Flower Kings

[Rick and Roll]

A bit late on the review, but that's the way it goes....

Saw the mighty Flower Kings for the 5th time on Thursday night in Falls Church, VA at the State Theater. It was quite a haul getting there, and had to take some back roads around the Potomac, but I got there. Received much grief about missing the last night of bowling...more on that later

The State is a neat place with a small floor area and tables after that. The band got a crowd of about 100 (I've seen them twice with a crowd of 30....there should be 20,000 people seeing them!)

After the first two tunes I moved down to the front and parked myself in front of Roine and Jonas. I like to see what Tomas is doing, he's one of my favorite musicians, but to go that far right would put me directly in front of the right speaker and that would never do. He can't really move, becuase the four non-drummers need space and there's no alternative.

The show was a benefit for the Red Cross and was handled nicely. However, I couldn't resist a bit of irreverance when they honored a man who jogged thousands of miles over five states to raise money, and when he was introduced to say a few words, I said to my friends "I'd just like to say my feet hurt".

It would have been more cramped if Daniel Gildenow was there. He was sick, and his parts were covered by Roine, Tomas, and especially, Hasse, who was the best I've seen him. This may sound a bit harsh, but I like them better w/o Daniel. The only tune they really need him on was "The Truth Will Set You Free", and as stated, his parts were handled well. Hasse had to pull double duty again on "Love Supreme" and Roine did his vocal on "A Vampire's View".

They opened with "Compassion" from Stardust We Are. A very interesting opener, it was a break from the epics I've seen them open with before (Truth, I am the Sun). Kind of got their feet wet.

After that was "Last Minute On Earth". It's a good thing Hasse can sing, because with a master guitarist like Roine, there's little else for him to do. w/o Daniel there he had some more guitar. Hasse can play guitar well, but it's comical to see him with an acoustic, actually playing it, and be drowned out by the wall of sound from the others. I just love his voice, and this tune illustrates that point very well. About 2/3 of the way throgh the tune, they switched to "In The Eyes of the World" and ran though about 5 minutes of that one. Nice start!

The first four tunes from Adam and Eve were next. "Love Supreme" is a GREAT tune. I did miss Daniel on this because of the harmonies, and Hasse had to work extremely hard. "Cosmic Circus" is a sweet tune, and I'm so glad thay played it. Melded into that was "Babylon", which is really a continuation of the last tune. Then the Vampire song, which I disliked on first listen, but have found that it's a great song. Roine had to read off the lyric sheet, but captured most of Daniel's impassioned vocal.

In all of this, Tomas is the glue that holds it all together. The occasional lead, the piano breaks, the sonic sounds..he's just great. Every once in awhile he'd try to sing and Roine would look over like "what are you doing" so he just mouthed a lot of the words. A lot of the time Tomas was amused by Jonas, who you can't look at without just busting out laughing. He's a consumate ham, and since he's a sick bassist, a lot of the parts come easy to him. One time he walked over to the mic and said "I start this tune and I have the power, so I'll just wait a little bit", after a few moments of posturing, he played his five-note intro into the tune. Roine is quite staid, so he's very good as a contrast.

That was it for Adam and Eve. Also, there was nothing off of the first three records. Once I heard them play "Humanizzimo" but in the last few years there's been little from that period. A shame, but I learned long ago not to bitch too much about that sort of thing.

Now that I think about it, no Space Revolver either. When you play 2.5 hrs and your songs are 15 minutes (or 30) apiece, there's not a lot you can hit. Last time I saw them it was 6 tunes, 135 min They played all 60 min of "Garden of Dreams"!...oh there were no Flowerpower tunes either this time.

"Church of Your Heart" was next. Great song! Lots of feeling, and again Hasse delivered. Mixed in the prior tunes were 2 drum solos and keys and bass solos. I forgot the drummer's name (not Zoltan, another Swede) who was absolutely fantastic. It's so easy to lose the drummer, who is essential yet obscured. This guy had the most power I'd seen of the FK drummers, but had the precision of Barriemore Barlow. That's a rare thing.

Roine then destoyed my ears with the best live solo I've seen since Carl Groves in "Beings". That includes Steve Vai and Steve Morse, but not Phil Keaggy (he's on another plane!). It was four minutes of tasteful wailing. Jonas then did a nice sappy tune about his daughter, then about 10 minutes of "Stardust We Are" closed the show. I'd seen all of Stardust, so I wasn't upset about a condensed version (I still haven't forgiven Rush for Xanadu melded into Superconductor , though ).

After the show Tomas was signing autographs. I walked over a bellowed, "what are they giving things away in this line"? That was met with laughter...I'm not an autograph hound, but I do have the Kings signatures when I saw them at Jaxx's. I like the quick chats a lot better than the meet and greet things. Although Tomas I'm sure doesn't remember, the beer we had a Jaxx's in VA two years ago was very fun.

On my way home, at 12:15 AM barreling up I-95, I got a call from my teammates at bowling. We lost total pins by three, which would have enabled us to win the second half and get into the roll-off with the first half winners. I was told this cost each team member a minimum of $87.50. Oh well, the band was worth it! Better than them missing weeks because of golf. I'm certain I will catch shit at the get-together next week.

Of the concerts I go to, The Flower Kings are right on top.

[podakayne]

i meant to post a thank you when i read it the first time....like the details.

[mossy]

Me too, Rick.

Read it a few times.

Thanks!