Review of the December 1, 1973 show at the Minneapolis Metropolitan Sports Center.

Review of the December 1, 1973 show at the Minneapolis Metropolitan Sports Center.

 

 

Review of the December 1, 1973 show at the Minneapolis Metropolitan Sports Center.

ROCK REVIEW.

Group’s ‘Brain Salad’ entertaining.
Reviewed by CHARLES QUIMBY.

Rock and roll has traveled a long way from the elemental chord progressions and chuka-chuk guitar style of such musicians as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry.

An audience of approximately 7,000 persons was treated to an excellent short course in rock’s evolution by Emerson, Lake and Palmer in the Metropolitan Sports Center Saturday night.

There was a time when the sound produced by a rock musician and his guitar had a certain predictability; a strum or a riff could be seen and heard simultaneously. Among fingers and strings and sound was an immediate cause and effect relationship.

With sophisticated electronics, however, this relationship became more complex. Emerson, Lake and Palmer, with their synthesizers, have introduced the alienation effect to live concerts.

Keith Emerson, working at the controls of custom Moog Synthesizers and Moog Polyphonic Ensemble, might have resembled a technician at Houston Mission Control were it not for his long hair and bare chest.

But Saturday’s concert was not limited to computerized bleeping. The group displayed a versatility that made the evening a rich and entertaining experience.

Greg Lake led the group with vocal and guitar on an old-style rocker called “Benny the Bouncer.” He also displayed a strong vocal range on “Lucky Man” and the beautiful “Still. . . You Turn Me On,” accompanying himself on 12 string acoustic guitar.

In another variation the group managed to sound like a standard night club jazz trio, with Emerson at the Steinway, Lake on guitar and Carl Palmer playing percussion.

Much of the nearly two-hour performance consisted of works from the group’s new album, “Brain Salad Surgery,” which was performed in it’s entirety.

As if to offset the sometimes cerebral nature of their music, the group mounted a highly theatrical show involving lights, projections on backdrops and a rotating percussion platform loaded with strobes, huge painted gongs and a circle of drums.

At the conclusion of the concert, with the final words, “I’m perfect! Are you?”, the musicians left the stage. The bank of synthesizing equipment continued to play — finally “consuming” itself in a mock explosion of blue smoke.

CHARLES QUIMBY is a Minneapolis free-lance writer.

The photo of Keith Emerson was taken at this performance.