NEARfest day one: a review in brief...

(A pre-side note: the setlists provided as directly from festival co-founded Chad Hutchinson, who got them from the stage setlists the bands wrote up. as corrections come, I will make them here.)

NEARfest day one started with a bit of a rough wake up…Friday night had been a touch fraught, and I know we had some slight issues dragging ourselves out of bed. A shower helped…but not long after getting to Lehigh on Saturday morning, I started feeling decidedly unwell. I dehydrated very, very quickly (air con over night and a lot of humidity contributing to a heat index higher than the actual temp may have contributed), and I had to get some water and stuff pumped into me. I joked that they had bottles of water and were jamming the tops into my mouth and squeezing the water down my throat. In any event, I was feeling well enough at that point to hit the theatre for…

CABEZAS DE CERA (Heads of Wax) from Mexico. What an interesting set of music from these guys. Unique custom made instruments, heavy folk and electronic influences, their sound would range from the precious and acoustic to wild waves of sound. I can’t describe them all that well…they are labeled as avant and RiO, and some people called them space rock for some reason, but for me, they were just CdC…and I dug them enough to pick up a pair of discs to relive the experience. Good stuff.

Indomable
Peregrino
Laberinto
Pretexto
Mutacion
Nocturno Incandescente
Cazador de Ballenas
Parkour

Encore:
Gocxilla
Mil Noches

I think at this point I had one or two bottles of OJ, and headed back to the vending room to sell an ever depleting pile of shirts and programs and pint glasses. Wanted a tan shirt? Sorry, you’re out of luck, we’re out. 3X shirt? Sold out yesterday, so sorry. We had our full crew behind the table, and at our best, we were a well-oiled machine working around each other quite well.

Vendor rooms close, and we head up for OBLIVION SUN from here in the US. 2 Happy the Man members (Happy the Men?), a member of Present, Adrian Belew’s drummer, and a second keyboardsist, playing fun, fusiony symphonic music that included some classic HtM tracks, some excellent new stuff with quirky as ever titles (“Dead Sea Squirrels,” or ‘nature’s road bumps’ as claimed by Stanley Whitaker), and enough chops for a clinic. Stan looked and played great…we (Stan and I) had a chance to chat a bit before the set and it was wonderful to share some stuff that we had in common. That rocked, and was probably my emotional highlight of the festival.

Fanfare
Chapter 7.1
Noodlepoint
Catwalk
No Surprises
Lake of Shadows (new Bill Plummer piece)
The Ride
Golden Feast
Re:Bootsy
Dead Sea Squirrels (new Stan piece)
Tales of Young Whales
The High Places (new Frank Wyatt piece)

Encore:
Service with a Smile
March of the Mushroommen (new Stan piece)

It was lunch time, and we hit the catering room for sandwiches and drinks. They hit the spot. Not much more to say there, really. We got all re-energised for the next act, which was…

DFA from Italy. I was looking forward to these guys, and they did not disappoint. Great instrumental symphonic rock from Italy with just a touch of fusion goodness. I finally splurged and got the other two albums I needed to complete my collection, so I can identify the tracks I didn’t already know, but they were stellar live. Really got into them, and was glad to see them finally (NB: I am listening to Kaleidoscope, their 2 CD reissue of the first two albums, as I post this here...it is every bit as good as the show was, and then some).

Vietato Generalizzare
Flying Trip
Trip on Metro
Mosoq Runa
Caleidoscopio
Mirror
Pantera
Escher

Encore:
Baltasaurus

Dinner was a bit of a debacle, as meal tickets weren’t available, and the on site vendors closed down due to the weather. So we foraged for stuff to get us through the next band. I’d been doing everything possible to downplay them, trying to not build up expectation or anticipation, but soon the denouement would have to be had…the lights dimmed, and onto the stage came GONG.

I’ll say it here, as clear as possible. I loved their set. They played superbly. It was tight, and spacy, and trippy, and I really loved it. Daevid was in fine form despite being sick. Steve Hillage played fantastically. Miquette was fun on keys…playing, dancing, swaying, jumping. Theo Travis was wicked on the sax. The set was killer…I can’t ask for anything better. The new stuff (from the forthcoming 2032 album, the next part of the Planet Gong story) was good. It was just wild all the way around. Made it to the encore and we headed down stairs to catch up with a few people before we headed off into the night to search out french toast before hitting the hay for day two…

Escape, Control
You can't Kill Me
Tic Toc
Dynamite
Digital Girl
Yoni
Dance with Pixies
Wacky Backy
Never Glid
Flute Salad
Oily Way
Outer Temple
Inner Temple
Goddess
Om Liff
Cycle Gliss
You and I

Encore:
Tropical Fish

Gouveia Art Rock 2009 announces Daevid Allen/University of Errors

The Australian Daevid Allen is one of the most important names in international progressive music. In addition to having founded legendary bands like Soft Machine in the UK and Gong in France, Allen has constantly reinvented himself in the course of a solo career spanning more than four decades, eventually making himself into a living legend.

Among Allen's numerous collaborations, one from the late 90s stands out especially and has produced particularly excellent results: University of Errors, founded in the US by the almost "retired" Professor Allen together with three musicians from San Francisco. Since its very beginning, the project has featured a good amount of the experimentalism and recklessness that are so characteristic for Allen, and their music goes far beyond the limits of what a rock quartet with guitars, bass and drums would normally produce.

At their Gouveia show, Sunday May 3rd, the band will not only perform their own material, but also revisit songs from Soft Machine's 'pop' era and Gong's 'allien' phase.

Theo Travis to guest on new Syn album

It has been announced that Theo Travis will be recording material for the forthcoming Big Sky album by The Syn.

From http://www.myspace.com/theotravis

"I have had the privilege of playing and recording with some amazingmusicians including Palle Mikkelborg who guested on my 2001 CD Heartof the Sun; Anja Garbarek (2001 album and tour); David Sylvian (Nine Horses CD); Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree CDs , No Man, Bass Communion); John Etheridge, Soft Machine Legacy; Richard Sinclair and Hatfield and the North; Dick Heckstall-Smith; Bill Bruford; Tony Coe; Pierre Moerlin, and the late Slim Gaillard. In 1999 I became a new member of Daevid Allen's Gong touring the USA, Europe, Japan,
Scandinavia, and the UK and co-writing most of the group's album Zero to Infinity released in Feb 2000. I subsequently produced their live album Live to Infinitea, released in October 2000 and to date have played over 120 dates with them all over the world.

I am also a member of the new Progressive band - the Tangent (http://thetangent.org) which is doing great things at the moment. My website is at http://www.theotravis.com and I do try and keep it up to date with gigs, recordings etc."

Gong announce new chapter to the Planet Gong saga...

(courtesy of Udi Koorman on ProgressiveEars)

Gong are currently working on a brand new forward-looking album called 2032..."the year that the Planet Gong makes full contact with the Planet Earth" and a major new chapter in the continually evolving Gong mythology. The album is due to be released in September 2009, to be followed by a major European and UK tour in October and November.

To lead up to the album release, the band will be playing festival dates and gigs in Norway, USA, Germany, Belgium and the UK throughout Summer 2009

Gong UK Tour 2009 announced

BRISTOL, O2 Academy on Thursday 19 November 2009 ON SALE NOW
MANCHESTER, Club Academy on Saturday 21 November 2009 ON SALE NOW
EDINBURGH, HMV Picture House on Sunday 22 November 2009 ON SALE NOW
SHEFFIELD, The Leadmill on Monday 23 November 2009 ON SALE NOW
LONDON, HMV Forum on Friday 27 November 2009 ON SALE NOW
OXFORD, The Regal on Saturday 28 November 2009 ON SALE NOW
BRIGHTON, Corn Exchange on Sunday 29 November 2009 ON SALE NOW

Gong dates in London with Hillage!

Posted on the Planet Gong site:

For the latest transmissions from the luminous green planet - Gong dada 'hymn-self', daevid allen, is joined by co-founder Gilli Smyth, the motherbeat bass of Mike Howlett, master drummer Chris Taylor, incomparable jazz saxophonist Theo Travis - and for the first time in the UK since 1975 - Steve Hillage & Miquette Giraudy!

Both these events have a special limited 'Early Bird' ticket offer available to you.

Sat 14 Jun - UK, London, Queen Elizabeth Hall (seated venue) - GONG at Massive Attack's Meltdown 7.30pm. Tickets £18.50 (rear stalls), £22.50 (front stalls). South Bank Centre, London, SE1 8XX.
To get tickets in advance of the general on-sale date of 25th April and claim a 5‰ discount you need to call 0871 663 2500 (UK) or +44 871 663 2500 (from abroad) and quote 'Fan Offer' (their words, you're all friends to us). This offer is for phone and in person sales only.

Sun 15 Jun - UK, London, The Forum (standing venue) - GONG + Slackbaba 7.30pm. Tickets £19.50. Kentish Town, London, NW5 1JY

To get tickets online with reduced booking fee and transaction costs visit:-

www.artistticket.com/artist/?s=gong

This offer is limited to the first 500 tickets and comprises of a £1.25 booking fee as opposed to £2.45. Non-UK purchasers will be able to pickup their tickets on the night of the show. UK purchasers will also have the additional benefit of a £2.50 postal processing cost (First Class Post Recorded Delivery) as opposed to the normal £4.90 seetickets.com processing fee.