Hans-Joachim Roedelius © 2015 Alexander Gonzales

This Monk makes many errors in judgement. I’ll never be the Post-Punk Pope because I’m all too fallible. I had been feeling the sting of not seeing seminal German musician Hans-Joachim Roedelius back in 2011, when he found himself playing two dates in my sleepy mountain town. I had been cognizant of his role in Krautrock by reputation since the early 80s, but had never actually heard any of his music for decades. He was in town for the 2011 Moofgest lineup, but that year, I did not attend the festival itself; only Brian Eno’s lecture, which had separate admission. Still, while in the area, Roedelius maximized his gig potential by playing a separate date around the same time at The Grey Eagle; one of my regular haunts. Having never heard him, I declined to attend. Then, by the next two years, I found myself buying many albums with his participation when Bureau B began re-issuing many of his back catalogue as well as new contemporary releases. While I could not get into the Qluster “Lauschen” album, every other note by his hand was beautiful and entrancing to these ears. It was at this time that I began to put “missing Roedelius” on my list of deep musical regrets. It was the primary reason why I saw Faust last year, and we all know how that turned out.

My wife and I have attended the Big Ears festival for two years in a row. It’s a well-programmed, eclectic festival held just two hours away from where we live. We are sitting this year out, but I still get their emails. Last week they were teasing clues to their additions to this year’s schedule on their facebook page. I gritted my teeth and went there to see if I could ascertain who might be added to the roster in between the obtrusive blocking scroller FB shoves in my face for my temerity in not feeding their vast coffers with my metrics by refusing to have an account. Great! It sure looked like Roedelius was going to be there, but I still didn’t want to incur the significant expenses to attend for a third year in a row. Perhaps he might be playing another date in town to maximize his musical potential.

When seeking Roedelius US tour dates for 2017, the Big Ears date is no longer under wraps, and there are two further dates currently out there that are going to happen.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius | US Tour Spring 2017

• March 11 | New York City | Villain
• March 18 | Asheville | Mothlight
• March 25 | Knoxville | Big Ears Festival

There is the hope for more, and to that end, there is a Kickstarter campaign to enable this to happen in the Spring and Fall of 2017. Click below for full details.

I will assume that the Big Ears gig is floating the other published March dates, but further touring won’t happen without some support. The buy-ins for the campaign are priced for all comers and I will probably kick in additional support because I would like to see this happen very much. The premiums are impressive and generous so the quid pro quo factor is very high. It’s encouraging that in the three days the campaign has been underway, that they are at almost 15% of goal, so it looks good for fans of wondrous music if it continues at this pace. In the meantime, at my wife’s urging, I have already bought the tickets for the Mothlight show. When linking to their home page for that link, I couldn’t help but notice that David J was playing there this June… another show to definitely attend!

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