February 19, 2021
To celebrate the release of their new, acoustic-driven album, Melodies of Green and Blue, traditionally symphonic metal rock band Temperance performed their music in a highly non-traditional way on Friday night: Unplugged, live and streamed from Groove Factory in Udine, Italy.
Stunning. Aggressive. Delicate. All at once.
Temperance, a rock band hailing primarily from the Italian region, exists in multitudes–difficult to define, but impossible to ignore.
Blending a slick trio of vocalists, driving guitar riffs, and a pounding rhythm section, Temperance unites in a fireball of soaring atmospherics, relentless in energy and indominable in spirit.
None of this was lost on a Friday night that saw three members of the band perform tracks from their new, acoustic-based EP “Melodies of Green and Blue,” released 19 Feb on Napalm Records. It’s an EP, under $10 (US), unique and highly worth it.
The show opened with “I Am the Fire,” a driving rocker that lost none of its ferocity when stripped to only two acoustic guitars and a trio a vocal virtuosos—Alessia Scolletti, Michele “Meek” Guaitoli and Marco Pastorino.
The performance continued to sizzle, with Alessia coming across as both a cosmic force of strength and femininity. Her vocals effortlessly glided between both airy brush strokes and heavenly high energy at all the right moments, drawing the occasional (and very deserving) mesmerized glances from her bandmates Marco and Meek.
Alessia Scolletti is that good.
And, amazingly enough, so, also, are the two male vocalists in Temperance, Michele “Meek” Guaitoli and Marco Pastorino—as the three move effortlessly between vocal solos and harmonization.
Alessia leaned thoughtfully into “Raise a glass to the glasses and cheer to the friendship you’ve always ignored,” in “Let It Beat,” another Viridian-track that found an astonishingly new depth (in a very new, Zoom-oriented world) with its appearance as an acoustic version on Melodies.
All performance long, Alessia’s smile enchanted, and her voice astonished. And Marco and Meek exuded confidence in both infectious smiles and confident leads and harmonies. Truly, artists at work—and at play.
And it was, simply amazing.
With very few freezes and excellent sound quality, Rockifi delivered a high quality streaming experience, allowing the Temperance faithful to truly enjoy new tracks such as “Paint The World,” and “Evelyn.”
The Viridian favorite “Nanook,” also made a welcomed appearance—with its rambling acoustic guitar intro evoking a wonderous approach, befitting of the songs adventurous landscape, seeing the eagle “through its amber eyes.”
Other highlights of the 1-hour performance included “My Demons Can’t Sleep,” where Michele’s playful howls of “El Diablo” offered both a retreat from the song’s serious nature (“I’m hiding from the darkest side of me.”), as well as an exploration of Meeks’s truly stellar vocal range, and his ear for intelligently crafted melodies without boundaries.
And even earthly boundaries have never been an obstacle for Temperance, as Marco led the trio strongly through an acoustic rendition of “Of Jupiter And Moons,” from the album of the same name.
Marco’s expert ability to cast his vocal range from all angles (high-low-mid) offers relentless power at all the right moments. To me, he seems like that guy at a party willing to try anything to make someone smile, and his voice does just that—and more.
The performance closed with “Catch The Dream,” especially fitting given the last 12 months has taken so many dreams, connections and loves.
But in that final, closing refrain of “May tomorrow come to catch the dream,” there’s that undying optimism, that trademark resolve that seems to be part of every Temperance song I’ve listened to, that in life, there are still unexpected and yet to be discovered loves, if we are willing to catch them, like ourselves, when they fall .
Thankfully, we were able to catch a bit of Temperance just now.
So, if you haven’t discovered Temperance yet, don’t wait.
Go catch the Dream.
Setlist – Temperance (19/02/2021)
- I Am The Fire
- Let It Beat
- Paint The World
- Nanook
- Start Another Round
- My Demons Can’t Sleep
- Gaia
- Evelyn
- Scent of Dye
- Last Hope (first time acoustic)
- Jupiter and Moons
- Catch A Dream
MavStar 