Calprog October 10-11, 2008

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   I have a t-shirt that Stacy bought me for my birthday. It features a keyboard with the question "Got Keys?" above it. That question could have been the theme for Calprog 2008 at least early on. 

We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather for the festival as the highs were in the low 70's and the lows in the upper 50's with not a cloud in the sky. Starting at Friday pre show we ate our Patron Dinner sitting with Sylvan the band from Germany and had a great time. They were personable and knowledgeable and we had a great conversation. I also spoke with old friends Greg DiMiclli and Tom and John Galgano of IZZ briefly as well. The preshow band, Gable Ratchet a Genesis clone, started the keyboard woes as their keyboard player was in in the hospital with kidney stones. They found a guy who hadn't played with them for 8 years and while he was a good keyboard player he had some trouble throughout forgetting some of the material particularly Ripples. Still the band played bravely on and did an admiral job under the circumstances. 

The next day we got to the theater about an hour before the show and was able to check out some of the merchants and picked up more than a few CD's. I bought one CD from every band and got some Calprog related merchandise to support the festival. 

The first group on was Presto Ballet starting at 11 am. The keyboard woes for the festival continued when Kurdt Vanderhoof informed us they had to let their keyboard player go about a month prior to the gig and had not been able to find a replacement. He said rather than cancel again (they had to cancel in 2006 because their drummer quit three weeks before the festival) they decided to sequence the keys in and play around it. Not the best set of circumstances indeed because the vintage 70's analog keys they use in the band is an extremely important part of their 70's rock sound (think Kansas). The music was good and I am going to hold off any judgement of the performance until such time they can perform as a complete unit. I think they did the best they could and all the musicians were excellent with good vocals as well. They were extremely engaging when I spoke to them after the show and I asked Kurdt if he plans on keeping this going and he said absolutely. He was more astonished with the type of audience they had yesterday compared to the metal crowds he had in his other band Metal Church. His direct quotes was "there's no mosh pit and they sit and listen! I should have done this years ago!" Looking forward to it Kurdt. They did no prog cover as Kurdt explained it "we would do more but our keyboard player doesn't know any more." 

The second group was the top group for me IZZ. They played almost an 80 minutes and covered I think every album. They started out with the burning guitar of Paul Brememer, in full formal Scottish attire including Kilt, in Late Night Salvation and didn't stop. They played a new song as well that has a little bit different styles with some jazz mixed in and it is a nice direction. I spoke with drummer Brian Coralian and guitarist Paul Bremmer afterword and they are both very excited about the new material that hopefully should be recorded and released next year. This band is always on and they played inspired and their blend of technical and melodic music was just spectacular. The one band that stayed true to the tradition of Calprog and played a hauntingly good Trilogy by Emerson Lake and Palmer. Tom Galgano was just perfect on the keyboards and the vocals while drummers Brian Coralian and Greg DiMiceli were perfect ON Carl Palmer's parts. Thanks Guys that was beautiful. (I hope this makes the Calprog bootleg CD Jim.) And not being done with this they had promoter Jim Harrel take over the bass duties freeing bass player John Galgano to sing a spirited cover of a Fish song He Knows You Know 

Sylvan was the problem band for me this year and I hesitate to say something negative about them. The positives are they play with with very great energy and emotion. They are all very competent musicians and the played music form all across their 10 year carer. The problem I have their music has certain sameness to it that doesn't really change from song to song. I find this problem with most Neo Prog bands (and Pink Floyd) and really can only listen to them in small doses. The Keyboards, played by Volker Sohl, and Bass, played very well by Sebastian Harnack, seems to dominate the sound. The guitar is really down in the mix I think by design and Jan Petersen's solos might have been interesting if I could of heard them. Drummer Matthias Harder was competent and vocalist Marco Gluhmann was solid but again the sameness of him being the only vocalist (no backing vocals were used) was hard for me to sit through for almost 2 hours. I wasn't really impressed with the prog cover they chose either a Song from David Bowie's Life on Mars.  This song could have been one of their own as it kept the same tempo and slowly moving progressions they same to favor. Not my cup of tea. 

Echolyn closed the show and wow, what a way to go out. They just steamrolled us through a set of music covering all 14 years of their history. They played a lot of Cowboy Poems which should be re-released this year. Some other highlights for me were a snippet from Mei, Georgia Pine, The End is Beautiful and As the World. This band was just so good. Outside of the great vocalist Ray Weston saying "Go Phillies" to a large group of Dodger fans was about the only thing I can say negatively about them. Oh and Radiohead's Airbag is not a prog classic cover!   Anyway Guitarist Brett Kull was on fire the whole night extending some solos in very high energy moments. I love the energy drummer Paul Ramsey and Bassist Tom Hyatt brought to the mix as well. Keyboardist Chris Busby had some great fills and solos as well. It was a fitting way to end the day. 

We almost lost one tradition as the Radisson had changed their lobby by well turning it into a restaurant that was closed by festival end. Calprogs are memorable because those that will including musicians, staff and fans all sit in the lobby and party for quite a while afterwards. My better half sweet talked the manager to move the furniture so we had a spot to go and the club that had taken over the old restaurant allowed us to go in and purchase drinks so this tradition survived another year. 

Some of my favorite moments was just spending time with my friends which is what these festivals are really all about. It is just really sad that most of us live so far apart.

Edited by Garion81 - October 14 2008 at 18:33

Post Reply	Page 12 >