Steven Wilson – Shepherds Bush Empire, London, 31st October 2011

Grace for Drowning was one of the most eagerly awaited albums this year, and certainly lived up to all expectations in my book, so my anticipation for this show had been building for some time, ever since my esteemed colleague PW managed to acquire the tickets some months ago.

Not knowing what time Steven was due on stage, and vaguely recalling a posting on his Facebook page asking the fans to get there early, we were seated to the right hand side of the upper tier by 7:20. The stage is shrouded by what my mate referred to jokingly as a “net curtain”, and some ten minutes later the house lights dim and Lasse Hoile’s trademark bleak images, changed every ten minutes or so, are projected onto the thin gauze accompanied by Bass Communion’s ambient drones, which are an acquired taste at the best of times. This carried on for an hour, which was probably at least half an hour too long. One wonders why we were asked to arrive so early? Another of Steven’s polite requests was no photos please, which I have adhered to, but judging by the tens of mobiles going off all through the evening it was an instruction that was largely ignored. Assuming the request was down to Steven’s perhaps understandable dislike of low quality images, it is somewhat ironic that a recent slideshow on his Facebook page is comprised of amateur iPhone images taken by an audience member at the previous week’s Paris gig. Ho-hum…

Come 8:30 eventually one by one the band take up their positions and begin playing the opening song. For the first 20 or so minutes of the set the “net curtain” remained in place in front of the band, occasionally used as a backdrop for more of Lasse’s images, which were much better displayed later on the backdrop behind the band. I now know how a poor unfortunate suffering from cataracts must view the world. It wasn’t until the veil was lowered during Sectarian, to a big cheer from the sell out crowd, that I really began to enjoy the gig.

Steven acted mainly in a conductor’s capacity throughout, playing occasional keyboards or guitar, and of course singing. He said he was going to be taking a back seat and would let the band do their thing, and a splendid “thing” it was too! Nailing down the beat to thunderous effect but also displaying subtlety where needed was Marco Minneman, on bass and Chapman Stick was Nick Beggs, who is now something of a prog stalwart, being a long time member of Steve Hackett’s band. He sure has come a long way since Kajagoogoo, but he still retains a slightly daft haircut! Lead guitar duties were performed with panache by Aziz Ibrahim, formerly (and briefly) with the Stone Roses, his guitar was a light show in itself. Nick and Aziz along with Steven showed their undoubted technical skills on the fast syncopated parts of the epic Raider II, Nick even got to do some guitar god posing, and they all looked to be having a jolly good time.

On keyboards was Adam Holzman, who when he got to play the jazzy piano fills showed his chops off to fine effect. Last, but by no means least was Mr Flute himself, the redoubtable Theo Travis, whose wonderful playing is all over Grace For Drowning. Unfortunately he often suffered in the louder sections particularly from being a bit buried in the mix, which was a shame.

You can see from the setlist below that a varied selection was played from both the solo albums, and the highlights for me were the ultra creepy Index, Raider II which was simply magnificent, Deform to Form A Star, which as my mate says sounds like it could have been a Porcupine Tree song from 1997, Harmony Korine was excellent, and the encore, Steven replete with gas mask, was a moment of triumph.

After an over-long introduction, and the “net curtain” overstaying its welcome, the gig eventually became a truly jaw-dropping display of musical excellence, and was certainly well worth the wait.

OPETH, Kavarna Rock Fest, 16.07.2011.

Hello Prog Sphere readers, I’m here with my first review for this site, and although I haven’t even heard a single entire King Crimson album in my life, I hope that I am still worthy enough to try to present you all the greatness that Opeth bestowed upon us this warm July night. Opeth were part of the lineup of the now traditional Kavarna Rock Fest that takes place in the small city of Kavarna, located on the Black Sea shore. 2011 marked the sixth edition of this fine festival. Each year, the organizers try to have some concept for the lineup. This one was based around the darker and slower side of the metal spectrum, so besides Opeth we saw Katatonia, Tiamat, Paradise Lost, Moonspell and Lake of Tears (Sonata Arctica and Arch Enemy, who were also included in the festival, were the obvious exceptions to that rule). What I really dig about this fest is that there are only 4 (on last day just 3) bands per day so you are not witnessing some 40-minute fest gig but instead every band has time to perform a full 1.5 hour set replete with encores, so one can rightfully say that each group played a full concert. The festival is located at Kavarna Stadium and every day had roughly 5-6000 visitors who were more than willing to strengthen the atmosphere for each and every band for the entire festival. Opeth was the headliner of the second day and the apex of that night which started with modern British metallers Sylosis. Tiamat and Moonspell followed with furious gigs of their own which really took us back to the golden nineties. Especially after Moonspell’s vintage set it was truly hard to keep up the momentum they had created, so a heavy burden was placed upon Opeth…

But I will now return to that warm night, on to my perfect position some 15 meters in front of the stage, and try to picture the show for you. To tell you straight away, the show was pure magic – Opeth recreated all the emotions that run through their albums and transferred them into a live setting so effortlessly that I still have a hard time talking about it. Even the environment was perfect: a cozy summer breeze, a full moon on a clear sky, and in front of me a giant stage blessed with crystal clear sound. All of this promised a lot and when the godly Swedes kicked off the show with “The Grand Conjuration” I was struck with awe. Even though the song is probably my least favourite one from this band, I immediately immersed myself  in the sea of sound and noticed right from the start how perfect the quality was. I know that I’ve mentioned this a couple of times but I simply have to point out that Opeth sounded impeccable. Almost as if they were playing a CD straight from the best stereo system on the planet.

Right after “The Grand Conjuration”, Opeth went into “Face of Melinda“ and from there you just have to notice the grandness of Opeth: not many bands will throw in a “ballad“ so early in their set without losing the momentum of the show, but the atmosphere that erupted on “The Grand Conjuration“ stayed at the same level, just a little quieter. I think that I should mention here that the new guy in the band on keyboards, Joakim Svalberg, fits in the band already with his vintage look and Hammond set. His great backing vocals and stage persona tells me that Mikael definitely made the right choice.

After “Face of Melinda“ it was nigh time for Mr. Mikael to speak to audience.Some people complained about how much he talked on stage, but I would take his funny ramblings over “I am a true artist but you wouldn’t understand it anyway” attitude that so many big bands have. Mikael shows us that he’s just a regular dude with a golden gift for music.

So after some “Smoke on the water“ and Judas Priest riffs and a singalong spiced with jokes it was time for “The Lotus Eater“ from maybe my favourite Opeth album “Watershed“ where Axe shined with his blast beats, and showed that despite his ecclecticity he is primarily a metal drummer.

Then we were treated with a speech from Mikael about his experiences with ballads in his early teens so it was clear that something from “Damnation” (“pussy magnet album” in his words) was about to show up. “In My Time of Need” made the hair on my balls stand tight and it was at that point that I realised the magic that was happening: the whole stadium was silent and woven in pure trance but when Mikael signaled for “no one would ask me to stay“ everyone sang the line. The band and crowd became one… What a wonderful moment.

Up next it was time to get heavy again with “Master’s Apprentices“. This piece provoked some massive headbanging from the crowd with its monstrous riffs.

“Drapery falls“ was next, and it simply swallowed me into its epicness with Fredrik blazing on his guitar.

The end was reserved for “the song that is one of our favourites“ in Mikael’s words: “Hex Omega“. This was another chance for Joakim to shine.

At this point the official part of the concert was over, but the massive roar from the crowd got the band back on stage quickly and then followed one of the funniest moments that I have ever seen in live setting: Mikael invited people to headbang for 30 seconds without music. I though it was hilarious, but you can look it up on youtube to see for yourself. After that we got a proper soundtrack for their headbanging as “Deliverance” was chosen to finish us off and pull the last atoms of strength from our bodies. What a perfect ending.

All in all, Opeth was on the highest possible level that night and I will even say that they were the best band of the entire festival, followed closely by Moonspell. I have finally seen them live and now all that is left for me is to wait for “Heritage” to see if they will have the album of the year yet again.

Jaga Jazzist – Le Poisson Rouge, NYC, 03/07/2011

If you haven’t heard of Jaga Jazzist, they’re a Norwegian ten piece electronic jazz fusion ensemble. Or something, I don’t really know what they should be called, and I don’t think they do either. Their most recent album is called One Armed Bandit, and you should totally get it if you know what’s good for you. If you are ALREADY a fan of Jaga Jazzist, you’re probably reading this review to see if they manage to replicate their multi-layered sound on stage.

The answer is no, they don’t manage to do it. They could though, but that would be boring. Why would anyone want to hear them play the same live as they sound in the studio? What is this, a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert? Jaga Jazzist doesn’t have HITS to play – shame on you!

What Jaga Jazzist does instead is infinitely multiply their sound to bring the audience a lush, torrential, psycho-symphonic, wall of their trademarked slightly electronic, completely jazzy sound. Everyone on stage was completely bombastic and explosive. Martin Hornveth (the drummer, and the man with whom Nick and I shared an interview a while ago), was the most ferocious of all of his bandmates. He certainly made up for the fact that he was the only one on stage not switching instruments after every song. Well, I said that for emphasis, I think the (electric) bassist (whose name I am finding it impossible to discern) might have retained his for the whole show as well. The two of them play multiple instruments on the albums anyway.

Because there are ten people on stage playing intricate, overlapping rhythms it’s kind of hard for the band to improvise unless they go for a big band solo type deal. There’s bit of this on occasion, but Jaga Jazzist’s main pull is their energy, their bombasticity.

As the band has just wrapped up its current North American tour, I would urge our European readers to check their touring schedule frequently to see when they begin again. In the meantime, I’ll wait for them to return to New York City, and hope it doesn’t take seven years this time.

The Decemberists at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia (MD) – June 13, 2011

The arrival of warmer weather heralds the start of the big concert season in the northeast US, taking full advantage of the many capacious outdoor venues of the region, as well as the usual indoor venues of every size that are available throughout the year. Obviously, concerts are also held during the colder months, but especially in the summer the offer of live music is so plentiful that even the most dedicated fans must pick and choose what gigs to attend – unless they have an endless supply of time and money.

According to our original plan, at the end of this week my husband and I would have headed out to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for our third NEARfest. As most of my readers know all too well, the event was not meant to be, but we found ways to fill the gap in the month of June, picking and choosing among the vast range of live gigs scheduled in our area. Our choice fell on two bands that, in their own very different ways, have become mainstays of our listening routine: The Decemberists and Black Country Communion – one an established outfit with six studio albums under their belt, the other  the latest supergroup to take the rock scene by storm. Neither of those bands, strictly speaking, are ‘prog’, though they have quite a few points of contact with the genre, and both have often been covered by magazines and websites geared towards prog fans.

We had been so lucky as to see The Decemberists for the first time on their celebrated 2009 tour in support of their fifth studio album, The Hazards of Love, a monumental achievement that won them many fans among the often rather conservative ranks of prog lovers. On that occasion, they were joined by Becky Stark and Shara Worden, the two amazing female vocalists that had guested on the album – which was performed in its entirety, much to the audience’s ecstatic reaction. On the other hand, their latest recording effort, The King Is Dead – a slice of song-oriented Americana, offering very little of the intriguing eclecticism of its predecessors, released at the very beginning of 2011 – had left me somewhat cold. We were nonetheless delighted to learn that they would be playing the same venue as two years ago – the quaintly bucolic Merriweather Post Pavilion, a largish outdoor theatre deep in the Maryland woods, almost a stone’s throw from Baltimore.

Such rustic surroundings seem to be the perfect complement for the warmly engaging music of the Portland-based quintet, a seamless blend of articulate, often challenging lyrics and eclectic music rich with diverse influences. In sharp contrast with the suffocatingly humid heat of the previous week, the cool, dry weather of the evening of June 13 made being outdoors a real pleasure – to the extent that some of the people sitting on the lawn rather than under the pavilion were longing for warmer clothing. Our excellent seats allowed us a great view of the stage, and the two big screens placed on either side were a boon to those who were sitting at the back. If compared to the prog gigs and festivals that we usually attend, the nearly sellout crowd was much younger on average, with a definitely higher proportion of women to men. Even if, in my personal view, The King Is Dead is probably be the weakest of the band’s releases, it has undoubtedly been a relatively major commercial breakthrough for them, exposing them to a much larger audience. It also shows a band refusing to get stuck in a rut or taken for granted, and more than willing to surprise their audience with bold changes of direction.

After  a short opening set by supporting band Best Coast, a rather nondescript, female-fronted indie/garage rock outfit who nonetheless seemed to have their own loyal following, The Decemberists came on stage at 9 p.m., greeted deliriously by the crowd. Stripped down to their basic line-up of Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Nate Query and John Moen, with bluegrass artist Sara Watkins standing in for Jenny Conlee (who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer), they delivered a strong, invigorating set, mainly revolving around The King Is Dead (performed almost in its entirety, with the exception of one track), but also including a number of songs from their back catalogue. According to Meloy, the songs on the setlist had been chosen for their affinity with the summer season – the show opening with the infectious “July! July!” (from their 2006 album The Crane Wife), and  closing with “June Hymn” (from The King Is Dead), performed as a second and final encore.

Though, from a prog standpoint, The Decemberists’ music is not as mind-blowingly complex as the genre’s most beloved bands’ – relying as it does on conventional song structures and the occasional catchy hook – there is no denying that the band’s members know their business, and then some. Watching bassist Nate Query swing a double bass around with the nonchalant ease of a consummate old-school jazz player, drummer John Moen add subtle, intriguing percussive touches, or guitarist Chris Funk wring poignantly wailing sounds from his lap steel guitar, was a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. Sara Watkins (a recording artist in her own right, and already part of the tour prior to the announcement of Conlee’s illness) is also an outstanding multi-instrumentalist, though favouring the fiddle rather than the keyboards. She is also a fine singer, as proved by solo performance of “Won’t Want for Love” – though her voice has more of a gutsy rock feel than Becky Stark’s ethereal soprano, featured  in the song’s original version. Indeed, while the distinctive rumble of Conlee’s Hammond organ may have been missing, Watkins’ talented contribution complemented the alt.country slant of the newer material quite perfectly.

In spite of his nerdy, bookish appearance (this time around tempered by a full beard, which made him look somewhat older and more rugged), Colin Meloy is an outstanding frontman, not afraid to dive into the audience together with his acoustic guitar to be hauled back on stage by the crowd during the rousing encore of “The Chimbley Sweep”, and not averse to peppering his between-song banter with bits of pointed political commentary. While his voice may be an acquired taste, it fits the band’s music to a T, and his witty raconteur personality is undeniably pivotal to their appeal. Furthermore, he is an extremely versatile interpreter, conveying a sense of genuine menace in the stunning rendition of “The Rake’s Song” (one of the highlights of the show, drenched in dramatic red light, and enhanced by Sara Watkins and Chris Funk’s energetic drum-banging), while pleading heartbreakingly in “Annan Water”, and orchestrating the crowd’s enthusiastic response in the eminently catchy “O Valencia!” and “The Perfect Crime # 2”.

As I previously pointed out, I was not as impressed by The King Is Dead as I had been by The Decemberists’ other albums, which all get regular spins in our player. However, the same songs that had sounded a tad flat and uninvolving on CD came alive on stage, and acquired an appealing edge that the polished production did not always adequately get across. For all the polite, somewhat highbrow mien of their music, once on stage they rock with an endearingly old-fashioned intensity, getting the crowd to sing along, clap, dance and wave their arms in tried and true rock’n’roll fashion. Even in the absence of elaborate trappings and gimmicks, and relying only on a good light show and their own stage skills, The Decemberists are one of the most entertaining live acts on the current scene, capable of imbuing their musical output with a rare sense of warmth and genuine emotion. The more listener-friendly approach displayed onThe King Is Dead may have attracted a younger, hipper audience, but this has not turned them into one of those countless “here today, gone tomorrow” bands. With a solid catalogue, a cohesive, highly accomplished line-up and a great songwriter and frontman in Colin Meloy, The Decemberists are a force to be reckoned with, and –  regardless of those pesky tags and labels – a band firmly rooted in that great rock tradition that prog sometimes seems to have  forgotten.

Setlist:

July, July!
Down by the Water
Calamity Song
Rise to Me
The Bagman’s Gambit
Annan Water
Won’t Want for Love (Margaret In The Taiga)
The Crane Wife 3
Don’t Carry It All
All Arise!
The Rake’s Song
Rox in the Box
O Valencia!
The Perfect Crime #2
This Is Why We Fight
–
January Hymn
When U Love Somebody
The Chimbley Sweep
–
June Hymn

Amplifier – XOYO, Shoreditch, London – 15th June 2011

We missed the first third of support act The Pineapple Thief’s set, seen by yours truly for the third time this year, but what we did see was well worth it, ended as ever by psych wigout Too Much To Lose, and they got a good reception from a mixed crowd, including a few who were obviously PT fans judging by their t-shirts.

Actually, a word on the crowd. Being a couple of middle-aged blokes of around the half century, we were musing beforehand as to whether or not we would be the oldest in the audience, which we thought might be a crowd of young teen boy metal-moshers, certainly the impression I got from the only other time I’ve seen the band, emerging after a few hours in a submarine at 2000 Trees festival in 2009 – it was a tad wet. We need not have worried, as the crowd covered everything from young teens to folk even older than us two old codgers, and there were a fair (literal & metaphorical) number of female fans too. The moshing, such as it was, was limited to some spirited head nodding and a happily drunk couple near us shouting “A-Ha” in between songs for some reason.

Amplifier are a hard rock band. That description alone should put me off, as I gave up on hard rock decades ago. What makes this group now float my boat after many months of drip feeding by fellow gig goer Phill, is that at no time is singer Sel tempted to gargle barbed wire, a trait that turns me right off Opeth and dozens of other throat shredders. Sel has a great singing voice and uses it to full effect. Another plus point is that the rock is tempered by many proggish touches, and that combined with Sel’s intelligent socio-sci-fi lyrics makes for a compelling listen.

Back to the gig – After a short break, Amplifier, the eight-legged groove machine, emerged dead on their 9:30 scheduled kick-off time to a rousing reception from the 500 strong crowd. Sometime studio cohort and general helping hand Charlie Barnes introduced us to The Octopus, which he placed on top of the bass drum and there it remained until the end.

The eight-legged groove machine then dispensed their brand of heavy-rock-prog (rather than prog-heavy-rock) to an appreciative audience. Sel Balamir, Neil Mahony and Matt Brobin, and for this tour augmented by Steve Durose from Oceansize, effectively played two sets, the first hour and a quarter being 6/8ths, to use an appropriate fraction, of their epic double album The Octopus which live is as heavy as a neutron star. The thing is monstrous!

From the moment The Wave started the set, we were taken on journey into the far reaches of the strange Amplifier galaxy, propelled by bludgeon riffola, a fuel that never ran out, backing Sel’s lyrics of imminent social collapse under the boot of The Man. Highlight for me was a storming version of Interstellar.

Looking round the audience I thought to myself, that had this band been around in 1975, they would have had an audience of headbangin’ leather and denim clad longhairs, and they would have been playing somewhere like The Hammersmith Odeon to an audience of thousands. I reckon that as music becomes more peripheral to modern culture, and far more disposable, those days are long passed never to return, unfortunately for bands like Amplifier. And Muse* fill stadiums? There is no justice!

After a brief towelling down the band return for the second set, or encore or whatever it was, to play four pre-Octopus songs.

As I came to this band late some were unfamiliar, as I haven’t yet listened to their back catalogue enough, but the fans who had been with the band since the start upped the nodding into real headbanging for the last two numbers in particular.

Two hours of space rock heaviness, that’s the way to do it. A great time was had by all. “A-Ha” indeed!

Blackfield – The Assembly, Leamington Spa, 06/04/2011

Let’s be honest here, I would say around 90% of tonight’s audience are here because of the Steven Wilson connection, and 5% are probably fans of support act The Pineapple Thief, who need no introduction from me, as you probably know! I’m probably being generous saying 5% are actually Blackfield fans first and foremost.

I find Blackfield the least compelling of all of Wilson’s many side projects, as their first two albums come across as Porcupine Tree leftovers to these ears. Their latest offering, Welcome To My DNA, has been played a couple of times and has yet to make an impression beyond being more of the same.

The Pineapple Thief came on at around 7:45 and played a somewhat restrained set compared to the all-guns-blazing recent showcase gig in London. I can’t see that they made many new fans on tonight’s showing.

After a break of around half an hour, Blackfield enter stage right. First impression is that Wilson and main writer Aviv Geffen make a very odd pairing. Wilson with his well groomed slacker look, if that’s not a contradiction in terms, replete with trademark bare feet, stands across from Geffen who is dolled up to the nines showbiz stylee, sequined jacket, shiny black patent leather shoes, hair gelled to the max. Geffen is huge in Israel, where his left wing credentials appeal to the disaffected youth of that strange country. A kind of Robbie Williams on downers, he discarded layers of clothing through the show and played the encore bare chested. You can’t imagine Wilson doing that can you? His lyrical themes of love, peace, death and suicide might be how he came to Wilson’s attention, as our Stevie has an ear for the doom and gloom, as we know!

What about the music? You may well ask, as it never really gets beyond lukewarm apart from a couple of exceptions, in particular the encore Cloudy Now, which is the apogee of my and my companions’ feelings on this band, in that I see Blackfield as Porcupine Tree lite and without many defining characteristics of their own. One thing that did catch my attention was the overbearing drummer who sat behind a big kit on an overly elevated drum riser and made AS MUCH NOISE AS POSSIBLE ALL THE TIME. Think of the ghastly Mel Gaynor out of Simple Minds way back in the 80s, who contributed to ruining a half decent band in my opinion, and you’d be about there. This guy could certainly do with a few “less is more” lessons.

My scribblings might give the impression that I did not enjoy the gig – not so, it was ok, but that’s about it I’m afraid.

Van Der Graaf Generator – The Assembly, Leamington Spa, 24/03/2011

Arriving in good time we bought our drinks and found ourselves some decent seats about ten rows back. This venue was obviously a dancehall or similar, and the design is on the lines of all these places of which there must be hundreds in the UK, although it was on a smaller scale than most. I would say it held about five hundred, all seated on what would normally be the dancefloor.

The band arrive quietly on stage, Peter Hammill dressed in his by now traditional stage garb of black trousers and white shirt, as is Hugh Banton. The pair sit opposite each other, Hammill stage left behind his electric piano, Banton stage right behind his modest bank of keyboards, and not forgetting Guy Evans who is as imposing as ever, between them stage rear behind his drum kit.

The gig kicks off relatively low key with Interference Patterns from 2008 album Trisector, and this is one of a large proportion of that album played tonight. Next up is a marvellously wired version of Nutter Alert from the first reunion album Present. Hammill is as emotive as ever and as the gig goes on gets more and more into his muse. The band sound far more at ease with the trio set up than on the last tour when the fallout, both musical and emotional, of David Jackson’s rancorous departure had yet to settle. Hammill alternated between his piano and electric guitar, the latter used to great effect on a quite madly intense All That Before, a song that sounds like All Day And All Of The The Night may have done if it had been a prog song!

Other highlights for me were Your Time Starts Now and Mr Sands from the new album, and of course the oldies Childlike Faith In Childhood’s End, which got a deserved standing ovation, an emotionally wrought Man-Erg, and the encore Sleepwalkers. The manic intensity of yore may have been diluted by the passing of time, but now the band play with the consumate ease of masters of their craft, and occasional start-of-tour stutterings apart, which were greeted with smiles all round from the band, played a fine set tonight. Long may they continue.

Setlist:

Interference Patterns
Nutter Alert
Your Time Starts Now
Mr Sands
All That Before
Lifetime
Bunsho
Childlike Faith In Childhood’s End
All Over The Place
Over The Hill
We Are Not Here
Man-Erg
……………………………………………….
The Sleepwalkers

The Pineapple Thief – Camden Underworld, London

Last night saw a trip to the capital for a gig by The Pineapple Thief in cosmopolitan Camden Town, a place for which the word “bustling” is woefully inadequate.

After a leisurely drive down the M1 enforced by 20 odd miles of 50 mph speed limit restrictions, then straight down the A1, then A400 we arrive in Camden, and park in the street, for free! A simpler journey to the heart of North London I have never witnessed. Fortified by a rather good Chinese meal, we enter the Underworld, which, as it’s name suggests, is underneath a cavernous pub called The World’s End.

Support act Godsticks, a guitar/bass/drums trio augmented by electric piano on the laptop served up some heavily Zappa influenced almost fusion styled noise, the two guitarists playing some neat syncopation. Not bad at all.

After a short break The Pineapple Thief appear. If you have been following this blog, you’ll know that I consider this band should be playing far larger venues than 500 or so capacity clubs like this. Their sound is so suited to bigger venues that if you close your eyes it’s easy to imagine you are in a 5000 seater concert hall.

They open with uptempo rocker God Bless The Child. The sound is loud but not distorted at all – a difficult thing to achieve in a cavern like this. Following up with another rocker, the should-be-a-stadium-anthem and autobiographical 3000 Days, the place is now starting to jump. Wake Up The Dead could do just that in this dark cellar of a place. After a couple more numbers there follows an acoustic led section in the middle of the gig, with Counting The Cost and Part Zero slowing things down, crashing back in with the neat electronics backed Preparation For Meltdown followed by the single Show A Little Love which is the only song on last year’s Someone Here Is Missing that doesn’t do much for me anymore, but the crowd loved it. The final two numbers in the main set prove to be the highlight. So We Row builds from its staccato beat start through an almost ballad like middle section before bubbling synths hint at the psychedelic meltdown to come, slowly slowly building with waves of space noise, the back beat unerring, echoed vocals, here it comes…Bruce’s guitar is then attacked with gusto, side stage photographers competing for the best shot. The song quiets down “…to a place where no-one makes a sound.” Give this man Bono’s stage! Bloody marvellous. Finally we have the 15 minute Too Much to Lose which gives Bruce the chance to show his guitar off to best effect, with a wall of noise crescendo guided from the ether by Gilmour, Page, Cobain and Neil Young. It’s a tough beast that Strat, it was still alive at the end, protesting through a wail of angry feedback. Rock and indeedy, Roll!!

The band disappear backstage for a brief towelling down before reappearing for the inevitable encores. At this point I’d like to say that rhythm section Jon Sykes (bass, vocals) & Keith Harrison (drums, harmony vocals) were as tight as a gnat’s chuff throughout, enabling Steve Kitch (keyboards, effects) & Bruce Soord (aforementioned mangled Strat and lead vocals) to extemporise with great effect.

The first encore was Nothing At Best, a “put your gladrags on, we’re hitting the town” kind of song, followed by Snow Drops a slower paced song which gives the crowd a breather before ending with some nice melodic soloing from Bruce. The show ended with Light Up Your Eyes starting slowly and building to an anthemic end, another “stadium” moment. Bono & Edge, get outta da way! After nearly two hours of fine entertainment we stagger out into the buzzing surroundings of Camden Town and make our way home. A great evening was had by all.

If you get the chance, see the band on their current tour. They are also playing as support to Blackfield (one of Steve Wilson’s many side projects) for a few dates soon, so me and PW will be lucky enough to see them again in a couple of weeks. Bring it on!

Hills and Flowers must Die – Mayhem, København 3/5/11

I had never been to this pretty new underground place in an old industrial park. It was not that easy to find and my friend Peter called me in the middle of Flowers must Die saying they were driving around on their bikes and could not find it and they never made it, which might explain a little bit of why there were only like 30 people. The place is large with space for around 300 people. I met up with Tom, Sally, Ole, Nils, Rhona, Martin, Aron, Nick, Tobias from Kommun2 (whose, band SKL was to play but had to cancel due to a sick guitar player).

Flowers must Die started about 21:30 or so and this place has a very harsh should, with metal doors covering one side and the rest just concrete. They have a few things hanging form the ceiling to try to dampen the sound a bit but it does not seem to do much. Nick who was doing the sound said the PA was crap, so this does not help either. Anyway, they are a five piece band and have released on vinyl record and have another one out in about 2 weeks. The last track they played, which everyone really liked a lot, the synth player said was on the new record. They do a lot of improvising and spacing out. The Synth player did some vocals and trumpet stuff with a lot of delay and effects in one of the numbers. They opened with a quite slow doomy psychedelic thing and it took a while to evolve, as all their numbers seem to do. The guitar player on the left did most all of the lead while the other guitar player played very repeptitive stuff while the bass player laid down really great stuff. He was really killer in the last piece they played where they launched into a total old school Hawkwind like jam. They had an older drummer who was quite laid back but solid. They were pretty good and played an hour. Very psychedelic stuff.

It was pretty late, nearly 23:30 but the time Hills started to play and they wanted to close at 24. The folks in Hills said they were playing as a 3 piece today. I had never seen them before so I don’t know who was missing. For most the tracks, they tape their organ onto one drone tone and then just play long with that. The organ guy, he started off on guitar and then switched to bass and also played the flute at the end of the show briefly. Later in the show the guitar player played the bass. They started off with a very slow moving 15min opening piece (see video). The female drummer, she was really hard working once the music and grooves started going. They play some really psyched out material and are very cool if you are patient. Sometimes they can be a bit like Wooden Shjips or White Hills (although the Hills guitar player never really played any ripping guitar solos), and with the drone, I am also reminded of the Spacious Mind. They played 4-5 pieces and less than an hour.

I had a really good time but my ears where hurting after being in this sonic death chamber. I can’t imagine what the free jazz, noise stuff they usually do in this club would sound like. Fun night.

Space Ritual – Borderline, London (Feb 26th, 2011)

This was my first time to get to see Nik Turner’s Space Ritual with Terry Ollis, Mick Slattery, and Thomas Crimble, all from the very earliest days of Hawkwind (they don’t play a single track from the only album most of the played on!). Anyway, the Borderline is a very cool club and it was pretty packed. I met up with some new friends (Brian, DJ Wierditude), David from Paradise 9, and briefly said hello to Nik, who blew me away by calling me by name and I had not seen him in person in many years. I saw and met Nik in the USA on the Jan 1994 tour and the one the following year with the Pressurehed guys backing him and both those tours were great!

Anyway, the band started around 20:30, a bit later than stated and Sam Olis was playing some pretty damn cool music as well. They opened with Watching the Grass Grow and Nik looked and sounded fantastic. The whole band sounded great and was having a good time. They played quite a few songs from their only CD release, Otherworld, including Sonic Savages, Ritual of the Ravaged Earth, Time Crime, Walking Backwards and Otherworld. In between, we heard pretty long versions, usually around 10 mins long with lots of jamming on Steppenwolf, Reefer Madness, D-Rider (See video) and Ejection. A huge surprise was when 3 girls (two French horn and one trombone player) appeared on stage and the band played a famous Charlie Mingus track (see my video). Another guy snuck up and played clarinet also. This was pretty cool and psyched out and they stayed on stage the rest of the show for Master of the Universe (which they did not play much) and a pretty damn cool and unique long version of Brainstorm ended the show.

I have to say it was a really good band, Terry is playing really solid and steady, Thomas Crimble plays some cool Hammond stuff but I think he should sit out on Master of the Universe and Brainstorm, as he changes the sound of the songs in a bad way, Nik was in top form and the bass player and synth player were great. They are for sure more like the 70’s Hawkwind then the Dave Brock Hawkwind of today (I also like them a lot and they play a more focused mixture of new age spacey music and harder rock stuff), in that they really space out, experiment a lot more. I think Thomas should just not play on all the songs and it would be really amazing. I had a great time and the sound was fantastic as well. Great sound man on this night.

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