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micky 
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46833
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 Posted: August 24 2009 at 15:23 |
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yeah.... for all the sh*t we give DT... give them props for spotlighting a band and music FAR more advanced and ..well... simply better in many ways than their own. They were upstaged. Funny thing is... I think they'd be the first to admit it, and that gets my respect.
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The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
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Kix
Forum Newbie
Joined: September 01 2008
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Status: Offline
Points: 28
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Posted: August 23 2009 at 22:14 |
^^ drove from STL, wow.
anyway, I live in Milwaukee, so of course I went.
way, way too much metal, especially DT
also agree ZpZ should've been the headliner of those bands, still though, I'm not the biggest Zappa guy
Scale the Sumitts drummer is very good, he'll go somewhere
Bigelf was good......but at times, not. At times though, I thought they were going to go right into 21st Centruy..man, frontman sounded just like KC, the whole band could've pulled it off, would've been great.
My first Prog Nation Tour, Overall, for 45 bucks for FIVE hrs of music, great.
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Negoba
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
Status: Offline
Points: 5208
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Posted: August 23 2009 at 17:49 |
All right my butt is tired. Yesterday drove from St. Louis to Milwaukee, back today....
I had a very good time at Prognation. I have never been to a prog festival before and it was a cool atmosphere with a lot of people really knowing their music. Lots of diehard DT fans, including my friend who organized our group, probably went away mildly disappointed. The sound was boomy and echo-ey for all the bands except Zappa play Zappa. It completely ruined my experience of Scale the Summit. They were obviously very very good at their instruments. I went down for the meet and greet at the merchandise booth, and they were normal young guys. They were also charging $20 for their CD at a show??!!!?? WTF? If you're trying to get your name out there on the biggest venue you're going to get, you sell your CD for $10 so almost everyone in the place walks out with a copy and at least you break even. I'll probably download it after I'm done here.
Bigelf was exactly what I expected, maybe a little better. Their dark, massive sound wasn't harmed by the over-reverbed hall, and the frontman was awesome. Clearly the best voice of the show. He had a real Hammond, a mini-Moog, and I think a real Mellotron to his left and right and the microphone center and stood straddling the two pianos while singing his Billy Squier with 30 more IQ points and much better acid sound....Portnoy came out and played a song with them and that was fun. They are complete 70's ripoffs but they are 10000 better than Wolfmother, who made their money on the same Schtick. Alot of luck in showbiz.
Zappa play Zappa was the most complex show I've ever seen in my life and they sounded great. One of our party, a music fan but not really prog, kept asking why ZpZ was not the headliner. I cannot possibly think of a prog show more satisfying than their performance. Dweezil pretty much matched Pertucci's shredding but the music was so much more complex, and the solos so much tastier. You have to credit Portnoy for having the love of music to allow bands on his tour that actually have the ability to upstage him. (I can't imagine what it would be like if PoS, Beardfish, or especially Opeth and Unexpect had come first)
In any case, ZpZ was great. "The Black Page" was mind-boggling and there was one other piece earlier in the set just as complex which I'm guessing is "Echidna's Arf" from what I've read, though I don't have a copy of that song. They did not play Peaches en Regalia, but did play Inca Roads and a short version of "Willie the Pimp," along with standards "Apostrophe" and "Montana."
Dream Theater put on a very nice metal show. The new stuff, even with Portnoy's processed barks, worked pretty well live, but after ZpZ seemed like simple simple stuff. They played the three epics off the new album and we also gut lucky and got both Metropolis and Erotomania. The stage looked awesome, with Rudess's swivel keyboard and midi-triggered video of himself being quite visual entertaining.
The boomy sound killed all the intricacies, and frankly, compared to when I saw DT on the Awake tour years ago, there wasn't nearly as much intricacy. It was fun, but not very prog. The band actually got a little loose on the hard parts of Metropolis which is pretty unheard of.
So ZpZ steals the show, I have a great time despite about 16 hours of driving or more to enjoy it.
Cheers fellow proggers.
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You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
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micky
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46833
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Posted: August 22 2009 at 07:40 |
^ hahahha  and yepper... that woman was something wasn't she.
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The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
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Guitar1Jesse
Forum Groupie
Joined: June 22 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Status: Offline
Points: 44
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Posted: August 22 2009 at 00:10 |
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Just got back from the show. I did not stay for all of Dream Theater, I couldn't take it anymore. They were bad to say the least. Rudess' continuum solo was the most horrific thing I may have ever seen, and was that his Mii character he was playing with?
Anyway, the first 3 bands were AWESOME.
Scale the Summit was a great opener. Just a few regular guys (seemingly) who have mastered their instruments. Good to see an instrumental band too, it's cool to see how the absense of vocals really hones you in on the technicality of the music.
Bigelf blew me away. They sound a lot like Led Zeppelin and David Gilmour, in a strangely doom-like manner. I bought a CD, but I don't hear the Zeppelin influence as much as I did live. I can see this band becoming HUGE.
Zappa Plays Zappa. Incredible as expected. That woman, I forget her name, on the keys/sax/flute was awesome.
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Take a few minutes and listen to this!
http://www.myspace.com/jlangmusic
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: August 12 2009 at 11:12 |
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^I'll try that, thaks.
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Failcore
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 27 2006
Status: Offline
Points: 4625
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Posted: August 12 2009 at 01:50 |
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Portnoy (wow, I accidentally typed in Porntoy at first, lol, never saw the anagram before) looks hilarious, karate pose ftw.
EDIT: FYI, I found out that photos in your sig will show up a lot better (IE: less pixellation) if you downsize the photo first in photoshop using one of the filtering methods, instead of just letting the server do it for you.
Edited by Deathrabbit - August 12 2009 at 01:53
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OzzProg
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 02 2008
Location: Quebec
Status: Offline
Points: 540
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Posted: August 08 2009 at 22:36 |
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^
That's a keeper :)
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The T
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 16 2006
Location: FL, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 17493
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Posted: August 08 2009 at 21:57 |
My girl, my band, and off picture, my friends... don't need much more...
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Moatilliatta
Prog Reviewer
Joined: December 01 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3083
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Posted: August 07 2009 at 10:45 |
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^Ah, yes I did see that they were opening some sets with Constant Motion. That's a shame.
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www.last.fm/user/ThisCenotaph
 
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Zitro
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 11 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1321
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Posted: August 07 2009 at 09:15 |
 Moatilliatta wrote:
Zitro wrote:
The setlist seems much better than in 2008. There's barely any "random" average songs, and I hope they would play "Nightmare" and "Tuscany" in Boston.
I'm also excited to see Zappa plays Zappa and Bigelf. Bigelf reminds me of the classic rock era.
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I disagree. My setlist last year was:
In the Presence of Enemies, Pt. 1
Beyond This Life
Blind Faith
Erotomania
Voices
Forsaken
The Ministry of the Lost Souls
(the order might be a little jumbled in the middle)
Encore Medley: Metropolis, Learning to Live, A Change of Seasons, pt. 7
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wow, I'm jealous. I got a bunch of weaker tunes like "Constant Motion" "Dark Eternal Night" "Never Enough" while you got that amazing encore and starting a show with "In The Presence of". My show started with Constant Motion if I'm not mistaken and it wasn't until "Misunderstood" when I started having a great time.
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Conor Fynes
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 11 2009
Location: Vancouver, CA
Status: Offline
Points: 3196
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Posted: August 07 2009 at 04:47 |
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I would comment on my prognation experience if they had decided to come to vancouver agian... They played a sold out show here in 2008!!!
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Moatilliatta
Prog Reviewer
Joined: December 01 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3083
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Posted: August 07 2009 at 00:11 |
Zitro wrote:
The setlist seems much better than in 2008. There's barely any "random" average songs, and I hope they would play "Nightmare" and "Tuscany" in Boston.
I'm also excited to see Zappa plays Zappa and Bigelf. Bigelf reminds me of the classic rock era.
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I disagree. My setlist last year was:
In the Presence of Enemies, Pt. 1
Beyond This Life
Blind Faith
Erotomania
Voices
Forsaken
The Ministry of the Lost Souls
(the order might be a little jumbled in the middle)
Encore Medley: Metropolis, Learning to Live, A Change of Seasons, pt. 7
We both got the Erotomania/Voices bit I see, but I would actually take the Systematic Chaos numbers over the Black Clouds ones any day. And Beyond This Life and Blind Faith are great numbers as well.
In fact, seeing this setlist pretty much solidifies my decision not to attend this year.
Would be great if the band decided to do a tour alone again; those shows will always be the best. But maybe they're getting too old for that, and it's good of them to help get up-and-coming bands out there.
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www.last.fm/user/ThisCenotaph
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Zitro
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 11 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1321
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Posted: August 06 2009 at 20:46 |
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Bigelf was underrated. What an entertaining set of songs. What rock&roll attitude!! And they even brought a mellotron and old-skool hammond organ to the stage! :D
Of course, Zappa plays Zappa was the superior band, but Dream Theater came very very close. They were excellent that night and John Myung could actually be heard. Sometimes, they played too many solos, but I can't expect them to be restrained on a live show.
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Negoba
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
Status: Offline
Points: 5208
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Posted: August 05 2009 at 10:03 |
3 weeks....getting excited.
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You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
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micky
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: October 02 2005
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 46833
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Posted: August 03 2009 at 06:32 |
Evolver wrote:
Just got back from the Boston show.
Scale The Summit was not bad. Good instrumental metal. But as mentioned above, not much stage presence.
Big Elf, was okay. They sounded sort of like a modern Deep Purple. The singer made some comments like he was embarassed to be associated with prog.
Zappa Plays Zappa was amazing. They sure don't shy away from the hard stuff. they started with "Purple Lagoon", then "Zombie Woof", then "Village Of The Sun/Echidna's Arf (Of You)/Don't You ever Wash That Thing". Jaw droppingly executed. Dweezil did some fine soloing. He even directed the band in the manner of his dad. Other songs included "Inca Roads", "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama", and "Bamboozled By Love". All so well done, it actually brought a tear to my eyes. I only wish they would loosen up some more and add "eyebrows" to the songs like Frank's band used to.
I only stayed for an hour and a quarter of of Dream Theater. After about that long, at that volume, the songs all start to sound the same. The set was just the same as posted above. We left during "One Last Time".
I also get creeped out by the chanting from the audience. |
hah.... what took you so long to realize that. Raff and I lasted 3 songs into the DT set before we walked out. Needless to say the live experience was as excruciating as the albums themselves. Good thing acne is not contagious or else my face might look like the surface of the moon about now. Now Zappa Plays Zappa.... that was incredible... made the whole ProgNation experience worth it. Queenscryhe was cool, though I didn't really dig the new material that much. BIg Elf - next to Zappa probably the most prog thing there. Alice Cooper meets Deep Purple hahha. Shame the music itself was 2nd rate and very disjointed, but f**k it, I enjoyed the performance. Scale the Summit - decent.. and short... just like the way opening acts should be.
Edited by micky - August 03 2009 at 06:34
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The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip
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Evolver
Special Collaborator
Crossover & JR/F/Canterbury Teams
Joined: October 22 2005
Location: The Idiocracy
Status: Offline
Points: 5482
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Posted: August 02 2009 at 22:45 |
Just got back from the Boston show.
Scale The Summit was not bad. Good instrumental metal. But as mentioned above, not much stage presence.
Big Elf, was okay. They sounded sort of like a modern Deep Purple. The singer made some comments like he was embarassed to be associated with prog.
Zappa Plays Zappa was amazing. They sure don't shy away from the hard stuff. they started with "Purple Lagoon", then "Zombie Woof", then "Village Of The Sun/Echidna's Arf (Of You)/Don't You ever Wash That Thing". Jaw droppingly executed. Dweezil did some fine soloing. He even directed the band in the manner of his dad. Other songs included "Inca Roads", "My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama", and "Bamboozled By Love". All so well done, it actually brought a tear to my eyes. I only wish they would loosen up some more and add "eyebrows" to the songs like Frank's band used to.
I only stayed for an hour and a quarter of of Dream Theater. After about that long, at that volume, the songs all start to sound the same. The set was just the same as posted above. We left during "One Last Time".
I also get creeped out by the chanting from the audience.
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Trust me. I know what I'm doing.
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Plankowner
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: April 09 2008
Location: Florida
Status: Offline
Points: 4006
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Posted: July 31 2009 at 11:44 |
Bigelf to me was like if Jon Oliva of Savatage took his toy piano and joined Black Sabbath 
Would like to see an hour set from them, maybe we can get them to Nearfest soon..
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Zitro
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 11 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1321
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Posted: July 30 2009 at 18:51 |
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The setlist seems much better than in 2008. There's barely any "random" average songs, and I hope they would play "Nightmare" and "Tuscany" in Boston.
I'm also excited to see Zappa plays Zappa and Bigelf. Bigelf reminds me of the classic rock era.
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Negoba
Prog Reviewer
Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
Status: Offline
Points: 5208
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Posted: July 29 2009 at 10:20 |
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Can't wait to see this show. I actually like the Bigelf album I have and if they match the energy live, that should be great. I'm also just getting into Zappa so that sounds like a treat. Great pix, and another thumbs up for the girl. Hope you didn't have to perform any strange rituals to get her.
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You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.
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ProgNation 2009 comments...
