From: hjv@phil.ruu.nl (Hendrik Jan Veenstra)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: Peter Hammill in Utrecht/review
Date: 16 Apr 92 18:47:44 GMT
Organization: Department of Philosophy, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands


Some notes on the Peter Hammill concert last wednesday (15/4) in
Tivoli, Utrecht, The Netherlands. If you don't like PH (which
obviously is a mistake :), then... (you know what to do, don't you?)


If you continue reading: everything below is IMHO - flames of any kind
are NOT excepted, reacted to or taken seriously.
The concert was one of the solo-concerts (synthesizer, guitar & vox)
PH is giving in Europe at the moment.

Wednesday, Tivoli in Utrecht - a 10 min. walk from my house (remember
Marco, driving ca. 500 miles last week? :-) - the doors would open at 
20.30, but alas, we (some friends and I) were there not before 20.45 
(grrr... women who can't decide which clothes to put on...! "$%^&) 
so the best places were already occupied when we entered the small 
former theater. Wooden chairs, not designed for human use, but hey! 
it's PH we're waiting for, so never mind the lack of comfort.

21.15: Something happening on stage (at last). A guy with a guitar enters 
the stage, takes a stool and starts playing songs in the tradition of
Dylan and Cohen, but much, much worse (and I don't even like Dylan and
Cohen :( ). So this is supposed to be a support-act! If PH has been looking
for someone with whom he can contrast as much as possible, he succeeded.
If he has been looking for someone to get the audience all fucked up, he
managed even better. The guy had absolutely no impact, the songs were
boring, the... (etcetera, grumble, grumble). The chairs started being a 
real nuisance again. When the last song was anounced, the audience cheered 
(poor boy). 21.45: waiting for PH again... 

22.15: Here's the man we were waiting for... I will spare you all of the 
details. The songs PH played were (largely?) the same as those listed
in the posting last week (from Germany?) and anyhow, it's of little
interest to you who weren't there to know exactly which song was played
when. The first songs -upto and including the 'Usher 5-pack'- were played
on keyboard: largely piano and some piano/string-mixed sound. I got the
impression PH needed a few songs 'to get the hang of it'. The first songs
sounded very practised - professional but uninspired. PH knows how to 
whisper and how to yell - but often this knowledge seems to be very
cerebral. It was not until the Usher-set that one began to feel the 
spirit of the music. The Usher songs were VERY beautiful - a lot better
(IMHO) than their CD counterparts. How can such a little man make such a 
lot of (real impressive!) noise with only one piano/strings keyboard and 
his voice?

After Usher, the man changed his keyboard for a guitar. I'm sorry for all 
you *real* fans, but as for me, he'd beter have left his guitar at home.
The vocals were much, much better (read: inspired), but the guitar parts
were very weak and I started missing the original (lp/cd) arrangements - 
a feeling which I hadn't had with the piano songs. After all there was
once exception: the performance of Modern. Fabulous!!! When I recognized
the first few notes, my first thought was 'please, Peter, don't! This
MUST fail with only a simple guitar and vocals' (if you know the song, 
you maybe understand my fear). But IT WAS WONDERFUL. PH made very tricky 
use of different (partly unrecognized) guitar effects - I even got the
impression the guitar was somehow connected to the synth (anybody who knows
more on PH's guitar with all the nice red lights goin' on and off? Is it
MIDI?).

The concert ended with two encores on keys - two of the best pieces of the
concert. I don't know the equivalent English expression, but we in Holland
say 'it came out of his toes' which means it was REAL - no professionalism,
no fake, but pure, raw music, straight from the soul.

It was past 00.00 when we left the theatre and, as you already may have
guessed, I had (and still have) mixed feelings about the concert. Of 
course Peter is a great composer - IMHO still one of the best in the 
prog-rock scene. But I can't help getting the impression (and not for the 
first time now) that after some twenty years of music-making, the music 
starts getting a bit too professionalised. This not only applies to the 
concerts but also (and especially) to the lps/cds: it all sounds beautiful 
(=HiFi), the compositions are OK, etc., etc., but somehow the spirit of 
records like Over and Chameleon is gone. It sounds a bit like Peter knows 
when and how to use rough/soft vocals and how to attain a certain emotional 
effect.
Whereas when listening to Chameleon, Over or Still Life (to name a few)
the impression is one of pureness and honesty. This is not to say that
the last few records were bad (they definitely aren't!) or that PH is
performing some kind of trick (I got the feeling he isn't), but I just
have the feeling something's lost... One could (rightly) ask: is it
possible to maintain the same level of engagement/pureness/honesty over
a period of twenty-or-so years? I guess it isn't. But if THAT's true,
I regret it - and how about us, young composers? What if this is also
our fate?

Perhaps I sound too pessimistic and negative - I don't mean to. As a 
whole the concert was very good. Peter has proven that he IS still able
to communicate -in a vbery impressive way- his 'raw feelings', the way 
he did on (yes, again) Over and Chameleon. I'd only wish more of this 
could be heard - during the concert as well as on his last records.
But if you get the chance to see him live: go for it!


--
Hendrik Jan Veenstra - Department of Philosophy
University of Utrecht - The Netherlands
USENET: hjv@phil.ruu.nl   * don't worry about life; it's not permanent *
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