Gong - The Drum Room, Kansas City, MO 3/13/96 sbd

It’s hard to forget this tour, it was the first time I’d seen Gong and this, at the time, was the closest to the original line up I’d probably see. Obviously this set list is almost identical to the one I saw in San Francisco, a jaunt through the trilogy material with the unfortunate excision of “A Sprinkling of Clouds” with a much more inferior piece of music, and a few Camembert Eclectrique pieces added on. I reviewed the SF show for Exposé at the time and made a remark that Pip Pyle’s drumming was badly off that night, well such isn’t the case in Kansas City, it appears to be a better gig than the one I saw. While this doesn’t have the same sort of energy the original band did, it was quite close.

The Olivia Tremor Control - 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA 4/15/05

For a band that relies on some rather Beach Boys like vocal harmonies, they really had some problems early on in this show, or at least I winced a few times. I’ve mentioned it a dozen times or more, but a lot of younger bands these days don’t seem to have the same chops on stage that they do in the studio. I adore OTC albums like Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage, so it’s a bit of a disappointment hearing them hit notes half a step off an such. Fortunately they warm up a bit as the show goes and the second half improves some. But studio OTC is so much about studio trickery and effects that it’s not the same sort of thing live, where they’re a little closer to indie rock in feel.

Howlin’ Wolf - Bremen 3/16/64

I get that impression, usually when I’m listening to something I don’t have a heck of a lot of references for, that it’s rather impossible to figure out whether or not I actually like something. I do tend to lean towards the bluesy side of rock and jazz, but when it comes to the pure stuff (or maybe sorta pure stuff), I have absolutely no idea where I stand. Some of this seems amazing and some seems kitschy in a way, and it all comes off like a mix of elements I like and don’t. So this is going to need some time