GONG
October 19, 1996
Baltimore Museum of Arts Auditorium

by Alex Dekhtyar

We came almost first and didn't have any problems retreiving the reserved tix... The funny thing was that right across from the auditorium where the show was supposed to be there was a big (black) wedding. So it was around 100 people in tuxedoes and black ties/ evening gowns and a bunch of surviving hippies from 70ies... The wedding people might have been surprised....

Anyway, the show started with Boud Deun: a 4 piece instrumental band with guitar/bass/drums/electric violin... They did a rather resonable job - I may say they were pretty good, comparing to what an average unsigned band would play..... Their instrumentals are more or less art rockish, maybe with a slight Joe Satriani touch, and all 4 guys do know how to play...

Next came the Gong... Or should I say THE GONG !!!

They were almost in their original lineup and most of the songs they played were from their best 1973-74 Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy. To really appreciate what was going on on stage one would need to be at least a little aware of Planet Gong, Flying Teapots, Angel's Eggs, Pot Head Pixies and such...

They were both bizzare and magnificent... Daevid Allen is the thinnest man on Earth... One can't magine how skinny he is... Combine it with almost 2 meters of height, at least 55 years of age (I suspect he is even closer to 60), 50 cm of pale grey hair going down and finally with the Pot Head Pixie outfit - and you get what we had as a frontman for the 2 + hours... His wife Gille Smith looked like your average grannyma, except for her clothes which were rather, well, unusual for her age... Together with Allen they formed on of the most colorful front-enda of a show one can imagine...

Didier Malherbe, dressed in a colorful pullover and a matching beret looked like a regular middle aged Frenchman... The last of the front row, Steffi "Professor" Sharpstrings (I wonder if that is an alias or a real name), was dressed in something like military boots/military pants / "military top", had only a little piece of hair right above his forhead, and a very rock-like face... He delivered most of the soundeffects plus a lot of Strat solos...

The last but not the least were Mike Howlette who looked like a homeless musician (ther only thing missing was "Will play for food" poster) and Pip Pyle - the only person from the band who could be refered as normally-looking...

Enuough with descriptions, let's get to music... Gong was promoting their new release: Shapeshifter, and they did a few songs from it. Those were more electronic and ambient than the old stuff they played... As for the old stuff...

Well, I could never imagine 6 years ago when I first heard the Trilogy that I'd ever get a chance to hear my favorite songs performed live... The real treat was Gille Smyth-voice/Didier Malherbe-sax duo on Prostitute's Poem... This is an absolutely incredible jazz-rock stilization of a French chanson and with G.Smyth hitting 60 in a year or two, this really hit the right notes... Not to mention one of my favorite saxaphone parts of all times... Many of the key songs from the Trilogy we performed, and, man, were they good... Daevid Allen tortured his guitar with some strange sort of slide, Sharpstrings switched between his Strat and synths, Malherbe was playing flute tenor and regular saxes, everything could have happened 22 - 25 years ago...

They started the first act with one or two new compositions: first there was only Steffi Sharpstrings playing with synths, then Didier Malherbe appeared with a sax, Gilli Smyth appeared all dressed up and started singing, then Daevid Allen slowly came from the backstage moving as if hes was having a dream... The rythm section finialzed the appearance of Gong.

After the new songs they quickly moved on to the Trilogy, playing from here and there. The focal point for was Gilli Smyth performing Prostitute's Poem... Dressed in a mini and a red wig that was hiding her face she was incredible dancing around Howlett and Malherbe...

Second act started with Pip Pyle playing a longish drum solo, followed by an appearance on Malherbe with a flute... He played some flute adn then broke into a funny "rap" that consisted of repeating different words that started with "B" : "Brie, Boullion (sp?), Bougeaules...."... He finished with "Baltimore" which brought some extra cheers from the auditory.

During the second half they actually showed how powerful the band is. The repertoir was also half Trilogy/half Shapeshifter, but this time with more lenghty solos and improvisations, and with more power-paly... Soemwhere in the middle of the second act during a very sapce new piece they've got a bunch of video images projected on the wall behind them: cells, fluid flow, a big circle, a brain...

The only sad thought I had throughout the show was "man, how come they did not sell this 350 seats venue out ?" ... This is really not fair... One of the most interesting and legendary prog rock band barely gets 250 people come performing almost on Johns Hopkins campus.... By the end of the show they had around 20-30 people dancing, although for me that was kinda wierd... But with Steffe Sharpstrings, the band could actually do a pretty good rave disco if they wanted (-:

The ending was also really great: Daevid and Gille first sang "You are I and I am You" to each other and then Daevid proceeded to do it with every single person from the first row... Then we sang it altogether... The cheers we made during the introductions were enough to bring them back for an encore of "You Can do what you want"...

Gong saying their "good byes" after "You are I and I am You"

Well, needless to say, my wife, Olga, who never heard of Gong until I found out that they are coming to Baltimore was puzzled by what she saw... "Halloween show" was her fisrt comment... We sat in the 4th row and the speakers from both sides pointed straight at our ears, so we got hit by the music quite heavily...

The good news is that this show was filmed "for possible cable broadcasting and release as a video" . [ I should menton here that George Chosky did not see any recording equipment on Detroit's show ]

PS. (obligatory Pink Floyd content) Their visuals might have some Pink Floyd bearing... They had a ring made out of circling lights projected on the screen behind their backs and it remotely reminded of the Mr. Big Screen shadow... Also, a few times an image of a human brain was projected, at the most brain damaging (!) time...