SD98 brief report...

[John Majka]

Well I managed the 6-hour drive to Strange Daze '98, and it was an
experience not to be missed!  Jerry Richards and Richard Chadwick and
Captain Rizz were easily accessible and could be seen wandering around the
campsites, generally hanging out and chatting with festival goers.  I looked
around for Dave Brock and Ron Tree and never saw them, and I soon found out
why when HW began to take the stage--sans Dave and Ron--and Richard made the
announcement that Dave and Ron were held up by customs and had not been
granted entrance to the USA.  It was a serious letdown!  Nevertheless, Jerry
and Richard and Rizz (plus two fill-in guys) tried to make it through the
show.  They played as best they could, but the truth is that it wasn't very
good!  Let's see...songs I remember include Spirit of the Age, Space Is
Deep, Brainstorm, Assault and Battery, Golden Void, and a brand new one
called "Starfire Mountain" which Richard said they had written about the
festival site (presumably while encamped there).  The bass player was pretty
unremarkable...he played the basic chord progressions, but there were no
fills or elaborations at all.  And of course HW progressions are pretty
simple two or three chord progressions usually, so without fills etc. the
bass was DULL.  Regarding Captain Rizz....hmmm..... did anyone think his
performance added anything?  It seems he really can't sing...and he didn't
know any of the lyrics (he read them from the HW lyric book, which is
hillarious considering how the lyrics printed there are in many cases
wrong).  I really really wish they would lose Rizz.  For those who haven't
experienced him before, he's a reggae singer really, with all the reggae
moves and vocalizations and lyrics like "jump up and down and spin yourself
around" etc.  I don't know....it just wasn't very Hawkwind-esque.  Also
tending to mess up the HW experience was this one asshole in the audience,
dead center front row (right next to me, unfortunately) who was a drunken
idiot who kept LOUDLY and SHRILLY whistling unceasingly.  When others asked
him to quiet down or chill out, he said, "This is the only way to get a show
going!"  What a knucklehead.  His behavior became worse as he started
shouting nonsensical stuff at the top of his lungs, like "White Crayon!"  It
was incredibly irritating, and finally people were saying to him, "Shut the
Fu## up!"  He told me, "Hey if a right hook comes over and hits you in the
face, it doesn't have anything to do with you."  This threat of violence was
enough to cause me to move away from him, and sure enough a few minutes
later I saw that some sort of minor little brawl had started.  I think
someone must have removed him from the crowd because I didn't see him
thereafter...  Anyways, there's some info from the SD98 fest....there's a
lot more to be said, about the scene and the other bands, but I need to get
running.
John Majka
flossbac at wcic.cioe.com