A View From The Back Of The Room: Haken

Haken, Vola & Bent Knee, The Fleece Bristol

For a Sunday in February this was quite an eventful gig as it happened. I'd seen two of the three bands before and the shows were exciting but always quite reserved as is the nature of prog. However tonight's gig was sold ou, however as seems to be a theme with shows in Bristol, the venue seemed to have sold 50 or so more tickets than the venue can hold, couple with that the two soundesks that took up a good portion of the back of the room, it meant that one particularly over-zealous security guard spent much of the evening telling people to move forward into an already crushed room just to leave access to the toilets clear. Now I'm not going to comment on the health and safety ramifications of this (it is my dayjob after all) however being herded like cattle (or perhaps sheep) did detract a little from the overall show.

Still it was about the music and onstage first were the only Americans on the bill, Bostonian four piece Bent Knee (8) who set about drawing the attention of the packed house immediately with probably the oddest set of the entire evening, featuring Ben Levin (guitar), Chris Baum (violin), Courtney Swain (vocals, keys), Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth (drums) and Jessica Kion (bass) their music is a off-kilter mish mash of styles sounding a little like Bjork, singing Ella Fitzgerald while fronting The Mars Volta as they play Kate Bush style art rock, the diminutive Courtney is a vocal powerhouse, she has a wide range that's augmented by a mighty fine reverbed mic, she adds the otherworldly synths while the rhythm section neatly supplies odd time signature grooves. Levin's guitar playing is wild and freeform as is Baum's violin, it made for a wildly original, kooky set of music that doesn't really follow any borders, They arrived on the stage to bemusement of many but when they closed out their set with the fantastic Holy Ghost everyone was firmly onside.

With the quirkiness of Bent Knee enveloping the room, it was time for the Danish modern prog masters Vola (8) who were playing a lot of this run as a three piece. They were missing keyboardist Martin Werner who was dealing with other issues so would only be playing select dates, however with all of his synths loaded onto backing tapes the show continued as once again Asger Mygind leading from the front, the singer/guitarist is the main visual feature of the band, like a happy Mikael Akerfeldt his booming vocal handling, commanding the bands emotionally charged and intelligent modern progressive metal, he even relied more on his harsh vocals this time but these too were impressive as he and the other two instrumental members riffed like utter bastards getting the whole room nodding to Smartfriend, Owls and Stray The Skies and singing along to Alien Shivers and the dramatic Ruby Pool. Not as imperious as they had been with Monuments but still one of the best touring prog bands on the circuit right now and a great choice of support act.

Still more people arrived, until The Fleece was bursting at the seams, it was uncomfortable until the Rossini's William Tell Overture (by way of Mike Oldfield's version) blared over the PA welcoming UK proggers Haken (8) to the stage who lit a fire as soon as they came on the stage with The Good Doctor from their most recent album Vector, the album they were touring, four came from that album, The Good Doctor, Puzzle Box, Veil and the chugging instrumental Nil By Mouth. However I would say that live these songs didn't really stand out when compared to tracks such as the brilliant Falling Back To Earth from The Mountain or the two songs that came from Affinity especially 1985 which destroyed the place, almost being heralded like a hit single by the crowd, which was strange at prog gig.

But I digress, the set was met by excitement throughout though the cover of Paranoid Android was a little surreal, given that Radiohead had early gigs in the same venue, and that Haken have five albums and an EP yet chose to play a cover over maybe some of their lesser known early material. Still this is a small knit pick as by the time The Architect closed the main set the crowd was at peak excitement. A brief break and then it was just one song in the encore but that was the massive Crystalised a 19 minute conclusion to a set. Haken always impress live and now they've ramped up their performance especially on 1985 which had light up glasses and a keytar. A top night of progressive music, but maybe think about a larger venue to put it in.