Con-fusion was founded in July 1998 by Luigi Lenzi, who still is the administrator of the forum and the website. It was the beginning of a long, patient wait which makes Con-fusion the oldest community in the world dedicated to the band from Charlottesville. In the beginning it was just a dream, the will to share a great passion. The undertakings were not many because the means were few: in Italy internet was not yet within everybody's reach. The small website - at the time still called Spotlight - aimed to become the moving force for the Italian fans, but it didn't have much to offer yet.
The following year things changed. The first real staff was set up. At the beginning of 2000 the great adventure was ready to start: a new website full of news and features, a mailing list, a newsletter and a paper fanzine were launched. To seal this enthusiastic renewal the name was changed into Con-Fusion - a quote from a famous statement by Dave concerning the musical genre his band plays.
The first nationwide recognitions came with the participation to several conventions and the first contact with the Italian BMG and with the press.
After the cancellation of the 2001 tour, fits of dejection and trouble followed one another. Yet the community slowly kept on growing and strengthening: right in 2001 the first community gathering took place. In 2003 the Con-Fusion Forum is launched: it will become very popular and will soon replace the mailing list as virtual meeting place and informative tool.
In 2005 the entry of the Joe Busted Band played a crucial role in shaking the community and bringing new energy to the forum. Its overwhelming enthusiasm will be an essential element of aggregation in the following years. The passion and the unceasing activity of the band and its close collaboration with the staff of Con- Fusion will allow to organize prestigious events.
A major step up occured at the end of 2006. Together with the beginning of a collaboration with V2 Records ((the label that distributed the European version of Stand Up) and in the middle of a still embryonic publishing project on the band, the news of the latest Dave Matthews European solo tour - that will reach Milan on March 4th, 2007 - arrived like a hurricane. During the following months the new staff was absorbed in a long and grueling organization work. The DMB management took notice of it: it was the beginning of a sort of official recognition of the Italian fan club: on that occasion Con-Fusion bought 200 front rows tickets of the Teatro Dal Verme directly from the American Management.
The success was complete: the community gathering organized for the concert - with the Joe Busted Band performing on the stage of "Bodeguita del Pilar" in Milan - aroused international interest, with booking requests from Portugal, Canada, Germany and U.S.A. The fan club's "red shirts" invasion was even mentioned by the national press. Dave himself noticed it: after meeting many red-dressed fans in the afternoon, he would receive a small delegation from Con-Fusion in the backstage of the Milan gig. During the same European tour in Dublin a Con-Fusion t-shirt was given to Carter who raised and kissed it in the middle of the concert.
But Con-Fusion had not had enough. A long time had passed since that far 1998 July 10 (the last DMB show in Italy) and the wait for another concert of the band was getting frustrating. A petition was drawn up on the DMB management's advice. It rapidly gathered more than 2000 signatures and it was handed over the band manager in September 2007 in West Palm Beach where I'm going attending the Dave Matthews Band concerts every year since 2006.
In the meantime the feverish activity of the fan club went on with gatherings, cover bands concerts (Joe Busted Band, Dreaming Treebute Band, Some Devil, etc) and the notable organization of a special episode of the radio show Rock Files hosted by Ezio Guaitamacchi live from Salumeria della Musica in Milan.
In 2009 the dream comes true and the DMB decided to return to Italy. Con-Fusion starts a new site thanks to the collaboration between our webmaster Fabio Deledda and Rodrigo Simas as webdesigner.
We get the official recognition on the DMB website and Con-Fusion actively participates in the organization of the concert in Lucca, gaining a reserved presale and early entrance with bracelets. This was unprecedented in the history of the DMB concerts. The night before the concert there was an International party organized by Con-Fusion and attended by 300 fans from all over the world, with concerts by two cover bands: the Dreaming Treebute Band and the Joe Busted Band.
The Italian community has acquired an international reputation and great notoriety which makes it the reference point for the Italian fans of the DMB.
A few months after the concert of Lucca, in fact, Con-Fusion works along the Italian promoters in organizing the Italian tour with 3 dates: Milan, Rome and Padua. The commitment and professional work of the Italian community are rewarded with things such as early presale and early entrance with bracelets; 10 fans admitted to a meet & greet with Dave Matthews for each Italian date; participation of a small delegation from the fan club (just 6 guests) to a recording of the show 'Moby Dick' with a mini acoustic live by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, which was broadcast on national radio Radio 2 on February 24; official acknowledgment on the posters for the Milan and Rome dates; photo pass for our photographer Luca Cepparo; face-to-face interview with Dave Matthews by our staff member Elena Pizzetti for the April issue of music magazine Buscadero.
Corsina Andriano and Luigi Lenzi
Translated by Elena Pizzetti and Carla Melis
Versione italiana