Seriously, he (Maurizzio) hadn't arrived yet but I knew he was coming. When he did arrive there was another long-lost Nutter greeting. So, the crowd is growing and we're getting restless. They make announcements about the ensemble and mention Stewart and we wooooooooooo and they play interviews with Stewart. There are still instruments on stage in their cases at this point, which was a distressing sign. I think I see a white pant leg through the tangle of cymbal stands and get excited thinking their entrance is imminent. WRONG! I hear some vocal and rhythmic warming up just offstage and think the beginning is near. WRONG! Musicians come out and take instruments out of their cases in a leisurely fashion. ARGHHHHHHH! People this is killing us! It's after 10! Finally the lights go down and the players start to trickle out. YAYYYYYY! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! SQUEEEEE! The lights come up, the music starts and then Stewart comes out! He's wearing the Cameroon soccer jersey and white trousers (yeah baby!). WOOOOOOOOOO! He starts wailing away in true Stewie style. There are a bunch of people on stage. I think I counted 20 at the most when Raiz came out. There were 2 lady singers, a male singer who also played the mandolin and acoustic guitar very enthusiastically, Vittorio Cosma on keyboards, a lady and I think another guy on keyboards, a dude on another whole drum kit, a guy playing violin, a bassist, guitarist, someone with various wind instruments, random percussionists and 3 tambourine guys. Obviously I missed a few, but there was a lot going on. THE Tambourine Boy (from Max's video) was right in front of us - he's a cutie). The music was full of energy and passion. It was fast. It was slow. It was loud. It was soft. It had people dancing and shaking their bootie's. There was tenderness and also power in the singer's voices. It was a frickin' amazing show. They played a lot of the songs that are on the CD but they have a new twist to them and there was some new material too. Even with all the other instruments involved it's a very percussive performance. Stewart had a little play off with the other drummer, which was very dramatic (in Stewart style). Obviously the tambourines are percussive. And when SC said they're not your regular Kumbaya tambourines, he's not joking. Some of them must have been 20" in diameter. The one Tambourine Boy used for his little play off had a very thin membrane on it which gives the squeaky sound. Another guy joins them after the point where Max's video cuts off. I have about 20 seconds of the 3 of them on tape and I hope I can get it on YouTube. He was incredible. They were all very impressive. There was this guy who plays a bagpipe type thing that looks like it's literally a sheep with the wool removed. I have a picture of it. It's huge! And, there was a really funky number they did with big steel drums. 2 or 3 big blue drums were rolled out and stood up and Vittorio gets behind one of them. Every other non-percussive person onstage gets percussed for this number. Anyway, it sounds kind of like a Stomp thingy (but better). It's real rhythmic with everyone playing on the same beat *boom! boom!* and Stewart's banging on his toms. I'm sure there was other stuff going on, this part was just intoxicating. It sounded pretty cool. There were songs when some played and others didn't and, as Paola said, I caught Stewart really watching them. It was just unbelievably cool to be that close while he's playing. Y'all know it's just incredible to watch him. I looked over and I swear I was looking at a 28 year-old SC. He's frickin' amazing to watch from the drummer standpoint. OK, so he's frickin' amazing to watch from the girl standpoint too.
There was one time I admit I wasn't watching the drumming. I had my elbows on the railing with my chin resting on my wrist and I glanced over at Paola. She was in the same position with the same stupid grin on her face. I had to laugh. 57 in 2 weeks? Pshaw! There were a couple of funny moments. I noticed SC fiddling with the knob on his snare stand which for the uninitiated (and I've only known this for 9 months myself) closes the brackets that hold the drum still. Then he made some adjustments and everything seemed OK. Then he had trouble opening his Gatorade and I thought (this is Sarcasma speaking) "Uh oh, Sergio's gonna get fired!" I really did wonder if Sergio had to be sweating bullets just in general. This has to be a really special thing for him. Stewart got up later and went offstage during a time when he wasn't playing and Sergio came out and adjusted the stand and all was well. Until....the snare broke. Stewart broke the damn snare! And he didn't know it! It was between songs and Kipper pointed and yelled it's broken. And Stewart got this confused look on his face and said, "What's broken?" "The snare!" So SC leans over sees it and raises his eyebrows and shrugs and starts on into the next song because the rest of the band has begun. Sergio, however, is on the case. He's got the spare snare drum standing by. So SC, leans out of the way whilst improvising on the toms as Sergio removes injured snare drum. SC still improvising and looking over shoulder for new drum. Still improvising with another glance accompanied with a wide eyed 'Any minute now would be good' head jerk. We titter because you know we're not listening to the music, we're watching the side show. Finally, the new drum arrives and is inserted into stand (although it's a little askew). Drummer happy and the show goes on as if nothing happened. Poor Sergio. I think he needed a towel minion that night.
Then Stewart tosses a stick out towards us. My non-English speaking Italian friend catches it and says, "It's broken! I want another." And, Stewart's like, "After the show." He must've learned a little English somewhere!
And something I've never seen happened. For a long time after the show was over people were still standing in front of the stage dancing. The venue didn't push everyone out 5 minutes after the show ends like they do here and Taranta-type music was playing. It was pretty neat.
The show was fantastic. Stewart was fantastic. My surprise visit was, well, fantastic. Overall, it was a pretty good night!
(I'll get some pics up soon)
): Amy had prepared a delicious mini-flag and when she showed it to Stewart he remembered Andy's curiosity about the "big" flag during The Police tour. So I asked Stewart what Sting said. "Nothing", he replied, and me: "Was he a little bit envious?", and Stewart, with no esitation: "No!", and me: "Surprised?", and Stew: "No. Mystic". 
