It’s been almost 30 years since Roger Hodgson was as a singer and songwriter for Supertramp, but that didn’t stop him from performing the British prog-rock group’s best-known songs at Artpark on Tuesday, Aug. 21. To be fair, Hodgson-penned songs, including “Dreamer,” “Hide in Your Shell” and “Breakfast in America,” is what brought the band commercial success and critical recognition in the 1970s prog-rock scene.
Tuesday, Hodgson began a night of quirky and often melodramatic opera-rock with a slow rendition of “Take the Long Way Home.” Hodgson then moved into several longer, more musically complex pieces from his solo career, which has spawned three studio albums since Hodgson left the group in 1983.
After playing through “Lovers in the Wind,” a gentle sweeping ballad from his solo career, Hodgson took a moment to say how audiences seemed to particularly enjoy the next song he was to perform. He then launched into “Hide in Your Shell,” a song that was never released as a single, but was very well received nonetheless. Hodgson performed the piece down-tempo, heavily enunciating the woe-is-me lyrics.
With his long white hair, brown vest and puffy shirt, Hodgson looked like a man who’d just stepped out of the Italian renaissance. If anything, it only added to the show’s tone. After “Hide in our Shell,” Hodgson moved into an extended version of “Breakfast in America,” a song featuring the ultra-catchy, Italian-themed melody that the band is best known for. Most people in the audience seemed happy when he performed an extra go-around of the chorus, singing not words, but gleeful sounds like “ba-ba-da-da-dum.”
Joining Hodgson on piano were a bassist, drummer, a second pianist and a saxophonist, some of whom performed multiple instruments for Hodgson’s epic, layered pieces.
Most of the night Hodgson alternated Supertramp hits with longer operatic arrangements, a pattern that kept the audience engaged for the whole night. And while the hits were better received, of course, the longer tunes allowed for some intriguing musical experimentation. A highlight of the night was “Death and a Zoo” from Hodgson’s latest solo effort, 2000’s The Open Door. Hodgson said the song asks the question, “If you were a wild animal and you were captured, would you choose death or life in a zoo?” True to this theme, this piece begins with cascading flutes and a piano harmony, painting a musical landscape of the great wilderness. The instrumentation slowly built up to a stamped-like climax that was absolutely menacing, even downright scary.
After a several more Supertramp tunes, Hodgson’s band left the stage and came back shortly after to perform “Give a Little Bit” and “It’s Raining Again.” Both songs Hodgson penned, both showcase his flair for melodramatic art-rock, and both helped cement the band as a top act in the ’70s prog-rock canon.
Setlist:
Take the Long Way Home
Sister Moonshine
In Jeopardy
Lovers in the Wind
Hide in Your Shell
Breakfast in America
Lady
C’est le Bon
Soapbox Opera
The Logical Song
Death & a Zoo
Lord is it Mine
Child of Vision
School
Dreamer
Fool’s Overture
Encore:
Give a Little Bit
It’s Raining Again
All Photos by BackstageAxxess.com Correspondent Michael Mietlicki
We would like to thank Maria Costello from Artpark for the assistance and tickets to review the show.
