[atlantaprog] Re: NEARFest report

New Harvey Bainbridge and Spaceseed album out today!
  http://cdbaby.com/cd/spaceseed2 
  

htimms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
  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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