Traveling salesmen and airplane pilots bought houses in a shiny subdivision fifteen minutes south of Kansas City’s new airport in the 1970s. Their spouses tended to be school teachers and travel agents. Abetted by basements offset from the remainder of split-level homes, their children ran wild in 1976.
Boys sorted themselves by sports agility and musical taste. Bespectacled and shrimpy, I tried to determine if I most loved hard rock (Aerosmith!), pop (Elton John!) or soul (Stevie Wonder!). The majority of my peers were devotees of prog rock.
“Carry On Wayward Son” and “Crystal Ball,” current hits by the Midwestern bands Kansas and Styx, were ubiquitous. Albums by Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis and Yes were accentuated by lava lamps and sound-triggered novelty lights in approximately every fifth or so residence in the neighborhood.
The coolest boys moved beyond prog rock. They formed jazz fusion bands inspired by the likes of Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jaco Pastorius and Terje Rypdal. The best of their jam sessions sounded a lot like Catching Fire.
Released in October, Catching Fire is a 2017 live collaboration between the storied Norwegian guitarist Rypdal and his countrymen in Elephant9. The ridiculously overblown attack is a refreshing blast from the past. I almost wish the Ramones and the Sugar Hill Gang hadn’t come along to render the excessive pomp obsolete.