20% of Goblin coming to L.A.

We seem to be living in the era of bifurcated rock bands. Not only is Yes touring in two different versions, so is Goblin, the Italian prog-rock outfit best known for scoring such classic ’70s horror films as Suspiria and Dawn of the Dead. Since then, the group has disbanded and reformed in permutations too numerous to list here, but the bottom line is that there are now two groups touring under that name. The one simply known as “Goblin” contains four of the five essential members from the band’s heyday; the other, known as “Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin,” contains only one, the eponymous keyboardist, who largely defined the group’s sound.

We mention this because “Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin” is scheduled to perform at Union in September 8. The show will include a live-to-film performance of the music for Suspiria, plus a live set of greatest hits.

We have no doubt that Simonetti will deliver an entertaining show, but we do question of the legitimacy of the “Goblin” moniker. The official listing for the event at the Union website offers a slightly tortured history of the band in order to suggest that it contains more true members than it actually does. Simonetti’s Goblin is essentially a solo project with backup musicians from Daemonia, a group he put together in 2001 after the briefly reformed Goblin disbanded following their soundtrack work on Dario Argento’s Sleepless.

Since then, the four-member Goblin has released two studio albums and a live album, while touring extensively, including several stops in Los Angeles, the most recent taking place in November 2017. The group will be appearing at the Las Vegas Psycho Festival on August 18. As they note on their Facebook page listing for the show:

“BTW… this is the REAL Goblin !! The only show in US in 2018!!”

Check out our review of Goblin’s 2014 show at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.