[Laudio9]

Welp, here's my take on the event and Karisssss is pretty much on the same page but this is just my opinion....

Friday night we seen the Best and the worst of the entire weekend.
I seen DeeExpus a couple years ago at RoS and to be truthful, I wasn't real impressed. To me DeeExpus is a rock band...not prog, but what got me this year was that you could not understand a word the singer was singer...his vocals were totally muffled and every song had intros that were on tape...When I go to see live music, I want to see "live" music....PLAY your instruments...the keyboard player did practically nothing...it was basically a guitar band with taped intros...very disappointing to me....
BUT THEN...
Karmakanic took the stage and totally blew me away.....Every one in the band are excellent musicians and guess what.....you could hear every word the singer sang, very crisp and clean and clear....To me this was the best band of the entire weekend... Top notch everything, Keys, guitar, bass, everything clicked. I have seen them before but this performance was the best in my opinion!

after that....we drove up the Eisenhower for the after party Trespass show...
I don't wanna dis them but lets just say, after 3 songs...sleep was sounding better than staying there listening to them play old genesis songs, average at best..singer did not sound or look like gabriel, actually he looked like Alice Cooper trying to be Peter Gabriel....soo we left...

Saturday-
Aaron English........really really interesting and a great performance...I was not expecting this band to be that good... I have one of their cds and it is more pop oriented but I really liked this band and have bought the other two cds I didn't have. Aaron (a.k.a. Ben Stiller, atleast some people thought he looked like him, I didn't) was great... great vocals, interesting songs, he did a couple cover songs and the one that was really different and great was All along the Watchtower....never heard it like that before and I thought it was the best I ever heard that song.... I have to say that Aaron was one of my favorites of the weekend and he was a very humble guy, down to earth and wasn't trying to be a rock star...cool dude.

Resistor was next up and Steve Unruh was very cool, not only playing guitar but also, violin and flute. I have all the resistor stuff and solo Steve Unruh stuff so I knew what to expect and I thought it was really good....a little Zappaish at times, all in all a good performance and a good band...

Hasse Froberg was up next and for me, I think Hasse's band was good but they are more Rock than prog also. Out of the three Swedish bands there, this was my least favorite. The thing about Hasse is, hes good but its basically guitar drivin rock music and his vocals for the most part seem to be strained...like hes almost screaming or its hard to reach some of the high notes but thats just the way his voice is. I don't wanna give them a bad rap but they weren't one of my favs...too much rock, not enough diversity. I actually like him better in the Flower Kings.

Then..... IQ........I know alot of people aren't going to agree with what I am about to say but I'm gonna say it anyway.... I've seen IQ 3 times...each time I was bored to death. Yes they did the whole Subterrania with theatrics but the whole thing was monotone...there was no dynamics there was no memorable parts, they were like a machine that just pushed a button and it played subterrania. Peter Nichols voice was the weakest out of all the times I've seen them. I do not think he has a great voice to begin with. I own alot of IQ cds, like, I think Dark Matter and Frequency were good cds but the live shows bore the hell out of me... I seriously couldn't wait for it to end and I was so glad there wasn't time for an encore...so needless to say they were next to the last on my list, the last being DeeExpus.

Sunday....
Sanguine Hum was first up on the bill and I really liked this band...they're young and I think they have a lot of potential. The guitar player is the main guy in the band and he was doing some cool stuff as was the bass player... I really think if they would add some type of sax or flute it would add alot to their sound....the keyboard player was more of an atmospheric keyboardist...he gave the guitar player a good background but I think he could have added more but all in all, I enjoyed them and thought they were good.

IO EARTH was next up.....I was really looking forward to this band...first of all they had the only female in the whole RoSfest line up this year and I like both of their cds.... Musically they sounded great, the guitar player is really good but he's a bit over the top, jumping around on stage, trying to be a rock star and the singer, she was ok, good voice but she came out with hoods and masks and thats cool if it has a purpose, Like for instance, peter gabriel and the old man mask...because he was playing a character of an old man...anyway.... sooo the combination of her and her antics and the guitar player and his antics kinda blew it for me... I like them better on cd than I did in concert BUT they were good.

Discipline was next up and Matthew Perrimeter came out with his clown makeup on once again....he has a dry humor and he is funny...I actually got into them the more they played...they kept getting better to me....by the end of their show I really liked them. I have all their cds and Ive seen them before so it was nothing new to me and they were pretty much what I expected except that I think I liked them better this year than I did at Nearfest.

Final band was Agents of Mercy.... This was up there on par with Karmakanic....Nad, the vocalist is alittle over the top, the most was when he came out with the fur vest and crush velvet pants for one song....but other than that, I thought he sounded good and the whole band was good... I have seen them before so I knew what to expect but I think Nad is getting more comfortable and more confident on stage and it shows...the band was very tight and I thought they did a great job.... Karisssss and I talked with Nad and Roine with his women Lillian and Lalla the day before and they were very humble saying they didn't know how it was going to be because they thought they needed more practice but of course they were great and to top it off, as was expected the encore for the entire weekend was Roine, Jonas and Hasse coming back on stage to do a couple FLower King songs, so it was a mini Flower King reunion.... Stardust we Are is a FK staple and they played that at the very end... the curfew for the Majestic is 11pm so I think they would have played more if they had more time but they couldn't.

Sooooooo Another RoSfest under my belt and it was fun... Gettysburg is always a fun place to walk around and take in the sights.... Karisssss and I had a great time and met some great people....hopefully we'll see some pics from the weekend, especially the Aural Moon Group Pic. The first one was taken with the guys from IO Earth and then we took another one of just moonies!
Good weekend..good time... if you've never been to a Rosfest....you should go.