[progdirjim(Admin)]

Drove to Mexicali (took about two hours, much easier than last years marathon drive through the San Diego East county mountains in over a foot of snow, taking seven hours) after work today. Missed the Wednesday lunchtime shows, Time's Forgotten from Costa Rica - bummed just because I've never seen a prog band from Costa Rica; and Griesgraber/Marrotta. Bummed because Tom Griesgraber is probably the best stick player I've ever seen (and I've seen most of the famous ones). Got into town in time to eat at Pollo Feliz (Happy Chicken), the best chicken you've never had. Forgot that the new extended daylight savings time doesn't apply to Mexico and got to the stadium an hour early. Had a beer and waited for Cast.

Cast
Alfonso Vidales (keyboards) is the man – he's the guy that puts on Bajaprog, and he can play! Guitarist is surprisingly excellent. Background playing, melodic Hackettesque fills to Gilmouresque leads, chords, etc. Reminded me of my friend Larry Mitchell – sometimes you don’t realize you’re hearing a virtuoso due to the excellent melodic content- you have to either watch his hands or really concentrate, then it's basically, "Good Lord, is this guy human?!". Really good drummer, rock sensibility, melodic, rhythmic, creative fills. Many of you realize that I'm pretty critical of drummers, being one. This guy plays like I'd like to, but better. Two flutes at first; lead male singer played flute 2. Typical lineup - 2 vox, bass, guitar, flute, drums and keys. Very nice performance, especially the instrumentals. Interesting video playing behind the stage. Mostly a hand drawing various characters that you'd see on the program, but lots of interesting fades into special effects and live video. Video continued for all acts, with some minor variations.

Fromuz

Bass, drums, guitar, 2 keys. Spacey, floyd meets hawkwind meets ozrics with a modern hard edge. Pretty good, had an interesting, modern sound with lots of classic prog feel. May buy some for AM. Samples used, a la Ozrics at NF, with a key exception. With Indukti, it was used as an intro. Instruments joined in, and at a key point, the sample cut out or became irrelevant (versus Ozrics where it was the heart of the song). My point being Indukti used the same tool as Ozrics to MUCH better effect. The BJP program said Indukti plays violin, which I never saw. Definitely heard keys that sounded like violin though. A few musical transitions were quite awkward though tight. Conversely, many transitions were musically fluid AND tight.

An already good, and very promising band.

Univers Zero

Chamber rock. I think the lineup says it all: Drums (Daniel Denis, who happens to be the composer and leader of the band), bass, keys, violin, and 2 wind players. Very intricate, complex, yet clean music and arrangements. Frighteningly flawless performance. (Robotic intervention suspected)

My brother is supposed to arrive tomorrow; he couldn't get any time off today. And I think that's it for day 1. More as I have time...