by Bruce Niedt, Cherry Hill, NJ

One of my favorite bands of the 1970’s prog-rock era was the British group Gentle Giant. They were perhaps the most eclectic and instrumentally talented band of their era, yet they’re hardly remembered or played these days. I got to see them once in 1974, while touring behind their latest album, In a Glass House (arguably their best album ever, and legendary because it was never released on LP in the States, and only relatively recently on CD). They were actually the opening act for the Dutch band Focus. (Remember “Hocus Pocus”?) But they were without question the best opening act I have ever seen.

Led by the Minnear brothers, their music veered between gentle, madrigal-like vocals and hard guitar-driven rock, with instruments as diverse as vibraphone, electric violin, saxophone and bouzouki. At one point during a long instrumental segment, the entire band somehow ended up in the middle of the stage playing toy xylophones! It was an amazing concert, so much so that Focus was a big anticlimax – my friends and I left in the middle of their set. We’d seen Gentle Giant live, and that was enough to keep us on a musical high for quite a while.