Pop Music Reviews : Hammill at Roxy: A Worshipful Cult

Convoluted images of quasi-philosophical solipsism, overwrought vocalizing and music you can’t possibly dance to. Not if your life depended on it.

It must have its appeal. It certainly did to the crowd that came to see/worship English art-rock veteran Peter Hammill at the Roxy on Thursday. These Hammill Heads (as they call themselves) hung raptly on every musical non sequitur and lyrical cul-de-sac--”lost in a labyrinth of future mystery,” for example. People who dared speak during supposedly dramatic pauses were promptly shushed by other fans--like disciples at the feet of their master.

To these followers--mostly male, mostly white, mostly in their mid-30s--Hammill is a great overlooked artistes of rock, someone who has influenced the likes of Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp, but has inexplicably never attained their fame. Their reward for loyalty was a career overview--going back to Hammill’s early-’70s group Van Der Graaf Generator--performed with intensity by Hammill on keyboards and guitar, accompanied by a violinist and a bassist. But one cult’s exquisiteness is the rest of the world’s excruciation.