Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Udine / Teatro Palamostre / Italy
Concert date: July 2, 2013
Attendance: 700
Ticket price: €31.00
Legendary British prog-rock pioneers Van Der Graaf Generator (VDGG for short), who in recent years have operated as a trio of Peter Hammill (vocals, guitar, piano), Hugh Baton (organ, bass pedals) and Guy Evans (drums, percussion), paid a visit this year too to our western neighbors in Italy, where they’ve enjoyed cult status since the early seventies. In fact, Italy has always been the only country you could say gave the legendary band the recognition it deserved for hard work and relentlessly following its musical vision. This time they stopped in Udine, exactly four years after their Trieste show (July 2, 2009) — the closest they’ve ever come to Slovenia, where, for well-known reasons that really aren’t worth going into at length, we’ll almost certainly never see them play. VDGG are now one of the last, increasingly lonely pioneering prog-rock bands who, even as the hair of individual members goes ever greyer or thinner, keep up intense touring and keep putting out quality studio albums.
What’s more, the more the years pass and the more the faces of the three VDGG members get furrowed and hollowed out by the ravages of time, the more they seem to realize that there aren’t many chances left to create new music and take their unique musical expression on the road. Unlike, say, Yes, where the old members will eventually just be swapped out for fresh faces or, in the worst case, their own family members (and on top of that a whole pile of ‘tribute’ bands is hot on their heels), Hammill and his old pal know full well that live performances of VDGG’s music will almost certainly go to the grave with them, especially since there’s only one Peter Hammill in this world. That was exactly one of the main reasons they decided to play the 23-minute epic magnum opus »A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers« at every show on this tour, for the first time since 1972.
Until now they had performed it live in full only once, in 1972, during a show for Belgian television. This conceptual epic suite, which comes from what is perhaps still the most cherished album among fans, »Pawn Hearts« (1971), has always been hugely popular in Italy, together with that album, while back then the home-turf British critics once again ‘distinguished’ themselves with ignorance and a complete failure to understand VDGG’s musical and conceptual vision. Besides this staggeringly demanding masterpiece, they packed the night’s set with a few more very pleasant surprises. Even though all three members are rapidly closing in on seventy, the trio was in terrific form in Udine too, and more than once it felt like there was some special onstage telepathy going on between Hammill, Bantonom and Evans.
Sadly, the same can’t be said for the organizers at the Teatro Palamostre, who didn’t exactly shine that night. A few clumsy things happened before and during the show. First, the hall was simply too small for the turnout, so the seats ran out fast, or people ended up with tickets bearing the same seat number, which caused a few awkward situations. Second, the choice of opening act was completely off. Truth be told, almost no support act would have been right for VDGG, but Giovanni Guidi Trio’s set was a genuine nightmare and a traumatic experience for body and soul alike. A trio of young guys gathered around piano, double bass and drums hammered out the repetitive, mind-numbing rhythms of avant-garde free jazz with neither rhyme nor reason, never mind soul. Almost an hour of utter sonic cacophony, battered piano keys, broken rhythms and ten minutes of tuning double-bass strings would have worn down even the steeliest nerves. You couldn’t shake the feeling that these were failed music-academy students, rejected by every orchestra and big band, who now mostly, when they’re not playing for a hand-picked crowd, jam in damp cellars, endlessly improvising God knows what.
The third and biggest problem was the totally unsuitable PA in the hall, which nearly ruined VDGG’s performance. Hammill’s mic crackled and popped more and more from song to song, while Banton had it even worse on and under the organ: the bass pedals sometimes couldn’t be heard at all, and a few times a speaker crackled so nastily that anyone with weaker nerves and less experience would have long since marched off the stage or at least called it quits. But the legendary trio didn’t let these technical problems get to them, nor the fact that the clumsy stage techs only figured out something was wrong at the end of the show and then started shuffling around the stage too late and for no good reason. Like true professionals, they gritted their teeth and held out to the end, even though you could tell they were a bit annoyed at the clumsy sound guys, since Hammill eventually stopped bothering with his gracious Italian.
Now for the good stuff. As already mentioned, VDGG are incredible musicians who age like fine wine. Hammill’s voice is still wonderfully well preserved, although over the years it has settled lower, since he can no longer reach all the high notes. That’s the main reason we’ll very likely never again hear legendary ballads like »Refugees« and »House With No Door« live. The setlist was built from the last two ‘regular’ studio efforts (the instrumental-improvisational album »ALT«, which has no Hammill vocals, somehow doesn’t count here), namely »A Grounding in Numbers« and »Trisector«, one Hammill solo piece and three seventies classics. They opened with the brilliantly chaotic »Interference Patterns«. The mighty atmosphere, born of Hammill’s thunderous chameleon act, Banton’s melodramatic organ passages and Evans’ merciless drum flourishes, bloomed in an instant. Mr. Hammill, sporting a slightly longer hairdo than usual for the first time in ages, spent most of the opening stretch sitting at the piano, after which it was time for the electric guitar numbers. The heated atmosphere cooled off a bit with the more ethereal and subtle »Your Time Starts Now«, which showed the other side of the legendary band.
One of the biggest surprises was the splendid performance of Hammill’s solo masterpiece »Flight«, which comes from the album »A Black Box«. Along with »Meurglys III« and »A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers«, it was one of the epic suites of the night. With »Bunsho« and »Lifetime«, they reminded everyone in the hall once again that their newer studio material is every bit the equal of their seventies classics in quality. The epic treat mentioned earlier, »Meurglys III, The Songwriter’s Guild«, another pleasant surprise that originally comes from the rather overlooked album »World Record«, was trimmed down a bit, since this time they skipped the famous reggae section, which plenty of fans simply don’t like, even though it’s not bad at all and is one of the most fun experiments of their whole career.
To close the regular part of the show they went, as expected, with »A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers«, where the aforementioned technical problems occasionally threw a wrench in the works, but with all its complexity and countless improvisations they still steered it confidently to the finish, proving to the crowd and themselves that they can still play even the most demanding creations from their rich career. They capped the show in just about the best way possible, since »Man-Erg« is one of their best and most representative songs ever, even if some would have preferred the more demanding »Childlike’s Faith in Childhood’s End«. Without the technical trouble they might have squeezed in one more song, but the hour was already late by the end of the set, partly thanks to the utterly pointless opening act, and it was time for the evening’s rest. The legends of British (prog) rock, who looked after their health in their youth and never indulged in intoxicating substances or lived by the motto ‘sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, go to bed ‘with the chickens’ in their old age, which in a way is only right. With their show in Udine, Van Der Graaf Generator, despite the numerous technical complications, still came out as winners and were rewarded accordingly with thunderous applause from the crowd. VDGG once again proved they remain a phenomenon all their own and definitely the pioneering prog-rock outfit most worth seeing live today.
Setlist
1. Interference Patterns
2. Your Time Starts Now
3. Flight
4. Lifetime
5. Bunsho
6. Meurglys III
7. A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
—encore—
8. Man-Erg
Photo gallery
