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First of all, what a head rush of a song. Instantly, when you view Chrisma’s performance of “Black Silk Stocking” you get the sense of propulsion they’re trying to project. Who in their right mind expected this kind of a track from them? Its no wonder they chose to lead off their album with this song. Before I even get to breaking down the song, I should explain some of what you see in the video. A couple of months before this performance was recorded, Maurizio got into Italian tabloid headlines for something truly outrageous. The Italian tabloids were claiming that he was going on stage and cutting himself as he performed, to mimic UK punk artists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Chrisma at that point weren’t entirely sold on the punk movement.
As they toured in support for “Lola” and “U (I Dig You)” they would do so by flaunting a lot of what conservative Italians were decidedly against at the time, mostly left-wing, liberal mores. This video gives you a taste of their stage show, its full of gay and pro-drug undertones (they were already using glow sticks, a newly created invention, as part of this display) coupled with their neo-cabaret atmosphere. Sometime in late 1977, they performed at a venue where a large crowd of right wing fans infiltrated their audience. These fans were so confused and angered as to learn that their heroes were anti- everything they stood for that they started tearing apart their glow sticks and throwing them on stage, all the while attempting to tear apart Chrisma’s elaborate set design and were threatening to throw molotov cocktails as well.
Rather than back down from this display, Maurizio who had a box cutter with him, inadvertently cut himself trying to reassemble their stage. As the crowd kept getting more belligerent he got an a-ha moment, he would use this cut finger to his advantage. He started to point this bloody finger right into the mouths of the neo-Nazi audience members, in effect daring them to continue. It was from them on they decided that part of their image had to be confrontational to prove a point.
That’s what you see in the first few minutes of their performance on the Discoring show. Them getting the final word. Watch as they enjoy ripping through a performance of this track, smashing glow sticks directly at the audience, strutting and almost impaling their microphones stands on stage. This was a performance of clear feral defiance. The audience demanded a band who was punk, they decided that they could be far more dangerous than that, and in their own terms.
Again what a track, this was a new NEU! “Hero” to describe it for lack of a better phrase. Check out the video below, and stick around for another great track from Chinese Restaurant the neo-Motorik sound of “C. Rock” simply an amazing Christina guitar and Maurizio electronic drum machine jam. Tomorrow, Chrisma starts to work their visual magic again…
Listen to Black Silk Stocking and C. Rock here.