by Valen Lambert
Originally printed April 12, 2023
The Miniplex is jam packed as usual, tinted with the glow of liquid light show visuals. The crowd is chattering when the band’s first note lands like a meteor and their set blooms open like a flower, filling the room with lush synthy reverberations, distortions, and psychedelic riffs that immediately send the crowd into a dance party.
Italian psyche pop duo Dumbo Gets Mad, has over 400,000 streams on Spotify. They made their way to the Miniplex on March 30th for an unforgettable night of astral funkadelia during the tail end of their U.S tour. The band is led by Luca Bergomi and Carlota Menzonni accompanied by touring musicians.
Unfortunately for the musicians, most of their gear was stolen in Vancouver a few nights before. The German krautrock band Sea Moya, who they’ve been touring with, was able to share their instruments for the rest of the tour, with promoters providing drums.
“Some of that gear was really hard to come by,” said Bergomi, lead singer and guitarist. “But that’s all in the past. Good vibes and keep on.”
Bergomi, dressed in a gray suit akin to David Byrne’s from the Talking Heads only more fitted, looks more like a young businessman than the lead of an internationally acclaimed experimental psych-pop band. He’s a long way from home in a room full of Carhartt.
The band’s last album came out in 2021, but Bergomi has had a project in the works and even snuck a secret new song into the setlist. The band is famous for their 2013 album, “Quantum Leap,” that sports tracks like the popular indie anthem “Indian Food” and the surf rock bop “Before Kiddos Bath,” both of which were played at the show. Bergomi has been finding inspiration for the new album in works of art.
“What is really inspiring to me is paintings,” said Bergomi. “I love French surrealism, impressionism, expressionism.”
It makes sense in the way that Bergomi produces experimental sonic compositions through many layers of texture and sound that paint the air with song and are lively enough to keep you dancing. Synthesizer covers of the pianist Debussy by the composer Isao Tomita have also been a big influence for Bergomi lately. Of course, the movie “Dumbo” was another big inspiration behind the beginning of his musical project and the band’s namesake.
“It comes from the scene where Dumbo gets drunk with the little mouse,” said Bergomi. “It was a memorable scene from my childhood. Like, psychedelic scene. Pink elephant turns gray. That was the scene that made me realize how powerful psychedelic music is in your mind. The soundtrack of that scene was beautiful.”
It’s the bands’ first time in Humboldt, and they definitely delivered despite our small town vibes. The energy between the crowd and the musicians was electric and palpable, and the show got wrapped up in a final frenzy of psych-rock crescendo and moshing. For a band that’s usually great to play relaxing on the beach on a sunny day, they got a sardine-packed room to groove and played a show that left everyone beaming for days afterwards.
