My band, ProgKnowSys, is based in Orange County, California, USA.

We are a 5-piece cover band, and we play songs from the "classic era" of progressive rock (1968-1982) with a few classic rock standards thrown in for good measure.

For the sake of keeping our audience attention (and to book local gigs) here in Southern California, we play the more popular/radio friendly songs by Rush, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, ELP, etc… We also play some classic rock songs which feature heavy use of keyboards and harmonies (Boston, Journey, Styx, Toto)

I have 4 basic questions:

1) The market here in southern California seems somewhat unfulfilled for this type of music. Do you think we would have better success and a fan base if our band were to visit in Europe?

2) Aside from the more successful modern progressive rock bands (Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree come to mind), does anyone predict there will be growth in the appreciation of progressive rock in the future?  Specifically, what about here in the US? Do you think North America has too short of an attention span for this?

3) Should we strictly adhere to the progressive rock genre, or is it OK that our band includes a few songs in our set list that would be categorized as more “classic rock” rather than true “progressive rock” (such as populasr songs by the Who, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, etc.)

4) Is it OK for our band to focus on the classic/older songs exclusively, or should we include modern progressive rock also?

Any thoughts you have to help our band would be greatly appreciated!

You can check out our bands sound at:

http://www.myspace.com/progknowsysmusic - www.myspace.com/progknowsysmusic