Saturday January 14 2012 will forever be known as the day Sydney’s Domain… and everyone in it was drenched by rain. In what was a display of biblical phenomena Mike Patton and his 25 piece Orchestra of Italian minstrels hit the Summer Sounds stage about 9:00pm to the rousing cheers of Sydneysiders that braved the awful conditions that had gradually been building throughout the day, at 9:01pm as Mike Patton made his presents known on stage the heaven’s opened… and by open I mean absolutely reigned havoc on the audience, organisers and Mondo Cane themselves.

As the rain poured down, Patton embraced Mother Nature’s display of supremacy, while band members ran for cover, Patton just stood at the front of the stage and like the scene from “The Dark Knight” when the Joker has his head sticking out of the police car, like a wild animal he just let loose as he was saturated from head to toe.

Then if that wasn’t enough, he then challenged the chaos of the weather with Urlo Negro which is a rain dance in itself, though it was perfect, everything was heightened because of Patton’s refusal to acknowledge defeat at nature’s hand, event through the downpour the audience went completely nuts and the 30,000 that braved the weather were cheering at a deafening pitch.

At this stage the show had to come to a screeching holt as the instruments had to be repositioned, especially those with wooden violin’s etc. After a 15min wait Mondo Cane returned, by this time the weather had calmed somewhat and the show could continue, an always appreciative Patton paid what was the first of many compliments to the dedicated Sydney crowd for sticking around and in turn Sydney returned that affection in kind.

Throughout the set, Mondo Cane proved their reputation by delivering one of the greatest performances they have ever had, though much of the energy was channelled by Patton himself. I have never seen a performer that has the ability to be seating one moment and seconds later launching into a chaotic display of uncontrollable movement while still vocally pitch perfect. Anyone that ever doubt’s Patton’s abilities really need to re-evaluate their standards of “what’s good” Sydney was witness to Patton at his absolute best and that I can contribute as true having seen Patton perform over fifty times in various musical incarnations over his awesome twenty plus year career.

By the end of the regular set Patton thanked the Sydney audience for their dedication and walked off stage with band trailing behind, though the people left were far from satisfied, through the mud, rain and wind Sydney chanted for Patton to return, even the house lights went up and people refused to leave, and then when the chants were at a deafening level Mondo Cane returned with a might impressed Patton happy to perform well over the advertised time. For another 20mins Sydney was enchanted by Mondo Cane’s Italian harmonies, it was clear nothing was going to stop Sydney from loving every moment of this performance and finally the rain stopped with a song to spare, where Patton took responsibility for the rain’s end.

After an almost 2 hour show, Mondo Cane departed to the cheers of a thankful Sydney crowd that filled with praise for Mondo Cane’s sounds and Patton’s determination to make this event one of the best performances Sydney has ever seen.


©2012 Shane Fenton.
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