Ozric Tentacles/Big in Japan - State Theatre - June 26 2009

Big in Japan - Three piece with a drummer, keys/flute/sax vocalist, and a bass player who played a bit of guitar. Kind of simple rhythms for a prog looking band with one song even reminding me of Flipper (not an insult). Bass a bit buzzy, vocals cloudy but they were very infrequent anyway. I enjoyed the music and the flute and sax were nice touches. I'll give them passing grades for establishing a nice sound for the evening.

Ozric Tentacles - These little known, but long time UK space rocking psyche progsters hit the State Theatre for the second time that I've seen. I missed the last show which had around 45 people, but tonight's was much better attended. They are lead by their guitarist/programmer/synth writer Ed Wynne (and if I create a joke about his name it will show you how really old I am, so I'll spare you). His wife Brandi places bass and more synths/sequencers/samplers etc. They have a drummer too to keep things thrusting forward. The sound was very good and the music is more fun for me live than the couple of records I've heard or own. After a while, some young lad looking way too much like Ed Wynne came on to play keyboards while Brandi focused on bass. Yes, he is their son and he really punched up the set quite a bit to my liking. Ed switching to acoustic guitar also gave some different results to keep the set from being too much of a smooth prog muzak feel. I am not sure I want to go buy the records, but it is nice to see this family jamming away from time to time.

Quote of the Night: Quiet night, so it will be quote from the previous show. While buying some future tickets (still waiting for those comps, clubowners), I overheard a guy say "I've lived within a couple blocks from this place for x years (3? 5? forgot the number) and I've been to like one show, but now I'm hitting three in less than a week--Vander Graff Generator, The Church, and Peter Murphy".