The Dead Daisies are back in Italy with their Euro Tour 2025 with two unmissable live dates. The hard rock “super band” stopped for the first Italian date at the Phenomenon in Fontaneto d’Agogna (Italy) on the evening of March 8th, and then continued, the following evening, in Padua. With this tour the band also gave us some new music. In fact, on February 14th, the new single ‘Love That’ll Never Be’ was released, a rock ballad with a typical 70s sound with strong references to the blues of that period.
The Dead Daisies showed up with their massive lineup consisting of singer John Corabi, who returned to the lineup in 2023, guitarists Doug Aldrich and David Lowy, bassist Michael Devin and drummer Tommy Cluefetos. This powerful lineup, usually accustomed to gracing large stages around the world, was no less so in the Italian club, which also offered songs from their latest full-length album ‘Light ‘Em Up’ from 2024 with a set that was nothing short of energetic.
To my great surprise, the evening opened at 8 pm with a band called Nastyville. I only knew of two bands, but that was a good thing because the Italian band was able to warm up the audience with a remarkable grit of pure and hard rock’n’roll.
Nastyville formed in 2012 from an idea by Danny Boy (drummer) and Dave (guitar) with the intent of giving a new face to rock. The first album ‘Viva hell-A’ (2015) presented old-school riffs and the bite of the best street/glam rock, with Lex on vocals, Kruska on bass and Manuel on guitar. After the exit of Lex and Kruska they continued their journey with Mark Lee on vocals (great frontman) and Fabian Anderchen, releasing ‘Glam Caramel’ in 2017, with a heavier approach. The latest album, ‘Songs of Threesome’ in 2022, sees another line-up change with the addition of Dega on guitar and Paul on bass. The following year Christian Tabeat joined on drums bringing a more reasoned sound and now, they are working on the new album.
The set list proposed at Phenomenon opens with ‘Sex Crime’ and continues with ‘I Can’t Stand Your Ego’ (from ‘Viva Hell-A’). Unfortunately, the space available to them was cut due to time constraints. The guys from Omegna are great and I sincerely hope to see them again soon on stage at some other big event.
The evening continued with the second support group, the English The Treatment, who we have already enjoyed in Italy opening for Steel Panther, Aerosmith and Alice Cooper. They are a group of virtuoso and refined musicians, who showed the Italian audience all their talent. The Treatment‘s songs are well structured and with well-crafted choruses that are a pleasure to listen to. The band on stage was perfect in every way, without any flaws, giving a series of emotions and reactions. The show was pure fun, which showed guitarist Tagore Grey to be a master of entertaining the audience. Great stage ability, as they used to do once upon a time, which reminded me of the raw power and joy of rock n’ roll, and that’s why The Treatment are an engaging and irresistible live proposal, also paying homage to the legends of the past. They are here to have fun and want to drag us all along… and that’s exactly what they did!
After their performance, the anticipation was all for the evening’s headliners. Greeted by a warm welcome from the enthusiastic audience, The Dead Daisies started with ‘Long Way to Go’ (from the 2016 album ‘Make Some Noise’) to kick off their rousing show. With returning frontman John Corabi, already known for his time with Mötley Crüe, the eager crowd didn’t need much encouragement to make some “noise” right from the big start of the show.
Immediately after the drum solo Corabi gets ready with his classical guitar playing the first chords of their latest single ‘Love That’ll Never Be’, a song that has been a huge success among the audience, to then resume on electric with the following ‘With You And I’, to then arrive – after other songs – to the characteristic introduction of the band followed by a medley of classics to introduce in a brilliant and creative way the other members of the band, together with funny anecdotes by John about each of them. David Lowy paid homage to AC/DC with ‘Highway to Hell’, while Doug Aldrich who churned out the immortal ‘Whole Lotta Love’. Drummer Tommy Cluefetos paid homage to the White Stripes with ‘Seven Nation Army’, and Michael Devin unleashed ‘Heaven and Hell’ by Black Sabbath. Frontman John then concluded the introduction with a version of ‘Living After Midnight’ by Judas Priest.
Next up, The Dead Daisies performed their recent ‘Crossroad’ (a cover of the famous bluesman Robert Johnson) which previews their new blues album due out this year demonstrating how much more great music is yet to come from the band. As the show draws to a close, David Lowy gives a brief introduction to the song he will be playing on the microphone for, ‘Get a Haircut’. A couple more songs and after an explosive set packed with burning rock anthems, the band returned to the stage for a two-song encore, starting with ‘Ressurrected’ and concluding with a Beatles cover of ‘Helter Skelter’.
The show by the super The Dead Daisies was magnificent and the whole evening was flawless. It was an honor for me to see such an incredible group of musicians perform in a small town in Piedmont. With The Dead Daisies there were no egos. The band performed as one, with no one at the center of the stage, and with a class like few others.
