Holding it all together in a positively west coast way are The Venetian who, it turns out, are led by an expatriate Italian- Luca Spanio - with a sense of the dramatic. Not an overblown sense of the dramatic either but one driven by good old fashioned showmanship.
The Venetian describe themselves as a rock opera band – another day, another genre? – and their album “I Wanna Tell You A Story” is certainly a convincing facsimile of a rock opera. Balancing Italian and English lyrics in the same concept album could so easily have been pretentious. You know it could. However, in this case, a love for running a theme through the songs on this album shines through for this is nothing less than musical theatre in the proverbial rock ‘n’ roll format with songs like “Dancing Angel” and “My Sweet Italian Pie” crying out for imminent off Broadway rediscovery.
It would have been easy to write this album off as mid-level American west coast rock but it is, fortunately, a step above that. I hope that The Venetian get their time in the spotlight.
Available from CD Baby amongst other places.