Saturday night Don van Vliet, alias Captain Beefheart gave a concert in the country of his ancestors. That was something which his ancestors probably would not have appreciated, as Don's music is way too bizarre. The starting point of Beefheart's remarkable music often is the blues. But it gets completely pulled out of the tight form which usually belongs to it, to something more than halfway into the direction of free jazz. That way an almost formless music is being created, and that's just exactly where the captain is driving at.

In practice, that lack of form sometimes will turn into uniformity, if the group sticks to one and the same drone in stead of taking advantage of the freedom it is given. Like that, the numbers of "The Spotlight Kid" - the latest Beefheart album, recorded with almost the same line-up which was present at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam - were brought in a considerably less good performance than on the record. That of course is the risk with music which just takes shape at the moment itself: in the studio you can redo "I'm gonna booglarize you baby" as many times as you like until you get the right sound, in a concert hall the audience would object to a tenfold repetition of the song.

The variety which quite often was missing in the numbers clearly was present between the mutual songs. That was particularly accomplished through a constantly changing set-up, with Don van Vliet as the central black caped phony magician with a phenomenal voice. Beefheart controls his voice exceptionally well, veering from incredibly low to very high, while he fires his raw bluesy sound and insane poetry into the hall. Especially when that happens without instrumental backup, the stage seems to be totally filled up by this black orange roaring pudding. Characteristic of the curious nature of the not so easily acceptable music was that of the five pieces backing group sometimes two of them acted as bass player.

The "Stichting tot voortzetting van het Holland Pop Festival ('foundation for the continuation of the holland pop festival [held in 1970 in kralingen, with big losses]' - t.t.)" scored big: they managed to get the Concertgebouw fully crowded. This will probably mean the prolongation of the shaky existence of the foundation, and there still isn't a need for a "Stichting tot voortzetting van de Stichting tot enz. ('foundation for the continuation of the foundation for etc.')". To which fact, no doubt, also was made a contribution by the in both senses of the word cheap support act of the singing saw duo from Twente, which had been pulled to the Concertgebouw to enable us all to get a superior laugh.

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translation by Robert Cloos 2000

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PICTURE 14

BILL HARKLEROAD zoot horn rollo
picture by ton damman

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