aaamusic | On 25, Mar 2012

Rome, 17th March

Two years after the last show inItaly, Prinzhorn Dance School come back toRome,  at Locanda Atlantide, to showcase their second album “Clay Class”. They kick off their live set with “Right Night Kay West”, introducing well the post punk mood of this night to people who still don’t know their sound.

The new track “Seed, Crop, Harvest”  warms the audience up, right afterwards served with “Crackerjack Docker”, one the masterpieces taken from the Prinzhorn’s debut album, and “I Do Not Like Change”.

The duo go on with the show without a break, they don’t offer interruptions or distractions, actually they don’t talk to their audience so much, they prefer to show their love passing people a bottle of whisky.  The only funny episode of the night is offered by Tobin Prinz, who, after countless requests to the sound engineer to pump up the volume of his monitors, comes to the decision to move them with his hands and put them closer to the microphone to hear better.

Prinzhorn Dance School are always provocative and the evidence is given by playing the short “Crash, Crash, Crash”, made of few verses screamed loud in sync, accompanied only by sharp hits of snare drum, it’s pure music anarchy.

“I want you” is one of the most intense moments of their gig while “Service Service” (the b-side of “Crackerjack Docker” single) and the good “Usurper” are the premise for other two classics: the wild “Up! Up! Up!” and “You are the Space Invader”, a real punk anthem.

Afterwards it’s the time of “Happy in Bits”, the first, beautiful single taken from “Clay Class”, that shows a very good Suzi Horn’s bass technique (she’s a real groove girl!), Tobin’s minimal guitar style and the perfect marriage between their vocals, it’s undoubtedly on the best moments of the whole set. But the night is not over, so the duo give the audience new (“Sing Orderly”) and old (“Lawyers Water Jug” and “Wheat for the Locust”) tracks to close the set with the hypnotic “Spaceman In Your Garden”, which sends away a band cheered by the roman audience. Welcome back Prinzhorn Dance School!

Author & Photos: Roberta Capuano & Luca Cirillo