Spock's Beard / The Flower Kings - The Paradiso, Amsterdam, Monday September 27th 1999
PLUS - Spock' Beard - LA2, London, Saturday October 3rd 1999
Reviewed and generally commented upon by Ian Oakley and David Weston.
Ian's Bit
Well this was the big one. B.O.A attended what had to be the prog gig of the year in the best venue in Europe - the legendary Paradiso Club in Amsterdam. As readers will already be aware, B.O.A consider these two bands to be the two premier bands in the current resurgence of the progressive rock genre - so it was time for the B.O.A annual trip across to the mainland.
The Flower Kings
Set - 1 hour
More to This World
Church of Your Heart
World of Adventures
Jam inc. Big Puzzle
The Flower King
Stardust We Are (pt 3)
We missed the previous day's Flower Kings gig in Waalwijk in the Netherlands (we decided that this is actually the Dutch for Hell spelt backwards), owing to the gig starting at 4pm - with no warning on any sites! So although very down from that experience, we just had to assure ourselves that it would make tonight's double bill that extra bit special.
The Paradiso is an old church that has been completely gutted but still retains the galleries and stained glass windows of its previous purpose. For the Flower Kings this ambience really suited the occasion and set. The Flower Kings are a quite unassuming presence on stage, leaving the music to speak for itself rather than relying on a charismatic front-person to feed the congregation.
Starting very powerfully with 'More to This World', the band on stage reminded me of a young Enid. A band completely immersed in the music, weaving a magical spell over anyone with ears open enough to appreciate what was going on. Commenting on the surroundings, Roine Stolt introduced the aptly named 'Church of Your Heart'. It was great to see a band work with and off each other, fusing into the complex musical force that is the Flower Kings. 'World of Adventures' was next, leading into a jam including the very Genesis-like 'Big Puzzle'. Some wonderful musical interplay between the band members eventually coasted into an extremely laid back entrance to 'The Flower King'. I have never before heard this track so gently introduced. Roine Stolt led a guitar / keyboard jam for a few minutes, just gently playing with and hinting at the main theme. Sublime. When the actual track started, it was again extremely relaxed, but gradually built and built. The instrumental mid-section was Stolt at his best. The ghosts of Zappa and Hendrix I am sure were looking down on him lovingly that night.
But unfortunately, all too quickly, the spell was broken and it was time for the Flower Kings to exit stage right. With great recognition and applause from the gathered throng F.K started their last number, 'Stardust We Are' (pt 3). Featuring the vocal talents of Hans Froberg, this track has become an anthem for the Kings - progressive rock at its absolute best.
The thing B.O.A appreciate most about The Flower Kings is their overall sound - great orchestral progressive rock blended with a jazz sensibility. It is this unique fusion that leads to improvisation and experimentation within the compositions not found in most other 'prog' bands of the current era. I doubt if two Flower Kings gigs are ever exactly the same (even though they may play the same set). With a very sympathetic mix and subtle lighting, by the end of the set I felt that night the band had gained many new supporters.
The previous day in Waalwijk (having managed to catch the encore), I got talking to Roine Stolt and we were discussing the situation on the Continent and the chances of FK returning to UK shores. I'm afraid I have to report that they don't look too good. I had to agree that people on the European mainland are less fashion-obsessed, and will appreciate any music as long as they feel it is good. The band needs a sympathetic audience and soundman wherever they play, something they cannot bank on in the UK. The UK is, I'm afraid, far too fashion-conscious, with both of these bands still receiving no airplay and news of their existence being confined to sites like this and readers like yourselves. Unfortunately it is just not economically feasible for a band like the Flower Kings to tour the UK in their own right. Their main hope is that they can latch on to a tour of a more established UK band. Perhaps B.O.A will one day be able to provide a venue in Southern England and finance a gig for The Flower Kings to headline … let's hope so.
Spock's Beard
Set 2.5 hours
Day for Night
In The Mouth of Madness
Skin
Gibberish
Go The Way You Go
Guitar Jam
June
Healing Colours of Sound (complete)
Keyboard solo
The Doorway
Encores:
The Light (inc. drum solo)
Squonk
Waste away
This is the second time that B.O.A has journeyed to see this band on the Continent. The first time was just under a year ago when they were still relatively unknown either in the UK or on the European mainland. Things have changed since then. SB, if not exactly a household name on the mainland, are receiving airplay and are lauded everywhere as the "progressive rock band most likely to break into the mainstream audience" in the same way that Marillion did with 'Misplaced Childhood' fifteen years ago. And in the UK? … Well, nothing (expect anything else?), but at least they are playing their first two UK shows this tour.
Opening a little shakily with the up-tempo 'Day for Night', you could really see that this band could be on the verge of the 'big time'. Neal Morse is becoming a great front man who is leaning how to control and manipulate an audience in the same way that Phil Collins used to do when he took over the Genesis reins from Peter Gabriel (unfortunately Collins also musically ruined the band - but that's another story).
'Mouth of Madness' followed. Not one of my favourite SB tracks, but I wasn't complaining too loudly. The band's new and first single 'Skin' followed. Again, not one of my favourites, but a good choice for their first shot at the mainstream charts.
Then we came to 'Gibberish'. This track highlights one of SB's great influences - the music of Gentle Giant - with "weird" harmony vocals and the almost atonal keyboard and guitar sounds. The GG sound is most prevalent in the guitar work of Al Morse, whose lead style is spent most of the time providing textural backup to the music, and some of this work can be almost deliberately brutal.
As in Utrecht the previous year, it was the next track, 'Go The Way You Go', that really set the place alight. Classic SB starting with uplifting 'sing-along' vocals and "new" mid section jazz piano jam, the track builds to an instrumental closing section featuring a lead guitar line which is pure unadulterated 70s Prog - uplifting and anthemic and best of all, loud.
The band by this stage were really settling into their set, and it was time for 'sing-along with Neal'.
The track 'June' has always been one of my favourite Beard numbers and one of the early tracks indicating that the band could commercially break through while still retaining their prog roots and credibility. 'June' starts purely acoustically with Neal Morse joined, in this track and the later 'Doorway', by brother Al and drummer Nick D'Virgilio on an acoustic guitar workout. Then the wonderful harmony vocals start (aided and abetted by a not-so-harmonious crowd). 'June' is one of the best examples of what the Beard's sound is all about, with CSNY harmony vocal parts and Beatle-ish melodies, and when the keyboards and Dave Meros's Rickenbacker bass kicks in, the instrumentation of classic Yes.
Next we were really in for a treat, the whole of the epic that is the 'Healing Colours of Sound'. You really have to hear this piece for yourself. With its use of many inter-connecting songs and instrumental themes, every time I hear this piece I am reminded of side two of The Beatles' 'Abbey Road'. Neal Morse surely has the best voice in prog - imagine an LA / West Coast McCartney. In this one track his vocal range is used to full effect, from the 'tortured artist' vocals of 'My Shoes', to the heavy rock of 'Mommy Comes Back', to the haunting ballad of 'Lay Me Down'. To me the highlight of the piece, if not the whole concert, was the closing 'Healing Colors of sound' / 'My Shoes (Revisited)' section, with the whole band singing counterpointing harmonies leading to a climactic guitar solo from Al Morse. When the melotron came in at the exact moment that you thought the solo needed a lift the crowd thought they had died and gone to prog heaven! The resulting applause was ecstatic.
As I said earlier, Spock's Beard have become pure showmanship live. They know how to work an audience, but they are falling into one area where a lot of bands make a mistake. The next track to be played was 'Doorway', another classic Beard song and one of my personal favourites from the catalogue. However, before then, we were 'treated' to a 5-minute-plus keyboard solo from Ryo Okumoto. Even after the first section, when he stopped and received little applause from the audience, I don't think he realised that he was pandering to the worst kind of 70s prog cliché (the quoting of ELP's 'Karn Evil 9' only added to the embarrassment). It's items like this that, to the mainstream press, gave prog such a bad name in the first place. Spock's Beard should by now have the maturity to dispense with such embarrassing rock clichés that, to my mind, only cheapen their music.
Encores: -
The Beard by this time had already played almost two hours so we didn't really expect the magnum opus 'The Light' to be the encore. But we were not complaining! My favourite track of the whole of the Beard canon, 'The Light' I can only describe as a 90s 'Supper's Ready', without the English quirkiness but instead, the American polish and melodies of Bernstein. There's bits of bar-room piano jazz, Gypsy Kings Spanish guitar, King Crimson hard rock, all held together by Neal Morse's pure theatrical vocals and the underlining sound and instrumentation of classic Genesis/Yes. Standing there I felt sure that the lyric "All this in one man" should that evening be changed to "All this in one band" (and more!).
Much to the band's bemusement, in the quiet mid-section, 'Garden people-Looking straight into the light', one of the band's roadies walked on stage and ignited a giant 'Roman Fountain' firework, earning himself a round of applause from the audience. After the three man "Gypsy King's Beard", 'Senor Valasco's mystic voodoo love dance' we were really treated to an magnificent percussive workout featuring the entire band with both Neal and Nick taking turns at the main drum kit. Drum solos, (like keyboards), can also be very boring but when you have musicians of this calibre… 'The Light' was rekindled, returning to his keyboard Neal became 'Catfish Man' and awoke from 'The dream'.
Returning for a second encore, it was all change on the instruments again with the Spock's Beard's 'in-joke' track, a cover of Genesis's 'Squonk '. As you may be aware, drummer Nick D'Virgilio was a session drummer on the last Genesis album, 'Calling all Stations', so in pure Phil Collins style, D'Virgilio, on radio-mic, took the lead vocals while Neal Morse took over the drum stool.
The band gathered to take their final bow and started to walk off stage, but Neal Morse decided he was up for one more, and called them back for a final rendition of 'Waste Away'.
It was a very satisfied, if somewhat hoarse, B.O.A that retired to the nearest bar and chilled out until the two a.m. closure; "Still, only four days to wait until the London Astoria gig…"
PS. A guy came up to us the next day and instead of asking for the time or for directions simply enquired "Excuse me. Can you tell me what day it is?" It was that kind of gig, and that kind of place….
Saturday October 3rd 1999 - Spock's Beard - Astoria 2, London.
Same set as Amsterdam, but perhaps as it was the last gig of the tour, or it was "LONDON ENGLAND", the band seemed tighter and the mix even better.
The Astoria was packed solid with almost everyone knowing the words and singing along to the songs. (Remember this is the first time we have seen SB on UK shores). Perhaps I got it wrong when I said "And in the UK? … Well, nothing (expect anything else?)". From the number of reporters seen on the balcony and the "prog celebrities" (including Steve Hackett and John Wetton) spotted in the audience - The UK is finally waking up and realising 'The Beard is out there'
Thanks for a great week guys!
All at B.O.A
Spocks Beard C.D's
The Light *
The Beard is out there - The Official Live Bootleg
Beware of Darkness
The Kindness of Strangers
From the Vault
Day for Night *
Live at the Whisky and NEARfest.
Flower Kings C.D's
Flower King
Back In The World Of Adventures *
Retropolis
Stardust We Are *
Flower Power
* B.O.A recommended
David's Bit
The Album
The first time I heard Spock's Beard was on the now defunct 'Friday Rock Show' on some UK radio station around the time Genesis were touring with 'Calling All Stations'. Not having heard said album I assumed that the music I was listening to was Genesis with their new singer. It sounded great and I was excited by the prospect of a re-born Genesis sans Collins (I am afraid I am one of these people who doesn't like anything after 'Trick…' with the possible exception of a couple of tracks from 'Wind…').
Anyway, I digress. The music I was hearing turned out to be Spock's Beard and in due course the BOA triumvirate (always wanted to use that word) collected and grew to like immensely the first 3 Spock's Beard albums, 'The Light', 'Beware of Darkness' and 'Kindness of Strangers'. I say like rather than love because I for one had reservations regarding their more twiddlesome moments.
Then came 'Day for Night'. I honestly didn't believe that anyone would ever make a truly original and classic progressive rock album again but SB just did. What makes it classic is the sheer quality of the songwriting, the diversity of moods and the faultless execution. This is an album I have played a lot, remember when you bought a record (and I mean a record) and played it back to back about 20 times. Well 'Day for Night' is in that category, I kid you not.
The Gigs
Monday September 27th , The Paradisio, Amsterdam
What a city, what a venue! Spock's Beard deliver around two and a half hours of their finest songs, 'Day for Night' through 'Skin', 'Gibberish' through 'Doorway', a complete 'Healing Colours' (my personal highlight), 'June', 'Go the Way' and more. Then they encore with 'The Light', 'Squonk' and ''Waste Away'. Far out man!
Live, and at substantial volume, all the twiddly bits that I was previously unconvinced about made much more sense and the whole shebang had the effect of lifting one a generous number of inches off the floor.
All this and The Flower Kings had played a brilliant one hour support slot (could have played for three hours as far as I am concerned). Spock's Beard were brilliant but I came away thinking of them as a very polished US rock act, somehow the emotional content didn't connect 100%. Don't get me wrong, that night was probably the best progressive rock gig since Gabriel left Genesis, again I kid you not, it was that good.
Saturday October 2nd, LA2, London
So off we go to see SB again, this time only 20 miles from home. Would it be as good as Amsterdam? Could anything be as good?
The answer is yes!
Somehow the band had more of an edge on this their first major UK date (the previous night they had played the CRS in Rotherham). Seemingly determined to prove something, the band delivered a very similar set but somehow the emotional level was a couple of notches higher and strangely (I don't know if it was the slight hoarseness in Neal's voice) I kept thinking of Genesis. Without going into detail (I am sure someone else will), this was another stunning night.
I wonder what Steve Hackett made of it? If you're out there Steve drop us a line and let us know.
This band should not be at the LA2! Why people trek off in their 1,000's to see ancient acts like Yes and Genesis perform a pale imitation of their finest moments when there are happening bands like SB and FK around escapes me. Likewise as far as I am concerned, most, if not all of the UK based 'progressive' bands of the last 15 - 20 years may as well pack up and go home now.
Perhaps next year will see SB and FK co-headlining and bigger and better venue in London. Now that would be something, especially if Phish reach these shores in 2000 as well.
DW
PS. Thanks to the 'Grey Area' for putting on a Phish tape for us the next day.