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.