Concert review: Hallogallo 2010 at Lincoln Hall
Rother was a key player in the German art-rock surge of the ‘70s with the bands Neu! and Harmonia, but he seldom toured and his most influential recordings were nearly impossible to find for long stretches. In recent years, all that has changed as Neu! has become fashionable to name-check, its music resonating in countless bands.
Little wonder Rother’s rare appearance Wednesday at Lincoln Hall to survey his career under the rubric Hallogallo 2010 was something of an event. The club was nearly full, as the native of Dusseldorf performed for 75 minutes with a band that included Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Tall Firs’ bassist Aaron Mullan (Rother’s partner in Neu!, drummer Klaus Dinger, died in 2008).
Most of the music performed was drawn from the ‘70s material that left a permanent imprint on the future of rock. Little heard and not completely understood during its time because of its stark features, the music made by Rother and Dinger in Neu! still sounds very much of the moment, refusing to age. The music Rother subsequently made in Harmonia was slightly lusher, but still pledged allegiance to the trance-like beat.
At Lincoln Hall, Rother stood behind a nest of electronic hardware resting on a table; he manipulated the gadgetry, often beginning the songs in a wash of hum and static. Out of this primordial soup a beat would inevitably emerge, at first distant and barely perceptible, then slowly rising in prominence until it would take almost physical shape, growing larger and larger within the room.
That was the approach mapped on the night’s opening song, “Hallagallo,” the first track on the first Neu! album in 1972, a game-changing moment in rock history.
Shelley did a masterful job of channeling Dinger’s “fast-forward” rhythm, a hypnotic pulse that is grounded in savagery – the massive kick-drum thump – and yet fragile enough to register every little shimmy in its not-quite-metronomic pulse. When Shelley would break up the dry, head-nodding beat with a ripple of triplets or a crash of cymbals it sounded seismic, as if the straight road he was paving had suddenly tilted.
Mullan hung tenaciously to a chord or two for the duration of the songs, which typically ran for nearly 10 minutes – suggesting the “endless endless” that was one of German art-rock’s central tenants. The bassist’s job was essentially that of a percussionist, staying doggedly on top of the beat.
With the rhythm section in top form, Rother was free to offer running commentary on his electronic contraptions and guitar. On the closing piece, an unreleased track called "Two Oceans," his guitar merged with the other instruments to create a relentless, percussive beat. For most of the set, the clipped, spacious style that he pioneered on Neu!’s early recordings morphed into something more slippery. He favored a humming, liquid tone, stretching the tones over the rhythm grid and letting them linger. Into this wall of sound he carved out simple melodies that would disappear and then return at key intervals, like signposts on an endless highway, pointing beyond the horizon. Much like Neu! once did.
greg@gregkot.com
Hallogallo 2010 set list Wednesday at Lincoln Hall:
1 Hallogallo 2010
2 Silberstreif
3 Aroma Club B3
4 Neutronics 98 (A Tribute to Conny Plank)
5 Deluxe
6 Veteranissimo
7 Dino
8 Two Oceans (unreleased track)
Loved the show. "Deluxe (Immer Wieder)" was a highlight because I was expecting just Neu & Rother solo pieces, not anything by Harmonia. It's one of my absolute favorite krautrock standards. Too bad they didn't try the vocals!
Posted by: Bill | September 09, 2010 at 10:41 AM
Thanks for the setlist!
Posted by: A. C. | September 09, 2010 at 10:44 AM
It was a fantastic and hypnotic show! It would've been great if they played 'Isi.' I never get sick of that track. It's the perfect marriage between Rother's ambience and Dinger's proto-punk motorik beats.
Posted by: Nutman | September 09, 2010 at 01:52 PM
amazing show. really wish rother had dialed down the distortion though and played with the lovely clean tone we all know and love. maybe he and spacemen 3 can tour together as they don't use guitar amps... shelley was worth the price of admission
Posted by: j | September 09, 2010 at 05:06 PM
Great show, thanks for all the press Greg!
Posted by: charles | September 10, 2010 at 08:25 AM