Grateful for my beloved wife, son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren and siblings. Also a lover of theology, music, history, philosophy, classic novels, science fiction, fantasy and Looney Tunes.
As Kevin McCormick posted two weeks ago, Adrian Belew & Tony Levin of King Crimson will be performing that band’s innovative 1980s repertoire live with pioneering shred guitarist Steve Vai (Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth, G3) and drummer Danny Carey (Tool). More than 40 US/Canada dates (listed below and at www.beat-tour.com) have been announced; a presale begins April 2nd at 12 noon EDT (password BEATTOUR), with sales to the general public starting April 5th.
To say I’m stoked for this tour is an understatement! I became a fan of all things associated with King Crimson founder Robert Fripp after hearing him live at a local record store in 1979,then devouring his articles about the creative process and the travails of the music business in Musician magazine. So I was primed when Fripp, Belew, Levin and drummer Bill Bruford launched a re-envisioned KC with 1981’s breakthrough album Discipline. In addition to the striking use of cutting-edge tech like Simmons electronic drums and Roland guitar synthesizers (along with a New Wave sense of texture and space), I loved how all four players were constantly interweaving; there was no real precedent for the sound in rock or even prog, but Balinese gamelan music, classical minimalists like Steve Reich & Philip Glass, and some of Talking Heads’ contemporaneous experiments came to mind. This was just the noise for a heady, more than slightly pretentious listener like me!
1982’s Beat turned out to be my favorite of the albums the band released, but I didn’t see the mighty Crim live until the Three of a Perfect Pair tour in the summer of 1984 – by which time they had throughly assimilated their new music and stomped audiences flat with it! It was the first of 10 times I heard Crimson in concert over the decades, and still it’s vividly memorable.
Shortly afterward, Fripp put Crimson on one of the band’s numerous indefinite pauses, but Belew has always had a soft spot for this music, even publishing an online appeal to Fripp, Levin & Bruford for a 30th-anniversary reunion in 2011. This only happened in truncated form: Belew’s Power Trio hooked up with Levin’s Stick Men for a series of Two of A Perfect Trio dates (I caught the Detroit stop of the tour late that year) eventually becoming the Crimson ProjeKct and opening for Dream Theater on a lengthly tour.
And while I absolutely adore Fripp’s Belew-less version of KC that ran from 2014 to 2021 (see my reviews here, here and here), I’m no less ready to lose it for a Fripp-less take on this classical material like BEAT. Given Vai & Carey’s impeccable credentials, this should be some show.
— Rick Krueger
BEAT Tour dates:
9/12 SAN JOSE, CA @ SAN JOSE CIVIC
9/13 NAPA, CA @ BLUE NOTE SUMMER SESSIONS at MERITAGE RESORT
9/14 LOS ANGELES, CA @ THE UNITED THEATER on BROADWAY
9/15 ANAHEIM, CA @ CITY NATIONAL GROVE of ANAHEIM
9/17 SAN DIEGO, CA @ HUMPHREY’S CONCERTS
9/18 PHOENIX, AZ @ CELEBRITY THEATRE
9/20 AUSTIN, TX @ THE PARAMOUNT THEATRE
9/21 HOUSTON, TX @ BAYOUS MUSIC CENTRE
9/22 DALLAS, TX @ MAJESTIC THEATRE
9/24 ATLANTA, GA @ THE EASTERN
9/26 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL @ THE PARKER
9/27 ORLANDO, FL @ HARD ROCK LIVE
9/28 CLEARWATER, FL @ RUTH ECKERD HALL
9/29 CHARLESTON, SC @ CHARLESTON MUSIC HALL
10/01 CHARLOTTE, NC @ KNIGHT THEATER
10/02 DURHAM, NC @ CAROLINA THEATRE of DURHAM / FLETCHER HALL
10/04 WASHINGTON, DC @ WARNER THEATRE
10/05 NEW YORK, NY @ BEACON THEATRE
10/06 GLENSIDE, PA @ KESWICK THEATRE
10/08 RICHMOND, VA @ CARPENTER THEATER in DOMINION ENERGY CENTER
10/09 RED BANK, NJ @ COUNT BASIE CENTER
10/11 BOSTON, MA @ SHUBERT THEATRE
10/12 HAMPTON BEACH, NH @ HAMPTON BEACH CASINO BALLROOM
10/14 HALIFAX, NS @ REBECCA COHEN AUDITORIUM
10/15 MONCTON, NB @ CASINO NEW BRUNSWICK
10/17 MONTREAL, QC @ THEATRE MAISONNEUVE
10/18 TORONTO, ON @ MASSEY HALL
10/19 ROCHESTER, NY @ KODAK CENTER
10/21 ALBANY, NY @ THE EGG
10/22 GREENSBURG, PA @ PALACE THEATRE
10/23 READING, PA @ SANTANDER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Steve Hackett: Genesis Revisited – Foxtrot at Fifty + Hackett Highlights, The State Theatre, Kalamazoo Michigan, March 23, 2024.
Yet again, another Progarchist beat me to reviewing Steve Hackett’s current tour — this time by three months! I can’t complain, though; Connor’s November review and last fall’s CD/BluRay release convinced me to catch Hackett in concert for the fifth time since he resumed stateside touring in 2013. And I’d say this most recent gig — played to over 1500 fans that packed a historic downtown theatre in Gibson Guitars’ original hometown — was the best of the five.
As I mentioned the last time Hackett played West Michigan, his current band is both precision tooled and breathtakingly daring. Craig Blundell’s fleet, thundering drums propel the music forward at a thrilling pace (no click tracks here!); bassist Jonas Reingold anchors the low end with nimble melodic licks and a terrific sense of interplay; self-effacing keyboardist Roger King genuinely deserves the “one-man orchestra” label. The opening blast from Hackett’s brand-new album The Circus and the Nightwhale— dramatic overture “People of the Smoke”, giddy tarantella “Circo Inferno”, classically-tinged ballad “These Passing Clouds” — showed their remarkable range, while Rob Townsend’s woodwinds and Hackett’s lead guitar took off from that solid musical foundation with tasty, direct themes and hyperspeed unison lines.
While the initial set of “Hackett Highlights” contained plenty of reliable crowd-pleasers, my favorite was the deep cut “Camino Royale”. A funky Reingold solo spot merged into a duet with Blundell, suddenly crashing into the bold opening riff; then an extended midsection gave Townsend space to develop his most compelling solo of the night, followed by Hackett’s wildest playing — squeezing out metallic sparks one moment, launching keening, heart-piercing sustains the next.
Still, let’s face it: Hackett wouldn’t have his current touring career if he hadn’t been fervently waving the “Genesis Revisited” banner for the last eleven years. And it was the classic 1972 Genesis album Foxtrot that this audience had come to hear.
Big Big Train, Sweetwater Performance Theatre, Fort Wayne, Indiana – March 1, 2024
Four years ago this month, Big Big Train’s first North American tour was cancelled, a victim of the worldwide COVID pandemic. Just over 28 months ago, a more ambitious debut tour fell apart before it could even be announced, following the shocking death of BBT singer/songwriter/frontman David Longdon. Finally – finally! – last Friday night, nearly 250 fans (including me, my wife and fellow Progarchist Bryan Morey) packed a state of the art auditorium at the largest music retailer on the planet.
We waited as the announced start time ticked past. And waited some more. Really, how much suspense can BBT’s loyal Passengers – some fortified with sprouts, it’s true, but still – stand?
But all last-minute anxieties fell away as the international septet filed onstage, counted in and exploded into the opener “Folklore”. The audience launched into the singalong chants from the first – “Hey ho, so we go/We pass it on, we hand it down”, indeed – as new frontman Alberto Bravin ramped up into a kinetic dynamo, belting out the melody, prowling the length of the stage, stoking it all to a higher pitch. Meanwhile, the rest of the band dug into the song’s earthy folk-rock rhythm, constantly catching each other’s glances and grinning, as if to say, “can you believe we actually, finally get to do this?”
Rather than focus on their released-that-day effort The Likes of Us, Big Big Train generously gave us Statesiders what we’ve been wanting all these years — a bountiful cross-section of their back catalog from 2009’s game-changing The Underfall Yard through 2021’s Welcome to the Planet. And if the musical balance tipped ever so slightly toward the peak Anglophilia of the English Electric era, with “The First Rebreather” and “Summoned By Bells” as the set’s early landmarks, no one in the crowd seemed to be complaining.
At the back of the stage, keyboardist Oskar Holldorff and bassist/founder Gregory Spawton anchored the music, with Wakemanesque grand piano, sinewy Rickenbacker lines and booming bass pedals laying down track for free passage. To their right, freshly recruited trumpeter Cade Gotthardt covered BBT’s trademark brass parts, sometimes pivoting toward fusion-era Miles Davis fanfares and colors to fresh effect. Up front, Clare Lindley specialized in rippling, quicksilver violin licks; Rikard Sjöblom tackled his own fluid guitar parts plus absent guitarist David Foster’s riffs plus chunky, fiery organ work; and Nick D’Virgilio moved effortlessly from one off-center rhythm to the next, hands and feet awhirl with the rhythmic possibilities. Meanwhile, everyone but Spawton and Gotthardt contributed backing vocals; Bravin, Gotthardt and Lindley added orchestral keyboard pads as needed; and a 12-string guitar purchased at Sweetwater during rehearsals passed between Bravin, D’Virgilio, Lindley, Sjöblom and Spawton as if they’d gathered round a campfire. The cumulative effect kept the audience on the edge of their seats, giddy with the pace and eager for the next inevitable surprise.
Mirroring the onstage swirl of genre, color and texture, the band’s presentation never remained static. D’Virgilio joined Bravin front and center for their vocal duet on Grand Tour’s “The Florentine”, venturing into the audience for a second verse walkabout; on Grimspound’s “A Mead Hall in Winter” (the current tour’s namesake) Spawton stepped forward and gathered the mobile players for an accelerating jam that careened through metallic stops and starts. Out of that whirlwind came the gentlest moment of the night: D’Virgilio and Sjöblom’s tribute to Longdon. Their acoustic take on his “Telling the Bees” was utterly poignant – grief refracted through joy and gratitude, the audience eagerly picking up the chorus, everyone calling to memory the artistic gifts that their absent friend had shared so generously.
Then, the pealing piano chords that herald “East Coast Racer” — and suddenly any opening night jitters fell away from the band, any onstage fluffs no longer mattered. Big Big Train locked in with each other, ramping up the intensity; Bravin roared, purred and declaimed the narrative; the crowd entered the drama inherent in Spawton’s defining epic – more than the story of a train setting a land speed record, a evocation of the sweat and effort of the men behind the breakthrough. And as the audience joined in Bravin’s climactic cry – “And into history/And into legend/She flies” – the night came together in a sublime thrill of tension, release and catharsis.
From that point, an excellent show turned consistently great, as BBT sprinted for the finish line — Longdon’s grim chronicle “A Boy in Darkness”, Bravin’s delicate new ballad “Love Is the Light” and D’Virgilio’s exuberant instrumental “Apollo” chilled the blood, then plucked the heartstrings, then pumped up the adrenaline. Then, after a teasing Bravin invited the crowd to guess the encore, came “Victorian Brickwork” from The Underfall Yard. As Spawton’s doleful tale of familial regret and remorse unwound and the mist of intricate cross-rhythms cleared, Gotthardt launched into that elegiac trumpet coda — and grown men (including me) cried freely and with abandon.
What more is there to say about such an exciting, moving, thoroughly satisfying night? Big Big Train repaid their US audience’s longstanding devotion with interest, and the overwhelming atmosphere of happiness carried over to a relaxed after-show meet and greet. My advice: catch them in Boston (March 5) or Buffalo (March 6) if you can – and hope this mini-tour has sold well enough so that they can mount a return trip before their visas expire!
2024 is out of the gate hot — three of the albums below are already on my Year-End Favorites list, and there are no duds in this bunch! As usual, purchase links are embedded in the artist/title listing, with a partial or complete streaming preview below the review.
Anchor and Burden, Extinction Level:MoonJune Music mainman Leonardo Pavkovic has labelled this brutal beauty “uncompromising progressive avantgarde doom-jazz post-metal”. That pretty much covers it! Kicking off with opener “Fractured Self” and “Body Expansion”, touch guitarists Markus Reuter and Alexander Dowerk spend the next hour launching knife-edged slabs of sonic concrete into sub-orbit; drummer Asaf Sirkis pulverizes any semblance of a steady beat into terrifying quick marches (“Mutual Assured Destruction”), hyperactive polyrhythms (“Nine Gates to Dominion”), or just lethal, unanticipated deadfalls; and electronics wizard Bernhard Wöstheinrich provides both breathing space for a comedown, as on the closing “The Crust of This Earth”, and crash pads for droning, sludgy guitar plunges throughout the extended title track. Absolutely bonkers, already a favorite; you may have to be in the right mood for it, but Extinction Level’s free-for-all improv (not far removed from King Crimson’s outer limits) turns out to be a heady, head-banging good time.
The Bardic Depths, What We Really Like in Stories (released March 7): both more direct and more varied than their previous releases, TBD’s third is a first-class album that delivers generously on its title’s promises. Brad Birzer’s graceful lyrics effortlessly transport us into the minds of creators as diverse as Ray Bradbury (“You’ve Written Poetry, My Boy”), Willa Cather (“Old Delights”) and Robert E. Howard (“The Feast Is Over”) — then into the creations themselves (the Orwellian dystopia of “Vendetta”, the postapocalyptic “Stillpoint”, the high adventure of “Whispers in Space”). In turn, Dave Bandana and Gareth Cole’s compositions are appealingly streamlined, giving Cole’s guitars, Bandana’s guitars & synths and Peter Jones’ keys & saxophones plenty of room to shine but never straying into aimless jams. Add a warm vocal blend from the quartet (with Jones and Bandana at the forefront) to Tim Gehrt’s steady, sparkling grooves, and you have a prog album that’s accessible without compromise, thought-provoking without pretension. This one’s charms might sneak up on you, but repeated listens will thoroughly repay your kind attention. (Check out our Bardic Depths roundtable here.)
Big Big Train, The Likes of Us (released March 1): the wonder here isn’t that indefatigable founder Greg Spawton and his international crew have regrouped with such power and panache; it’s that they’ve tackled the struggles and sorrows of recent years head-on, forging them into the band’s most direct, integrated album since Grimspound. From mission statement/overture “Light Left in the Day” through epics “Between the Masts” and “Miramare” to killer ballad “Love’s Light” and finale “Last Eleven”, new singer Alberto Bravin fares forward into the unknown, summoning the essence of friendship and the pain of loss, calling on all in earshot to seize the day. There’s tons of musical variety, too, from the hard-rocking “Oblivion” to the playful “Skates On” and the 12-string weave of “Bookmarks”, with all seven players (five of whom sing) each getting their time to shine. And yes, that brass section pops in at just the right moments, to bring a tear to the eye or lift the spirit as required. Familiar yet fresh, and destined for that year-end faves list, BBT fans can be well satisfied with this latest excursion – and The Likes of Us is well turned out to welcome new Passengers onboard as well! (Check out our interview with Alberto Bravin here.)
Steve Hackett, The Circus and the Nightwhale: Prepare to have your ears pinned back here: Hackett leaps out of the gate with freshly energized songwriting and ferocious guitar work and doesn’t let up throughout this compact, compellingly listenable concept album. The restless opening sprint of “People of the Smoke”, the “Squonk”-like stomp of “Taking You Down” (with standout lead vocal by Nad Sylvan and towering sax from Rob Townsend), the lush orchestral interlude “These Passing Clouds” are all full to bursting with devastatingly melodic, wildly spraying six-string excursions from Steve; even lighter tracks like the harmonious “Enter the Ring” and luxuriant 12-string centerpiece “Ghost Moon and Living Love” overflow with prime solo licks, mind-melting and heart-gripping in equal measure. Add Roger King’s richly scenic keyboards to a succession of marvelously eclectic tunes that waste no time and a coming-of-age narrative that climbs from the gutter to the stars (braced with a dose of the marvelous — there’s that Nightwhale, after all). And voila! You’ve got a Hackett opus that immediately goes to the 2024 favorites list, ranking right up there with Spectral Mornings,At the Edge of Lightor whichever of his 30 solo efforts you prefer best.
No-Man, Housekeeping – The OLI Years, 1990-1994:Ben Coleman, Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson’s earliest singles for One Little Indian (oops, Independent), “Days in the Trees” and Donovan’s “Colours”, are the perfect sneak peek/summation of this compilation’s garishly romantic delights. Just as you start thinking “ho hum, fey indie Nineties dance-pop”, the heavens – or are they the abysses? – open, accompanied by lush squalls of immaculately recorded dissonance. As if Roxy Music and ABC had somehow wound up co-headlining a vaudeville show, Bowness’ desperate vocals and Coleman’s slashing violin work match up swoon for swoon, while Wilson toughens the grooves and hoists ambitious synthesized backdrops, colorful splatters of guitar punctuating the aching pantomimes all the while. Containing the first two No-Man albums (the singles-oriented Loveblows and Lovecries and the ravishing, guest-heavy Flowermouth) plus the early EP Lovesighs, a singles disc and radio sessions, Housekeeping is a generously filled, beautifully designed boxset that points unerringly toward Bowness and Wilson’s more mature achievements (whether together or apart), but is also thoroughly listenable and intriguing in its own right.
The Pineapple Thief, It Leads to This: more badass guitar loops and riffs (spaghetti westerns and surf music entwined in a Steve Reich soundscape); more bleak musings on our pervasive inability to connect, crooned with Bruce Soord’s trademark tenderness and fury; more moments of tasty, laterally-inflected drumming from Gavin Harrison. The current edition of the Thief’s fourth studio album is its own self-contained world, set in motion by the Soord/Harrison team’s moody interplay and rotating on Jon Sykes and Steve Kitch’s steady axis; undeniably of a piece with their recent catalog, and all the better for it. If none of the eight songs particularly stand out, they’re all honed to sleek perfection, building through seductive, bracing miasmas of dread and determined pursuits of flickering light to the knockout punch of the last two tracks. Whatever nightmare Soord is sleepwalking through, his eyes and heart are wide open as he edges forward, with Sykes, Kitch and Harrison urging him on all the while. (Soord’s recent “unplugged” solo CD/DVD, the already out-of-print Caught in the Hum, is an even more distilled example of this melancholy, coolly yearning aesthetic.)
Yes, I have a backstory with The Bardic Depths: spoken word shouts on their 2020 debut album, then a special guest credit on keyboards for the 2022 follow-up Promises of Hope. And the fun continued when, early in 2023, project originator Dave Bandana asked me to whip up another snippet of pipe organ for the third TBD opus!
Out on March 7th, the new album What We Really Like in Storiesfeatures the quartet at the core of The Bardic Depths: Dave B. on vocals, keys and guitars; Gareth Cole (Fractal Mirror, Paul Menel) on guitars and vocals; Peter Jones (Tiger Moth Tales, Red Bazar, Camel, Cyan, multiple et ceteras) on keys, sax and vocals, and drummer Tim Gehrt (best known from Steve Walsh’s Streets) on drums and vocals. Inspired by and setting the lyrics and literary reflections of founding Progarchist Brad Birzer, the seven new songs (plus a prelude or two) focus on the creations of authors spanning science fiction (C.S. Lewis, Alan Moore, Walter Miller Jr.), fantasy (J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard) and American realism (Willa Cather). The group’s leanest and lushest effort to date, the music here is equally ambitious and appealing, progressive and accessible, warmly melodic and mightily stirring.
After talking with Dave two years ago, I couldn’t help but think it would be a blast to get all the members of TBD in on the same Zoom call to talk about the new album. It was a blast, but little did I know what I was getting into, as the byplay between the merry quartet crossed the Internet at lightning speed. Enjoy the interview below; a complete transcription immediately follows the jump.
While this will be Alberto’s first stateside jaunt with the band, he’s definitely paid his dues with BBT; since joining up, he’s toured Europe with them in 2022 and 2023, as well as collaboratively writing and recording The Likes of Us at his homebase of Trieste, Italy. When I spoke with him earlier this month, Alberto was candid about the challenges involved integrating into Big Big Train following previous singer David Longdon’s passing, but also grateful for his reception by the band (and its devoted fans, the Passengers) and unquenchably enthusiastic about the new album and the coming tour! Our video conversation is immediately below, with a transcript following.
So my first question is kind of a softball: what does it feel like to be the lead singer in Big Big Train?
It’s a great situation, musically and also personally, from a human point of view. Because it’s a great band with great people in it! It’s a really, really, really great honor to be the lead singer and be part of this family, actually. It’s two years [since] I joined the band, and I can call it family, because there are really great relationships inside the band and between us. So, this is great!
That’s lovely to hear; I’m so pleased. Going back those two years, when Greg Spawton and the band’s management reached out to you, what was your first reaction?
Well, I didn’t expect that, actually; it was completely out of the blue! Greg saw me with PFM in 2015 and he just wrote down my name at the time. Then I was in a list of people to audition. He wrote me an email and he asked me if I was aware of the band – and of course, I was aware of the band [laughs]; I was a fan! I knew what happened and everything.
And it was just a great honor to do the audition, and I didn’t have big expectation from that. It was just, “Alright, let’s try; let’s have the opportunity; let’s sing as best as I can. Let’s have fun, actually, and enjoy the situation.” I didn’t expect to become the singer, [laughs] actually!
Backtracking, how did you first hear of Big Big Train, that you became a fan?
I remember I was in Japan with PFM; I was in the Tower Records in Tokyo. And there was a Japanese newspaper with a photo of PFM, because we were playing there. So, I just got the newspaper, and inside there was a photo of, I think it was Grimspound; that was the album. And just the cover — I said, “Whoa, this is a cool cover – I need to dig deeper on this band!” And I fell in love with it.
The main reason is that Big Big Train always had great songs, I think. They are in the progressive world, where you have all the instrumental madness or weird time signatures or whatever, but the basic thing of the band are the songs. They have great melodies; they always had great songs and great lyrics. So that was the first thing that I really fell in love with. I’m a Beatles fan, and I love songwriting. And I could hear the songwriting behind these incredible arrangements, the vocal harmonies and all the keyboards and Mellotrons and 12-string guitars. The great thing is that most of the songs, you can play them [with just] guitar and vocals, and they still sound like those songs. That’s the magic there.
That makes a lot of sense, because it was the songs that grabbed me, a little further back before that time. And I share your Beatles fandom! So I get where you’re coming from with that. Now you seem to have had – I read in the tour program, you’ve had a real variety of musical experience before this. I understand you trained in opera, as well as in modern singing. And you play multiple instruments; you’ve led your own band; you joined PFM, which definitely has a reputation in the prog world. So, after those two years you’ve talked about — two tours and time in the studio with Big Big Train — what do you think are the particular strengths you bring that slot in with how you describe this band, this songwriters’ collective, and the music that comes out of it?
I think from day one, me and Greg – there was chemistry, just human chemistry, and so we started right away. When they were looking for a singer, they were looking just for a singer, actually. They didn’t expect to have a songwriter or [laughs] a control freak like I am! [Laughs] They needed a singer, but they had the whole package here! And [laughs] now they have to deal with it!
From day one or after a week [that] I was into the band, I was asked if I was writing stuff, and I said, “Well, yeah, I also write songs and musical parts.” We shared a couple of things, and I think Greg liked it.
We started to really dig into the music and worked together on the music, on the lyrics. So, I just brought my – it’s not really a style; I mean I don’t have a style! [Laughs] It’s just the vibe or whatever. But the important thing is that I was a fan of the band. I know really well the Big Big Train sound, and I don’t want to change that, because it’s a wonderful mood and vibe and color that the band have. So, I don’t want to change that, but just make it a little bit, maybe – new, my own! Because I’m into the band and I’m into the songwriting of the band.
Let’s move on to that new album; I’ve been able to hear it a couple of times. One of the things I’ve noticed; when I saw some interviews with Greg, he said, “This time, it’s personal.” It’s less about third-person storytelling and maybe more about first-person experiences and reflections. If you’re comfortable, what sort of experiences have you brought from your life that have fed into these songs?
Big Big Train always talked about – not always, but most of the time, they talked about historic facts or legends or people. This time, actually, it was totally natural; I think we realized that after we finished the album, “Oh, this time it’s really more personal!” We didn’t think about it! It wasn’t thought out; it was just a natural thing.
One example: I wrote the song called “Love Is The Light”. That song is about a dark period that I had, dealing with depression. So, to actually be able to talk about it and put it in music and those lyrics – it’s a really deep experience, and really helpful!
We played it live on the last tour; I made the demo of the song, then we recorded it in the studio, and then we rehearsed it for the live situation. But the first time there was an audience in front of me and we started the song, I just realized that I was playing and singing a really personal thing of my life! So that just clicked, and I said, [laughs] “Oh, OK; let’s see how it goes!” And it was an incredible feeling, incredible emotions. And I think people really, really react on that. If you feel it in a genuine way, and you know what you’re talking about, I think the audience can feel it too. Then it’s pretty strong.
I can imagine, especially with the intensity that that band’s audience brings to hearing you guys live.
Oh, yeah; oh, my God! I mean, the people that we have, it’s actually incredible! We have people coming to see us in Europe from all over the world. And they’re coming to the US from Europe to see the gigs! We have people that came to all the 18 shows that we did last year. It’s amazing; they are really the foundation of the band! I mean, without them we can just play in our rooms! [Laughs]
Makes sense. So, you mentioned “Love Is The Light.” There are definitely some themes in the music and the lyrics that connect across the songs on The Likes of Us. You have “Light Left In The Day”, which is kind of an overture. And some of those themes really go all the way through to “Last Eleven”, which was the first new song that we heard with you singing the lead vocals. How would you sum up the common threads on this album?
Glad you noticed [laughs] all the themes coming and going during the album! At one time, we had a couple of songs there – we chose the setlist of the album. And there was no reprises. I think “Last Eleven” had the reprise that is on “Beneath The Masts” at the beginning. At the beginning of “Beneath The Masts” there is a part that is the end section of “Last Eleven”, because it was Greg’s song and he doubled up this kind of thing.
Note: Artist/title links go to purchase options; streaming previews follow reviews.
Mary Halvorson, Cloudward: Trailblazing guitarist Halvorson gathers the sextet from her 2022 classic Amaryllis around eight new avant-jazz compositions. Trumpeter Adam O’Farrill and trombonist Jacob Garchik sizzle on opener “The Gate”; Patricia Brennan’s vibraphone lends a rich shimmer to “The Tower”; Nick Dunston launches an epic bass solo to kick off the closing “Ultramarine”. And Tomas Fujiwara? He’s everything you could imagine in one drummer — meditatively punctuating “Unscrolling”, driving the riff-fest “Tailhead” and covering all points in-between. Set these folks loose on their leader’s sinewy, elegant concoctions of yearning and abstraction, and you never know what will happen next. All the while, Halvorson sets the pace on her instrument, with a woody, delay-laced sound and a skittering, percussive style all her own. Whether Halvorson’s and company are swinging like mad on “Collapsing Mouth” or coalescing like electrical static around Laurie Anderson’s guest violin on “Incarnadine”, Cloudward is another head-spinning, laugh-out-loud delight.
Neal Morse, The Restoration — Joseph, Part Two:The conclusion of Morse’s latest rock opera takes Part One’s rough and ready swagger and turns it up to 11, with grit even in the proggiest moments (Jacob’s sons’ vocal fugue a la Gentle Giant on “The Argument”) and fresh muscle propelling the Latin groove “Everlasting”. There’s heft to the lyrics too, as the showdown between a newly-powerful Joseph and his off-balance brothers displaces Neal’s usual conversion narrative. (Don’t worry, though; reconciliation and revival are just a title track away.) With tight melodic/thematic connections to The Dreamer and a beefy sound recalling George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen, The Restoration is also a spectacular vocal showcase; ensemble highlights include Ted Leonard’s emotive Judah and the Nick D’Virgilio/Ross Jennings cameos as Pharaoh’s butler and baker, and Morse puts his newly darkened tone to thrilling use at dramatic highpoints like “I Hate My Brothers”. Together, the Joseph albums are easily my favorite Morse-related releases since The Similitude of a Dream and The Great Adventure, and The Restoration goes straight to my Official Faves List for the new year.
PAKT, No Steps Left to Trace: Another year, another heaping helping of cutting-edge free improvisation from MoonJune Records, courtesy of indefatigable impresario Leonardo Pavkovic! Now in their third year as a collective, bassist Percy Jones, guitarist Alex Skolnick, drummer Kenny Grohowski and guitarist/electronicist Tim Motzer unleash their first double album, created entirely from scratch both in the studio and live. It’s a genuinely explosive set, especially when Jones (best known from Phil Collins’ 1970s fusion band Brand X) ramps up the double-time grooves and his compatriots lock on! But the intensity doesn’t slacken when the music spaces out, either; listening hard and leaning into their deep, uncanny sense of interplay, PAKT also conjures some of the most arresting ambient jams I’ve come across recently. Bursting every genre boundary you can think of, No Steps Left to Trace isn’t for the musically faint of heart — but, for those with ears to hear, it’s a trip well worth taking.
Porcupine Tree, Closure/Continuation. Live Amsterdam 7/11/22: The show I saw in Chicago a couple of months before but bigger, scaled up for packed European arenas instead of partially-filled Stateside auditoriums and rush-released on video before Christmas. The sum of all the prog-metal parts here is flat-out engaging: Gavin Harrison’s percussive impossibilities and Richard Barbieri’s synth squelches ground Steven Wilson’s driven singing and sardonic patter, while utility players supreme Randy McStine and Nate Navarro slam the songs home. Newer material stacks up well against PT’s classics, with pensive slowburns “Dignity”, “Chimera’s Wreck” and “Buying New Soul” nicely offsetting thrashy frequency-eaters “Blackest Eyes”, “Herd Culling” and “Anesthetize”. A solid introduction for anyone who missed the Tree’s initial, spiky flowering, this one will probably resonate deeper with longtime fans (like me) who took Wilson’s long-term “never again” PR onslaught at face value – until we no longer had to.
The Smile, Wall of Eyes: Admit it: does Stanley Donwood’s latest album cover look like a psychedelic Lord of the Rings paperback cover from the 1960s or what? And the title track kick-off of this Radiohead-facing project is every bit as disorienting: a understated bossa nova from Tom Skinner to which a balefully depressive Thom Yorke lyric, tightly wound orchestral smears and Jonny Greenwood’s arhythmic guitar plinks attach themselves like disfiguring barnacles. No forthright kicks to the head in the style of A Light for Attracting Attention here; The Smile beckon us toward dystopia ever so gently — odd-time licks over the ominous vamp “Read the Room”, Greenwood and Skinner gouging a trench below Yorke’s mewling protests on “Under Our Pillows”; the Beatlesque ballad “Friend of a Friend” delicately dissolving the boundary between courage and despair in less than five minutes. In the face of lives ever more trapped onscreen, are the only options self-destruction (as “Bending Hectic’s” dissonant strings erupting into unmistakable Greenwood power chords) or resignation to Technopoly’s embrace (the closing “You Know Me!”)? Whatever our take, Yorke, Greenwood and Skinner once again prove brutally honest guides to the expanse of beauty and abyss of horrors lying before us.
Well – that was a longer break than anticipated. (Sometimes, as John Lennon sang, “Life is what happens to you/While you’re busy making other plans.”) Thanks for your patience and ongoing support as we wave goodbye to 2023 and 2024 begins!
Thanks as well to Time Lord and Bryan for their 2023 wrap-ups. The flow of excellent new and reissued music continued unabated in November and December; below are some further favorites (plus some I didn’t get around to before my last post), with listening links and “micro-quick takes” to match.
The Beatles, 1962-1966 & 1967-1970: The pioneering 1973 compilations get a cutting-edge makeover. The “Red” album expands by 12 tracks — more covers, more George vocals, more from Revolver — and everything’s finally remixed to breathtaking true stereo by Giles Martin. The “Blue” album broadens the picture of the Fab Four’s later years via 9 more tracks, with the archival swan song “Now and Then” (read Time Lord’s elegiac appreciation here) serving as a lovely, definitive coda. Fifty years on, a reminder of what all the shouting was about – and why Beatlemania has never really gone away.
Kerensa Briggs, Requiem: The first new classical piece I’ve fallen in love with in a long time. Briggs is a young British choral composer with formidable gifts and a direct, appealing style; based in chant and ripened with echoes of the French romantics, her Requiem cuts straight to the heart of grief, consoling the listener’s spirit with its rich settings of Scriptural promises. The Choir of King’s College London, conducted by Joseph Fort, responds vibrantly on the major piece and other short works (including a setting of the Taoist text “Inner Light” that George Harrison nicked for a Beatles B-side). Restorative, uplifting and highly recommended.
Charley Crockett, Live from the Ryman Auditorium: A recent Nashville vacation (including a night at the Grand Ole Opry) triggered a deep dive into all things country — traditional, bluegrass, alternative, modern, you name it. Leaning on his Gothic concept album The Man from Waco, Texas troubadour Crockett and his band The Blue Drifters electrify a sold-out Mother Church of Country Music with this generous, rambunctious set. One of the most eclectic artists in the genre today, Crockett flavors his honky-tonk stew with everything from mariachi to Motown (check out “I’m Just A Clown”), from funk to deep blues, with props to Red Dirt forebears like James Hand and Townes Van Zandt along the way — and his thick, chewy baritone sells it all. If you crave some down-home listening, you can’t go wrong here.
Peter Gabriel, i/o:Yeah, PG has been promising new music for twenty years — but, boy, has he delivered the goods! Released a track at a time every full moon, the finished album (available in three different mixes) is a hypnotic, seductive delight all the way. Whether on atmospheric opener “Panopticom”, melancholy meditations “Playing for Time” and “And Still”, or upscale worldbeat anthems “Road to Joy” and “Olive Tree”, killer hooks, arresting soundscapes and neoclassic soul melodies abound. It’s Gabriel as you remember him — including those lyrics that swing wildly between sappy motivational speeches and sage advice — freshly retooled and energized, blazing a hopeful, humanistic path thru this century’s chaos.
King Crimson, Larks’ Tongues in Aspic XL:Robert Fripp wasn’t kidding when he called the 1972-73 incarnation of Crimson a magic band. John Wetton on bass and Bill Bruford on drums bring the muscle; David Cross on violin and Jamie Muir on percussion add thrills in the moment. Arguably, the crunching Hendrix-meets-Stravinsky title tracks, menacing balladry of “Exiles” and improvised mojo of “The Talking Drum” set the template for the rest of KC’s career. This 2-CD/2-BluRay set includes a new spatial audio mix by (who else?) Steven Wilson, an “Elemental Mix” that spotlights individual contributions and the complete sessions for nerds like me who want to know how the sausage got made. Explosive, unstoppable stuff.
Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Altitude:Whether backing greats like Lester Flatt and Johnny Cash, riding his “hillbilly boogie” to a successful solo career, or charming Ken Burns’ documentary audiences, Stuart comes as close to the living personification of country music as anybody. Here he and his stellar backing band lay down some serious hoodoo: “Sitting Alone” fuses tight harmonies to a Byrdsy guitar jangle, the title track twangs with abandon, “Tomahawk” joyfully calls down the Second Coming in double time, and a hush descends for the haunting “And the Angels Came Down.” A fresh helping of Cosmic American Music as pioneered by The Grateful Dead and Gram Parsons: sleek, gutsy and deeply satisfying.
And in review, the list of my other favorite releases and reissues of the year, covered in previous Quick Takes (links are to my original articles):
Stay tuned, won’t you? With new albums due soon from Neal Morse, The Pineapple Thief, Steve Hackett, The Bardic Depths and Big Big Train (not to mention BBT’s first US tour this March), the Rockin’ Republic of Prog is ready for a banner year!
As you can see in the photo above, I’ve drawn a full house of fresh music by artists well known in the Rockin’ Republic of Prog for this hand. (As well as a world-famous joker from another deck.) Unless otherwise noted, title links are to Bandcamp or Spotify for streaming. Where streaming links don’t include them, separate links with purchase options follow each review.
District 97, Stay For The Ending: Another great leap forward for the prog pride of Oak Park, Illinois, D97’s fifth studio album is a shoo-in for my year-end list of favorites. It bursts at the seams with the good stuff – Jim Tashjian’s massive guitar thrash, Andrew Laurence’s neck-snapping synth licks and harmonies, Tim Seisser’s buoyant, bubbling bass work and Jonathan Schang’s exuberant off-center drum grooves. As always, singer Leslie Hunt hits every musical curveball out of the park, her energy and sophistication driving home one breathtaking melodic hook after another. Once the stylish, thrilling title track ropes you in, the eccentric fusion workout “Many New Things”, the Crimsonesque riff-go-round of “Crossover”, the galloping social comment of “Divided We Fall” and the stutter-stepped “Deck Is Stacked” will keep you on the edge of your seat. Can’t recommend this highly enough.
Glass Hammer, Arise:How does ace GH conceptualist Steve Babb follow up on his surprisingly heavy Skallagrim fantasy trilogy? With an even heavier sci-fi concept album, of course! As Babb’s AI-enhanced android protagonist heads for the stars, the spacey invention comes fast and furious; the propulsive kick of “Wolf 339”, droning industrial ballad “Lost” and blues cruise “Proxima Centauri B” all build to a shattering, sludgy apocalypse on the title track. Throughout, multi-instrumentalist Babb and his colleagues (including fellow GH founder Fred Schendel on one track) pile on the dramatic tension, while Hannah Pryor’s vocals vividly trace the turmoil of an intelligence lost in the cosmos – only to be confronted with Someone greater than it bargained for. Dare we hope for a sequel? Order from Glass Hammer’s website.
Dave Kerzner, Heart Land Mines, Vol. 1: After a troika of albums exploring distant worlds in the extended fashion prog fans so love, Kerzner brings it all back home. No, it’s not an original concept: boy meets, loves and loses girl, then drives across country to forget girl while writing songs about the whole mess. But it all happened to Dave back in the 1990s, including the songwriting – which gives this project (the first in a series based on his “songs from the attic”) a real edge and vibrancy. In terms of the music, think less Pink Floyd and Genesis, more Beatles, Steely Dan and Alan Parsons: sturdily constructed, left-field pop, chock full of emotion and color. From the cynical shuffles “Dreaming in LA” and “Dirty Girl” to the heartbreak ballad “Worlds Apart” and beyond, Kerzner gives this music his all, his singing more expressive than ever, his arranging and production even more vivid and intense. With tasty touches galore from his world-class backing band (Fernando Perdomo, Matt Dorsey and Derek Cintron) and special guests, Kerzner has hit my year-end favorites list yet again; on the surface, the first installment of Heart Land Mines (more volumes are promised) might seem less ambitious than New World, Static and The Traveller, but it’s every bit as compelling and delightful. Order various editions from Bandcamp.
David Longdon, Wild River: Music by a younger man than we came to know during Longdon’s time with Big Big Train, his 2004 solo debut reveals both an eclectic sensibility and the level of aspiration you’d expect from a singer ballsy enough to audition for Genesis as Phil Collins’ replacement. The basic vibe is folk-inflected, artsy singer-songwriter, focused on acoustic guitar and fiddle (with a pinch of Pete Townshend’s aggression on the opener “Always”, “Mandy” and “Vertigo”), but even then, Longdon’s range extended to the title song’s R&B shout-out and the darker turns of “This House” and “Joely”. And as the Floydish “Falling Down to Earth” (complete with Mellotron) gives way to the extended metaphor of the finale “On to the Headland,” we hear the sensibility that emerged to tell Greg Spawton’s tales of Old Albion for The Underfall Yard and the English Electric sequence, then seek fresh destinations for Big Big Train before his untimely death. This pristine reissue, remastered by Rob Aubrey, includes a bonus live album with previously unreleased material Order from Burning Shed or The Band Wagon USA.
The Rolling Stones, Hackney Diamonds: You might have heard something about this one; “those British bad boys” (as Bob Dylan referred to them when I heard him in concert last month) are back in the saddle, hedonistic and petulant as ever. Slashing their way across producer Andrew Watt’s dry, tight soundstage, Keith Richards and Ron Wood whip up vigorous, punchy riffs by the dozen (though there’s little room for their classic guitar weave). Meanwhile, Mick Jagger strikes every vocal pose in his repertoire and then some, shouting and moaning what are quite possibly the filthiest lyrics he’s ever written. The whole thing rocks hard, and there’s genuine magic afoot when Bill Wyman and the late Charlie Watts crank up the rhythm on “Live By the Sword”. But ironically, the best moments here come during the collaborations — Paul McCartney powering “Bite My Head Off” with an immense fuzzed bass lick, “Lady Gaga” channeling the early 1970s with Jagger during the gospel-soaked “Sweet Sounds of Heaven”. A respectable showing for the Stones and a fun listen for fans — but how of many of these songs, as cool as they sound, will make the setlist for next year’s inevitable tour? Order from … well, just about everywhere.
Tiger Moth Tales, The Turning Of The World: When Pete Jones stepped back a bit from the keyboard and picked up his acoustic guitar, this more straightforward sequel to 2020’s chamber-prog opus The Whispering of the Worldwas the attractive result. The man’s got a lot on his mind – “revolution, changing technology, life-altering events” – and he doesn’t hold back with his opinions. At his best, Jones’ direct, sensitive reflections on the passing scene cut to the heart, especially on the epic allegory of “The Snail, the Horse and the River” and “We’ll Remember”, an affecting tribute to David Longdon. And if upbeat inspirational songs about life such as “Pass It On” and “Make a Good Sound” lean a bit toward limpid jazz-funk, they quickly pick up energy every time Jones picks up his saxophone and melodica for expressive fills or soaring solo choruses. A change of pace from his recent seasonal albums, it’s always good to hear from a man who truly believes “It’s So Wonderful to Be Alive” — and isn’t shy about reminding us of it! (There’s also a bonus disc available, The Whispering Suite, with outtakes and live versions bridging TMT’s two “World” albums and 2022’s A Song of Spring.)
I get into trouble and I hit the wall No place to turn – no place at all I pick a number between one and two And I ask myself what would Julius Caesar do?
Bob Dylan, “My Own Version of You”
Shortly after Bob Dylan barked out those couplets to the audience at Grand Rapids’ DeVos Performance Hall, he answered his rhetorical question with another recent tune: “I prayed to the cross and I kissed the girls and I crossed the Rubicon”. So it was no surprise that, on a night where the 82-year-old icon genially lorded it over his band and a capacity crowd, another historical JC crept into the setlist too . . .
But let’s rewind. Hitting the stage in a black sequined suit and white hat, Dylan planted himself behind a baby grand piano and promptly dispelled any expectations of a by-the-numbers night of bygone hits. The opener was recognizable as the 1970s deep track “Watching the River Flow” — but only just. Words were stretched out, scrunched together and slurred, melodies recast on the very edge of speech, the original flowing folk song juiced up by jumpin’ R&B from the backup quintet. To top it off, Dylan took all the solos — ranging from inspired rhythmic riffs to maddeningly repeated three-note licks (the kind you played in grade-school piano duets) that occasionally locked in with the band’s chords. The message was clear: “I’m doing whatever I want with these songs tonight. Keep up.”
To their credit, Dylan’s crew did just that, with style to spare. Whether on electric or stand-up bass, long-time musical director Tony Garnier’s pulse was always squarely in the pocket; guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio’s sturdy strumming kept the songs plowing forward, even when their boss pulled back on the melodies and rhythms. With the vehicle in motion, utility player Donnie Herron piled on the colorful trim — floating pedal steel guitar, countrified fiddle, sprightly mandolin. And drummer Jesse Pentecost, the newest band member, gave it all a kick in the pants, changing and chopping the grooves of every tune from Dylan’s latest album of new material, Rough and Rowdy Ways. Nothing was straight off the record: slow blues spread out into shuffles; crawling ballads shifted up a gear to more fluid tempos; the whimsical meditation “Key West (Philosopher Pirate)” turned into film noir, darkening on a dime during an ominous, reharmonized refrain. If details got lost in the roar of the journey, it proved an exhilarating ride. (And Dylan was digging it — late in the set, he introduced the band members by name, which apparently only happens when he’s in a good mood.)
Dylan proved equally daring on a relatively obscure selection of vintage tunes, taking the reinventions of this year’s live-in-studio Shadow Kingdom even farther. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” careened from free-tempo intro to Little Richard stomper (complete with Jerry Lee Lewis piano glisses) to a hard-braked burlesque finale. “To Be Alone With You” got the full honky-tonk treatment, courtesy of Pentecost’s loping backbeat and Herron’s cry-in-your-beer filigree. Given the nature of the night, the biggest surprise wasn’t that Dylan’s fundamentalist calling card “Gotta Serve Somebody” cropped up as a rockabilly-flavored rhumba; it was that the only cover of the set, Chuck Berry’s “Nadine”, was played and sung absolutely straight (and garnered as much applause as anything else)!
Though I’ve gotta say the biggest kick for me was the relaxed finale: “Every Grain of Sand”, one of Dylan’s numerous farewells to whoever or whatever threatened to cramp his style over the decades. A final fruit of his evangelizing years, it proved a graceful closer for the evening, a benediction of sorts on the rapt audience, complete with Bob’s only harmonica solo of the night after the final lyrics:
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.
At which point, Bob Dylan carefully hobbled to center stage, stood there bathed in applause, smiled, and — the very embodiment of Boomer noblesse oblige — took leave of the 2,000 mere mortals before him, off to future stops on his latest imperial progress.
Progarchy 