" data-original-title="" title="">Daevid Allen, and, unsurprisingly, his presence is still felt in the spacey psychedelic music that they offer and, equally, in the minds of the somewhat elderly male audience. The set featured five of the eight tracks from the album Unending Ascending (Kscope, 2023), most of which are forceful contemplations of inner geometry, with the majority of the songs evoking eternal cosmic forces. All songs were well received, though the heartiest response came from the very faithful rendering of "Master Builder," the climax of the 1974 album You (Virgin Records, 1974).

Equally important to any inner journeying by the audience were the torrent of visual images that flood the backstage screen during their show. While most of the human figures bore a singularly androgynous form, they roamed and "glid" (a very special Gong expression!) around a visual universe filled with symbols from various esoteric sources that founder Allen would have been very familiar with in the 1960s—Dravidian, Kabbalist, Buddhist. Fruit Salad Lights have been a feature of the band's live shows since the turn of the century, and the current range and volume of tightly synchronized graphics are awesome, though for old eyes sometimes overwhelming.

But back to the music and an evening of yearning, aspiring lyrics and washes of dominant guitar sounds, heavily drenched with reverb and echo. Torabi admitted in a pre-gig interview that until a hallucinogenic confrontation with a death force, he had been almost obsessed with the idea of termination of life. The experience left him better prepared to express his acceptance of a spiritual reality described in the songs. In contrast to the band's mystical yearnings is the solidity of the drumming of Cheb Nettles. Single-handedly, he forces the pace forwards and, with a no-holds-barred approach, launched the band through the multiple time changes that have been a staple of Gong's compositions since its inception. In the last few minutes of the final song, "Choose Your Own Goddess," Nettles moved from powerhouse drummer and backing vocalist to lead vocals, drawing to a close the exceptionally energetic outing of the world's busiest gigging hippie band with a mission.