I'm curious to hear what you have to say Micky.  I am most curious to know your "suffering through prog which doesn't float your boat" reviews, as I suspect that those would have been my favorite moments, with or without the Newcastles.  

Enjoyed NF this year. But not as much as the last two years.

Admittedly, it will be difficult to beat last year’s line-up containing VDGG, Gong, & PFM. And the year before was Banco, Peter Hammill, Koenji Hyakkei, & ecolyn – another stellar cast.

Overall, I found the sound engineering / mixing a little inferior this year. Almost everything was too loud. And too heavy on guitars & drums. Judging by the number of times the artists gave urgent hand signals to stage-right, I think the bands noticed this problem too. When everything is too loud, it reduces the dynamic range and potential drama of performances. Prog is a finesse-based form for the most part. A bit more attention to sound is needed for next year.

Riverside – missed most of this performance. We just arrived in from Ontario, Canada – 7 hour drive. Arrgh. I hear this band was good. Walter says it was one of his favorites.

Steve Hackett – always brilliant guitar work; never misses. I like his quieter stuff better; it suits his style better I think. And the bassist, who looked and acted like a cross between King Kong & Little Bo Peep, was distracting and annoying. The comments about the Genesis stuff being less than perfect are probably true – we noticed the same thing. But I hate to be negative – this was a good Hackett show if you ignored a couple things. He is a gentlemen and an excellent guitarist.

Astra – we liked this show. Cool visuals that were a good match for the music. Playing was excellent and vocals (though not many) were decent. The song structures were a little long/repetitive, but that seems to be the intention. Of course, long/repetitive songs leaves lots of room for extended guitar solos, which can be tiresome if melodic passages are substituted for mere multiplicity of notes. These guys are good, and are capable of some drama and intensity. If they remember that drama is created by variation between power & subtlety, we can watch out for some excellent future work from this band.

Forgas Band Phenomena – another good show. The music was very challenging in places – which is a good thing for us proggers. Very well played. There were some humorous antics between songs due to French/English translation – all in good fun. The guitarist’s sound/distortion seemed to be a little much. The prog/jazz format would have been better served with a more subdued guitar sound. Especially in view of the fact that they had a decent variety of other instrumentation with some other excellent players. Again, better mixing would have helped. And Mr. Forgas has a lot of finesse as a drummer – nice to watch.

IONA – missed this one also. Celtic/symphonic from England. I’m not a huge fan of this genre, but audience reception seemed to be very positive.

Three Friends – Incredible. Way better than I expected. I was worried that diluting the original band so much would produce only a pale shadow of the ‘power & glory’. But not so. The players were awesome. Especially the bass player. There is a saying that a mediocre player will make something easy look hard, whereas a master will make something hard look easy. This guy was a master. No theatrics (compare Hackett’s bassist), no pomp, no antics. Just perfect playing and vocals (not easy when Gentle Giant is the set-list). If you get a chance to see Gary and friends, do not miss it! All hail the Giant!

Morriane – missed this one too. Can you tell that I travelled with my pal to NF with our wives and 5 children (total)? I would have loved to have seen these guys. There is always a Sunday morning surprise and we missed it again this year:(

Pineapple Thief - missed this one too. (This is a NF record for me for missed shows.) We overheard a number of comments about this band being a straight ahead rock band with little ‘progressive’ flavor. What little recorded material I have heard from this band seems to support this view. But I cannot speak for the live show.

Enid – WOW! I expected something big from these guys, but this show was truly an experience. The set started off rather clumsily with a computer failure about 3 minutes into the first song. The show stopped while the problem was fixed. The drummer filled in the break with a light-hearted solo vocal. The show resumed and there was no looking back after that. If you closed your eyes, you heard a full symphony at work. Mr. Godfrey is an incredible player. He is also an excellent composer – truly classical song structures. My only minor complaint regarding some of the music is that it is perhaps too overstated, maybe even a little bombastic in places. There are a number of points in the tracks where the music builds to a rousing point that is suggestive of a finale – only to continue on. We met Robert in the street later that evening – he confirmed that he is influenced by Gustav Mahler – 8^th symphony specifically. Again the guitar work, while excellent, was mixed to high and too harshly – to the point of being somewhat unforgiving to technique of the player. After the show, the band were immediately and cheerfully out to meet the crowd. I was buying a CD when Mr. Godfrey walked right up to me and asked if I would like a signature (and if he could borrow a pen to do so). I directed him to the table where he was more than happy to talk with all of the fans. We tried to convince them to pop by and visit us in Canada some time for supper. We also reassured them not worry about computer crashes – my work computer crashes all the time – stupid MS Windows! Judging by the audience reaction during the speeches later in the evening, I would say Enid was the weekend favorite for most people.

Eddie Jobson & UZP – Headliner – but honestly, I think this spot should have been reserved for Enid or even Three Friends. Anyway, there was a rather long wait – they were late in taking the stage. In the lead-up to the set, there were numerous messages over-head that forbade anyone from taking pictures or making recordings of any kind; we were not even allowed to remember the show in any way (just joking). (Usually NF bands don’t care about this, so this, combined with being late, started things off with an annoying taste in mouth.) The show began with Eddie Jobson doing some noodling on a glow-in-the-dark violin. It wasn’t really a song; it was just some fast / loud arpeggios buried under a wall of effects (digital delay, chorus, wah, distortion, etc.) This introduction was essentially representative of the rest of the show.

After Enid, this band seemed like a bunch of hot-doggers. Just because you can play fast and loud, doesn’t mean you’re worth listening to. It seemed like these guys were trying to make what they were playing look harder than it was through much pomp and exaggerated antics. And yes, the two (why?) drummers were great; and yes, the 15-20min duel drum solo was riveting entertainment, but gimme a break – we get the point. And next to Robert Godfrey (from Enid), Eddie Jobson’s keyboard work was a bit of a wannabe. The singer occasionally did a good job of Wetton’s original KC vocals. But this was overshadowed by his inability to carry a tune in a bucket. The singing in ‘Nevermore’ was especially hilarious. The singer did do some passable rhythm and even lead guitar work. The other guitarist on stage-left was absent for much of the performance and when he was present, seemed to be concerned with the performance of his amp - maybe some tech difficulties. Overall, it was difficult to take EJ&UZP very seriously. ‘Ultimate Zero Project’ seemed a strangely fitting moniker for this performance.

Perhaps someone with more knowledge and affection for UK’s original work would be more forgiving than I. And I am only one opinion among many.

An idea - I know there is an effort made to have a variety of acts that include both old and new bands. My concern is that the older bands are a dwindling resource as time passes. I would encourage the organizers to focus on including older acts in the line-up now while the time is still opportune. Bands such as: National Health, Moving Gelatine Plates, Pollen, EtCetera, Dedalus, Bella Band, Quella Vecchia Locanda, Morse Code, Locanda Del Fate, Gotic, Atlas, Arti E Mestieri, Smak, Sloche, Ruphus, Quiet Sun, Il Volo, Etna, Culpeper's Orchard, Coloseum, Acqua Fragile, Terreno Baldio, Satin Whale, Fields, Mythos, Maxophone, Ragnarok, Eskaton, Druid, Comus, Biglietto Per L'Inferno, Alphataurus, etc.

I know many of these bands are secondary classics and may no longer exist, but you get the idea. Soon there will be no opportunity to hear musicians from that era. It is worth a try to get some of these guys to think about coming to Nearfest for a one-off (or more) show to celebrate the early years of prog.

Dave

Canada