RAANDOOMINSIDE: Desire
In the dim glow of Covo Club, Desire transformed a sold-out night into a dark, shimmering ritual. With gothic flair and cinematic sensuality, their return to Bologna after 15 years was more than a performance. Megan Louise, a modern-day Saint Therese in leather and cross earrings, held the crowd spellbound, blurring the line between concert and ritual, leading their devotees through a lush, hypnotic world where obsession, love, and desire reigned supreme.
A priest in gothic attire and black-teared eyes. An altar girl standing in solemn, glamorous splendor in a silvered '80s onesie and slim black glasses. A modern, ecstatic Saint Therese in a shiny leather bustier dress and cross earrings presides over the function, raising a skull high to the roof of a blackened club. She dances with a bouquet of red roses between her arms, plucking one now and then to hand it as a gift to the adoring crowd.
Desire played at Covo Club in Bologna on December 13th to a mass of devotees in an overground crypt, transforming their return to the venue after almost 15 years into a metaphysical, sold-out Mass of synths, basslines, and luscious vocals that enraptured the senses.
A snippet from Desire’s live concert at Covo Club, shot by Raandoom at the event. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Their comeback happens to present their latest album, Games People Play. The 3rd album from the band, formed in Montreal by American producer Johnny Jewel and vocalist Megan Louise, follows If I Can’t Hold You, published in 2022, 12 years after their self-titled debut album, Desire. The album catapulted them into fame, as one of the main tracks in the album, “Under Your Spell,” started earning placements not only in fashion shows by the world's top fashion houses like Dior but also in movies, most notably the beloved 2011 American action drama, Drive, starring Ryan Gosling.
The years between the albums were far from unproductive. Jewel and Louise are the central figures both as top artists and heads of Italians Do It Better (a lo-fi label Johnny Jewel co-founded) and were involved through the years in many other cinematic ventures as a band. Jewel composed many soundtracks for films like Lost River (Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut) or David Lynch’s Twin Peaks 2017 revival.
This highly cinematic vocation of their music isn’t confined to the movies their compositions gave life to. It’s well alive and breathable as they play on stage with the company of keyboardist Louise Eva, as different camp and gothic visuals move behind them as light projections. Songs spanning their discography enchanted the crowd that swayed left and right in unison in an '80s dancing trance, evoking the moves of the kids of the age of neon colors and structured clothes. Their cover of 1986 “Bizarre Love Triangle” from English synth-pop band New Order showcased the umbilical connection that feeds the band's influences while demonstrating their ability to bring to life from their early days a flamboyant blood-red-vampiresque take on a genre that will never die.
“Under Your Spell”'s iconic bridge proves this point. It unfolded as a timid lovers' chat between Megan Louise and the crowd. Tender questions on the differences between love, obsession, desire, and the possibility of an everlasting feeling. And considering the rapturous adoration of the crowd, the answers seemed clear. It can last… Forever Ever.
