[atlantaprog] Re: NEARFest report

I attended the pre-show (only) and cannot agree with the "review" of Levin & Hatfield. Steven W. Brown


From: htimms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reply-To: atlantaprog@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: prog group  <atlantaprog@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [atlantaprog] NEARFest report
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 14:04:26 -0400 (GMT-04:00)

To All,
Below is my NEARFest report. Enjoy. I truely wished that you all could have been there...



NEARFest 2006 in Review


Pre-Show

Tony Levin Band: USA: Having seen them several years ago, I thought that I knew what to expect. Oddly though, I found their set to be very disconnected. They moved from blistering instrumental prog to barbershop quartet accapella to Tony doing solo piano ballads. My analogy is: a great appetizer followed by a great main-course followed by a great dessert followed by a great wine all-of-which really didn?t go together.

Hatfield & the North: England: One of the bands that I REALLY was looking forward to seeing. HOWEVER, I found their set to lack any real dynamic contour, the guitarist never moved, looked down at his guitar the whole time and generally looked as though he was very uncomfortable being there. The bass & drum interplay was very good. I kept thinking to myself how much I wished that Dave Stewart was their on keys. Overall a general disappointment for me. The most lackluster performance of the entire weekend.

Saturday:

KBB: Japan: Excellent symphonic jazz-fusion led by electric violin with keys, drums and bass. A quick analogy: Take Jean Luc Ponty?s classic era music, double the tempo and throw in 25% English 17th century dance jigs and you have KBB. One of the best surprises for me. Blistering violin solos and many standing ovations.

Riverside: Poland: Guitar, bass, drums, keys: Take kids who grew up in the ?90?s listening to Grunge-rock, turn them on to Meddle by Pink Floyd, get them stoned and tell them to go jam. To me, that sums up Riverside. I thought that they played their material very well and I enjoyed it very much. I will say that I would not necessarily buy their CD?s or go out of my way to see them again but I?m glad I saw them and did enjoy their set. A bit too Porcupine Tree for me. (Meaning too metal PT not old-style PT)

Richard Leo Johnson: USA: In the style of John Fahey and Leo Kottke, this guy does the acoustic guitar/Americana/story-telling thing really well. Wonderful playing and stories. I wished that his set was longer.

FM: Canada: One of the other bands that I was really looking forward to seeing/hearing. They did not disappoint. Cameron Hawkins vocals were in perfect form. He sounded very much like the records. No strained high-notes, no key-changes that I could detect. If I recall correctly, they played the ENTIRE Black Noise album. The electric violinist/electric mandolin player was spot-on and I could easily see that they were having a great time playing for such an enthusiastic crowd. Several standing ovations. I was very pleased.

Ozric Tentacles: England: The other band that I have seen before. Comparing the first time I saw them to this time, I was a bit disappointed. Since the guitarist Ed Wynne is now the only original member, they relied on way too much pre-programmed tracks to play along with. This, to me, made the whole trippy, jam-band, groove-thing kind of go out the window. The set was solid as a rock but I felt that I was just watching a band play along to their own CD?s and you kind of lose the I-wonder-what-might-happen-next sort of thing. Their light show was amazing.

Sunday:

Guapo: England: Easily one of my new favorites of the festival. They kind of go by the Godspeed You Black Emperor writing style of slooooowly building up moods and timbres to chaotic climaxes using a very processed Fender Rhodes as the main mood setter. I was quite impressed how the keyboardist got so many musically-useful sounds with the processed Rhodes. Their entire set included only two songs, many three. Great mood music and despite the fact that they had what is lovingly referred to as the ?Hangover set? (11:00am on Sunday morning) they were well attended and greatly received.

Michael Manring: USA: Solo bass normally would not be the type of thing that you would think would hold your attention for 45 minutes but Michael Manring does things with his Zon ?Hyper-Bass? that most people would not think of doing. He used E-bow and processing/looping to build sonic landscapes that boggled my mind. His bass has ?drop-D? tuners on all strings and he changes tunings within the songs. Beautiful stuff. Again, I wished that his set was longer.

Ange: France: One of the other bands that I was eagerly awaiting. Musically they were fantastic. Visually, their set was WAY TOO vaudevillian for me, including a solo dancer sprinkling fairy dust, the leader, Christian De Camps acting like a dog and ?playing? tug-of-war using a bone with the dancer, parading her around on a leash, etc. All of that should have been thrown out the window and they should have just stuck to playing the songs. Christian De Camps son was the keyboard player and his voice was beyond operatic, just stunning.

Niacin: USA: The fusion manifesto of Billy Sheenen, John Novello & Dennis Chambers kicked the snot out of everyone who was in attendance. Dennis Chambers was playing the drums so hard and fast that his drum-riser was moving/drifting across the stage. Also the overhead mike-stands were swaying so much that I was sure that they were about to topple over. John Novello has to be, at least considered, as the next Hammond organ king along with the likes of: Jimmy Smith, Larry Young, Joey De Francesco when it comes to great jazz-fusion. Billy?s bass solos were easily faster than some guitarist?s solos. Overall, they were amazing. A great lead up to?

Keith Emerson: USA: OK, what do I say. The man is a living legend. The place went nuts when he came out. He did not disappoint. His band (guitar, bass, drums, keys) played many ELP tunes plus The Nice and post-ELP compositions. Yes, he did play the hammond from behind at one point but did not stab it with knives. His versions of America & Rondo were the fastest versions I have ever heard him do. And, he had the monstrous modular moog system with him. His solo grand piano-playing was beautiful. I was quite impressed with the young drummer that he had with him. This kid really had a tough job copping all of those Carl Palmer bits but he played great. Oh, the guitar player was the singer, he kind of sounded like Greg Lake too. The only thing that I didn?t really like was the fact that the guitarist was too shredder/hard-rock-poser for me. Played great ? looked silly. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, they played Tarkus in its entirety. I was almost in tears.


CD Purchases:

Niacin ? Organik
Kenso ? Chilling Heat - Live in Tokyo 2004
National Health ? Missing Pieces
Heldon II ? Allez Teia
KBB ? Live 2004
KBB ? Outtakes Live
Dream Machine ? Logia
Soft Machine ? Grides (includes an 18 minute DVD)
Kraan ? Flyday
Guapo ? Five Suns
Jimi Tunnell ? Trilateral Commission







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