Ultimate YES: 11th Album

I remember North Star at Nearfest. I even talked to Kevin Leonard after their performance. I don't remember the pants thing though. I think I have an autographed copy of Kevin's automatrix album on cd but not sure (I'll have to check at some point). I remember liking it better than North Star though. Yeah, they were an ok band with some good tracks but not a "world class" band which is what Nearfest were aiming for. All my opinion of course. We all hear different things. 

I know them. I have Triskeion and a later one and used to have a couple of cassette tapes. I'm not a fan of the lead singer though.

In the late 80s I listened to a radio show called "the progressive music show" or something like that. I first heard of CTS because of that show. Soon after that I went to a local record store took the vinyl album to the counter and asked if they could order it for me on cd. I still have never heard much else by the band but at least it made me aware that current bands could still make good music like that (oh and one of the reviews for that particular album is by yours truly ;)). Them and a very obscure band from California called Episode who I found out about while attending a Yes convention in New Jersey in the summer of 1987 (everyone was greatly anticipating the release of BG including me).

Yep. I got into prog partly though an older cousin ( four years older than me). His favorite band was (and I'm guessing still might be) Genesis. In the 80s I knew about Asia and Marillion and that's about it for current stuff (not counting current albums by Yes, Genesis, PF, Rush, JT, MB, etc). I was aready big into what was played on rock radio (arena rock and classic rock) so that sort of primed me a little bit for prog. I kind of felt like an outsider at the time because no one at my school was into any prog bands except for Pink Floyd and maybe a little bit of Rush. Now I like 80s stuff and 90s stuff. In the 80s I was mostly into Led Zeppelin, Yes, PF, Rush, KC etc (the big name 70s bands). In the 90s I took about a five or six year break from prog while I was in college and was mostly into  alternative which I still like. 

As for the ID thing I was also carded until I was in my mid to late 30s. I remember being pissed off for being carded at age 35. Then after that, like you, I was pissed off I wasn't. Lol. At least I had the prog shows and festivals to go to to make me feel young. For the longest time I felt like one of the youngest people at these shows. Lol. So maybe prog isn't an "old fart" genre now but for a long time it sure felt that way (at least judging by the age group at most concerts and festivals). 

I actually don't know who runs the site. However, there's probably more gen z gen y people on here than you realize. As for the geriatrics for a long time it was mostly older people showing up at the prog shows. If you go see Yes or go to Cruise to the Edge or some other old band shows it's mostly those who got into prog in the 70s. At least that has been my observation. Also, I remember going to see Ozric Tentacles and most everyone was either ten years older or ten years younger than me.