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Last Saturday we went to this classic event in Barcelona, nine years trying to give the best to the fans and friends that year after year meet at this event. Anyone who attended the first edition (yes, I was there!) couldnīt imagine what was going to happen on years to come.
Althoguh the artists this year werenīt really diverse (three bands form UK, very strange, because itīs the first time that all bands come from the same country), and except PRR, all the other bands had similar sounds.
PURE REASON REVOLUTION opened the festival. Vey young band (only one record) that offere s aound quite close to the modern Porcupine Tree (In absentia or Lightbulb Sun), but many times throughout the show I felt they were mainly a noise pop band with extended song format (song, chorus, solo, a musical developement, then chorus, and so on). It doesnīt mean I consider them a bad or boring band, I think they can give us great moments in the near future if they can find their own style and not look like imitators. As a frien of mine said, they sound like Porcupine Tree when they tried to sound like Pink Floyd.. Any way, nice start for the festival.
Next band was MAGENTA, a band which I had never listened to, but manu consider one of th best in mdern NeoProg. Despite I am not very fond of this kind of music, I admit they made a great show, with great musicianship, mainly on guitars and keyboards (Robert Reed, from Cyan) and great singing from Christine. The only mistake was a little loss of coordination between bassist and drummer in some occasions, but not enough to say that it made their show worse. Not as great as other bands, but not as bad and boring as I expected.
Before the final concert, there was a little surprise for all of us. Andy Sears, who had been in the festival some years ago, appeared to make a hommage to Xavi Petit, one of the organizators that unfortunately died this year. He sang Love Song with a keyboard, and it was a sad moment for all of us.
And finally, the closing concert. IQ, one of the few survivors of 80īs prog bands, offered a great show in which they played songs from all periods of their career. Of course, an IQ concert is not surprising when you have seen them before (it was the 3rd time I saw them live), but thir music is at a higher level than many of the bands of their perido and even many of modern bands. Even for not lovers of their style, their music is so great that you have to admit their merits, which are quite a lot. Of course, Peter Nicholls appeared with some disguises at the end of the show, reminding all of us how much he enjoys Peter Gabriel when he was in Genesis. Perfect ending for this year edition.
And after all this thongs, now we are all waiting for next year, the 10th anniversary of this classic, and rumours exist about great surprises for next edition. Van der Graaf Generator and Banco have been rumoured, but by the way, itīs all a great secret, but Iīm sure it will be something to remeber. We have to wait.
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