Rome and Pinarella di Cervia. I took the train to join Rome for the 27^th of January’s show at the Traffic Club, where the Canadian band shared stage with 3 badass Italian bands with a strong “in your face” attitude. Show starts at 9 pm with the impeccable organisation of Sandro, Fabrizio and Rotten Inc. The first band on stage is respect For Zero from the Marche region, with a mix of fast crusty riffs and breakdown parts “Terror Style” to warm kids hearts and muscles, with big front-man Stefano that screams loud the disease of province’s everyday life. The following band is The Memory from Molise, a beautiful but often forgotten land, that plays a melodic (Comeback Kid! )Style Hc with strong and introspective lyrics; their live-set is so damn good, but unfortunately they make a sad announcement: this will be their second-to-last show before breaking up, after 9 years of touring around Europe. The news is terrible, but fortunately 3/5 of the band will come back soon with a new project! The band on stage before the Canadian head-liners is Short Fuse, the home-masters, with a mix of strength and melody and the enormous energy of the front-man, my friend Andrea , that involves a lot of kids in the mosh-pit with hundreds of stage divings and sing alongs. Short Fuse’s lyrics have a hard criticism on today’s capitalist society, but also a message of hope to change it with solid values such as respect and friendship, against the will of money and power. At midnight we finally have Comeback kid on stage and the venue fills up: the Canadian hardcorers start with “Do yourself a favour” and other 4/5 songs without a moment of rest, between old anthems like “ False idols fall” and new songs from the their latest work “Outsider”. The dudes play an hour of set with a mix of their fans favourite hymns like “Broadcasting” and “Wasted Arrows”, with all the people inside the club moshing, jumping and singing along to honor the Cbk’s awesome show. The “gran finale” on “Wake the dead” notes sends us home with our hearts full of happiness, ready for the next Hc massacre!

Live report by Riccardo Santi