This night saw the newly opened Mercury Café at 2199 California hosting England’s legendary Hawkwind, the unsung heroes of heavy psychedelia. In the early days of its twenty-five year history, the band had a reputation for playing anywhere. The relatively small show at the Mercury seemed to harken back to those early days, especially when you consider that the band can draw 20,000 fans at gigs in Europe nowadays. So for the couple of hundred diehard Hawkwind fans who were lucky enough to find out about this poorly publicized show, the gig was an ecstatic dream come true. There wasn’t a person I talked to that night who wasn’t completely awed by the fact that they were actually seeing the band live. One guy told me it was the happiest day of his life.
Hawkwind’s current line-up features founder member Dave Brock on guitar, vocals and synth, with Harvey Bainbridge on synth and vocal, Alan Davey on bass and vocals, a great new drummer named Richard, who signed his autograph as “Richard, new drum”, and a girl named Bridgett (who recently joined the group) performing costumed dance and vocals. In its long history Hawkwind has sported members such as famous sci-fi author Michael Moorcock, former Cream drummer Ginger Baker, and Motorhead’s Lemmy, who the band is going to hook up with in L.A. for their December 15th Club Lingerie show. Absent from this tour is guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton who has formed a new group.
Hawkwind is truly amazing live. Sober and relaxed on stage, their years of experience were evident. The band is incomprehensibly tight. They ripped through some great stuff from the new album Space Bandits, as well as classics such as ‘The Golden Void’ from Warrior On The Edge Of Time (1975), ‘Angels Of Death’ from Sonic Attack (1981), ‘Hassan-i-Sahba’ from Quark Stangeness and Charm (1977), and much to my surprise, sung ‘Ejection’ from the rare 1974 British comic film soundtrack Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters, written by former member Robert Calvert.
The band’s pounding, heavy grooves are topped by impeccable English vocal harmonies from the poetic classic rock tradition, and are complemented by moving slides, projected onto the band throughout the show. This, combined with the freaky fluorescent painting on their equipment, makes for a trippy treat, especially when I noticed several of the inside photos from Space Ritual Live (possibly the coolest album cover in existence) among the slides.
Bridgett appeared occasionally in a variety of bizarre costumes. The show opened with her in a fireproof suit flagging imaginary landing aircraft as a Morticia Addams-type character, then in a white jumpsuit sporting an elongated bug-eyed gaping-mouthed rubber mask. This was removed to reveal her as bald and goggle-clad. During the next tune Harvey applied a Vulcan mind grip to her skull. As she screamed he issued a tirade about the effects of television. By the end of this song, Bridgett transformed into a regular
The crowd totally dug the show and managed to get a single encore before the band began tearing down equipment. (Yes, the actual band members doubled as roadies!) They were in a hurry to beat the coming Rocky Mountain snowstorm and get to their L.A. gig, but were not above signing autographs and talking with their fans (your trusty reviewer among them).
Chances are there’s a handful of Denverites preparing to end their lives after missing tonight’s performance, but followers of the Hawklords can take heart, as it is likely they’ll return to Denver in March. Be sure to appear and show your support, then maybe they can afford a bigger road crew.
-Scott Stratton
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