LE MACABRE ROCK CLUB

Luca Busso

SYNOPSIS

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In 2008, Le Macàbre closed its doors forever. A small Italian CBGB’s, it was one of the driving forces behind the growth and emergence of Italian rock in the 1980s and ’90s—much like the legendary New York venue that helped give rise to the American new wave scene.

But the similarities end there: our story unfolds not in a world capital, but in a small town in Italy’s sleepy provinces. And yet, in Bra, just as in New York, amplifiers once blasted out loud music, while hundreds of musicians took to a stage that became, in its own way, mythical for more than a generation of young people.

Manuel Agnelli, Marlene Kuntz, Diaframma, Africa Unite, Subsonica, Massimo Volume, Roy Paci, Ezio Bosso, Vinicio Capossela, Tiromancino, Devovo, C.C.C.P., Nico of the Velvet Underground and Thin White Rope are just some of the names who passed through Bra to perform at Le Macàbre.

Through the words of some of these musicians, *Le Macàbre* tells the story of a small world in which an entire generation of Italians will recognise themselves.

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DIRECTOR'S NOTES

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The story of Le Macàbre is emblematic of a particular way of experiencing rock culture that spread across Europe in the 1980s and ’90s, eventually taking root in places that were often remote, sometimes unimaginable—and giving rise to extraordinary stories.

Around historic rock clubs like this one, entire cultural scenes often emerged, shaped by an alternative cultural offering that radiated out into the surrounding area and changed its history. In the story of Le Macàbre, on a small scale—as if in a tiny, irresistible synecdoche—we find a fragment of the history of rock itself.

Le Macàbre is a symbol: the symbol of a provincial town transformed into another universe, breaking through narrow boundaries and expanding in unexpected ways until it became a cult phenomenon.

And now, at a time when rock seems to be struggling, a journey through the history of Le Macàbre becomes the story of a legend capable of flourishing far from the major cities. This is why the documentary *Le Macàbre Rock Club* feels essential to us: for us, and for today’s twenty-year-olds, who may be intrigued by an alternative journey they have never taken; but also for those in their sixties, who have archived their youth without ever forgetting it.

Because “it’s only rock ’n’ roll, but we like it.”