TORONTO STAR.COM - September 29, 2001 Rockers String Along Whole Orchestra by Vit Wagner Recent Toronto concerts by such varied outfits as Los Angeles' Tool and Reykjavik's Sigur Ros, both of which go in for expansive tone poems not easily categorized as pop, are reminders that the long disparaged progressive rock movement of the early '70s still has some heft. Nothing, however, spells prog-rock with more sonic force and grandeur than the twinning of a rock band and a symphony orchestra. In August, proto-proggers Yes arrived at the Molson Amphitheatre with a slew of backing symphonists in tow, hearkening back to the days when '70s-era outfits such as Deep Purple and Procol Harum freely added orchestral accompaniment to their beefy sound. And current albums by Canadian jazz singer Diana Krall and English sonic-rockers Spiritualized rely heavily on lavish string accompaniment. Bjork, another Icelandic pioneer, arrives at the Hummingbird Centre on Oct. 8, backed by a rock band, an Inuit choir and a 54-piece orchestra. And Krall will have serious backing when she plays the same venue on Oct. 26 and 27. More immediately, Boston-based rockers Big Wreck arrive next Saturday at Roy Thomson Hall to team up with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for a classic - if that is the right word - band/orchestra collaboration in the prog-rock tradition. "We're big fans of (progressive rock)," says Big Wreck's Toronto-born frontman Ian Thornley, 29. "We've been dubbed pseudo-prog by some people, just because we're music nerds. And what we're doing is right up that alley." The TSO date is one of two orchestral gigs on Big Wreck's current North American tour. Earlier this month, the quartet teamed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, a classical outfit famed for recording a 1972 album that featured the hit song "Conquistador" with prog-rockers Procol Harum. For its Toronto show, Big Wreck regulars Thornley, guitarist Brian Doherty, bassist David Hemming and Forrest Williams will be joined by virtuoso Austin, Tex., axeman Eric Johnson and Tragically Hip guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois. The program will be culled from Big Wreck's two albums, this year's The Pleasure And The Greed and its 1997 predecessor, In Loving Memory Of.... "We're bringing in songs we haven't played in a couple of years - vibier, mellower sorts of things that don't really fit a rock show but are perfect for this," Thornley says. "We're happy to be able to bring them to life in a whole new way." Thornley and his bandmates, who met while attending Boston's prestigious Berklee School of Music, are not strangers to formal musical training. That background has come in handy while working on string arrangements with guest conductor Jim McGrath. "I don't know if it's delusions of grandeur, but I've always wondered what would happen to our music with that kind of treatment," Thornley says. "From my perspective, I can hear where (the string parts) would go. I can hear extraneous melodies that never got recorded. Just to hear those come to life, with 30 or 40 strings behind us, is pretty awesome." The preparatory drill involves a couple of rehearsal sessions, with the symphony players taking their cues from a score. "Everything's written out for them," Thornley says. "That's what these people do. That's what they're best at. You can't really ask them to do free-form jazz." In that sense, it isn't so much collaboration in the truest sense, but a hastily arranged marriage between culturally diverse partners. "It was a little bit like the Stanford University basketball team playing with the Harlem Globetrotters," says Thornley, describing the first rehearsal with the Edmonton Symphony. "They (the symphony musicians) were all putting in their earplugs while our drummer was cracking a beer. But it worked. Nobody dropped the ball." Messing up is not a concern of TSO cellist Simon Fryer, as he looks ahead to the gig. "Generally what we're doing is very basic," says Fryer, who has accompanied Liza Minnelli, Harry Connick Jr. and Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts in similar circumstances. "It's like following a road map. "What we're doing is merely enhancement of existing material. We're not really core to the event. The music exists independently of us. We're merely making a little addition to it." Still, Fryer relishes the novelty of the event. "Generally, the interest lies in just working with a different genre of music altogether," he explains. "First of all, you're working generally with people who have written their own material, which is something that classical musicians generally don't do. Most of the time you're working separately from a composer, either because they are dead or because they are removed by distance. But it's great to work with people who put their own music together. They live it. And they make it fly." The Big Wreck/TSO concert has been sold out for weeks. And Fryer anticipates a substantially less formal audience than normally shows up at Roy Thomson Hall on a Saturday night. "Perhaps the Toronto Symphony is hoping that putting its name alongside a hip, young group will put the symphony in the minds of people who wouldn't normally be thinking about it." Thornley, meanwhile, is not holding his breath expecting an opposite conversion. "I don't think that there are a lot of classical fans that are going to come out and enjoy it," he says "It's still a rock show. It's a rock show with strings. And I think our fans are going to want to hear it. "Granted, you can't get sloppy drunk and go moshing. But you can sit and listen. And that's what I'm excited about - to have an audience actually listen for once. Not to say that our audience doesn't. It's just that after a while you start to get sick of football practice in front of the stage. "But who knows? Maybe it'll backfire on me and I'll be wondering, `What's all the dead silence between songs?'" click here for the original article