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<you'N'gong>'s First GigKohinur Hall, Nr. Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia. 15.2.03Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003From: Max Wilcox The journey to get to Kohinur Hall, once leaving the town of Mullumbimby, New South Wales, Australia, was in my opinion worth the price of admission alone. A small road leading into the mountains, vibrantly green grass (unlike the dry yellow of much of drought-stricken NSW) spotted with unusual orchid-like flowers, finally leads to a wonderful wooden hall nestled in the shadow of a heavily forrested mountain. It certainly seemed very far from civilization, certainly since we had driven from Brisbane, QLD. And just about the best place possible, in my estimation, for my first Gong concert. And not only my first Gong concert, but also the first Gong concert of a new lineup of Gong! And with two members of Acid Mothers Temple! People gradually dribbled in over the next couple of hours, everyone radiating a friendliness and openness that you certainly wouldn't get at a similar concert in a large city. At some point around 9:00, while electronic music was playing over the PA, a chap took to the stage and began to fiddle with his guitar. Slowly he began coaxing warm feedback noises from it. It was only after Orlando Allen (drums) and Dharma, or rather Dharmawan Bradbridge, (bass) took to the stage (both of whom I had recently met) that I realized that the guitarist must in fact be Josh Pollock, of University of Errors. The show was underway, and had been for some ten minutes and I hadn't realized! At any rate, these three emanated some excellent grooves. While the style of music would be hard to pin down, there was certainly a healthy dose of "modern electronic" style music. I hesitate to say dance, because that implies, for some at any rate, not particularly dynamic music and repetition. This was, perhaps, all that is good about the style without the repetition. I would have been happy to listen to this jamming for hours, but of course, there were other people to take to the stage. And so, the tall, white haired Professor Paradox, AKA Daevid Allen took to the stage, and Radio Gnome was on the air. The trademark Glissando guitar began soft, but within a few minutes, it was soaring above the improv. They were then joined Shakti Yoni, the wonderful Gilli Smyth, and the lineup, for the first set at least, was complete. They launched into the first familiar song of the evening - Can't Kill Me. This was followed by a poem by Gilli entitled "I am Invisible". I've been a great fan of her contributions to Gong, as well as her other work such as Mother Gong, for ages, but I truly didn't understand the power of her delivery until I was in the room watching her perform. Truly magical. This was followed by a new track called I think "Omni Noise", during which, the crowd began to colonize the dance floor and do what people commonly do on dance floors. The first set was closed by a great rendition of "Zeroid" from "Zero to Infinity", which bustled along at a much faster pace than the album version. One thing that I should say was the standard of musiciansmanship of the whole night was outstanding. I could tell Orlando and Dharma were very comfortable playing off each other, and worked together very well. Josh Pollock's guitar playing, too, was uniformly great - he and Daevid seemed to have some kind of mental link. There were only occasional points in the show, during the improv sections when I would remember that this wasn't all pre-prepared music. Following the first set, we were treated to some fine poetry and spoken-word performance by Glitter Girl (the nights MC), Turiya Bruce, Vashuda (who sang a capella), Misbah, and Gina Lacosta. All excellent, topical and relevant stuff - directly or indirectly interfacing with current worldwide concerns - forshadowing the worldwide anti-war marches to take place the following day. I adjourned outside for a bit of mingling during which DJ Mandy took to the turntables, the place filled up and people had a bit of a dance. After an hour or so, Cotton Casino (on synth) and Kawabata Makoto (on guitar), both of Acid Mothers Temple, took to the stage. Now, I've heard a couple of Acid Mothers albums, and I was prepared for some "out there" stuff as it were, but preparedness didn't really suffice. Initially, I was wondering if they'd be able to pull-off an act as a two piece, bit I sure was wrong. You'd be hard pressed to have isolated any "conventional music" in their wall of noise, and it is certainly to their credit that they kept the audience's attention throughout - lesser musicians would have the audience yawning. In fact, I had trouble differentiating between the sounds coming from the guitar and synth. Sometimes I'd realize what I thought was the synth was actually guitar, and vice versa. Their music took on a kind of mediative feeling after a time, and many people were sitting down before the stage, just absorbing it. After a time, Orlando and Dharma took to the stage and joined in, soon followed by Gilli, who joined in the now almost tribal groove, chanting "no war no war". This section of the night was the highlight for me, and indeed one of the musical moments that I'll remember for the rest of my life. The muse was certainly in the room for this one. I can't rave about this number enough, and I hope it ends up on the album in some form. This track was followed by a Gilli poem "Voices in Your Head" which struck me as a less than serious treatment of the subject matter (though perhaps not - I was still reeling from the gravity of the previous track!). Following on from this, a track that was unknown to me, but certainly got the audience grooving. The next song I recognized, with Daevid chanting "om mani padme hum", but was wracking my brain as to where it came from. I only realized later that it was from the first Gong album Magick Brother. Somewhat different from the original, but then I haven't listened to original for some time. The final song before the encore was a bit of a medley featuring several songs, but the band was firing by this time, as were the crowd, so any similarities with what was played and any old tracks was lost on me due to the vitality of the music. And I too was moving rhythmically about the dance floor - which says something, I assure you. And so, the encore - "You are I and I am You". I've heard this number many times before, and perhaps became a little dismissive of it - but it took on a whole new, perhaps more universal, meaning for me seeing it performed. I guess its something to do with the fact that its a song that really requires immediacy and actual audience contact, which can only be obtained in a live setting? A very powerful ending to a wonderful event. So is this new Gong the way of the future? I'd say yes. While I enjoyed the past few Gong releases, specifically "Zero to Infinity" and "Live 2 Infinitea", they were firmly anchored in the style of the Zero trilogy from the early seventies, as opposed to more "modern" styles of music - perhaps by design, since Infinity was the next chapter in the Zero series. But <you'N'gong>, with its members spanning generations, styles and cultures, is not a backwards-looking band. Even the "old songs" had a new sense of vitality. So I urge people to watch out for this (re)new incarnation of the spirit of Gong. As I said above, I truly had the feeling that The Muse was visiting Kohinur Hall last Saturday night. If the new album, which I believe they began working on the following day, holds anything of the magic of Saturday night, then I'll be an excellent thing to behold. I'm for one am certainly looking forward to the end results. And I hope it doesn't take another 35 years for Gong to play in Australia! |
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