The Sick Rose

The Sick Rose was one of the first European garage bands (in this case, from Italy) to reach a world-wide audience. Starting in the mid-80’s, they created an authentic 60’s sound reminiscent of bands like the Chesterfield Kings – snotty vocals (from a singer who can actually sing!), a fuzz punch, and Farfisa organ flavorings. Definitely one of the better bands to come out of that scene anywhere in the world – their originals showed that they weren’t just another sound-alike group, but actually had some originality in an often overly-derivative scene.

I didn’t get a chance to meet any of these guys until the Tommyknockers first European tour in 1990 or so. Singer Luca Re had agreed to help us out with our Italian shows and after driving all night, we arrived at the flat where he lived with his wife, Julia, at about 3:00 in the morning! They were still super gracious hosts who put up out entire motley entourage for several days while we were between gigs. Luca then drove us to all of the gigs and I think he might have even set up an extra show for one of our off nights. Unbelievably nice people who we have had the pleasure of seeing over the years and who we are still in touch with.

For some reason we weren’t able to see the Sick Rose play at this time, but we did get to gig with the fantastic and extremely under-rated Mouseblasters, whose amazing guitarist, Giorgio Cappellaro, has played with the SR off & on since then. Luca did sing a couple of songs with us at our Torino show (the town where the Sick Rose originated and Luca still lives) and blew us away as he dropped his quiet, mild-mannered alter ego and, despite a recently broken foot, turned into a wild man who leaped around the club while belting out Iggy songs!

My favorite SR album came out about this time on Synergy Records, titled Renaissance. This record takes garage rock and merges it with high-energy insanity and creates an incredible slab of r’n’r!

Jumping out of the gate full throttle with “Cheating”, this version of the band – with Giorgio sharing guitar duties with Roberto Bovolenta – rocks, riffs, shrieks, shouts and shows the world that you can create something unique within the garage genre. There are still some melodic and quieter moments (comparatively speaking), such as “Now She Comes in Colour”, “Abbie’s Dolls” and the lovely “Restless Mind”, and some more 60’s sounding tunes (“The American Dream”), but then they return to the heavy moments like “My Kind” (with a perfectly vicious scream by Luca and some superb guitar work by G&R) and the Dictators-influenced “Hunting For a New Love”. There’s even some great riff-rock with “Jaildoor” and “See the Glow”. Sitting on top of everything, Luca never forgets the melody and can move from crooning to screaming at a moment’s notice. What a band and what a record!

The CD also includes one of the better Dead Boys covers I’ve heard (“Big City”) and a DMZ-styled version of the Standells’ “Barracuda”.

All of the Sick Rose records are recommended to anyone who enjoys garage rock, but this album transcends all genres and anyone who loves rock’n’roll should love this one!