I attended all the shows on saturday and sunday. On saturday; Jelly Fish ( Quebec),  Miriodor ( Quebec), Samla Mammas Manna ( Sweden) and the Strawbs ( England).

 

About JELLY FISH: a new band from the Province of Quebec. This band is mixing psychadelic music,  jazz fusion,  and progressive rock. It's very theatrical with the ambiance and the costumes.  It was very poetic and the singer, Syd, has a great voice. The band 'songs are something like 10 or 15 minutes long with a theme, an ambiance, with many tempo variations; sometimes it's jazzy, sometimes it's pop, sometimes it's rock, and progressive. A good mix. A nice band with full of energy to begin this festival.

 

MIRIODOR again Miriodor gave a very nice performance. They did not hesitate to presence us something like 4 new music pieces of their coming album. They began their show with "Le Mille Pattes" ( the carterpillar ) my favorite from "Les Termites". They played some pieces from Mekano also.  No violin this time, but Marie-Chantal on the saxophone, and clarinet was there to slow down a bit the usual  very fast tempo  of  Miriodor music. Their music is very surprising sometimes, and we never know if a pieces is really finished...

 

Around seven , after a quick lunch, SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA from Sweden  came to present us their music. I did not know them at all. This progressive formation does what they call: Rock in Opposition ( maybe what we used to call in the seventies in my Province, de L'Anti Rock). They are very good musicians. They just have to look at the others and play and improvise. They like to improvise a lot and they also like to have fun on stage. So,  between the songs, they like to fool around. What is strange and fun, is that their drummer is coming from Tokyo. His name is Tatsuya Yoshida and he is very good and he is fitting quite well with this strange but very talented and generous band.

 

On Saturday evening around 10, it was time for THE STRAWBS  with their symphonic folk rock.  For me, it was the same voice, the same music that I was listening too during the seventies. Yes, the Strawbs were playing  regulary on the rock radiio station in Montreal. My favorites that they played on saturday night; Automn, and of course Hero and Heroïne. Dave Lambert, their electric guitarist , sang a rock and roll tune also. So, for the Strawbs, it was a nice evening, mixed with some folk, some rock, and  progressive music  and memorable songs. A very nostalgic evening who gave some shivers to some people in the audience. ( I am sure...).   

 

 

   

At 13 h 30: HAMADRYAD, a rock symphonic progressive band from the province of Quebec.  I liked their sound, their drummer, their guitarist , the keyboardist. Their bassist , a very nice bassist, is the singer. Unfortunatly, I don't think that he fits in a rock progressive band at all. He is more a singer for a metal band or rock band. A Van Hallen type of singer.  Like we say in french: il n'a pas rap... Even if their musicians are talented for most, ( excellent keyboardist ...), I don't think that they have a great musicianship. I think that Karcius are better for the musicianship. ( I saw Karcius last year, and I loved it...). Their performance was ok, but that's all...

 

LE VILLE ÉMARD BLUES BAND, with his 14 musicians, and singer and chorists gave a nostalgic show for those who were there in the seventies. It was blues of course, some world beat with their huge hit "Yamanech!, but also some intensive rock progressive music. They surprised me a lot because at first we were thinking what this group have to do with progressive music. We found out and we were satisfied. A big party.

 

NATHAN MAHL; after the quick lunch, this group from Ontario and Québec came to play for us. I liked it because this group is more keyboards oriented. Their keyboardist Guy Leblanc is excellent. While other groups had something like one or two keyboards, Lebland surrounded himself with something like 5 or 6 different keyboards. He can make a lot of different sounds like Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson. So, with this group, I was really satisfied; it was about time to have a more keyboards oriented show. Guy   Leblanc played several years with Camel from 2000 to 2003.

 

FINALLY, IQ; ( pour le dessert). IQ played for us for more than 2 h 30 and they gave 3 encores. They were very generous. It was a special show for them because it was the last time after 26 years in the group that their keyboardist Martin Orford were playing with IQ.  IQ is very professionnal with a lot of musicianship, a lot of talent, generosity and a lot of class. I did not really know this progressive rock symphonic from the eighties, except maybe that I listened some of their music on My.Space.

 

Actually, I think that they can be as good even better than Genesis who just repeat their success night after night. IQ show gave me more satisfaction in a certain way than Genesis. First, I was sitting in first row in the middle. The sound was better. The musicians played with a lot of energy. ( I did not see this kind of  energy or effort from Tony Banks of Genesis last friday). On IQ show, on the other hand, everybody was giving everything. Their music is complexed, but also very melodic. Their singer knows how to sing ( nice voice), and he can speak french ( better than Phil ...).IQ had a sophisticated play of lights combined with videos ( 3 screens) behind. Their music is everything that we want in a progressive group; long pieces of music, long songs, thematic ( topics like geo-politics,), spacy ambiance,  many variations, sometimes melodic, sometimes powerfull,  all this combined with many different emotions rendered very well by Peter Nicholls.  It was a great evening of  progressive music. It was almost 1 a.m when they left the stage. 

 

What a surprise near the end; MUSICAL BOX singer, Denis Gagné, came on stage to sing with Nicholls. Those two are friends for several years now. It was one of the great moment of the festival.

 

 

 

   

 

            

 

 

I met BERN from prog.archives. Finally, I could put a face on him. Very nice guy,much younger than me,. We discussed a lot on saturday night  and also with Rémi Leclerc, Miriodor 's drummer. 

I finally met my friend on my.space,, Mr. Dave Lambert from the Strawbs. I met all Karcius members ( very cute, classy and nice guys...). I met a Mexican producers and we went to eat to a Mexican restaurants. I practiced a little bit my spanish.

 

Of course, I met Robert Dansereau, one of the organiser of this festival.  It was a great festival. We already want to know what will happen next year, who will come etc...

 

Is that correct for you Vibration ?  

 

What a wondeful festival it was!Great music,relaxed and friendly atmosphere and top notch organisation.

What I like about those festivals is the community type of vibes that emanates throughout.All week end long we could chat with prog industry peoples;musicians,record labels owners,promoters and most importantly enthusiastic fans.It's like a pilgrimage where all ''devotees'' meet and share common love for common tastes(PROG!).

My favorites were Ville-Émard Blues Band,IQ and The Strawbs but all bands gave us a taste of their own brand of prog be it RIO,Neo,Symphonic,psych,folk,jazzy,ect...

Quite an eclectic bunch of bands.Kudos to the promoters(Sean Macfee,Stephen Takacsy,Robert Dansereau and Michel St-Pere) for such variety.

The location was perfect.Modern,clean,coazy and the staff very accomodating and charming(not to mention cute hostesses!)

I had the privilege to talk and shake hands with some of my idols:Maneiges' Yves Leonard,Jerome and Vincent Langlois,Gilles Shetagne,Alain Bergeron as well as Michel Séguin of Toubabou,Ville-Émard Blues Band and Guy Leblanc.

 

Let's hope they make it an annual event,Montreal deserves to have it's own prog fest.!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Nathan Mall keybordist. I liked his playing very much. This guy played for Camel from 2000 t0 2003.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Rémi Leclerc, Miriodor drummer. 

 

 

Samla Mammas Mann. Lars Hollmer on the keyboard. Lars came to play a piece with Miriodor in the afternoon.  

 

Sounds and looks like it was a great festival. Thanks for posting the pics and impressions of yours here!

I would have loved to meet the band members myself as well, I'm interested to listen to what they have to say about their and other band's music.

 

 

 

I mean,Montreal is a geogeous city with nice folks,nice weather,good food,restos,bars,cafés,stores,ect....and the Pierre Peladeau Hall is a very beautiful and comfortable theater accessible by subway right in the very midle of Montreal's busy yet unrushed downtown core,with many affordable hotels just a few steps away.

 

The festival organisers are a bunch of nice and devoted prog fans(like most of us) and they give their 100% to make you happy by picking some of the finest and  best bands under the wide progressive umbrella.Besides,vendors also seem to be customer-friendly by selling their stuff at affordable prices(I snatch a bunch of great CDs for as low as 5- 10-15$)

It can't be better than that.

I'm already eagerly awaiting next years' fest!

 

 

Merci!

This year, Porcupine Tree was only 25.00 $ per ticket, so not expensive at all to see PT.

 

I will go see Jethro Tull in november. I don't care to spend money on his concert because I know that Ian Anderson is very good, he is very generous and I like JT music very much.

 

I don't care to spend something like between 500.00 $ to 1,000.00 $ per year for two people ( my husband and I) to see good concerts and to see artists that we like.

 

For Genesis, we sat upstairs in the stadium because we thought that It was not worthing to pay more than 77.00 $ each to see them.  I think that the concert was very good, but we were ok seating in the 400.   I would not have paid much.