The Flower Kings - Tour Kaputt [2011, Progressive, DVD9]

In the summer of 2007, 40 years down the road from the original "Summer of Love", a band from Sweden, The Flower Kings, started planning to tour the universe to spread the word in a custom-built Volkswagenbus. It wasnt just any regular VW bus; it was designed by Russian AquaTouring engineer Ed Unitsky and the general idea was to be able to travel thru time, space, rain, storm, mountains and oceans to spread the message of LOVE!
Now being 2007 we soon realized that we may need a bit of comfort because Prog musicians do get grumpy and in the good old prog tradition, the egos grow bigger than the size of Germany, so we all needed our own Prog-turf on the road, a place for each of us to hang our glittering capes. So we rented a rolling castle from Kaiser Red Car and instructed the Orch-crew to load our Mellotrons, Taurus and kettledrums.
Once the guest drummer flom the Crimson Kingdom had arrived and we were assured he was about the nicest chap there is in the music biz, the lot of us started cultivating the musical beast with a frenzy. Two more American icons arrived, the Mighty "Mercher" that is Mr. Durbuck and a famous sound designer named Mr "DevilEars" (Paul DeVilliers) that had worked with giants like Mr Mister, Yes, Stevie Wonder, Bette Midler etc. so it looked like time to feel small, gulp!
So there we were, in a lofty rehearsal room spending most of the days cultivating the sounds of no evil, tuning Minimoogs and cursing our stupidity in writing way too complicated songs to play live. But hey - who said prog was meant to be easy, or life for that matter. We had a dream-team on board, so "Shut up and play yer bassguitar".
Fast forward about a week, first show the following day in a kingdom nearby, home of trolls & deathmetaffairies - Norway. Our German Red Castle had arrived with two drivers and the idea was to travel by night to Oslo for a premiere show.
Band on board, crew on board, after midnight, bus rolling out of our town, everyone eager to get a good nights sleep. CRAAASHHH! - (Sound of shattering glass and loud voices in German) "SCHEIZE - TOUR KAPUTT- KAPUTT!!!" Rest of band seemed to be sleeping, regardless of noises and german cursing. I got up - 'cause I hadn't yet fallen asleep and realized we had just hit a young moose (elk) and the windshield of this rolling red fortress was shattered, cracked and all over the bus floor. So much for "The Tour Of No Evil". I realize that it was after 3 o'clock in the morning while arguments arise and telephone calls are made between German drivers and homecastie RED.
Knowing that we have the show in Oslo next day did put a bit of extra weight on my shoulders, but with a little help from our illumination wizard Per Nordin I managed to wake up a few people at 5 o'clock in the morning trying to get another vehicle so that all of us could get to our final destination in time. (don't you just love being bandleader...) We were turning around and going "back to base" at lowest possible speed. Then followed hours of re-arranging and brainstorming temporary solutions that materialize with help of all band and crew. As good soldiers we arrive in Oslo in the nick of time, so we play the show and probably spent most of the show thinking "what could be the worst scenario for a premiere show ? .......sleeping thru the set. It wasn't the best Flower Kings show ever, that's for sure .......but the catering was terrific...eh.
After two shows in Sweden and switching tour buses everything seemed to get better and better, even the band. No major difficulties arose and our Red Castle kept rolling along thru Europe, with it's mountain views, Italian hospitality by the Pope's summer residence, Polish smoke contest and German gasthaus lunches.
The other minor incident was when arriving at the white cliffs of Dover and were informed that we travel with 3 Americanos. UK Immigration is usually lenient, but we suddenly realized that American citizens need a proper working visa to play to a British audience. It is called work", I don't think any of "us" would consider it "work" because it's fun, but nevertheless they needed to follow the rules. That's what rules are for.
So this gentleman informed us that the rest of the band could enter but Mr. Mastelotto and Mr. DeVilliers had to turn back. Grrr....At this point we've been held up at the border for 35 minutes and my blood start boiling and head about to explode just trying to talk to the immigration, explaining the situation and that we just had one show, but he kept saying "Sorry, you need to get another drummer from UK or play without drums". Funny thing is the guy even said he preferred the old Peter Gabriel Genesis to the later Phil Collins fronted version - so obviously he did even like prog-rock.
During all this, Mr Mastelotto was calm as ever, just searching his phonebook for prog-manpower UK and suggested that maybe he'd try calling his Crimson buddy Mr Bruford to see if he could step in. Suddenly the supervisor came back and they had a quick meeting while we were still hanging around, probably waiting for God to intervene - "OK guys - for this one time, but next time get a proper visa for your American friends". So kudos to the UK immigrations for saving the day.
Soon we were arriving in London and the venue - walking out to get some Asian food after late soundcheck, I turn around when a minivan drives up to the entrance, because the guy in the front-seat seemed strangely familiar, well it was Mr ProgBass himself, Chris Squire & Co hunting tickets to OUR show. This prompt me to think "what IF" UK immigration had refused the Americans and Mr Bruford had agreed to help his Crimson-buddy out, playing unrehearsed with this obscure prog outfit from Sweden that he had probably never heard of, no less heard a note from. Picture this; the tall guy who made Rickenbacker basses an icon of prog, comes up from the bar after the show, to say "hi" to the band....... well what a bizarre situation THAT could have been.
Chris: "Ready for a new Yes tour Bill ?" At this point in the "No Evil Tour" our tall and handsome bassplayer has come to a peak of pain point in his raptured disc status, where no music can be played, no instrument held unless under severe medication. Before this Dutch show he took a cocktail of Ketogan, Tramadol and Stesolid. Ketogan is a very strong Narcotic analgeticum that can put a Horse to sleep, given to Cancer patients in their darkest hour. So the stuff running around the Relngold system in this recording is WAY stronger than the herbal substances that can be purchased downstairs from the venue.. (so check that bassolo!!) Our bass man has a slipped disc L5, it was quite close that the whole tour got cancelled because of this. It wasn't uncommon to find him curled on the floor but as the soldier he is he gets up, put his Fender bass on and do the show, all to please you - our devoted fans.
This product Is a sample of an average show. On this night The Flower Kings played to a Dutch audience who seemed to be on a diet of tulip leaves and finely ground wooden shoes. One gentleman claimed to have smoked a blend of Vincent Van Gogh's sundried ear and the fungus from a 1897 windmill to get in the right mood. If you ask me, you need nothing but a pair of functioning ears a good spirit and some quality time to enjoy this.
Looking back I also marvel at how professional Mr Mastelotto took on the task of learning the 2,5 hours of TFK material and seamlessly integrated his electronics too and how much fun I had just watching him play. All in all this was a very memorable tour for us and it had many glorious but introspective moments but also showed that The Flower Kings is a working unit that is a "force" within modern progressive rock and that once in a white we reach heights of sonic bliss or just blurp out oddities no others dare.
Enjoy. Captain Rex Botanica. April 2011.

Title: TOURKAPUTT
Size: 6.91 Gb ( 7 249 830 KBytes ) - DVD-9
Enabled regions: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8
VTS_01 :
  Play Length: 01:22:30
  Video: PAL 16:9 (720x576) VBR, Auto Letterboxed
  Audio:
      Not specified (Dolby AC3, 2 ch)
VTS_02 :
  Play Length: 01:03:06
  Video: PAL 16:9 (720x576) VBR, Auto Letterboxed
  Audio:
      Not specified (Dolby AC3, 2 ch)
VTS_03 :
  Play Length: 00:00:14
  Video: PAL 16:9 (720x576) VBR, Auto Letterboxed

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