ProgNation '09 (Las Vegas)

 

Having travelled to Las Vegas to see my favourite band once again in concert (this time around, they decided not to play in lovely Vancouver), I was once again given some amazing memories, and a performance that was quite amazing, although not quite as mind-blowing as the first PN tour.

 

Scale The Summit was fantastic live. They are masters of their respective instruments, despite the fact they're only still young. It was a great way to start the evening off listening to them. Their major issue however, was that they really seemed a bit daunted by everything. They really lacked the stage presence and CONFIDENCE the other bands had, but then again, the other bands have alot of experience up on them. It was also a bit upsetting that only a few rows of people were there to listen to this amazing band.

 

BigElf was a band I really thought I was going to hate watching. Having listened to a bit of their recorded material, I was very unimpressed; it just seemed like very mediocre hard rock. Live however, the music takes a whole new energy. Damon Fox is a fantastic frontman, and the band's great energy, heaviness, and er... vintage equipment made for a good listen, although it still wasn't at any point; 'mindblowing.'

 

Zappa Plays Zappa was another band I really thought I was going to hate. I was going into the concert thinking ZPZ was a very unnecessary addition to the tour, due to the fact that despite the fact their frontman is blood-related to Frank himself, the band is little more than a tribute act. Although that is still true in a way, I was blown away by the tightness of the band. Each member of the band individually shined, and Dweezil really gave room for each of the musicians to shine on their own. My main gripe is that ZPZ really overstayed their welcome. After 45 minutes or so, I really had a sense of deja ecoute, I had heard this same style over and over again, and nothing new was happening. While I'm still not a fan of Frank Zappa's music, this was a cool band to watch.

 

And lastly, Dream Theater blew me away. They started out with A Nightmare To Remember, which really shined live. Dream Theater is a band that's better live than even on record. While their setlist wasn't great (playing Rite Of Passage, Hollow Years, and Voices, for example) there were some great performances, especially 'Constant Motion' which despite not being a fantastic track on CD, is possibly my favourite DT live track. For the encore they did The Count of Tuscany, and while the lyrics bothered me more than evar before, it was a fantastic end to a great concert.

 

Nothing special compared to the FANTASTIC lineup for the first ProgNation, but definately worth the trip to LV to see the band. This has also had to have been the longest concert I've ever seen. It started at 7, and ended at 12:30! It was crazy.

Last year's show in LA was fantastic. My brother and father asked me if I wanted to fly down to LV to see it this year and I decided not to, and the DT setlist seems to justify that. I saw Erotomania and Voices last year (both incredible I might add), and then they played a bunch of their worst songs (Nightmare, Rite of Passage, The Count of Tuscany, Constant Motion). Hollow Years is much better live than on record, and I would have liked to see it, but I would not have paid what it would have costed to see that and those other bands (though they may have been good).