A View From The Back Of The Room: Spock's Beard (Live Review By Matt Bladen)

Spock’s Beard, Thekla, Bristol 30.01.24

Progressive rock is a curious thing, by nature it’s eclectic, experimental and can take you to strange new places musically. However it’s also regimented, what is and what isn’t prog is quite strictly enforced. The collection of salesman, dentists, I.T professionals and gentlemen of a certain age (and it is mainly gentlemen), wearing the merchandise of not only the band (which is far more acceptable in the prog realm than it is in other genres), but bands adjacent to them too, including a very natty Saga tour hoody. All this information provides us with enough evidence that Americans Spock’s Beard (9) can be very much lumped into the prog bracket.

An SB tour in the UK are quite rare things, they tend to only play a few dates every few years so, with a headline set at Midwinter Prog in The Netherlands as the objective they happily tagged a few UK gigs on as warm ups, which included a Tuesday show in Bristol’s boat. Playing very much the type of music inspired by Genesis, Yes, IQ and Marillion, built around the wall of keys played by Ryo Okumoto and the fluid, melodic guitars of Alan Morse, the founding member of the band, the keyboard player Okumoto, bassist Dave Meros are still very much the musical heart of the band since Neal Morse left years ago. Both Morse and Okumoto are a focal point, moving about the stage animated and colourful, Morse’s trademark shirts especially retina scorching, this is where Spock’s Beard’s soul is and it’s a joyous thing to behold. The most recent iteration sees them with Enchant/Pattern Seeking Animals frontman Ted Leonard, behind the mic, his pitched, powerful voice perfect for not only the songs he plays on but adding enough nostalgia to both the Neal and Nick (D’Virgilio) numbers sprinkled through the set.

Ted also plays guitar, to bolster the rockier side of the band and plays some synths when Ryo just doesn’t have enough fingers or screens to look at behind those ever present mirrored sunglasses. Behind the three up front is Meros keeping the grooves and shifting rhythms coming, he’s tight as a tourniquet, injecting jazz and pop structures into the often elongated songs SB play. Since the tour for their last album The Noise Floor (2018), the man behind the kit has been Mike Thorne, a powerhouse but also a deft touch he injects pace and precision into his performance, though with the amount of dry ice you can’t see him do so.

As far as the set goes three tracks came from their debut with Leonard; Brief Nocturnes And Dreamless Sleep with one each from Noise Floor and The Oblivion Particle. They blend in well with one from Octane and one from the self titled album, the D’Virgilio years represented by the poppy duo of She Is Everything and On A Perfect Day, while there was a total of four tracks dedicated to The Kindness Of Strangers and their debut The Light, the evergreen title track closing stopping the show. What was obvious was how much fun the band were having on stage, Morse is all over the place while Okumoto throws some illicit shapes, Leonard has a smile on his face, even when talking about the weather and they seem to share a lot of ‘in-jokes’ between them, this sets them apart from a lot of bands in the prog rock genre as Spock’s Beard are prog with personality. The playing maybe virtuoso but the performance is pantomime, as the set whizzes by.

It means that even is 5 minute keyboard/guitar duels aren’t usually your thing the influence of prog rock legends and a shed load of “The Fab Four” references worm their way into your heart leaving you coming away smiling. No po-faced technicality here, Spock’s Beard play prog for fun and it shows! Hopefully they come back soon for another prog rock party.