Malcolm and Daevid in SF (was HW/OFF: Space news)

[Doug Pearson]

On Fri, 19 Mar 1999 12:51:45 -0500, Keith Henderson <henderson.120 at OSU.EDU>
wrote:

>P.S.  Doug, did you catch the U. of Errors gig??

A fantastic show!  On the bill:

Malcolm Mooney (Can) with Tenth Planet (former? members of Pluto)
Daevid Allen (Gong) with University of Errors (members of Mushroom)

I'd seen Malcolm backed by a similar group of people on a couple occasions
a few years back, and always been highly satisfied with the mix of Mooney's
high-energy poetic delivery, excellent improv music, and fine
reinterpretations of early Can songs.  This time, the six-piece lineup
consisted of two drummers (one of each gender, with each kit panned hard
left/right in the PA for an interesting sound), bass, lead guitar (who
sounded EXACTLY like Michael Karoli in spots - amazing!), rhythm
guitar/keyboard, and sampler/synth/sax/theremin.  The new songs they played
sounded very together (more so than on previous occasions, when they
sometimes sounded more like poetic recitation over noodling), and the
versions of "Mary Mary", "Outside My Door" and "Father Cannot Yell" were
outstanding.  They played off each other really well, and the band overall
had an excellent sense of dynamics.  Mooney, while not a riveting stage
presence per se, has an amazingly unique delivery style (that makes me
think somewhat of Bob Calvert) - he can really spit it out; I was mesmerized.

The University of Errors obviously hadn't been doing this for as long as
Tenth Planet (as I alluded earlier, members of that band have backed
Malcolm Mooney on numerous occasions over the last 5 years), but were still
a great band for Daevid.  A guitarist, bassist and drummer played through
the entire show, and were joined for most of it by a guy playing guitar/gtr
synth, and part of the time by a sax/banjo/guitar player.  The show started
with the aforementioned instrumental trio jamming on some heavy riffs,
before Daevid came out (glissando guitar and speculum in hand, of course)
and launched into one near-angry rant of a tune!  I have to admit that I'm
not real familiar with Daevid's solo work (I think 'Bananamoon' and 'Who's
Afraid' are the only albums I have), so I didn't really recognize any songs
this time through, but many were pretty damn memorable.  One excellent
near-acoustic song (the one featuring banjo) about a "bad teacher" was
particularly excellent.  And on the more electrified songs, the contrast
between the lead guitar (SG through Mesa/Boogie amp - loud and raunchy!)
and the guitar synthesizer tones was quite notable and appropriate.  No
real Gong oldies in this show (except for the encore from 'Camenbert
Electrique'), but that's what the full-band reunions a couple years back
were for!  Daevid's different bands/projects have always covered a broad
spectrum of music, and it was great to see him perform in a context of
mostly high-energy rock with some nice jazz/prog/space influences thrown in.

With Plastic People of the Universe (Czech republic) and eX-Girl (Japan)
last week (Daevid & the University performed some sort of invocation for
eX-Girl from planet Kero! during their set), and lowdown raunchy
rhythm-and-blues genius Andre Williams tonight, it's been a great couple
weeks for live music in the Bay Area!

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com