Desire in concert at Monk, December 5, 2026

Desire, the electronic duo of Megan Louise and Johnny Jewel, plays Monk on Saturday, December 5, 2026, at 19:00, in the Teatro room of the club at Via Giuseppe Mirri 35, in Casal Bertone. It's part of the Concerto Presto format, with an early start and paid entry. Monk's program presents it as Desire x Johnny Jewel. Monk can be reached with Metro B or with the FL1, FL2 and FL3 trains to Tiburtina station, less than a kilometer away, or with buses 163, 409 and 545. Tickets are sold on Monk's official website, in the tickets section, where prices are also listed. Children up to 12 accompanied by an adult with a ticket get in free, according to the club's general rules.

Desire at Monk: the December 5 evening

Desire's concert at Monk starts at 19:00 on Saturday, December 5, in the Teatro room, with the Concerto Presto format the club uses for early-start evenings. It's one of the rare chances to hear in Rome a project from the Italians Do It Better label, the record company that shaped the nocturnal sound of Nicolas Winding Refn's films.

Desire x Johnny Jewel

The title under which Monk sells the evening is Desire x Johnny Jewel: alongside Megan Louise's voice, the name of the American producer and multi-instrumentalist who is the group's other half, and who over the last 15 years has written some of the most influential soundtracks of independent cinema. If you loved Drive, this is the night of the year.

The Concerto Presto format

Concerto Presto means starting at 19:00 and ending early in the evening. The advantage is clear: you come out while the city is still awake, you have dinner afterward, you go home with public transportation in full service. On a Saturday in December, on the eve of the Immaculate Conception long weekend, it's a very valuable convenience.

A sound for the Teatro room

Desire's music is made of analog synthesizers, drum machines and a whispered voice, often in French. It needs darkness and measured volume more than a stadium stage: Monk's intimate indoor room is the right setting.

Who Desire are: biography

Desire is an electronic music duo formed in Montréal in 2009 and now based in Palm Springs, California, made up of singer Megan Louise and producer Johnny Jewel. The lyrics are in French and English. The genre mixes synth pop, Italo disco and new wave.

Montréal, 2009

The group formed in Montréal, Québec, in 2009. The first lineup also included Nat Walker, of Chromatics, on synthesizers and drums. Today the project is a duo. The use of French, the language of their hometown, is one of the group's recognizable traits and gives the songs that European film air that made them perfect for soundtracks.

The first album

The first album, known as II, came out in 2009 on Italians Do It Better, the label founded by Johnny Jewel. The British magazine Fact ranked it 14th among the best albums of that year. The record contains Under Your Spell, the song that would change the group's story, and the single If I Can't Hold You.

Under Your Spell, from the runway to film

Under Your Spell has had an extraordinary life for a song released on an independent label. It was used in Max Mara's spring-summer 2010 show and in Christian Dior's spring-summer 2012 Haute Couture collection. It made it onto the soundtrack of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive and that of Oslo, August 31st, both from 2011. In 2012 Kid Cudi sampled it in the song Teleport 2 Me, Jamie. Few songs have crossed fashion, art-house film and hip hop like this.

Lost River and the silent years

In 2015 Desire recorded Behind the Mask for the soundtrack of Lost River, the directing debut of Ryan Gosling, the star of Drive himself. That same year the EP Under Your Spell came out. Then came years in which the group released little, until its return with the single Tears from Heaven in 2018.

The 2020 rebirth

Since 2020 the duo has been releasing at an impressive pace: the cover of New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle, then Escape, Black Latex, Liquid Dreams, Boy, Don't Call, Zeros, Ghosts. In 2022 the second album, Escape, came out, along with collaborations with producer Guy Gerber on a version of Can't Get You Out of My Head and with Omar-S on 54321. It's the season when Desire stopped being a one-song group.

Games People Play and Code of Desire

In 2023 came Metronomy, Hard Times, Parisian Time and a version of The Power of Love. In 2024 Human Nature, Vampire, Montana and In a Manner of Speaking, with the EPs Dangerous Drug, I Know and Drama Queen. In 2025 the third album came out, Games People Play, with the EPs The Judge and Dream Girl. In 2026 the group released the EP Code of Desire and the singles Summer Skin, all i wanted and Just Another Love Song: the Rome concert comes right in the middle of this output.

Covers as a signature

A constant feature of Desire's repertoire is reworking other people's songs: New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle, Can't Get You Out of My Head, The Power of Love, Human Nature, In a Manner of Speaking. Every famous title is brought into the group's world, slowed down, cooled down, made nocturnal. If you're going to the concert, you'd better know at least a couple of them: the game of recognition is part of the pleasure.

Who Johnny Jewel is, the other half of Desire

Johnny Jewel, born John David Padgett, was born in Houston on May 31, 1974: a musician, producer, film composer and visual artist, known for using only analog equipment. He's the founder of the Italians Do It Better label and the mind behind Glass Candy, Chromatics and Desire.

From Houston to Portland

Raised in Houston, as a kid he listened to the Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth. After his father's death he moved to Austin, where he started recording as John David V, and in the mid-1990s to Portland, Oregon, where he took the name Johnny Jewel. In 1996, while working at a Portland supermarket, he met singer Ida No: with her he founded Glass Candy, who started from a sound close to no wave and post punk and arrived at electronic music and Italo disco.

Italians Do It Better

In 2006 he founded, in Portland, with Mike Simonetti, the label Italians Do It Better. The name is already a tribute to Italy: to the Italo disco of the 1980s, the genre much of the catalog descends from. The label has released Glass Candy, Chromatics and Desire, all with Jewel as co-writer and producer, and two compilations, After Dark in 2007 and After Dark 2 in 2013.

Chromatics and Night Drive

With Chromatics, a post punk band from Seattle, Jewel brought in singer Ruth Radelet and shifted the group's sound toward electronic and disco. The album Night Drive, from 2007, was a success, and the band's music later made it onto the Drive soundtrack. In 2017 Chromatics appeared in David Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return, playing in a bar. In August 2021 Radelet, Walker and Adam Miller announced the group's breakup.

The composer

In 2008 Jewel debuted as a composer with the score for Nicolas Winding Refn's Bronson. Refn then called him for Drive. He has written the music for Ryan Gosling's Lost River, for Fien Troch's Home, which earned him the Georges Delerue Award, and for Holly, also by Troch, presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2023. He has also written for the series Those Who Kill and for Zeroville.

The solo albums and The Weeknd

Between 2014 and 2018 he released as a solo artist The Other Side of Midnight, Windswept, Digital Rain, Vapor and Themes for Television, mostly instrumental. In 2025 he coproduced Wake Me Up on The Weeknd's album Hurry Up Tomorrow, together with Mike Dean and Justice. The producer of an independent Portland label thus reached the global charts, without changing his method.

Desire's sound: what you'll hear

Desire play synth pop and Italo disco with analog synthesizers and drum machines, under Megan Louise's voice. The setlist for the Rome evening hasn't been published. The group's recent repertoire is that of the albums Escape and Games People Play and the EPs released between 2024 and 2026.

Italo disco, from Portland to Rome

There's something circular about seeing Desire in Rome. Italo disco was born in Italy between the late 1970s and the 1980s. An American producer studied it, slowed it down and brought it into art-house film, giving his label a name that pays tribute to it. On December 5 that sound returns to the country it came from.

The songs to know

Under Your Spell is the song the audience is waiting for. Alongside it, it's worth listening beforehand to Bizarre Love Triangle, Escape and Black Latex, and among the recent songs Human Nature and In a Manner of Speaking. With these titles in your ears you'll follow the evening with a different kind of attention.

A concert for listening, not dancing

Despite its disco roots, a Desire concert is closer to a live soundtrack than to a night at a club. If you expect to dance, you'll find an audience that listens. If you love Refn's films, you'll recognize the atmosphere.

A curious fact about Desire in concert at Monk, December 5, 2026

The name of the label that releases Desire, Italians Do It Better, is a declaration of love for Italy. Johnny Jewel chose it for the record company he founded in 2006 in Portland with Mike Simonetti, and the catalog proves him right: much of the label's output descends from Italo disco, the genre born in Italian nightclubs. An American from Houston built his career on an Italian sound and brought it back into circulation through film.

The second curiosity is about the group's most famous song. Under Your Spell was chosen for a Max Mara show, then for a Christian Dior Haute Couture collection, then for Drive and Oslo, August 31st, and finally sampled by Kid Cudi. A song born on an independent label has crossed high fashion, European and American art-house film and hip hop, without ever being a chart hit.

The third is about language. Desire often sing in French, a legacy of their birth in Montréal: they're one of the few electronic acts from North America that use French as their stage language. In Rome, a few hundred kilometers from France, it's a detail the audience will notice right away.

Monk: the cultural club in Casal Bertone

Monk is at the end of Via Giuseppe Mirri, at number 35, in the Casal Bertone neighborhood, less than a kilometer from Tiburtina station, and has been active since 2014. The name is a tribute to jazz pianist Thelonious Sphere Monk.

Two farmhouses and a park

The club is made up of two farmhouses, about 500 square meters in total, and two outdoor areas inside a one-hectare park. The official website describes it as a small rural world in a densely populated neighborhood: you arrive between apartment buildings and train tracks and enter an unexpected green area. In winter life moves indoors, to the Teatro room.

The program

Big and small concerts, theater, workshops, book presentations, festivals, markets, family activities: Monk is alive all year. The venue page is the one for Monk. The updated program is on Monk's official website.

Barrier-free

Monk states that its spaces are free of architectural barriers and open to all ages: a concrete point if you use a wheelchair or a stroller.

Something nobody tells you about Desire in concert at Monk, December 5, 2026

Many people know Desire without realizing it. If you've seen Drive, you remember the night scene set to Under Your Spell, but very few could say whose song it was. The same goes for those who have seen Oslo, August 31st, or who listen to Kid Cudi. For years the group had an indirect fame, tied to other people's images, more than an audience of its own.

What nobody says is that this situation has changed. Since 2020 Desire have been releasing nonstop: two albums, a long series of EPs, dozens of singles, collaborations with electronic scene producers like Guy Gerber and Omar-S. If you come to Monk expecting a one-song group, you'll find a band with a broad repertoire and an audience that knows the new songs.

The second thing is about Johnny Jewel. He's a producer who works exclusively with analog equipment, and who chose to stay independent even after his film success. Seeing him in a room of a few hundred people, instead of at an open-air festival, is a chance the Rome audience won't often get.

Casal Bertone and the area around Monk

Casal Bertone is a neighborhood in the eastern part of Rome, squeezed between the Tiburtina railway, Via Prenestina and Portonaccio. It's a working-class, dense area that grew up next to the rail yard.

Among the tracks

The railway shapes the neighborhood's identity, and Monk presents itself precisely as born between Casalbertone and Portonaccio. The area around Tiburtina has changed a lot in recent years, and spaces like this one have brought here an audience that didn't come before.

Verano and San Lorenzo

Past the railway, to the west, are the Verano Cemetery and the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura. The San Lorenzo neighborhood, with its university and nightlife, is a few minutes away by bus or taxi: with a concert that ends early, it's the natural destination for afterward.

Villa Torlonia and Porta Maggiore

To the north, along Via Nomentana, is Villa Torlonia, with the Casino Nobile and the Casina delle Civette. To the south, past the Prenestina, Porta Maggiore and the ancient aqueducts remind you that these outskirts too rest on 2,000 years of history.

How to get to Monk for Desire

Monk can be reached with Metro B or with the FL1, FL2 and FL3 regional trains to Tiburtina station, less than a kilometer away, or with buses 163, 409 and 545 listed on the official website.

By metro and train

From Tiburtina station to Via Giuseppe Mirri it's about a 10-minute walk. From Termini, Metro B takes you to Tiburtina in a few minutes. With a 19:00 start you travel in the middle of evening service, and getting back is easy too.

By bus

Lines 163, 409 and 545 serve the area. For the exact route from your starting point, use the ATAC journey planner, which takes Saturday schedules into account.

By car and taxi

Casal Bertone is outside the ZTL and street parking is possible on the nearby streets, but on Saturday it may take a few loops. If you're coming from far away, a taxi to Tiburtina and the last few steps on foot are often the fastest option.

My tip for Desire in concert at Monk, December 5, 2026

Treat this evening like a screening. Before going, watch Drive again, or at least the night scenes: the music of Desire and Chromatics is part of how the film tells its story, and rewatching it prepares you for the concert's atmosphere better than any playlist. Then listen to Escape and Games People Play, the two most recent albums, so you're not lost in front of the new repertoire.

My second tip is about timing. With the Concerto Presto format, arriving at 19:00 sharp means missing the start: doors open earlier, and if you arrive around 18:30 you find a spot calmly, get something at the bar and settle into the room. In an intimate room, position matters.

The third is about afterward. The concert will end early in the evening, and a Saturday in December in Rome offers everything you need. San Lorenzo and Pigneto are a few minutes away: book dinner for 21:30 and you'll have the perfect evening, music first and the table after, instead of the other way around.

Finally: dress in layers. In winter Monk lives in the indoor room, but arriving and leaving take you through the park, and December evenings can be damp.

Tickets for Desire at Monk

Tickets for Desire's December 5 concert are sold on Monk's official website, in the tickets section. Entry is paid and the price is shown at the time of purchase.

Where to buy them

The safe channel is Monk's official one, reachable from the concert button in the program published on the website. For an intimate room and a name like this, there aren't many spots: my advice is not to wait until the last weeks.

Children and minors

Monk's rules provide that children up to 12 get in free if accompanied by an adult with a ticket, one per adult. Minors can attend only with a parent or an adult relative who signs a written authorization.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

Everyone knows the Drive soundtrack contributed to the success of Nicolas Winding Refn's film. Less often do people remember that one person was behind much of that music. Johnny Jewel had composed the music for Bronson for Refn in 2008 and was called in for Drive. Songs by Chromatics and Desire, two groups he co-wrote for and produced, made it onto the soundtrack. The sound of that film, which marked a decade of cinema and advertising, is largely the sound of Italians Do It Better.

A second fact known to fans but rarely mentioned is the link with Ryan Gosling. The star of Drive, making his directing debut with Lost River in 2015, called Johnny Jewel for the soundtrack, and Desire recorded Behind the Mask for that film. The relationship between an actor and a music producer became a collaboration over several films.

The third is about the group's name. Desire's first album is known as II: a title that seems like a second chapter and is instead the debut. Games like this are part of the group's aesthetic, which likes to wrong-foot people even in the details.

How to plan the evening with Desire

Desire's concert starts at 19:00: arriving around 18:30 gives you time to get in, get something at the bar and find a spot in the room.

Before

An afternoon at Villa Torlonia or a walk in San Lorenzo fits well with the timing. If you arrive by train, you can take advantage of Tiburtina being close to come in from out of town and leave the same evening.

After

The advantage of the Concerto Presto format is all here: after the concert the evening is still long. San Lorenzo and Pigneto offer everything you need for a Saturday dinner or a last drink.

The next day

On December 6 Monk hosts Modena City Ramblers, also in Concerto Presto format, at 19:30. If you're staying in Rome for the Immaculate Conception long weekend, you can do two nights in a row at the same club, with two opposite musical worlds.

The right photo to take at Desire in concert at Monk, December 5, 2026

The right photo of this evening is a photo of light. Desire's concerts live on half-light, saturated colors and silhouettes, and the best images aren't close-ups but the musicians' outlines against the stage lights. If you really want to shoot, do it without flash, from halfway back in the room, looking for backlight: the photo will be grainy, and that's just fine, because it's the group's aesthetic.

Before the concert, the photo to take is outside: the path that leads from the apartment buildings of Via Mirri to Monk's farmhouses, with the club's lights on in the December dark. It's the image that best tells the story of the place, a piece of countryside left between the railway and the public housing.

A third possible photo is on the walk from Tiburtina: the high-speed station lit up, the tracks, the cranes. If you love Refn's films, where the night city is a protagonist, it's the right introduction to the evening. During the concert, though, for most of the time your phone should stay in your pocket: in a small room the lit screen of someone filming bothers those listening.

Where to eat at Monk and nearby

Monk has its own kitchen with a food truck: eating there, before or after the concert, is the most practical option.

The club's kitchen

The menu published on the website includes burgers, supplì, falafel, parmigiana and other dishes, with vegan and gluten-free options. If you have serious allergies, let the staff know.

Nearby

Between Casal Bertone and Portonaccio there are neighborhood trattorias and pizzerias. The widest choice is in San Lorenzo and Pigneto. With a concert that ends early, a sit-down dinner after the music is finally a realistic option. On the Saturday of the long weekend, booking is essential.

Some important events that happened here in history

Monk's history as a cultural space begins in 2014, when the two farmhouses on Via Giuseppe Mirri and the park around them opened to the city with concerts, shows, workshops, presentations and family activities. From the start the club bet on being open to all ages and free of architectural barriers, two choices that have made it a space frequented by a very varied audience.

Over the years the program has widened to include historic international rock groups, singer-songwriters, jazz, electronic music and comedy. In summer the club lives in the park, in fall and winter it moves into the Teatro room. More recently it introduced Woojer Vest 3 vibrating vests for some concerts, making live music accessible to deaf people too, and adopted the Concerto Presto format for evenings starting at 19:00.

The neighborhood that hosts it has the history of an outskirt that grew up next to the railway. Casal Bertone and Portonaccio developed right next to the rail yard and Tiburtina station, one of Rome's main rail hubs and today a high-speed station. For a group that built its imagery on the night city and car journeys, playing in a neighborhood born from the tracks has its own consistency.

Accessibility, children and practical information

Monk states that its spaces are free of architectural barriers and publishes a page dedicated to accessibility, with the rules for children and minors and the services for deaf people.

With children

Children up to 12 get in free if accompanied by an adult with a ticket, one per adult. The 19:00 start makes this evening one of the few on the program compatible with a family, even if Desire's nocturnal, rarefied music suits a teenager more than a young child.

Minors

Minors can attend only if accompanied by a parent or an adult relative who signs a written authorization. If you're thinking of sending a teenager with friends, keep this in mind.

Vibrating vests

For some events marked in the program, Monk provides Woojer Vest 3 vibrating vests, which let deaf people feel the music through vibrations. To find out if the service is planned on December 5, write to info@monkroma.it. Music built on analog bass like Desire's lends itself particularly well to this kind of listening.

Who has passed through Desire in concert at Monk, December 5, 2026

Monk doesn't publish a complete archive of the concerts it has hosted since 2014, but the fall 2026 program gives a clear idea of the level of artists who come through here. October's lineup included Primogenito, Leo Middea, JMSN in Concerto Presto format, Drink the Sea, the Lemonheads, Azymüth, corto.alto, Fink and the Fleshtones with their show for 50 years of activity.

In November come Mark Guiliana with Beat 2.0, Marlene Kuntz playing Il vile in full, Roberto Colella, Henge with Mark The Hammer. After Desire, on December 6 it's the turn of Modena City Ramblers, on the 21st Downtown Boys, and in January Kyle Alessandro. Comedians and writers also come through the Teatro room, like Francesco Cicconetti and Angelo Amaro, and book presentations are held in the arena.

It's a program that mixes American indie rock, contemporary jazz, Brazilian music, Italian singer-songwriters and electronic music, and it explains why Monk has become a reference point for live music in Rome. For Desire and Johnny Jewel, who built their audience outside the big circuits and inside the soundtracks of independent film, it's the right company.

Early December in Rome: indoor music

December 5 is the Saturday that opens the Immaculate Conception long weekend, when Rome enters the holiday mood. The city fills with visitors, the lights are on and nightlife moves indoors.

The weather

December evenings in Rome are cool and sometimes damp. For an indoor concert a light coat is enough, but the walk from Tiburtina and the wait at the entrance call for a scarf.

The holidays

If you're coming to Rome in those days, the holiday calendar is in the guide to Christmas in Rome. An electronic concert in an outlying club is a useful counterpoint to a weekend of nativity scenes and lights.

Frequently asked questions about Desire at Monk

When do Desire play in Rome?

Desire play Rome on Saturday, December 5, 2026, at Monk, at Via Giuseppe Mirri 35, starting at 19:00 in the Teatro room. The evening is part of Monk's Concerto Presto format, with an early start, and is presented in the program as Desire x Johnny Jewel.

Who are Desire?

Desire are an electronic music duo formed in Montréal in 2009, made up of singer Megan Louise and producer Johnny Jewel, formerly of Chromatics and Glass Candy. They're best known for Under Your Spell, featured on the Drive soundtrack, and they sing in French and English.

Where do you buy tickets for Desire at Monk?

Tickets for Desire at Monk are sold on the club's official website, in the tickets section, reachable from the program. Entry is paid and the price is shown at the time of purchase. Children up to 12 accompanied by an adult with a ticket get in free.

How do you get to Monk by public transportation?

Monk can be reached with Metro B or with the FL1, FL2 and FL3 trains to Tiburtina station, less than a kilometer from Via Giuseppe Mirri. Alternatively there are buses 163, 409 and 545, listed on the club's official website.

What does Concerto Presto mean at Monk?

Concerto Presto is Monk's format for early-start concerts, at 19:00 instead of late in the evening. Desire's December 5 concert follows this format: you come out early in the evening and there's time for dinner, with public transportation still in full service.

Who is Johnny Jewel?

Johnny Jewel, born in Houston in 1974, is Desire's producer and composer, founder of the Italians Do It Better label and formerly a member of Chromatics and Glass Candy. He composed the music for Bronson, Lost River, Home and Holly and contributed to the Drive soundtrack.

Is Monk wheelchair accessible?

Monk states that its spaces are free of architectural barriers and publishes a page dedicated to accessibility on its website. For some concerts it provides vibrating vests for deaf people. For specific needs on the Desire evening, write to info@monkroma.it.

To close

Among concerts in small rooms, the most valuable are those where an artist used to bigger crowds accepts closeness to the audience. Desire at Monk is one of these occasions: a sound born for film, brought into an intimate room in an outlying neighborhood, at 19:00 on a Saturday in December. Buy your ticket in time, watch Drive again the night before and book dinner for afterward. For a Roman weekend organized around music, with itineraries and guides, the professionals at Tour Leader Pro are the ones to turn to.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Tours and Experiences.

Planning a trip to Rome? English-language guides for visiting the city are on ItalyPlanner.com.