BajaProg 2013 - Intro and day 1

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Day 2

Gran Turismo Veloce - a young Italian band, clothed in red jumpsuits. Good enough band, I enjoyed their set, but one of those bands that fade into the memory of "good". However, one of my favorite moments of the fest occurred during their set. Towards the end of the set, the singer mentioned that this was by far, the largest audience they'd ever played for, and it was a very receptive audience. The singer actually started crying he was so moved by the reception - it was a nice moment.

Cast - The host band of the fest - keyboardist Alfonso Vidales is the guy who puts on Bajaprog. Other fest organizers should all come to bajaprog to see how it's done. The guy has no ego. Cast, as always, is a top notch, under appreciated symphonic prog band. Great set. We have many Cast albums on the Moon, if you don't know them, check them out. Worth the time.

Anglagard - I'm not going to say much. Great band, but I've found myself burning out on them as they've played NF twice and I saw them somewhere else. Beautiful music, but it just meanders and so I never know if they are 30 seconds or 30 minutes into a song.

Crimson Project - Seems to be the most divisive band of the fest. The next day, my bro and I talked about how much we liked it, whilst others complained. They kind of recreated the "double trio" KC of the 90's - but with a lot of new material. Trio 1 was Tony Levin, Pat Mastolletto, and Markus Reuter - Reuter sort of taking Fripp's "soundscape" role. Trio 2 was Belew, Julie Slick, and I forget the drummer's name, but he was top notch. each trio played a set, then they played together. Playing was incredible, great variety, well worth seeing.

Beer consumption was extra high, resulting in an early departure. I heard that after the 6 playing together, trio 1 did an ambient noodling thing that pissed a lot of people off. Apparently we left at the optimum moment

Day 3

Luz De Riada - the discovery and pleasant surprise of the fest. A Mexican band I'd never heard of - an incredible range of instrumentation, and a KC approach to "challenging compositions", but with their own feel. I'm hunting down some music from them to add to the moon...

Galahad - solid neo-prog that I've reviewed before. Stuart Nicholson's vox are the highlight. Range from fairly symphonic neo to aggressive almost metal-ish stuff - I prefer the former of course.

Three Friends - basically like seeing Gentle Giant. Top notch, amazing, another highlight. Enough said I guess.

New Trolls - another classic Italian band. They included a local string quartet in their live performance. A throwback to their "New Symphonia" show from 2007. FANTASTIC! Top notch music, great playing, and the integration of the strings was amazingly well done.

Lightest beer consumption of the trip. But still enough to kill most of you reading this

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Crisalida - I hesitate to offend my good friend mario, but this Chilean band was the weakest of the fest to my ears. Hard rock with a few prog touches - never was able to grab my attention. The female singer was talented, but sang in a style that I don't like. They did come across as a professional, enthusiastic band, but just never grabbed me.

Jelonek - another highlight, in maybe a weird way. their music leans towards heavy, but their leader is a top notch violin player - probably could play in a classical symphony, he was really good. He was also quite drunk on stage, and his vocal banter bordered on inappropriate. I'm sure it was a combination of someone who speaks Polish natively, speaking English to a largely Spanish speaking audience, but several comments came across as condescendingly racist. The local crowd seemed to love it, so I'm likely wrong, but my brother (who is married to a Mexican woman) and I both looked at each other several times in surprise. But the show was great!

Mystery - I am burning out on writing. Very good show, good music and performance. Benoit David is a good singer, but his stage presence is that of a goofball. Loved the show, just trying to make the observations personal.

Eddie Jobson - the most gracious I've ever seen Eddie - he must just hate americans because he was pretty nice to the crowd. he said it was his first time in Mexico. the band was top notch, performance great, etc. I have to say it was the least he's annoyed me with his ego. Shortest drum solo from Virgil Donati I've ever seen - I'm sure Eddie put a length limitation on it.

Biggest drinking day of the trip. My brother and I found a couple of local bars outside of the range of the typical attendee, and became regulars at one of them. I usually don't drink tequila, but did this day. It was nice, because the bartenders started waving hello at us when we returned. I know enough spanish to confirm that we were the only anglos that visited the bar that weekend