The Flower Kings and Pat Mastelotto Chase Away the Blues in the Heart of Treviso with Cosmic Notes

Author: Peter Podbrežnik

Location: Sonny Boy Club / San Vendemiano (Treviso) / Italy
Concert date: November 20, 2007
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €22.00

With its laid-back vibe, hospitable staff and unmistakably Mediterranean surroundings, Sonny Boy in Treviso fits the image of a gallant jazz club perfectly, and it boasts an enviable history of hosting some legendary names. It’s slowly becoming a more and more popular destination for us when it comes to catching progressive rock greats who occasionally wander over to our western neighbors. After last year’s Tony Levin Band show, Sweden’s The Flower Kings rolled in this time, one of the best and most important representatives of the third wave of prog rock, which happened in the ’90s, mainly in the US and the Scandinavian countries. For those of us who weren’t lucky enough (some of us weren’t even born yet) to see King Crimson, Genesis, Yes, Van Der Graaf Gereator, Gentle Giant and the other prog legends at the peak of their powers (that is, in the ’70s), the show by these modern Swedish revivalists was true manna from heaven, falling on us in the middle of the parched valley that is the current, rather sorry state of prog rock band visits here at home or anywhere near us.

It would be unfair to call The Flower Kings an excellent copy of the old bands, since they constantly inject their own distinctive ideas into the recognizable elements laid down by the prog classics of the ’70s. The band also carries a reputation as outstanding instrumentalists and improvisers, capable of playing practically any musical genre. Guitarist/vocalist and band boss Roine Stolt, who as a young guy was an active part of the Scandinavian prog scene of the ’70s (mainly as a member of Kaipa), has, in a little over 12 years and with minimal lineup changes, taken a band that was originally conceived as his solo backing group a relatively long way. While The Flower Kings have no trouble filling halls in northern and central Europe, where they have by far the most followers, south of the Austrian border they’re far less known, I’d even say almost an obscure band, as the relatively modest crowd gathered in front of the Sonny Boy stage proved. Not counting Budapest, their visit to Treviso was even the farthest south they’ve ever come, so catching Roine and his virtuoso Vikings was an opportunity not to be missed. And there was one more factor behind that claim.

The main highlight of the tour, which presented their current album “The Sum Of No Evil” (2007), was the presence of cult drummer Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, ex-Mr. Mister), who stepped in for the tour to replace Zoltan Czörsz, formerly a big favorite among TFK fans. Pat’s presence behind the drum kit undoubtedly drew some King Crimson fans to the tour too, folks who don’t normally count among the traditional, die-hard Flower Kings followers. Those in the know are also aware that there’s a sort of drummer exchange going on between King Crimson and TFK right now; besides longtime member Mastelotto and the recently arrived Czörsz, Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree) has now been officially announced as a third King Crimson drummer. Whether Mastelotto will eventually become an official TFK member is too early to say. As expected, his presence turned out to be a big bonus for the sound, especially for the improvisation, which I’ll say more about in the lines below.

After the worst kind of sonic torture chamber, served up by the local opening act with their hopelessly out-of-tune botch job of a set that went nowhere, and in which the guitarist/vocalist led the way in the negative sense, around eleven o’clock we finally got the arrival of the slick “Vikings” and their guest “cowboy.” The latter was already the center of attention right at the start, using percussion and little bells to herald the intro to the first piece of the evening. After both guitarists had tuned up well enough, they kicked off with the opening bars of “Love Is The Only Answer”, the first track from the current album “The Sum Of No Evil”. Besides the newer material, they also played beloved older pieces like “There Is More To This World” (Retropolis, 1996), which warmed up their fans the most. The initial reserve, with Roine in particular having some trouble with tightness early on, was gone completely by the third song, the excellent instrumental “Retropolis”, and the band let loose. During that “Retropolis” they also worked in a longer improvisation, which, mostly thanks to Pat, was packed with lots of the finesse that’s so typical of King Crimson. In general, they kept adding something new to most of the performances and avoided doing note-for-note copies of the studio originals. The crowd’s enthusiasm, of course, never let up.

Roine luckily forgot to put on one of his cheap, colorful Italian shirts this time and opted for a more “sporty” look, following the example of the other members. Even though he’s been one of prog rock’s more notable guitar masters for at least three decades, which he confirmed with a show demonstrating both technical perfection and refined subtlety, he remains one of the most overlooked guitarists of our time. The central “star” of the night (besides Roine, of course) was definitely Mastelotto. With his supersonic bursts, fiery fills and witty use of an assortment of extra percussion, he truly enriched their sound, and I’m convinced that without him there would have been far fewer improvisations, or they’d have come out half as interesting as they did. The drumming grandee’s percussion bits completely covered for the absence of all their additional touring players, with the sax player and flutist at the head of the list. Keyboardist Thomas Bodin “hid” behind his dense array of keyboards the whole time and energetically switched between his selection of keys, without showing off with any solo excess or even knocking over his stand in the style of someone like Ryo Okumoto (Spock’s Beard). Another pleasant surprise was bassist Jonas Reingold’s witty stage presence, as the guy brought some of the humor that’s usually so sorely missed to the traditionally serious Swedes. During breaks and longer improvisational stretches he blew across an empty bottle and coaxed strange sounds out of it, and occasionally he boxed with the mic stand, while Bodin dropped in sampled rooster crows (which came back several times during the show). In his bass lines Reingold has stopped following the spirit of Jaco Pastorius unconditionally, and he also surprised in an active role as a backing vocalist, a role he steered well clear of not so long ago.

Additional vocalist and rhythm guitarist Hasse Fröberg, Roine’s top favorite (and probably the successor as band leader once Roine retires; let’s hope that’s a long way off) fully justified his role as Roine’s loyal sidekick. The “metalhead,” who was also the most bouncy of all the members on stage, impressed with his vocal range, excellent backing harmonies and energetic gesticulation, which kept the energy in the hall up so that nobody could drift off into daydreams for too long during the longer “spacey” instrumental stretches. The excellent rendition of the melancholic “Trading My Soul” proved that TFK are not only first-rate instrumentalists but also superb composers of subtle melodies, while on “Life In Motion” they completely lived up to their reputation as eternal positivity preachers. The visuals kept cycling through images of various spiritual symbols, flowers, little butterflies, bright colors and so on, reflecting Roine’s spiritual philosophy, which he picked up back in his hippie days. Pretty similar to the established lyrical and philosophical habits of Jon Anderson (Yes), only in a somewhat more subtle way. Many would find this rather cheap and worn out. Personally, I think rock music increasingly lacks this today, while everything that smells of a mix of aggression and kitschy primitivism gets praised, the kind of thing that appeals to the average alcohol-soaked, sobbing, (not necessarily only) Slovenian frustrated soul. With its intellectual stance in the style of its role models, the band is certainly not attractive to the everyday Sunday-night crowd. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t spot a single drunk person during the show, nor any dolled-up girl who’d wandered in by mistake after missing her rave party, as a mature audience, mostly aged 40 to 60, predictably dominated. The Italians once again proved to be an exceptionally cultured crowd, perhaps even a bit too subdued, though we weren’t at the opera. Fans of their older material were also thrilled by an excellent “I Am The Sun” (Space Revolver, 2000), while with “Pioneers Of Aviation” they also remembered the previous album “Paradox Hotel” (2006). Playing mostly longer pieces with plenty of improvisational interludes, TFK got through an enviable number of songs in over two hours and fully satisfied the appetites of most of the people there. To close out the main set they served up the closing section of their epic masterpiece “Stardust We Are” (from the 1997 double album of the same name), whose performance was another of the evening’s great triumphs, and its monumental chorus kept ringing in the audience’s ears long after it ended. Of course, the obligatory encore followed. Roine called the other members back, who had already headed for the door, and to finish they played “The Sum Of No Reason”, another of the central pieces from the current album.

The concert was, without exaggeration, excellent, and I can say we all enjoyed over two hours of superb old-school progressive rock. My only criticism is aimed at the needless lighting of the room, which clashed with the stage lighting, as the club organizers left the lights on for no reason, so that the brightness was at times downright annoying. The stage also wasn’t exactly ideal for setting up the instruments, especially the colorful collection of guitars, and some band members were barely visible from the left or right corner because of the speaker placement. Still, the tall members of the band luckily didn’t crowd each other too much on a stage that was buckling under the weight of their instruments. The acoustics, as expected, weren’t brilliant, but they were perfectly satisfactory for a relatively small space. The usual club setup with chairs right under the stage will always feel a bit odd to most people at a rock show, especially when a long-established name is up there, but it doesn’t bother me, and in principle it suits me just fine, since I think most prog rock has always been closer in spirit to classical and jazz than to rock, and as such deserves similar concert treatment. Mastelotto’s boss, Robert Fripp (King Crimson), would know what I’m talking about.

Aside from a few barely noticeable flubs, TFK’s show with Mastelotto behind the kit was a truly unforgettable experience for every fan of old-school progressive rock, instrumental perfectionism and intelligently conceived, subtle melodies. If not long ago I was grumbling a lot about TFK’s studio revivalism and always gave priority to their stylistic, especially symphonic, role models (and of course that’ll stay that way), I have to admit that live they’re one of the best prog rock bands active right now, and that without their achievements (both in the studio and on stage), with the progressive “dinosaurs” otherwise inactive, the modern prog rock scene would be a lot poorer. For me, the TFK show was without a doubt one of the best concerts of the year, right behind the Genesis, Marillion and Premiata Forneria Marconi shows, so I hope Roine and his comrades (whoever happens to be behind the drums by then; they’ll have a very hard time finding someone better than Mastelotto) will soon come back to our neighboring corner just across the border.

Setlist

1. Love Is The Only Answer
2. There Is More To This World
3. Retropolis (incl. Mastellotto/Rheingold jam)
4. Trading My Soul
5. Hudson River Sirens Call
6. I Am The Sun
—10-minute break—
7. Life In Motion
8. Flight 999 Brimstone Air
9. Babylon / Stardust We Are pt.III (vocal section only)
10. What If God Is Alone
—encore—
11. Blade Of Cain
12. The Sum Of No Reason

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