Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Location: Piazza Unita d'Italia / Trieste / Italy
Concert date: 02.08.2009
Attendance: 1
Ticket price: €0.00 (free admission)
It doesn’t happen all that often that a band of world stature, one that’s also a bona fide progressive rock legend, shows up near our homeland, but that’s exactly what happened this August, when the British prog rock pioneers Van Der Graaf Generator graced our western neighbors with a visit. Concerts by legendary progressive rock bands that wander close to the Slovenian border in the course of a single year can usually be counted on the fingers of both hands, so when the news broke that the famous prog trio would play a summer music festival in the middle of Trieste, everyone who loves various kinds of experimental music with a strong emphasis on creating mighty, many-sided moods was overjoyed. And the ones who really jumped for joy were those few of us who, because of these legendary British heavyweights, had traveled a year ago all the way to the Portuguese town of Gouvea (you can read the report from that unforgettable concert event here).
Van Der Graaf Generator, who celebrated forty-two years of existence this year, have been working as a trio for the past three years, made up of the cult singer, composer, poet, writer and, when needed, pianist and electric guitarist Peter Hammill (who is equally esteemed for his thrilling and extensive solo career), organist and (sort of) bassist Hugh Banton, and drummer and percussionist Guy Evans. The 2005 reunion and the release of the album “Present” were followed by a big British tour, which ended with the departure of longtime saxophonist and flautist David Jackson. Since then VDGG have operated as a trio of original members. Despite the skepticism of loyal fans, who had a hard time imagining the band’s sound without the sax parts, they managed to win their hearts (all over again) with the excellent album “Trisector” (2008), while VDGG tours have become short and usually cover only a limited number of dates.
That’s also why their arrival at Piazza Unita, Trieste’s main square, was an even more glorious event, if not an outright holiday for all us prog rock connoisseurs who these days sorely miss more live shows from the forefathers of our beloved genre. It’s no secret that VDGG enjoyed their greatest popularity in Italy back in the day, and that showed this evening in the enviable turnout of everyone who flocked to the square to hear the hellish-heavenly sounds of Hammill and his two musical companions. VDGG’s stage approach is free of any pomp, vehement stage lighting or other props that might in any way distract the congregation from the music. The modest and seemingly reserved Hammill confirmed from the very first second that he’s an incredible vocal and atmospheric chameleon, carefully steering the course of the show with his charismatic authority without ever trying to overshadow his two bandmates.
His seeming reserve melted away like a soap bubble the moment he set his glass of water on the amp, sat down at the electric piano and unleashed his fearless vocal cords on the opening bars of “Interference Patterns”. Out came his frenzied, thunderous vocal, shifting tonality practically nonstop, and the knees of the more delicate souls in the crowd instantly went wobbly. Faithfully following his lead were the eternal jazzer Evans, with mighty drum fills across the cymbals, and Banton, who was the busiest of the three, since on top of the organ he had to cover the bass parts with the bass pedals, while also standing in for most of the sax parts on the songs where that was needed. This incredibly tight outfit proved with its opening picks that the newer material, from the last two records, suits them at least as well as the old stuff. The hearts of the longtime faithful really warmed up for the first time with a phenomenal rendition of the “Godbluff” (1975) classic “Scorched Earth”, when the three-headed stage beast suddenly started grinding up everything in front of it and leaving scorched earth behind. At one point the mix of lights and artificial fog actually produced a visual effect of flames licking around all the members of the band. They were set up, as usual, in a triangle, which matched the “Trisector” symbolism: Hammill on the left behind his electric piano, Banton on the right at the organ, with Evans watching over them from his mighty drum kit.
For the “Pawn Hearts” (1971) classic “Lemmings”, Hammill came alive on electric guitar too, which he still uses more as a tool for creating eerie sounds and building a livelier atmosphere than as a solo instrument. Hammill also kept up the image of a true English gentleman, addressing the crowd in flawless Italian, which he picked up through years of working with Italian prog rock bands, among them Premiata Forneria Marconi and Le Orme. The masters of unpredictable experimental mischief kept the balance between old and new throughout, so with the melancholic “All That Before” they quickly returned to the current album “Trisector”. With the “Still Life” (1976) classic “La Rossa” they recalled the famous days in the early seventies when, in the middle of an Italian tour, they found themselves in the middle of anarchist demonstrations against the regime of the time and barely made it out with their heads intact. Once again it was a real treat to watch Hammill use his scrawny little arms to coax thunderous hits out of the strings or fire off single chords that raise the atmosphere at least ten degrees toward the ambient boiling point. This time he didn’t have that special electronic gadget on his guitar neck that he used to help him tune back in the day, so he came across as a lot more confident in this department than a year ago in Gouveia.
The rendition of the epic “World Record” (1976) standard “Meurglys III”, understandably trimmed down from its original running time of more than twenty minutes, was probably the biggest surprise of the night. The witty interlude, a rhythmic build-up into a longer reggae section, undoubtedly gave a good jolt to anyone who happened not to be well acquainted with the VDGG catalog before the show, since it’s one of the biggest experimental adventures in their story. The dark visions of a post-apocalyptic future came alive again on the legendary epic “The Sleepwalkers”, where the attentive ears of longtime fans could tell that they’d skipped the baroque sax arrangement that appears in the original after the first passage, which was one of the rare moments when they didn’t manage to adequately cover Jackson’s sax parts.
All the albums except the first three and “The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome” (1977), the only album released under the shortened name Van Der Graaf, were represented that night by at least one song. “Present” got its nod with an excellent version of “Nutter Alert”, where Hammill strained every vocal cord to conjure an atmosphere of total paranoia and reign of terror. “Over the Hill”, the longer epic from the current album, was put to good use for extra improvisations that stirred up the unpredictable waters of this excellent composition even more. The close of the main set, which was also the high point of the evening, was a breathtaking performance of the immortal “Pawn Hearts” classic “Man Erg”, which sent shivers crawling down your spine like clockwork. Peter’s vocals were put to an extremely tough test here, since it’s one of the most demanding vocal pieces of their career, yet he sang the epic chorus at almost the same level as decades ago, which even those rare attendees who had seen VDGG live in the early years of their career admitted. With that treat, the main part of the show was over. The roaring applause hadn’t died down yet when they came back on stage and, with an excellent performance of “Still Life”, the title track of the album of the same name, announced that the legendary collective is still very much alive today and shows not the slightest sign of rust.
VDGG delighted us with a fantastic show, which, I’d say, was more or less what we expected, and the real art was how an enthralled person in a sea of seats could manage to sit still at all. With all this cataclysm of progressive rock nirvana, which carried plenty of people straight to the peak of the emotional Parnassus, that was no walk in the park. Add to that the excellent sound and the gorgeous, practically ideal setting by the seashore, where the concert atmosphere simply sparkled with positive vibes. Hammill more than proved that he’s still an incredible and totally unique singer live, but he still couldn’t have created that real VDGG magic without his two instrumental companions, who each shone in their own way, to exactly the same degree. It’s downright incredible how a trio of musicians with sixty years behind them can create a sound and atmosphere that most self-proclaimed successors can only envy. Given their venerable age, every show could be their last, so all those young hopefuls who attended this magical evening will one day be able to tell their grandchildren that they saw the great VDGG, symbols of a long-gone era when total freedom of musical expression, free of meddling by greedy corporations, was still a shining ideal.
Photos: Robi Lipej
Setlist
1. Interference Patterns
2. Scorched Earth
3. Lemmings
4. All That Before
5. La Rossa
6. Meurglys III
7. The Sleepwalkers
8. Nutter Alert
9. Over the Hill
10. Man Erg
—encore—
11. Still Life
Photo Gallery
