This past weekend I made the trek to Milwaukee to catch progressive rock legends Van der Graaf Generator. It was fun to be in the company of prog heads once again with one gentleman clad in an Änglagård t-shirt and a couple folks behind me chatting about Ozric Tentacles.
Opening was an acoustic trio of Strawbs. Singer/guitarist Dave Cousins led the way through a set which went as far back to "Oh How She Changed" from the band's 1969 debut. Afterwards I chatted with a young woman at the bar (early 30s was young for this show) who said that she'd never heard of them before but that she was so moved by their music that she cried. While I shed no tears, they were enjoyable enough. The highlights for me were the English folk infused "The Hangman and the Papist" and "Ghosts" which featured some great 12-string guitar work from Chas Cronk as it weaved its way through multiple sections in typical prog style.
Born of the psychedelic 60s, VDGG morphed into an idiosyncratic progressive rock band which eschewed the symphonic approach of contemporaries like Genesis and Yes for a more chaotic sound. They disbanded in 1978 but regrouped in 2004 with the classic line-up of keyboardist/bassist Hugh Banton, drummer Guy Evans, singer/pianist/guitarist Peter Hammill, and sax/flute player David Jackson. The 2005 effort Present was the result. Jackson left the following year and the band has continued as a three-piece. They released Trisector last spring and are now in the midst of their first tour of the States of their career.
To their credit, they didn't make this a night of pure nostalgia with a perhaps a token new song thrown in. Instead half of the show was given over to post-reunion material with the emphasis firmly on Trisector. The new songs more than held their own against the classics with "Interference Patterns" opening the set. I've not heard any the past two albums but I am making a point to buy them. "IP" encapsulates the classic VDGG sound in about 5 minutes with a relatively gentle and simple open before a wandering piano part takes the song into a whole different territory. "All That Before" and "Over the Hill" were also two new tunes which must take their place as some of the best music the band has done.
Hammill's voice was in truly fine form with his hell-bent for existential angst howl as potent as it ever was while Evans hasn't slowed down a bit. He still pounds out the oddest of time signatures with vim and vigor. And Banton's Hammond organ alternately provided an aural miasma for Hammill's introspective journeys and proving that his instrument has all the muscle required for when things get heavy.
My first encounter with VDGG came in the form of 1971's Pawn Hearts after I was told to seek out "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" so it was great to hear "Lemmings" and "Man-Erg" from it. "Lemmings" saw Hammill come out from behind his keyboard and strap on a guitar. The result took me by surprise - a prog classic channeled through the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. They played "Man-Erg" more faithfully. I got goosebumps when the evil jam started. First the gentle part of the song is pierced by the screams crying out and then the thick organ chords followed. Hammill then bashing on his piano like Don Music before screaming "How can I be free?!" Just perfect.
There were a few times when I missed David Jackson's contributions, especially the way his flute would lull you into a sense of complacency just before the band would break out into prog pandemonium. And a large part of the band's brand of chaos involved Jackson's dissonant sax playing. But the remaining members still managed to pull it off through manically playing and sheer force of will.
Setlist:
Interference Patterns
(In the) Black Room
Lemmings
Lifetime
All That Before
Gog
The Sleepwalkers
Over The Hill
Man-Erg
E: Nutter Alert
I haven't seen this show anywhere for download or trade but I do have the one from a few days earlier in Arlington (Boston).
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