Sun Machine in Cleveland

[Keith A Henderson]

Hi Folks:

Well, I had such a nice time up in Cleveland on New Year's Eve, that I decided
to go back for the second performance by the band now known as Sun Machine, the
Hawkwind tribute band.  Apparently, between NYE and now, they've been meeting
and working up lots more HW covers, and learning to play together as a unit.
They've made great progress in that department IMHO, and the show was
outstanding.  They played two complete sets of all-HW material, at least 2.5
hours of live music.

Without Doug Walker and some other people they had last time, they didn't have
quite the 'fullness' of the NYE gig...most notably the absence of a sax/flute
player, but they still had about seven people in the group I think.  And some
of the tracks they played this time were phenonmenal.  The set list went
something like this (not sure of the order):

Psychedelic Warlords
Standing at the Edge
Down Through the Night
Free Fall
The Black Corridor
Space Is Deep
Time We Left (this World Today)
We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago
Flying Doctor
The Fifth Second of Forever
Dust of Time
D-Rider

Choose Your Masques
Quark, Strangeness, and Charm
Robot
Hassan I Sahba
Heads
You Shouldn't Do That
Uncle Sam's on Mars
The Watcher
Spirit of the Age
The Demented Man
Silver Machine
Sonic Attack
Wind of Change

I think there were even a couple more...can't recall exactly.  I think it's
really cool that they play some of the unusual stuff rather than sticking with
the well-known standards (MotU, Brainstorm, etc.).  Particularly awesome this
time 'round were Dust of Time and D-Rider..beautifully done, even though the
flute was missing from the latter.  And Psychedelic Warlords to start it all
off really worked well.

I still don't know whether they are going to begin to play regular gigs at this
point (and where), but I'd encourage anyone here to take the time to check them
out anytime they are nearby.  I did notice that one or two of the members were
wearing Sun Machine t-shirts, so maybe that does mean they are going to
continue...maybe they'll write some original material too??

Again they had the Hawkwind exhibit up (nearly identical to before), and some
CD's for sale, including the import version of Brock's ST&PD (How
stupid...since it *should* be domesically available now, although I can't find
it).  And a guy I've met several times before (from New Hampshire) named Chris
drove 12 hours again to see the show...it makes the 2.5 hour trip (each way)
for me look like nothing.

The light show was different than last time (Louise McAuley, who did the last
one, lives in Montreal so I didn't expect to see her again).  It looks like Jim
Lascko may have set this up himself...anyway, it was a bank of six regular old
overhead projectors with spinning wheels of various odd images and designs set
on top of the "light panel" of each.  It worked really well on the backdrop
behind the stage, but the projectors put out too much ambient light for my
tastes.  When the lights developed a power failure for the last few songs of
the first set, it was actually kind of nice for a change, as the only lighting
on or near the stage was a pair of green floods, and it made Dust of Time even
more eerie.  And you only saw shadowy figures lurking around on stage....how
much more like the real Hawkwind can you get???

Well that's all....

Keith H.