NEARfest!

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   Hello all,

The purpose of this thread is to answer to 
all of the folks who were asking for my review on the festival. So, 
after some discussion, Billy and I thought that, to be as thorough as 
possible, that we would get together and add our thoughts, stories, and 
music review into one thread here on PE and encourage discussion, 
photos, videos, etc with all of the wonderful people that we've met on 
here and at NEARfest Prog-ocalypse.

First, I will start by reviewing the music itself, the main focus of why I went to the festival.

FRIDAY:
Aranis
 - I caught about 10 minutes of these guys during soundcheck when I 
first arrived and the immediate reaction was chills down my spine. When I
 came back for the show, my first exposure to live RIO was breathtaking 
to say the least. The pianist, Pierre Chevalier was insanely proficient,
 going from dissonant chords to beautifully played passages. One got the
 feeling that, as Billy pointed out with his comment, "I had no idea he 
invented the piano", the man really owned his instrument. The 
accordionist, Marjolein Cools played the most raunchy tone I've ever 
heard and really blended well with the group, giving an extra eeriness 
to the group. The flutist, Jana Arns, was a wonderfully sweet lady and I
 really appreciated her gorgeous flute work, her mixture of classical 
and jazz techniques, and particularly her ability to weave and blend 
with violinist Liesbeth Lambrecht. David Kerman joins the tradition of 
phenomenal RIO drummers and he's in good company ... his style reminded 
me of Vander, Denis, Cutler ... no easy feat and he was a wonderful 
personality off stage and at the hotel. As another festival goer 
observed (I'm sorry, his name escapes me ... if you are reading this, 
say hi so I can properly acknowledge you!), if guitarist Stijn Denys had
 played an electric, it really would've been an apocalyptic situation, 
as I had to keep reminding myself that this was an essentially acoustic 
ensemble.

Van der Graaf Generator - AH, the 
legends! And they certainly lived up to and exceeded my expectations. 
I'm a VdGG fanboy ... everyone knows that ... and they are the reason 
why I took an excursion to Bethlehem for my first prog festival. When 
they took the stage, we were treated to a rousing, note-perfect 
rendition of 1975's aptly titled "Scorched Earth", which left 
festival-goers Scorched, indeed as Hammill perfectly sang every note, 
which earned them a standing ovation. In fact, Hammill's voice sounded 
better, in my opinion, then it did on "A Grounding in Numbers". Guy 
Evans, the most underrated drummer in prog, thumped along, adding a lot 
of power to the group, while Hugh Banton was positively innovative on 
his organ. The song "Flight" (which I'd never heard ... more on that 
later) particularly showcased his talents, with the swirling airplane 
effects the floated throughout the Zoellner. The big number at the end, 
"Childlike Faith in Childhood's End" brought an emotional reaction from 
everyone and the place erupted in applause with Peter's solo vocal spot 
in the middle, but it was the encore presentation of "Refugees" that 
left us all misty-eyed at the end of the proceedings. The middle of the 
show was mostly newer material, which was great. VdGG is not a jukebox 
and are, as Peter told me at the after party, "A modern band". A side 
note, I was rather embarrassed that I was unfamiliar with "Flight" ... a
 19 minute song which featured the band on Hammill's "A Black Box" from 
1980 (thanks to Phideaux for filling me in on this info!!), so much so 
that I rushed out Saturday morning and bought it from Ken at lasercd!

SATURDAY:
Helmet
 of Gnats - These guys were really cool and guitarist Chris Fox added a 
lot of great FZ and other influences to his heavy take on jazz fusion. I
 loved all of the effects he used and use of tremelo in his tone. Not 
much more to say other than the fact that they were a highly enjoyable 
addition to NEARfest.

Twelfth Night - I went into the 
performance, entirely unaware of their style, so expectations were 
fairly low. However, I was pleasantly surprised by their style of 
Neo-Prog which Rob LaDuca described to me as being half Genesis and half
 punk which wasn't for everyone. We enjoyed it quite a bit, particularly
 Andy Sears vocal prowess and sense of theatricality. Andy Faulkner on 
bass was a fine musician and so was Roy Keyworth's Rothery-like guitar 
licks. The guys were also wonderful to hang out with after the 
performance and Andy Sears was happy to meet appreciative fans and sign 
autographs and take pictures.

Anglagard - These guys were 
probably the highlight of Saturday for me. They played around 2 hours of
 mostly music from their recent record, "Viljans Öga", as well as 
selections from "Epilog" and a stunning extended take on "Jordrok" from 
"Hybris". Anna Holmgren was a surprise for me (I've only heard the first
 record) as their sound has had a lot more flute added to the mix, 
almost as the lead instrument and her beautiful sax playing added even 
more depth and variety to their already eclectic mix, as well as her 
masterful mellotron work, often adding counter melody to Thomas 
Johnsson's epic mellotron and organ work. It was drummer Mattias Olsson 
who stole the show, though, as he was an absolute joy to watch play and 
was without a doubt, the finest drummer there. Anglagard's music is 
based in dynamics ... its all about contrast ... loud, soft, beauty and 
brutality. From the smallest twinkling of Mattias's percussion 
(including a bicycle wheel with keys attached to it!) to the punishing 
loudness of the heavier sections, every nuance could be heard and 
appreciated. Later, Mattias provided a lot of fun at the after parties 
and was great fun to hang out with.

Renaissance - Not my 
favorite band of the weekend, but still very, very good. Vocalist Annie 
Haslam took a few tunes to get warmed up, but once we got to the vocally
 challenging "Things I Don't Understand" the beautiful voice that we all
 know and love had filled the Zoellner and the 65 year-old Annie sounded
 like she did 40 years ago on those albums that I so adore. The 
orchestral parts of these classic Renaissance tunes were covered to 
perfection by Jason Hart, but sounded a bit too Midi-ish for my tastes, 
but he is extremely talented and great to talk to when I bumped into him
 at the hotel (he was staying a few rooms down from us at the Comfort 
Suites). Pianist Rave Tesar played all of the original parts to 
perfection and was great fun to talk with on the elevator Saturday 
night, sporting a Gong t-shirt at the after party! My only problem with 
the band, other than the Midi sounds was that "Vultures Fly High" (one 
of my absolute favorites) was very weak, particularly on the part of the
 vocal harmonies ... I'm not sure why that one fell apart, but in spite 
of that, the band put on a rousing rendition of "Song of Scheherazade" 
that brought the house down and I couldn't keep back the chills when the
 band went into the final section of their brand of prog epic. An encore
 presentation of "Carpet of the Sun" (a song I was not familiar with) 
with Annie and Micheal Dunford was a nice simplistic folk tune that went
 over well. They finished the show with a new song, "Mystic and the 
Muse" which Annie told me was going to be on the new record that was 
epic in the style of good old 70's Renaissance. At the autograph 
session, Annie seemed pleased that I attended what was my first 
Renaissance concert and we chatted for a few minutes. She is a very 
sweet lady and seemed to appreciate young people who were into her 
music. It was definitely not a perfect show by any means, but a very 
good show ... excusable since it was opening night!

SUNDAY
Gosta
 Berlings Saga - Sunday morning was off to a tremendous start with these
 guys from Sweden. Their brand of hypnotic and heavy prog rock came 
across like a swirling machine and all four members played their hearts 
out. They were also cool guys to hang out with and I struck up a 
friendship with guitarist Einar Baldursson while helping him make 
waffles at the hotel breakfast! Later, we got a picture with all four 
guys who seemed just as happy to be there as Bill and I were. Great guys
 and a great band. For an encore, they played a rendition of "Island" 
from the Glue Works album which left us all speechless!

Il
 Tempio Delle Clessidre - Another band that I went in completely 
unfamiliar with and was left a complete fan. Great performances from all
 involved, especially Lupo Galifi from the classic RPI band Museo 
Rosenbach who sang with the power of a man half of his age. Elisa 
Montaldo on keys was phenomenal, adding dark sounds to the band's heavy 
take on RPI and was also a lot of fun to jam with at the afterparty. 
Also notable was Fabio Gremo on bass who was very talented, very 
energetic ... something that made the entire band a treat to watch and 
listen to, as well as a solid dose of theatricality. Excellent all 
around. Later, Lupo signed my copy "Zarathustra" and even though he 
spoke little English, he was seemingly overjoyed on Monday morning when I
 told him that I enjoyed the band. The band also hung around the entire 
festival. Such a classy bunch and very professional and very talented. 
Mike
 Keneally Band - I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mike, even 
though my knowledge of his output is sorely lacking. My introduction to 
the man was very unique. When I went to purchase an album of his, I 
asked the vendor which one was good for a Keneally novice, to which he 
replied, "Why ask me, when you can as a Keneally?" and Mike turned 
around and shook my hand and talked for a long time, even personalizing 
our purchases with his signature. The highlight for me was after his 
devastating performance at the afterparty, Mike and I talked Crimson for
 a bit (we share a mutual love for the "Lizard" record), VdGG (Mike 
claims that Pawn Hearts blew him to "f***ing Venus", but his favorite is
 "World Record" ) and before going to bed, he said "Cool hangin' with 
ya, man" ... it doesn't get much better than that. His performance, of 
course, was unbelievable to say the least and Mike's guitar work and 
compositions were highly original, innovative, and very different. I 
loved it! If you haven't met him, he's a really cool guy and a lot of 
fun to talk with. If you're reading this, Mike, thanks for hanging with 
me!
UK - I was introduced to Eddie Jobson in the hotel 
shortly after he arrived by Kevin and we talked Curved Air for a bit. 
Eddie seemed surprised that I liked Curved Air and told me that his son 
bought him the debut on picture disc vinyl for Father's Day ... cool to 
know that Eddie is into vinyl ... and he was a joy to talk with. The 
performance, although a bit too loud, was tight and all members were in 
fine form, with Wetton sounding better than ever, in my opinion. Eddie 
stole the show, however, with his violin solo with prerecorded tape 
accompaniment was what stole the show, along with a soaring take on KC's
 "Starless" which was very authentic and very thrilling. 
So
 there you have it ... my review of the bands of NEARfest Apocalpse. The
 only thing left to say is that the people who were there were 
absolutely wonderful and I felt completely at home during the weekend. 
Even though I barely slept, I feel 100% refreshed from the amount of 
good, honest people I met and talked with there. I felt more at home 
there than anywhere else next to my actual home, of course. 
Due
 thanks to the community for making me feel like a distant, but welcome 
relative to a close-knit family. It was fun to finally meet Rob LaDuca, 
Ian Carss (and get a sweaty man-hug), Cyndee Lee Rule and her husband, 
Anthony Ferraro, Dale Stubitsch, Frank Stickle, Sean Tonar, as well as 
the countless others that I came across while waiting in line for 
signatures, hanging out in the venue, or in the vendor rooms. As far as 
artists (not already mentioned): Phideaux (thank you for the evil), Mark
 Wilkinson, Roger Dean and Gary Green. Wilkinson was a lot of fun to 
hang out with, particularly while discussing Gosta Berlings Saga. Roger 
Dean was an absolute hoot ... when I told him how much I liked his 
"Tales from Topographic Oceans" cover, his dry response of "Who tortured
 you and made you listen to Yes?" had Bill and I in stitches. When he 
signed my copy of "Octopus", he complained about the crop of the cover 
and signed it twice, saying "They didn't even credit me!" (Do you blame 
him?) 
Last, but by no means least, I want to send my 
sincere thanks to Kevin Feeley for making this weekend more special to me than 
it otherwise would've been. The community that he has gotten me involved
 in is something that I think about with a smile and that is something 
I'll never forget. You're the man!