OFF:GONG Review from NY Times

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>From Jon Pareles' NY Times Review Today:

     "Like a delegation from the hippie era, Gong wafted into the Bottom Line
on Tuesday night, touring to celebrate its 25th anniversary. gilli Smyth
arrived in glittering silver sequins and a feather boa; David Allen's shirt
and pants were decorated with moons and stars, as he sang lines like "banana
nirvana manana." For some songs, he wore a pointed green hat over his long
white hair.
    In its early-1970s heyday, Gong was the epitome of English whimsy
transmuted by psychedelia. Mr. Allen 9who is Australian) came up with a
parable about flying teapots manned by pothead Pixies, boradcasting Radio
Gnome Invisible and running into Zero the Hero and a seductive witch goddess.
Gong's music, then and now, was a light-hearted, lightheaded ramble,
stringing together riffs from basic rock-and-roll, odd-metered jazz-rock or
ragalike patterns, then floating into improvisation.
    The 25th anniversary band included most of Gong's early members: Mr
Allen;Ms. Smyth;Mike Howlett on bass, Pip Pyle on drums, and Didier Malherbe
on quizzical, jazzy saxophones and flute. Steffi Sharpstrings played guitar
and supplied long, swooping synthesizer notes. Mr. Allen talk-sang his lyrics
like an amiable uncle, and bowed his guitar strings with a piece of metal to
provide shimmering tones. Ms. Smyth sange eerie, echoey high notes.
   The band could push, as it did with the riff of "Master Builder," or it
could meditate over a sustained tone. In the one new song, "Mercury," the
band placed a steady disco thump under wailing saxophone and guitar. But even
when it was most reckless, the music had no ferocity, just old-fashioned
hippie benevolence."