The arena of the world’s gardens in Marzahn smells of sunscreen, aperol and festival beer. The sky hangs flat and pale over the heads of the audience. It’s warm, but not hot. At just before eight on Wednesday (June 18), nobody is still entering the stage – a distorted, almost sacred voice sounds off the assembly line. She preaches: “Welcome to the best show ever played.” And further: “Now the Holy Mass of the Italo-hit awaits you. The divine comedy. The absolute Oberhammer. The number one spectacle. Simply cult.”
Then Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys enter the stage. Six men – all in suits, with sunglasses and opposed hair. A look between the southern Italian wedding party and Linz beer tent. The front man wears white high -cut pants, black leather boots and a tiger shirt. The band behind him from top to bottom in cream. The lights dive the stage in warm orange and pink. It is exactly the color palette that Roy Bianco needs. Everything about this appearance is staging – and that’s exactly why it works.
Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys: Italo-Schlager in German
Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys are not a classic hit band, but a staged project. The musicians originally come from Bavaria and pretend to be fictional Italo formation, with an invented history that goes back to the 1980s. They have been working on this legend since 2016. The group basically consists of two people: the singer Roy Bianco and the band’s guitarist, who – although alone – calls himself the Abbrunzati Boys. Your back strengthen your back. The songs sound like a tribute to this era after 80s-I-ITO-striker.
The first song begins in the gardens of the world – and it happens, which lasts with other acts to the admission part: movement, mood, outbreak. Even before the first chorus starts, a polonaise forms in front of the stage. No request necessary – the mass knows what to do. A dolphin balloon drives over the heads, lined up with a lion and a bee. The audience roars, dances, throws her arms into the air. The next title: “Vino Rosso”. Red like love. Bianco sings the bridge in pose, the microphone in one hand, the other stretched wide as in the operetta final. The crowd Johlt as if she had been waiting for that moment.
Bianco speaks between the songs in an excessive, slightly nasal false voice: “Tonight it’s all about everything!” He calls, “For the good, for the beautiful, for love!” The audience answers with screeching approval. The energy on the stage is high – and astonishingly choreographed. Everything seems prepared, but nothing strictly exerted.
“Santorinin” follows, followed by another theatrical address. The crowd chants his name: “Roy Bianco, Roy Bianco”, like a mantra that you can’t get rid of after three Aperol. The sound, however, is lost here and there – open air. And even if the mood is warm, part of the audience remains at a distance. People run, get drinks, talk, smoke. Marzahn remains Berlin.
Right in the middle, of course: Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys, Italo striker in German. Large gestures, large flap, large staging. Her songs sound smooth than expected, more modern than your image promises – and yet surprisingly credible. It’s about love, wanderlust, dramatic reviews and staged longing. The feeling that somewhere between Lake Garda, disco ball and language barrier may be a bit of truth. This music hovers between kitsch and cinema, between the hit pose and real emotion – and that is why it is precisely to set a attitude to music that seems credibly nostalgic the longer you listen to.
In the middle of the set, the sound shifts. Bianco leaves the figure behind for a moment between wink and air kisses, suddenly no longer speaks as an entertainer. It is about responsibility and respect: “If someone here is attacking today, is hostile to women, hostile to queer or otherwise violent – then intervenes. Shows solidarity.” The speech is one of the few who take themselves seriously – and it works. The applause is honest.
Pathos, pyro and polonaise
The sound that evening sounds clean, almost too clean. The band plays precisely, maybe a little too routinely. There is a lack of friction – but that doesn’t seem to disturb anyone here. Much looks more like a backdrop than a concert. In the last third, the pace is attracted again: After a short break, Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys return to the stage. “Bella Napoli”, the band’s most successful song so far, is voted – and everything is there. The gardens of the world bloom. “My heart beats Azzurro!” The crowd shouts the text as if it had only been waiting for this song. The musicians no longer have to do anything – the audience sings on their own. It is loud, it is wild, it is exactly right.
The classics come in a blow: “Giro”, “Velocità”, “Ponte di Rialto”, “Sophia Loren”. Pyrotechnics flicker – a spark curtain falls out of nowhere. The crowd lifts your arms, dances, jumps. It is the moment when the game with the Italo hit briefly overtakes itself. “What speed here in the amphitheater – Mama Mia!” Bianco calls. A new polonaise forms in front of the stage, this time longer, louder, more determined. The Italian flag blows over Marzahn in the sky, somewhere in between the dolphin is still flying.
It is an evening that delivers more atmosphere than musical highlights. A show, supported by staging and supported by the game with clichés. Between the level and the ironic pathos, the band succeeds in taking the audience with them – even if not every moment is wearing. Sometimes the staging looks too smooth, the evening more like a concept than a concert. But if it works, then correctly: then there is dancing, swaying, screaming. Then Italo-Schlager is more than just quote.
Unfortunately there was no picturesque sunset. In Marzahn, La Dolce Vita has not yet completely arrived this Wednesday in June.