Nov. 5, 1977 review: Gentle Giant in the Century Theater

 


A prog rock stalwart in a period of transition. 

Nov. 5, 1977

Giant Elevates Spirits

After Wrong Prescription 

          Outside the Century Theater Friday night, it looks like a big beer party has been there and left. Bottles everywhere. The West Mohawk Street turnstiles include a frisking for containers, so a knot of youthful drinkers stand on the sidewalk, polishing off their supplies.

          It’s half an hour past starting time, but nobody in the crowded lobby seems any more concerned about securing their seats in the nearly sold-out house than the people outside. The first band is playing, but who cares? They’ve come for Gentle Giant.

          On stage is a relatively unknown British quartet called Dr. Feelgood, but their prescription isn’t right for this audience. Gentle Giant fans require massive doses of progressive rock. Feelgood’s nothing but the New Wave Anglo blues.

          So it makes no difference that Feelgood plays most proficiently in the rapid, narrowly-defined seamless manner of those punk-rock pioneers, the Ramones. What with the general booing and catcalls, it’s fortunate that bottles are forbidden.

          Singer Lee Brilleaux, whose rough, monotonous vocals and inhibited delivery are the band’s biggest handicap, decides he won’t take this lying down. He unleashes a torrent of insults and obscenities on the galleries. It’s a sorry spectacle. Feelgood leaves no good feelings at all.

          The cheers for Gentle Giant begin when the sound system breaks into a baroque classic. Heraldic music. After 11 albums and a dozen years as a band, they command a little respect.

          The British quintet tends to be a scrambled, reconstituted Genesis with a side order of ham. Middlebrow progressive. Stocky lead singer Derek Shulman, in his form-fitting white jumpsuit, dramatizes the turns and flourishes of the music with mugging and hand movements.

          A dizzying sequence of instrumental shifts does the rest, with a little help from a flashing neon picture of their giant logo – blue features, red hair.

          Their modes change madly. Between sections of progressive rock, full of complex rhythms and phrases and counterpoint, they go into something like the five-man a cappella vocals of “On Reflection” from their “Free Hand” album. The more common rock tunes are from their new “Missing Piece” LP.

          Bald drummer John Weathers, the group’s resident loony in his baseball uniform, comes forward on vibes and guitar. Keyboardman Kerry Minnear doubles on viola. Gary Green plays several guitars. Shulman handles sax and recorder and relieves his brother Ray on bass whenever Ray exercises his classical violin training.

          There’s guitar duets, percussion ensembles, string and woodwind quintets and a climactic solo in which Ray Shulman echoes sounds from speakers in the back of the hall. The pity is that it’s all for show. For all Giant’s brilliance of form, creatively they’re just not tall enough.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Gentle Giant in a 1977 press kit photo.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Gentle Giant was a monster for a while, especially in live performance with their complex compositions and their prowess as players and instrument swappers. That's what they played with they appeared at the Century Theater in February 1977, which definitely would have been the better show, though The News didn't review it. The openers were two locally-rooted bands that were equally virtuoso: Mr. Big, with powerhouse bassman Billy Sheehan, and the always amazing Rodan. But in the interim Gentle Giant tried to go pop. With its “Missing Piece” album and the ones that followed, they not only failed to win new fans, but also wound up alienating its old ones. The group disbanded in 1980.

Setlist.fm has no list for the Buffalo date, but here’s what Gentle Giant played Nov. 15 at the Agora in Cleveland:

          Two Weeks in Spain

          Free Hand

          On Reflection

          I’m Turning Around

          Playing the Game

          Memories of Old Days

          Betcha Thought We Couldn’t Do It

          Funny Ways

          The Face

          For Nobody

          (encore)

          Excepts from Octopus


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