location: Trieste / Piazza Unita d’Italia / Italy
date: Sunday, 02.08.2009
It doesn’t happen all that often that a band of world stature, who also happen to be progressive rock legends, shows up close to our homeland, but that’s exactly what happened this August, when British prog rock pioneers Van Der Graaf Generator honored our western neighbors with a visit. Concerts by legendary progressive rock bands that wander near the Slovenian border in the course of a single year can barely be counted on the fingers of both hands, so when the news broke that the famous prog rock trio would be playing a summer music festival in the middle of Trieste, everyone who loves various kinds of experimental music with a strong emphasis on creating mighty and diverse atmospheres rejoiced. And those few of us who had traveled all the way to the Portuguese town of Gouveia a year earlier for these legendary British heavyweights positively jumped in the air at the happy news.
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 exciting 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 an extensive British tour, which ended with the departure of longtime saxophonist and flutist 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 a limited number of dates.
That’s also why their arrival at Piazza Unita, Trieste’s main square, was an even grander event, if not an outright holiday for all the progressive 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 poured into the square to listen to the hellish-heavenly sounds of Hammill and his two musical comrades. VDGG’s stage approach is free of any pomp, aggressive lighting or other stage extras that could distract the congregation from the music in any way. The modest and seemingly reserved Hammill fully confirmed his role as an incredible vocal and atmospheric chameleon from the very first second, carefully dictating the course of the show with his charismatic authority without ever trying to overshadow his two bandmates.
His apparent reserve burst like a soap bubble the moment he arrived, put a glass of water on the amp, sat down at the electric piano and let his fearless vocal cords loose while playing the opening bars of “Interference Patterns”. Out came his frenzied, thunderous vocal, practically changing tonality nonstop, which instantly made the knees buckle of the gentler souls among the gathered crowd. He was faithfully followed by the eternal jazzman Evans, with mighty drum flourishes across the cymbals, and by Banton, who was the busiest of the three, since besides the organ he had to cover the bass parts by working 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 the opening selection alone that they handle the newer material, meaning the last two records, at least as well as the old stuff. The hearts of the longtime followers really warmed up for the first time with the phenomenal rendition of the “Godbluff” (1975) classic “Scorched Earth”, when the three-headed stage beast suddenly started grinding everything in front of it and leaving scorched earth behind. At one point the mix of light effects and artificial fog actually created the visual effect of tongues of fire around all the band members. As usual they were set up in a triangle, which fit 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 setup.
During the “Pawn Hearts” (1971) classic “Lemmings”, Hammill came alive on electric guitar too, which he still uses more as a tool for creating spooky sounds, and thus for building a livelier ambience more thoroughly, than as a solo instrument. Hammill also consistently reinforced the image of a true English gentleman, addressing the crowd in impeccable 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 shenanigans kept the balance between old and new the whole time, so with the melancholic “All That Before” they quickly returned to the current album “Trisector”. The rendition of the “Still Life” (1976) classic “La Rossa” called back the famous years when, in the early seventies in the middle of an Italian tour, they found themselves in the midst of anarchist demonstrations against the regime of the day and barely made it out with their heads intact. Once again it was a real treat watching how Hammill, with those skinny little arms of his, manages to coax thunderous crashes out of the strings or fire off individual chords that lift the atmosphere at least ten degrees up toward the boiling point of ambience. This time he didn’t wear the special electronic device on the guitar neck that he used to help him tune the strings back in the day, so he came across a lot more self-assured in this department than a year ago in Gouveia.
The performance of the epic “World Record” (1976) standard “Meurglys III”, which was, understandably, suitably shortened from its original length of more than twenty minutes, was probably the biggest surprise of the evening. The witty interlude, a rhythmic build-up into a longer reggae section, undoubtedly caught off guard everyone 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 followers could tell that they left out the baroque sax arrangement that appears in the original after the first transition, which was one of the few moments where they failed to adequately cover Jackson’s sax parts.
All 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” was remembered with an excellent version of “Nutter Alert”, where Hammill strained every vocal cord to create an immersive atmosphere of total paranoia and reign of terror. “Over the Hill”, the longer epic from the current album, was thoroughly used to bring in extra improvisations that stirred up the unpredictable waters of this excellent composition even further. 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 down the spine, no joke. Peter’s vocal was put to an extremely demanding test here, since it’s one of the hardest vocal pieces of their career, yet he sang the epic chorus at almost the same level as decades ago, as even those few attendees who had seen VDGG live in the first years of their career admitted. With that treat the main set came to an end. The roaring applause hadn’t died down 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 slowing down.
VDGG made us happy with a fantastic show, pretty much as expected, and the real feat was how an elated individual in a sea of seats managed to stay seated at all. With all this cataclysm of progressive rock nirvana, which took many people straight to the peak of the emotional Parnassus, that was no small thing. Add to that the excellent sound and the gorgeous, almost ideal setting close to the seashore, which made the concert atmosphere practically sparkle with positive vibes. Hammill more than proved that he’s still an incredible and utterly unique singer live, but without his two instrumental partners, who each shone in their own way to exactly the same degree, he still couldn’t have created that true VDGG magic. It’s simply incredible how a trio of musicians who already carry sixty years on their backs 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 the eager young men and women who attended this magical concert evening will one day be able to tell their grandchildren that they saw the great VDGG, symbols of some long-gone era when total freedom of musical expression, free of meddling by greedy corporations, was still a shining ideal.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
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
