Mike Patton played the fourth of his Mondo Cane shows at the Blue Balls festival in picturesque Lucerne last night. Torrential rain and incessant roadworks turned a two-and-a-half-hour car journey to Lucerne into a three-and-half-hour trip so I missed the first few songs. So when I walked in mid-song to my well-appointed seats, I was blown away by the sheer bigness of the sound and the loudness and clarity of Patton’s voice. The decor, size and acoustics of the very modern concert hall were perfect and Patton’s band, led by Daniele Luppi, backing singers Slash Singers and the 21st Century Orchestra were in top form.

My videos below:

After seeing Patton with Faith No More so many times over the past year, it was slightly surreal to see the devilish dervish somewhat contained in this setting  – which did not stop one metalhead headbanging throughout – but his articulate, powerful crooning was also accompanied by trademark screams and some equally typical vocal noises.

He was also in very good form, at one stage thanking the audience for “coming out on a horrible night when you should be at home. I would have stayed at home.” He also poked fun at the name of the festival, at one stage declaring: “This song is dedicated to al the guys out there who have Blue Balls, like me. Don’t blame me? I didn’t name the festival, you did.”

Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain a setlist and my knowledge of the full Mondo Cane repertoire is such that I couldn’t guess at one either, suffice to say that it seemed the same as the one posted for Wroclaw.

Thanks to Mike and Elvira for sorting out tickets.

• First video of Mike Patton and Mondo Cane in Florence [the Italian city not the English singer] last night.
• Somewhat surreal video from the Milan local government of the pre-gig meeting between Mike and the Mayor of Milan Letizia Moratti [the name may be familair to football fans; as well as being a successful if somewhat right wing politician in her own right, she is the sister-in-law of Massimo Moratti, owner of European champions FC Internazionale Milano].
• (Hat tip alienvisionary on Twitter and Renaud in comments)
• And Mike meets another dignitary after the show, Lusty.
• More Lusty, from her Consequence of Sound interview with Kid Koala, some Lovage news: “The Lovage music is done for the most part but we’re just waiting for Mike and Jennifer to get together and write again.”
• And finally some Faith No More – remember them? – from back in the day. Poland in 1993 to be exact. (Thanks to porcelaine74 on ye olde Twitter for the info).
• (Great intro and I’d kill for one of those robes)
• Another full Faith No More concert on Vimeo: Faith No More at Rock in Rio II in 1991.

A few videos have surfaced of Mike’s Mondo Cane’s second tour date.


Check out all the details including setlist at the Italian Musica Metal site.

Here are some videos finally of last night’s tour opener. Looking forward to seeing this show in Luzern at the Blue Balls festival (!) next Thursday.

And right on cue, here is Lusty’s review from Consequence of Sound. And, courtesy of Lusty, the set list:
Setlist:
Il Cielo in una Stanza
Che Notte
Ore d’amore
20 Km al Giorno
Quello Che Conta
Urlo Negro
Legata ad un Granello di Sabbia
Deep Down
Pine, Fucile ed Occhiali
Scalinatella
L’uomo Che Non Sapeva Amare
Ma L’amore no
Canzone
Ti Offro da Bere
Dio Come ti Amo
Storia d’amore
Lontano, Lontano
O Venezia
Yeeeeeeh !
Senza Fine
ENCORE
Sigaretta
Sole Malato

• Relive Warfield! No, not that one or even that one or even the one with Chuck. The whole show from 19 August 1992 is now up on Vimeo (thanks to The Holy Filament).
  
• Lusty’s Faith No More and general Ilosaarirock Festival is up at Consequence of Sound. Extract: “Taking the show at face value, there wasn’t anything particularly different about it when compared to other shows on their reunion tour. No new songs were played, Patton was as utterly insane as ever, Bill Gould, Roddy Bottum, Jon Hudson and Mike Bordin held down the fort with their usual determination and strength. But there was a buzz of sadness and infamy in the air, which came to light as soon as Gould announced that Finland was a fitting place “for our last show.” “Forever,” Patton added dramatically.”
• Onet.pl has a review of last night’s Mondo Cane tour opener in Wroclaw headlined Romantic Mike Patton. The review notes that for the “intimate” show, Patton was joined by seven musicians, a three-person choir and 12 members of the Wroclaw Film Harmony Orchestra.
• Onet also have a gallery from the concert.
  

Superb video of Mike going for a surf during Ben in Lisbon on Thursday night.

• And we’re back. Hope all is well out there. Been a bit quiet on the FNM front and I’ve been up to my neck with various extracurricular projects and gig-going, so here’s an overdue round-up.
• Mike Patton was back on stage in Amsterdam on Friday when he performed Laborintus II. Arno (tbeest) was there and has posted these videos:
  
  
• Vrouwjke has sent me an interview (pdf) she did with Patton about the Laborintus project. (In Dutch)
• The National have more details on Mike’s worth with Alan Moore, out on 5 July. And Wired have some more info here.
• Mike’s latest Mondo Cane interview in Verbicide. Sample quote: “I am so a Beyonce fan. I am not gonna lie. If you wanna go really obvious and ignorant, then I will go with Beyonce.”
• Rather remarkably, there appears to be still tickets available for the Faith No More shows in Brooklyn on 2 July and Philadelphia on 3 July. Get your tickets.

Mike has completed his 2139th interview to promote Mondo Cane this week. Limewire have posted an interesting Q and A – “As far as how do I get away with it, that is easy, I just do it. Anyone could! There are no rules. Who is to tell Justin Bieber he can’t do a reggae record?”.

Sample quote: “[Limewire] Mike Patton is NOT God. Please discuss. [Mike Patton] Is that a question? I don’t think that was phrased as a question. So you lose Double Jeopardy! It is too bad, because that would or could have been such a good question for me to answer. It is certainly a subject that I spend countless hours thinking about. But you dropped the ball on this one and your loyal readers have only YOU to blame. Way to go! Now, I must go, I have numerous souls that I need to condemn to hell.”

Sticking to the Bizarre, Mike also has two interviews in print magazines – remember those? – this week. First up is the British compendium of weird Bizarre. As I only buy Bizarre for the pictures, if any lands a copy of this can they scan the interview?.

He also features in the latest interview with Rock a Rolla magazine.

Here’s an old (2006) interview of Mike with Bizarre for your amusement.

• Mike Patton continues to do the media rounds to promote Mondo Cane and he has given a lengthy and revealing interview with the Cast in Metal podcast on MTV. Mike mentions that he is writing a new Fantomas album, that he has received music for a new Tomahawk release from Duane Denison, that a new Lovage is ready and may sometime see the light of day and that he is seeking collaborators for a new Peeping Tom disc which will sound very different form the debut. From a purely Faith No More perspective Mike again pours cold water on the prospect of an imminent new record but does offer some home by saying that it is “not out of the question”. The interview is well worth 27 minutes and 21 seconds of your time.
• A quirky but interesting examination of Faith No More lyrics as the inner workings of the Joker’s mind from Pop Matters: “In a feat worthy of the Clown Prince of Crime, Faith No More somehow managed to encapsulate the fractured, subversive purpose of Heath Ledger’s Joker 16 years before Ledger’s Joker came into being.”
• Faith No More’s current incarnation on British TV (All hail King Cameron!) in 1997. Not sure if we have shown this before but here goes in any case:
  
• And once especially for David Cameron for the day that is in it:
  

Apoligies for the lack of updates this week. Malware, recovering from a stag weekend, recovering from possibly related throat infection, helping my two new rabbits recover from spays, writing and editing a 48-page soccer magazine, wedding planning and the day job have kept me away from my beloved blog, though I see the comments have been ticking over nicely with the ongoing will they or won’t they debate. Thanks again for keeping the discussion lively and informative.

To the matter at hand. With Mondo Cane – which I’m really enjoying – having hit the stores this week, Mike Patton has been all over the place giving some great interviews.
Ket’s take three of the best one by one. First up, the always engaging The Quietus. This is a real warm bath of an article; you can skim read it but to get the best of it take some time and wallow in the brilliant writing that gets to the real Patton (even if some passages would keep the editors of Private Eye’s pseuds corner busy) and enjoy Mike’s replies.
Sample quote: “Epic’ made a star of Patton, and his years fronting FNM, a decade of his life he has always spoken highly of in interviews, grew him a cult following that have followed him through countless more arcane records since. In a sense, baiting and teasing that audience became a part of his project, even a motivating factor. “I’ve certainly done things like that in the past,” he says, “in some of the earlier bands – and it wasn’t just me! We would make musical choices like, oh yeah, this’ll really fuck ‘em up!” One side effect of which has been that even his most serious and avant garde work has faced accusations of piss-taking, to which Patton’s response is typically sanguine: “You can only cry wolf so many times.”

Spin offered us a revealing if more conventional interview. Sample quote: “[Spin] Speaking of Faith No More, are you and the other members surprised by the enthusiastic response to your recent reunion? Are you creatively satisfied to just revisit the older material or is there the possibility of recording a new album?
[Patton] We have been very surprised by the strong reaction. We were told to expect it, but it goes beyond what we expected. It has been cool playing with the guys again. We don’t really have future plans. As you might expect, I’m more focused on presenting Mondo Cane to as many people as I can. As always, though, I’m very grateful for the continued support.”

Finally a piece from the Sensationalist magazine I found via Patton Archivo on Twitter. Sample quote: “Normal people — quote unquote — people that have a life where they have two or three kids, and a 9-to-5 job, [and] a few hobbies, are way busier than me. Trust me!”

So what have we learned?
That Spin quote is the only mention of Faith No More in either of the three interviews., However, The Quietus piece mentions a new film score (The Solitude of Prime Numbers – which coincidentally I’m in the middle of reading right now) and Laborintus II . In Sentamentalist Mike mentions the movie score again and a previously rumoured new band “Nevermen with Tunde from TV on the Radio, and Doseone” – a vocal trio and a release before the end of the year – as well as a second Peeping Tom record and another Fantomas record. “Those are the next things on my docket.”
And Faith No More? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.