[progdirjim(Admin)]

Guess I'll go first.

Opening act - High Wheel - play kind of a heavier rock/prog than I typically like, but I found enough things in their music to like. The parts of the songs that featured keys more especially, but I liked some of the drummer's fills, and the singer/guitarist had some fine moments. My favoite band to hang out with, as my brother and I got fairly drunk Saturday night with Erich the bass player - nice guy.

Alamaailman Vassarat - very interesting band. Drums, 2 cellists, trombone, sax and I think keys. I've never heard a fuzz-cello before, but it somehow worked. The trombone player was jamming all over the stage (rocking trombone - how often do you say that?), and the sax player was fairly humorous. My brother and I decided that he was making up the English "translations" to the Finnish titles - judging by the band's reactions. "Big Black Spiders" and "We Would Have Swimmed (sic) Further" were 2 that I recall. Very unique and enjoyable.

Tunnels - Cool fusion, midi-vibes, and Percy Jones on bass - how bad could it be? They were actually very good, though I wish John Goodsall would have been featured more - not that he was needed as much as I enjoyed his guitar work. Percy's bass work was quite nice, though not in the top two of the day - more on that later. The midi-vibes are a cool instrument - Marc was getting some pretty cool sounds out of it, but the most impressive to me was the fairly credible latin percussion solo he did on the midi-vibe, complete with different conga voicings, timbales, cowbells, and cymbals. I don't think I'm explaining it well, you had to be there...

Flower Kings - wow. Here's a band I liked, but after seeing them realized that I had never really appreciated them. Great songs, great playing, great presence. Jonas Reingold on bass - very impressive - better than Percy on this day, and that's saying a lot. So many different sounds - it seemed like every one in the band played at least two completely different instruments, so the instrumentation was never stale. They played mostly longer songs, I particularly enjoyed "Stardust We Are" I think they could have easily been a headliner, not that either of the headliners was lacking.

Magma - was transcendental. The vocals might have been the most impressive parts of the band, but Christian Vander is a pretty cool drummer, James MacGaw on guitar was far better than I'd ever noticed before, and Philippe Bussonnet on bass - good lord. Two fine keyboardist filled out the mix. Fantastic arrangements. Perhaps the most amazing part was the encore when Christian came out from behind the drums to sing - one of the singers took his place and did a pretty fair job (I hate it when the second best drummer in a band is better than me!), but the "duet" of Christian singing, trading licks with the guitar player blew me away. I don't know which was more impressive - Christian's screams imitating the guitar, or the other way around.

Day 2
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Umm, did anyone LIKE them? Sure, they were original and creative - costumed, made-up and god knows what else. The drummer played the entire set wearing a donkey head. Homemade instruments, industrial percussion, screeching violin. At first I thought they were trying too hard to be hip, avant-garde, and different; then I realized that the entire crew was certifiable. They certainly weren't boring.

Glass Hammer - I have to bitch about how late they ran. However, they played a fine set - I thought the sound was great, the performances as good as expected (listening to their albums will let you know the expectation was high), and as a bonus the 3 vocalists were probably the most attractive women I saw all weekend (my wife stayed home in San Diego) Somehow lacking a defining passion, but an expertly played, tight set of fine symphonic progressive.

Kraan - pleasant surprise of the weekend for me - fairly simple song structures (primarily but not totally instrumental), evolving into long jams - nothing stellar, but quite enjoyable. At times reminded me of Passport without horns, and at times a pop sound creeped in that I actually enjoyed. I bought two of their CDs which we'll be adding to the station.

Anglagard - I missed them and don't want to talk about it. I would sure welcome any posts about the performance though.

Camel - I really enjoyed them, mainly because the band played well, the song selection was great, and I have listened to the band for so long without ever seeing them. That being said, I wasn't blown away. Andy Latimer seems like a truly nice person, and was personable on stage. Tom Brislin on keys did a great job (and was anyone else sitting close enough to see how BIG his friggin' hands are?!). Denis the drummer was good, and Colin Bass on bass was fine. I liked that they played (I think) 3 from the first album, 2 from Mirage, 2 from Moonmadness, a nice excerpt from Snow Goose, the 2 best songs from I Can See Your House From Here, and fewer selections from the later albums. People can talk them up all they want, but nothing after Snow Goose compares with anything up to and including SG.

A few listeners talked to me and said nice things about the station - that was appreciated. And I guess that's it - other thoughts?