OT: HW: Various

[Henderson Keith]

Hi Folks...

Very quiet here...suppose that everyone in the US has been waiting in line
to see F9/11, and everyone in Europe has been watching football every night,
yeah?

Anyway, those who have really felt like talking have mostly been posting
over at Yahoo, but I still have enough 'loyalty' to this list to mainly post
here.

I've seen quite a few good concerts in the last several weeks, and am
looking forward big time to another Burg Herzberg event, this time with
maximal space rock percentage, with Hawkwind, MQB, Guru Guru, et al.  And
the weather in central Europe so far this summer has been really wonderful,
that is, if you prefer a bit cooler temperatures as opposed to last year's
oppressive heat (such that the grass died and the dirt went airborne into
eyes/ears/nose/throat).

It took me a long time to realize that Herzberg is *not* at Wilhelmsthal
this year, but rather back to where I think it was in 2002 (and some number
of years before, I believe), but neither back to the very original site,
that being Burg Herzberg itself (hence the name).  But the location has
always been somewhere in the same region of Germany, that being essentially
the Fulda Gap, of some importance to Cold War historians.  Anyway, as I
haven't actually been to this particular site, I can't add much to the
discussion about how to get there, etc.  But the site is pretty informative
(if mostly in German), and has both a map of the grounds and an overhead
photo, and so that should be helpful.  Looks like a better place than
Wilhelmsthal actually!

The confusion I've had (I guess) is related to the fact that 1) Burg
Herzberg is under 'new management' this year (otherwise it would have died
after last year), but 2) the old crew (Think Progressive, under Kalle
Becker) seems to still be planning to have a festival at the Wilhelmsthal
site the weekend *after* the "true" Herzberg, but called something like
"Herzberg goes Wilhelmstal" (which is really the renamed (Kloster) Cornberg
Festival, which was held just once (in 2001?), and then cancelled both in
2002 and 2003, when Kalle was trying to run both simultaneously).  He's got
a great lineup for that one planned, including Tull, Amon Duul II, Outskirts
Of Infinity, Bevis Frond, On Trial, and others.  But I hesitate to make
serious plans for it, because of recent history.  So I might make a 'game
time' decision about staying in central Germany over the four days in
between the two fests, based on what I hear at Herzberg.

Well, hope to see a few of you there...I know some folx are planning to make
it.  (Doug P.?  Is it going to happen for you?  Schade, wenn nicht.)  The
Finland one might have been fun though, with Dave W. and Lemmy both
guesting.  Any idea what the "complete" lineup at Herzberg will be?

So, lately I've seen...
Judas Priest...Rob Halford back on stage with the Priest.  Can still sing
the old tunes decent enough, and they had him mic'ed up so well, that he
wouldn't have been able to hide it if he couldn't hack it.  The set was
pretty much standard material, nothing new, and so Painkiller songs were the
most recent stuff.  Beyond the Realms of Death and Victim of Changes both
were highlights, and they did an acoustic Diamonds and Rust oddly enough.
Strangest thing was that it was over at about 10 PM, and it was still just
twilight.  The show was indoors (a sporthall with a few skylight windows in
the roof) so it was awhile before it even got 'dark' inside.  Nearly sold
out (Frauenfeld is a *small* town, maybe 10,000) with about 4,000 punters or
so, mostly coming from Zuerich and nearby towns I guess.

Marillion...well, I gave up on them years ago after that awful Radiation
album...but they were coming to Winterthur (also close to Zuerich) and so I
thought I'd see if they were still worthwhile.  I picked up the new (single
CD version of) "Marbles," and I quite liked the first long track and a few
other pieces.  Which I thought was promising.  But the show was very
boring...they played a 65-minute first set *all* of "Marbles" material, and
although it started out OK, there isn't much energy in the album to
translate well to a live setting, so a little bit of that goes a long way.
And then after a short break, they came back to play a bunch more laid-back
rubbish that I didn't know (so it must have come from Anoraknophobia and the
.com albums that I don't own).  Finally they played at least "Easter" at the
end, which is still the best H-era song, and then started into something
else I didn't know for an encore, at which point I had to leave to catch the
last train.  I suppose they did at least "Market Square Heroes" (or
something old) as a second encore, but that wouldn't have done much to save
this terrible show.  I mean, the band is *all* Hogarth now, with the others
just providing atmospheric accompaniment.  I saw Fish a couple months ago,
and although he hasn't kept up the level of his music to the quality of
"Sunsets on Empire" at least he had a nice sampling of not only his solo
material through the years, but also a few "original" Marillion songs.
Anyway, time to give up on Marillion once and for all now...they're done.

Circle...the next night I went down to a small town near Fribourg to see the
first night of a three day 'punk/alternative rock' festival.  It was called
Kilbi-Bad Bonn, and they had both an outdoor tent stage, and an indoor club
stage, and the bands alternated such that there was music non-stop from
about 7 PM to 2 AM.  Circle (from Finland, if you didn't already know)
played in the evening on the tent stage.  Mostly new material that they had
just recorded at a studio in Germany a few days beforehand...only one piece
I recognized, but then I think they only did three (or perhaps four)
separate pieces during their one hour of stage time.  So this was much like
typical Circle, and not really very much like the weird stuff all through
the middle of their newest album "Guillotine" that must be considered some
sort of temporary departure from their normal hypno-rock routine.  They
still have just the four-piece going, so Jyrki Laiho has not rejoined since
last year.  So just one guitarist now.  Enjoyable set, looking forward to
yet more discs from these guys.  The other bands were also sometimes
interesting.  Beautiful Leopard were a decent Mogwai-ish post-rock band, and
Unhold were a SG-playing, Orange-amped stoner rock band (good heavy sound,
lousy vocals though).  And there were another couple weird 'progressive
hardcore' (for lack of a better word) bands.  The so-called headliner were
the Distillers (who I'd never heard of), who seemed to me to be Australia's
answer to Hole.  They drew almost all the 800-1000 people into the tent for
a spell, but I don't think the fans were so crazy about them.  Rather
ordinary IMHO.

Ah, Queensryche in Basel was next (following Monday)...they were opposite to
Marillion!  A really well-designed set of material featuring both the best
songs from the new album Tribe (not so terribly bad IMHO!), which are all
the odd-numbered ones (opposite to the Star Trek movie phenomenon), and then
old material including most of the Mindcrime 'rock-opera.'  And they had a
*real* Mary, which is cool, as opposed to the video version that they used
on occasion when I saw them in the '90s.  Chris DeGarmo is not touring with
them, so he's only 'half-returned' to the band, but instead had some ugly
guy in a terrible shiny-faux-leather outfit who they never introduced.   The
worst thing was that I thought the sound was terrible...and having seen 10
concerts (or so) in this club already (maybe 1,200 capacity, 800-1,000
there?), I know that this place is not so challenging to get "right."  It's
*not* echoey like some places I know (eg., Columbus' Newport). But
Rockenfield's snare sounded awful...really loud but without any "depth" to
it...just featureless thudding.  And the bass was a bit too bassy while the
guitars a bit too blaring, and so they were too "separated" with a huge gap
in the midrange.  I moved around a few times to find where it might be
better, but it was never good.  Plus, the lighting guy kept flooding the
front of the stage with blinding bright white lights *all* the damn time,
and that was really annoying.  I noticed that *he* couldn't see them in his
face where the 'island' was farther back, so I bet if he was 10 m farther
forward, he wouldn't have been doing it so much!  Anyway, I enjoyed it
mainly because they played such a good set of material, and themselves put
on a nice performance, their crew notwithstanding.  Tate was able to sing
just about everything still, but he doesn't project the high parts quite so
much like he used to, but rather gets lost in the mix rather easily.

Then this past weekend I went to Luzern to see a triple bill of Witchcraft,
Grand Magus, and Orange Goblin in the Boa Kulturzentrum.  These places are
always nice 'clubs' to see gigs in.  Like Gaswerk in Winterthur, they have
both a small intimate room and also a larger floor for maybe 400.  Since
only about 80 showed, we were in the smaller room, so it suited just fine.
I think either/both the first two bands were Swedish, the show didn't start
until the EM2004 quarterfinal match between Sweden and Holland was finished
(11:40).  And as some probably know, it was 0-0 after 120 min., and went
(like England-Portugal, and STOP blaming Urs Meier for your own failures! :)
BTW, he's from the area of CH just near me, and a friend of mine knows him.)
to penalty shootout.  So, not only was the show getting started late, but
the bandmembers were in a bad mood (Holland won 5-4).  Which is ok, if you
play loud, angry music!  The first two bands were not bad, but I went to see
Orange Goblin (aus Liverpool?) primarily.  They played most of the new
album, and I think one or two from Big Black, but then also "Blue Snow" and
"Solarisphere" (from Time-Travelling Blues) at the end of the set, which are
both awesome songs.  Live they are much more balls-to-the-wall than
psychedelic, but I can handle that.  The singer isn't as good live as on
album, and he overdoes it a little I think, just to be heard.  The show
ended about 2:30 AM (crazy late for CH!), but I had come earlier in the day
and set up a tent at a nearby campground and so I didn't have to stay up all
night to wait for the morning train home.  Luzern is a really nice city, and
so you can't beat going there, especially if there's good music to boot.

So, that brings us up to date.  But a few other things...has anybody caught
these guys (also from Sweden) in the US yet?  I've heard their first album
from 35 years ago, but not their reunion stuff.  They have a few more dates
before they go home, so here they are...

Trad, Gras och Stenar...
29/6 Neumo's, Seattle, with Kinski among others
1/7 Talking Head, Baltimore with Mighty Flashlight, Big Huge, Entrance
2/7 Tonic, New York, with Bardo Pond and Mighty Flashlight
3/7 TT the Bear, Boston, with Sunburned Hand of the Man and Major Stars
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And I don't know if everyone here heard (it was posted on Yahoo) that...

Note from Jonny Greene (Gong-GAS):
"Apparently Tim [Blake] has been involved in a bad car accident and has
spent some time in hospital. A speedy recovery to him."

Later post from Mr. Blake himself...
"Ok Guys !
1/ Yes, alive..
2/ Not permanently maimed (yet)
3/ But thoroughly 'shook up'
4/ Connected in Hospital - now that's neat ... merci the French Health
service !!!

All activity halted 'till September though ...

Now what was this about nurses ... ... ?
Sacre Bleu!"
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And then that there's this event planned...

THE GONG FAMILY CONVENTION OCTOBER 23rd-24th GLASTONBURY ASSEMBLY ROOMS
Basil (Zorch)
Here & Now
House of Thandoy (with Mike Howlett)
Invisible Opera Company of Tibet
Joie Hinton (DJ set)
Thom the World Poet

...though this lineup is not fully confirmed, so keep checking GAS...

and OZIT has released a double Steve Hillage CD of a concert at Deeply Vale
1978, which is worth having IMHO.  Although I think I could do without the
addition of extra music of Hewitt's own band Tractor, added (I guess) in
order to promote himself.  Though there was space for it, so maybe it's not
such a big deal...you can turn it off when you want.

That's all I guess...see (some of you) soon...

Grakkl (FAA)