I had not heard of Zucchero before a friend mentioned this concert to me and how much she wanted to see him. I decided to attend without so much as watching a YouTube video of him.

Zucchero

Zucchero is a huge star in Italy and, judging by the reaction of the audience, he’s big here as well.

Zucchero

This post will be more of an observation than a review; it is hard to review an artist without having a frame of reference going into the event.

Zucchero took the stage at the Berklee Performance Center alone, playing guitar and singing in Italian on a dimly-lit stage. That first song sounded like it was a love song and was beautiful.

Zucchero

After that opening song, the stage lights came on to reveal a full band with some large masks hanging overhead. The staging was unusual and colorful without being a spectacle (in a negative way, something that detracts from the music).

After the mellow opening number, they started to rock. Zucchero has been called a pop star but I think he’s more of a rock star. His music contains elements of rock, blues, soul, gospel and even funk.

His band consists of four musicians who play keyboards, guitars, bass, and drums, and also provide backing vocals. They are all fine musicians, but I especially loved the female guitarist. She was given a number of solos as was the keyboardist.

The wonderful guitarist

Zucchero knows how to work his audience. He encouraged us to – and maybe insisted that we – stand for certain songs because they rocked a bit more than others.

Zucchero and band

He sang some songs in English, but most songs were in Italian. I wish I understood the lyrics, but I sensed they were mostly happy songs.

For the first encore, a Hammond organ was brought to the stage for Zucchero to do another lovely solo.

Zucchero

For the second encore, they performed a tribute to Pavarotti, which is apparently one of Zucchero’s best-known songs (again, judging by the reaction of the audience when the song started).

Zucchero during the Pavarotti tribute

I thoroughly enjoyed this show. He does not tour here often, but next time he’s here I’ll make sure I know at least some of his music.

Zucchero

Zucchero

Zucchero and band