Neighbor Joe has been trying to get me to a Nektar show for quite a while. He’s been a Nektar fan since the 70s, but I’d never heard of them until Joe introduced me to their music a few years. They’re kinda in my stream of music for the late 70s — kinda spacey, with a dose of guitar and electronics for good measure.

Last night, we made our way down the pike to the Space Rock Invasion Tour stop at Fubar downtown. To say the least, it was interesting.

Breathing Flowers opened up — may be a local band?. These guys essentially sat in the middle of a stage of gear (to later be used by the other bands), banging on instruments and guitars, huddling over their wares, making very experimental music. Thirty-five years ago, I would’ve enjoyed it, but not as much any more. I tend to like my music with a little structure, and this just didn’t trip my trigger.

Huw Lloyd-Langton (of Hawkwind) played next. I’d heard of Hawkwind a ton when I was growing up, but never listened to them. Huw sat on the stage with his acoustic guitar, and played brilliantly. It was cool to hear some acoustic music in a venue where I was expecting nothing but loudness. Waaay cool!

And then cam Brainticket. Man, I don’t know that I know how to explain them. As a band, they played really well, but when their lead singer came out clad in a dress with a rubber snake draped around her, and a headpiece of serpents… well, that told me something interesting was coming. And it did. First off, they were loud. I mean, really, really loud. When the singer sang, it was impossible to understand the vocals, despite the music being interesting. The stage presence of this gal was really… unique. Lots of Egyptian-looking moves, and way over the top screaming. By far, these folks were the most entertaining band of the night.

Nektar took the stage around 10.45pm, and played until about 12.15am — they were fabulous. Truly, it looked as though they were having the time of their lives up there playing for the small crowd — maybe 100 folks. It just didn’t seem to matter. They were out there to perform, regardless of the crowd size, and were just enjoying themselves in the process. That’s refreshing.

Music performed for the sake of the music… what a concept!