Maneskin Greets a Huge Crowd at Barnes & Noble The Grove with the release of their new album RUSH

On January 31, I was among the huge crowd who waited in line to see alternative/glam rock band Maneskin. As I entered Barnes and Noble in The Grove, I thought I would be the only Gen X among Gen Z’s but to my surprise, there was a mixed crowd in line. There were Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, kids with their Millennial parents and of course Gen Z’s. I waited so long that I was able to finish three chapters of the book I found while standing in line. I drove two and a half hours from south OC and waited an hour and a half to see this band from Italy. The last time I was a fan of a foreign band who sang their native language was in the 80s and that was Nena. Nena who sang 99 Luftballons reached number two on the Billboard chart.

As a music enthusiast and an alternative rock fan, I started to follow Maneskin when I heard their hit song “Beggin’“. Beggin’ reached number 35 in the Billboard Hot 100 and number three in the Billboard Global Chart. It went also viral on TikTok. “Beggin” was originally recorded by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons band in 1967.

The alt rock band rose to fame in 2017 after finishing second in the eleventh season of the Italian talent show X Factor and shot to global stardom when they won the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 for Italy with the song “Zitti e buoni“. In 2022, Maneskin was part of the soundtrack of the movie “Elvis” where they performed an Elvis song “If I Can Dream“. Måneskin seem unstoppable when they won Favorite Rock Song at the 2022 American Music Awards and lit up some of the world’s biggest stages – Rock in Rio, Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Global Citizen festivals.

Going back to the release of their new album “Rush” at Barnes & Noble The Grove in Los Angeles, every fan in attendance received a signed photo of the band and vinyl or a cd.. whatever they ordered online. As I got closer and closer, I overheard some of the fans in my line. They were getting nervous and even planning what to say to the group. And finally my turn, where I acted cool but deep inside my heart was pounding. I got to meet vocalist Damiano David, bassist Victoria De Angelis, guitarist Thomas Raggi, and drummer Ethan Torchio. And the first thing I told them, “I am 52 and I love your music”. And I asked them “What can you say about your American fans?” Victoria replied, “They are so much fun”. They were gracious enough to do different poses for me. After the photo-op, I asked Daisy, a fan behind me who also lives in OC about meeting and having a photo-op with the band. She remarked, “It was so fun. They were so fun. It was really good to meet them. They were really charming.”