Tonight, Tuesday 11 November 2025, i Psychedelic Feathers they will play in Milan, al cloth. In our region, these things don’t happen often, and every missed opportunity lingers like a postponed meeting. Several years ago they were supposed to perform at Fuori Orario, in the province Reggio Emilia. The undersigned was supposed to play a recording to accompany the live performance: a tightly oriented set, a dream that might have been, that disappeared before it even began. The tour, for various reasons, was cancelled. However — tonight’s a grand return, for one date in Italy.
In the usual way nine points from this blog I’ll try to tell you about it, and prepare you for one of the concerts that I think should not be missed.
1. Beyond the new wave
It’s hard to place it. Too rough for pop, too melodic for post-punk, too thoughtful for rock. The Furs inhabit a borderland where genres touch but don’t touch. They take on a punk tension, an elegance Roxy Music, Bowie was a disappointment, and they made it their own sound. They don’t imitate, they “move sideways”, like people who know that they don’t have to look like anyone. And, if you think about it, they are proud of it.
2. Image
On Furs, guitars collide, saxophones scratch, the sound seems to spin out of control but never goes away. This is a nervous balance, calibrated down to the millimeter. “We listened to a lot of Roxy Music, Bowie and the Velvet Underground. It was all about the vibe — and that’s what we wanted to capture: the atmosphere is more than perfect”Butler said. But there is much more of course. Let’s look at the next points.
3. Voice and Face
By the 1980s, the sound seemed to be out of fashion, as it managed to revive it. Unique and absolute, just like the great singers do. Rude, slow, sometimes impudent but always in control. This carries the burden of experience and detachment from those who observe, not interpret. If you really wanted to look for comparisons, you could use Bowie or Lou Reed, but that would be reductive. Better to recognize what it was: a tone that no one had but him. That’s Butler, and that’s it. Elegant, magnetic, just like the band’s music.
4. Poetry
“We wanted to do something emotional with noise.”
This is how Butler tells the story of its beginning. No ideology, no poses. Just the urgency to turn this mess into something lasting. They acted in a period – between the late seventies and early eighties – where music became introspective, and noise gave way to depth. Despair and clarity: two extremes that touch without ever touching. The feathers sound as if they are holding back more than they let on, as if they want to control their emotions in order, paradoxically, to release them better.
5. Attitude
Respected, relevant, never out of tune. A band that doesn’t follow trends: it crosses trends but remains itself. In an era of shiny plastic and precise hairstyles, they set their sights on art rather than consumption. Serious, but never serious. They border on chart popflirting with success like you’re doing something you don’t really want to do. And the proof is there, in the records: they have aged remarkably well, like anything that was never designed to be immediately liked.
6. Manifesto
With Talk, talk, talk, they found the form. The sound becomes clearer, the writing becomes purposeful, Butler’s voice becomes the center around which everything else revolves. A song that swings between dense atmosphere and necessary atmosphere. It’s not only their best album, but it’s the album that defines them. Yet paradoxically, their most iconic songs are elsewhere – confirming that coherence, for them, is not a matter of singles, but of vision.
7. Perseverance
A band that doesn’t fall into that category “nostalgia operation”: simply, “they exist”. No fanfare, no strategy, claims of past, present and future. Butler’s voice was still the same, only darker. No vintage effect, no pose. They continued to write with the same measure as usual, starting from honesty of sound. They don’t seek space in the present, they move through it. And in this crossover, just like in some others, they remain true.
8. Current
What does a group like Furs mean in 2025? Maybe it’s just this: existing without having to prove anything. They don’t try to make a place for themselves, they always occupy it, with wisdom who never betrays his voice. They don’t need to upgrade, because they are already superior. Listening to it today serves to dispel the excesses this musical time offered. And if this is true, then Butler and his colleagues remain important, above all, necessary.
9. Concert
What can you expect from today’s Furs concert? No effects, no nostalgia pack. Only musicians know exactly what to do on stage. Butler is a quiet leader: he doesn’t say much, he doesn’t need to. Each song is present as a remaining time piece, recognizable at the first chord. There is no pose, no distance: there is a conscious vibration that only real things have. See you there
As usual, I close with a musical connection: custom playlist, available for free on my Spotify channel (link below). If you want to share your opinion, do so in the comments or — better yet — on my public Facebook page, which is linked to this blog. That’s where the debate continues, between posts, responses and unpredictable deviations. And yes, we really do read all kinds of things.
Happy listening. And happy reading.
9 Song 9 … by Psychedelic Furs
