June 29, 2006
NEARFest 2006: An unforgettable experience!
Here's a quick review of this incredible experience that was NEARFest 2006, the world-renowned progresive music festival held every year in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was my fourth consecutive year going at that festival, and I had a grand ol' time! We departed my colleague Jerry and I in the early hours of the morning on Friday, June 23. Going through customs was a breeze and we arrived in PA around noon, so we dropped off our stuff at the hotel (The Hampton Inn, in Bethlehem), then made our way to the Zoellner arts center where the festival is held in the early afternoon to setup our gear in the merchands area, as we were again representing Unicorn Digital, ProgQuebec and our very own FMPM festival.

Day One - The Preshow
The festival's celebrations kicked-off with a bang! around 7 PM, The Tony Levin Band put on a blistering show, with the contribution of legendary guest keyboardist, mister Synergy himself, Larry Fast. At the beginning of the set, the band members gathered around a microphone and introduced themselves singing barbershop quartet-style, a very humorous and well-done introduction to this great show. the Tony Levin band is composed of Tony Levin on basses, Chapman Stick, electric cello and on vocals, Jerry Marotta on drums, percussions and vocals, Jesse Gress on guitars, Peter Levin on keyboards and vocals and a sweet treat for all NearFest prog fans, the amazing Larry Fast on keyboards and synthetizers. The group played among other tracks Break It Down, with Tony handling the vocals (he has a surprisingly great voice), an enthusiastic, peppy track. Then on to Shadowlands, beginning with a dramatic intro, seguing to a very vigorous interpretation of Khachaturian's Saber Dance, absolutely mind blowing! Then on to the dramatic Utopia. They also played the classic Peter Gabriel track On The Air, one of the most intense moments of the evening by far, followed by a cool interpretation of King Crimson's Elephant Talk and when Jerry Marotta screamed "I see faces and traces of home..." we were treated to a sublime interpretation of Genesis' Back in NYC that sent shivers through my spine. An odd break in the momentum for the encore, when Tony played a rather soporific ballad on keyboards dedicated to... a monkey? Hmmm... But Tony and the gand ended the show just as they began, with a nice babershop quartet version of Peter Gabriel's Don't Give Up. All I can say is that the amazing musicianship of the quintet combined with the exceptional, intense and varied setlist made this very first show of the festival one of my higlights of the 2006 edition.

Tony Levin on the Electric Cello

Tony Levin on the Chapman Stick

Tony Levin doing some fancy pickin'

The Tony Levin Band

Tony, Jesse and Larry

Hatfield & The North
Later that evening, time for the last show of the day. Wow! What an amazing performance. I knew I was in for a treat, seeing this classic Canterbury formation play in North America for the very first time, as well as being a great preview of the upcoming Montreal concert next September 15 at FMPM, but they completely took me by surprise, a stunning, captivating show! Hatfield and the North is composed of legends of the 1970's Canterbury scene, with members of Caravan, Gong, Matching Mole, National Health and Delivery, featuring Richard Sinclair on bass and vocals, Phil Miller on guitar, Pip Pyle on drums and Alex Maguire on keyboards. A wonderful mix of jazzy progressive music, with lots of improvisation and bombastic energy. I loved the way they rearranged some of the compositions, breathing new life to these great old classics. Among others, they played Regrets, Seven Sisters, Licks For The Ladies, A very moving track called Psychic Warrior, an hommage to Elton Dean, saxophonist with the group Soft Machine, who passed away earlier this year, they also played What's Rattling and What In The World. Phil Miller is a very expressive guitar player, his face twisted with emotion while he was playing. Richard Sinclair is not only a fantastic bass player and a great singer with a warm, rich voice, but he's also a great storyteller and great human being; He was passionate and intense onstage, and friendly and patient at the signing table after the show, chatting away with fans. Alex Maguire was simply fantastic, and more than adequate as a substitute for Dave Stewart, I was a bit surprised that there wasn't a Leslie amp onstage, as he will be using one in Montreal. I left the auditorium absolutely enchanted.

	Phil Miller on the guitar
				Richard Sinclair & Pip Pyle			Richard Sinclair on the bass
	The light was in my eyes!			Smooth guitar licks from Mr. Miller				Alex Maguire and Richard Sinclair

After a long day that extended into the early hours of Saturday, I was quite tired, having been up for over 24 hours, starting the day with that 10-hour car ride, so we went to the Bethlehem brew pub in the pouring rain in our quest for a quick meal before we went to sleep, only to be told that they don't serve food after midnight... bah, I wasn't hungry anyway! Back to the hotel, sleep was very good.

An upcoming DVD
Throughout the weekend, the organizers announced with a video presentation before the shows, the upcoming NearFest 2005 DVD, featuring highlights of most of the invited artists at the festival last year, notably IQ, Kenso, Frogg Café, Present and Le Orme.

Day two
After a hearty breakfast, we made our way to the Zoellner early and had time to chat with the various vendors and exhibitors, including Greg Walker of Synphonic, the legendary Roger Dean, Mark Wilkinson (creator of the amazing jester artwork on the Marillion album covers), John Collinge of Progression Magazine, Jeff Melton of Exposé and Bernard Gueffier of Musea records.

KBB
Just around 11 AM, the japanese symphonic prog fusion band KBB embarked onstage. KBB is composed of the amazing Akihisa Tsuboy on violin and guitar, Toshimitsu Takahashi on keyboards, Shirou Sugano on drums, and Dani on bass. Their brand of jazzy fusion stuff is inspired by the sounds of Jean-Luc Ponty with elements of Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, airy and atmospheric at times, darker at others. Their setlist consisted of material from their two CDs including Discontinuous Spiral, which has gorgeous keyboards, and a jovial celtic theme that had me completely enthralled, and Catastrophe, from their first CD. An impeccable one-hour show that mesmerized the audience. At the end of their stunning performance, they were treated (deservedly so) to a long standing ovation which moved violinist and speaker of the group Akihisa Tsuboy nearly to tears (the same thing happened last year with Kenso) so I guess that the NEARFest crowd is very fond of japanese prog! Their 2003 release entitled Four Corners Sky will truly hypnotize you.

Dani on the bass

Akihisa Tsuboy and Toshimitsu Takahashi

The skillful Akihisa on violin

The KBB quartet

Dani and Akihisa Tsuboy

During the break before Riverside, I visited the various vendors and exhibitors, it was again a pleasure to see my good friend Dave Kerman, drummer extraordinaire of Present, Thinking Plague and 5UU, and president of ReR records, representing his label in the vendor area. I picked-up from him Magma's MDK CD to replaced my old scratchy vinyl, and i should have listened to his advice to also pick-up Förträangt hushåallsarbete - Offret Om Att Älska, because I have heard nothing but good things about this new release... oh well. Visit Dave's website at www.rerusa.com for his complete catalog of experimental music and Rock in Opposition.

I also visited Echolyn's booth, the guys were all there, promoting their CDs, including the gorgeous re-release of As The World and their latest and best CD, The End Is Beatiful. The guys were as excited to come to Montreal next September as I was to finally meet them. Brett, Ray, Chris and Tom are just incredible, fun people. Their upcoming performance at FMPM is going to captivate the festival attendees! Tom was kind enough to give me a copy of The End Is Beatiful when I told him I hadn't heard it yet, Thanks Tom!

Riverside
Around 1:30 PM, it was time for the polish band Riverside. Scheduled to perform last year at NEARFest, their visit to the United States was cancelled because of visa problems. This time around though, all was good and the band was there to put on their amazing show. And what a show it was! Riverside is composed of Mariusz Duda on vocals, bass and acoustic guitar, Piotr Grudzinsky on guitars, Michal Lapaj on keyboards and Piotr Kodzieradski on drums, their style of music could be categorized as atmospheric symphonic prog metal. Mariusz is an amazing singer with a lovely voice that easily switches from soft ballad to dark growling cookie monster vocal in a snap, without ever getting over the top, and his bass playing is sensational. You hear in their music influences of Porcupine Tree, Tool and Pink Floyd. Their setlist consisted of the unforgettable and captivating tracks from their two studio CDs, and included Out of Myself, I Believe, the Curtain Falls and Second Life Syndrome. At one point, they seamlessly broke into Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond in the middle of one of their compositions, much to the delight of all. ProgMetal has never been a big thing at NEARFest, but Riverside maybe the start of a great trend of "heavier" quality acts to grace the stage of the festival. The group's latest EP release, entitled "Voices In My Head", features unreleased tracks as well as live versions of some of their classic tracks.

Piotr Grudzinsky and Piotr Kodzieradski

Drummer Piotr Kodzieradski

Michal Lapaj on keyboards

Riverside

Mariusz Duda on bass

An inspired Piotr Grudzinsky

The powerful voice of Mariusz Duda

Marius and Piotr

Unfortunately, I has to skip the first spotlight solo artist of the weekend, Richard Leo Johnson, because I had some business to attend to. From what I have gathered from many who saw the show, it was a great mix of jazzy bluegrass material, RL playing on a 75 year-old steel guitar... maybe not my cup of tea I have to admit. Besides, it was also a great opportunity to hang around with old friends and check out the vendor areas.

FM
This was the first show highly ranked on my list of groups that I was eagerly waiting to see. I was unfortunate not to have seen them ever, even when they opened for Rush in the eighties, so this was my chance to finally catch this legendary canadian band that was part of the favorite sounds my youth, so that show was to be an especially emotional moment for me. FM is composed of original members Cameron Hawkins on bass, keyboards, synthetizers and vocals, Martin Deller on drums and newcomer Claudio Vena, filling-in for the colorful Nash the Slash on violin and mandolin. FM falls into a category that could only be described as keyboard-driven progressive/pop/arena rock with unusual instumentations and a sci-fi theme... (Mandolin and violins were rather out of the ordinary in the early eighties...) Their set consisted of Planet Vega, a new track written by Claudio, Phasors on Stun, One O'Clock Tomorrow, Journey, Slaughter In Robot Village, Aldebaran, Shapes of Things, Seventh Heaven, Sofa Back, Black Noise, and for the encore, Surface to Air. A beautiful, nostalgic voyage back to the golden years of canadian prog/pop rock. Great material that might sound a bit dated to some, but oh, so satisfying to finally see live. Rob LaDuca is a big FM fan and he was pretty happy to be responsible for getting FM reunited after all these years. Bravo NEARFest for once again, reuniting a great prog band.

	Claudio Vena on electric mandolin
				Martin Deller on drums			Cameron Hawkins and Martin Deller
	The multitasking Cameron Hawkins			Claudio Vena on violin				Cameron Hawkins on bass

Quickly after the FM show, we decided to go with a group of friends to the Bethlehem Brew Works for a great meal and some fine microbrewery beers. When our group of 10 arrived (and even though we had made a reservation), there was a 1/2 hour waiting time. Immediately we realized that we would be late for the Ozrics, but what the heck, we didn't rush and enjoyed supper in good company. I ordered the nacho plate with chicken, a monstrous portion that only a glutton can make a dent into... almost ate it all! NEARFest had organized with the Brew Works to have a beer named in honor of the event, the NEARFest Special Bitter, and NF attendees had a dollar off upon presentation of their ticket stub! Making our way back to the auditorium, we ran into a Puerto Rican parade/festival that made us even more late than we already were. Back at the Zoellner, the Ozrics had already been onstage for half an hour.

Ozric Tentacles
Making my way to my seat in the dark, I waited until a break in the music to sit down. A really fun show with a elaborate and appropriately psychedelic light show and video projection in the bacground, a trance-inducing experience that fit the music perfectly. Ozric Tentacles is truly the pinnacle of the category known as space-rock/psychedelic. It was great to finally see them live, but they didn't transport me as much as the other acts of the day... Ozric Tentacles' current lineup is composed of Ed Wynne on guitars, keyboards, synths and samplers, Brandi Wynne on keyboards, sequencers/arpeggiators, and I'm not sure about the bass player nor the drummer as this group over the years seems to be literally a revolving door of musicians... although we were told that the new bass player's name is Justin... neither of the two accompanying musicians named in the NF program were there... oh well! Not familiar with most of their material, I couldn't really compile a setlist, but needless to say that it was a series of compositions that covered the vast library of Ozrics recording, putting the emphasis on the more recent releases. During the signign sessions upstairs, I was waiting for my colleague Jerry, and saw the Ozrics' light show engineer, with his long dreadlocks, running up and down the hall, screaming like a monkey, obviously under the influence of some mind-altering substance... it was hilarious.

	Justin and Brandi
			The Ozric Tentacle's current lineup
	A cool psychedelic light show				Brandi Winn on synths and sequencers			Hmmm.. now where was I ?

A great day of musical variety, too bad the rainy weather put a bit of a damper on the people's enthusiasm. The entire day went without a hitch, every show in due time, the evening wound down around 10:45 PM, and by 11:20, we were back at the hotel.

Day three
A rainy, gray day. Oddly enough, it's the first time in a long while that the weather was inclement on a NEARFest weekend. After a good breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the auditorium for the final day of the festival. Picked-up a few CDs from various vendors and took a few pics of the crowd.

Guapo
Around 11 AM, the first band of the day hit the stage. Guapo's music is a brilliant, complex mix of Rock in Opposition and Zeuhl, reminiscent of Godspeed You Black Emperor and Univers Zéro, with the darker elements of Anglagard and Crimson's Red era. Their music has many moods, while always remaining on the darker, more sinister side, sometimes very quiet, and at other times, highly rhythmic and intense, bordering on apocalyptic. Guapo is a young british group composed of James Sedwards on bass and synthetizers, Dave Smith on drums and percussions, Danny O'Sullivan on keyboards, synthetizers, theremin and guitar, Kavus Torabi on guitar. Believe it or not, their one-hour show consisted of only two tracks, Black Oni and Five Suns, both abriged versions at that! During Black Oni, three members of the group started making their way into the crowd with unamplified ocarinas and a mini gong, like a funeral procession... extremely eerie, certainly the most original thing i've seen this year at NF. Very original material, captivating compositions, if somewhat slightly repetitive at times. Dave uses extensively a large gong sitting at his left. It had been a while since I had seen a theremin at NEARFest... not since Anglagard back in 2003. I give high marks to this polished young band on originality, impeccable musicianship and use of unusual musical instruments.

James Sedwards on bass and synthetizers, Dave Smith on drums and percussions, Danny O'Sullivan on keyboards, synthetizers, theremin and guitar, Kavus Torabi on guitar

James on the bass

Kavus on the guitar

Danny in the crowd, on the ocarina

The talented Danny on the stage piano

Michael Manring
This time, I really didn't want to miss the solo spotlight of the day, because many of my friends gave high praise to bass player Michael Manring. So a few moments after the Guapo show, I made my way back to my seat just as Michael started his half-hour set. All I can say is... damn that was impressive! Michael Manring is a truly masterful bass player who played with greats like Scott McGill and Michael Hedges, he is a bass tapping grand master. His playing on his awesome fretless bass was so fluid, precise and lightning fast, it was simply unbelievable. The use of an e-bow made for some eerie tones, and his sampler enabled him to capture and layer tone after tone to make for highly complex melodies and harmonies. Just when you thought he couldn't conjure anything more incredible, he pulled out his his "other" bass, an infernal ultra-customized monster with all sorts of levers to tweak the tuning as he's playing, it's been officially named the "Zon Michael Manring Hyper Bass". He played a series of compositions from his solo material, mostly from his latest release, and really woke-up the NEARFest crowd, who cheered enthusiastically the maestro on many occasions. Michael also has a good sense of humor and self-derision, remarking at one point "I use a lot of of pseudo-intellectual concepts in my compositions... because chicks dig it... as you can see!" that comment directed at a predominantly male audience got a big laugh from the crowd. At the end of his performance, he was truly moved by the long, warm and well-deserved standing ovation he got.

	Saturday's spotlight artist... Richard Leo Jiohnson
				Sunday's spotlight artist... Michael Manring			Michael Manring and his Zon Hyper Bass

Ange
Just before the concert began, Chad announced we would be in for a treat, a very theatrical show, and Ange presented as promised, a truly theatrical, grandiose performance, a captivating musical odyssey of deliciously controlled madness. Many people refer to them as the French Genesis, and that was surprising for me as I felt it didn't sound anything like Genesis. Emotional and elegant at times, crazy and insane at others, it was certainly unforgettable. Ange is a group from France and is composed of Christian Décamps, the grand leader of this madhouse, on vocals and acoustic guitar, Hassan Hajdi on guitar, Benoît Cazzullini on drums, the enchanteress Caroline Crozat on vocals, Thierry Sidhoum on bass, and Christian's son, Tristan Décamps, on keyboards and vocals. Their music is a mix of rhythmic symphonic prog with what can only be described as Cirque Du Soleil-style world music. Their setlist consisted among others, of Ricochet, Fin Du Monde, Vu d'un Chien, Jour Après Jour, Ces Gens-Là, Quasimodo. Holy smokes, what pipes on that guy Tristan... his vocal range is stunning... he almost stole the show at one point! During the show, Caroline sent pixie dust and confettis in the crowd, at another time, she was led around the stage with a dog collar by Christian, her gypsy baladi dancer outfit was quite enticing, a lovely woman with a beautiful, powerful voice. Hassan is a monster guitar player, winning hands down for the best, most amazing guitar performance of this year's festival, all while he was bouncing everywhere on stage like a rubber ball. One of the numbers they played bordered on disco/funk... a first at NEARFest! The elements of choreography, combined with the splendid symphonic, lush sound really put the crowd on their feet. And Christian's unique stage antics were inspired, utterly weird, controversial, a bit scary at times, chewing on a rubber dog bone, then on a passifier, grasping his crotch with intensity... oh my!

	Christian Décamps on the acoustic guitar
			the deliciously insane Ange from France
	Guitar madman Hassan Hajdi			The very lovely Catherine Crozat			This one is really beyond explanation....

FMPM at NEARFest
Just before Niacin was to go onstage, Rob and Chad invited my friend Sean and I to come up onstage to talk about our upcoming festival this September. After the initial butterflies of talking in front of 1000 people, we did a good job, and I was pleased by the reaction of the crowd when we announced our lineup. Now let's hope that this will turn into ticket sales. One funny thing, while I was waiting in the backstage area, I was leaning on Keith Emerson's monstrous Moog tower... Wow! That thing looked like Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine the phone operator" telephone console... one ring-a-dingy...

Niacin
Then on to the most explosive set of this year's festival, Niacin just rocked the Zoellner big time! The origin of the band's name is really simple... Niacin is the technical name of vitamin B3, and the group's sound revolves around the Hammond B3... cool! this amazing trio is composed of John Novello on keyboards, the legendary Dennis Chambers on drums, and the amazingly masterful Billy Sheehan on bass. Their setlist consisted among others of the powerful and Emerson-inspired Barbarian At The Gate, from the Organik CD, a sensational interpretation of Zappa's King Kong, the blistering Blisterine, with its "trick ending", One Less Worry, with a simply sick bass solo, the hard and dynamic Time Crunch, then on to a sublime version of King Crimson's Red, and finally the jazz standard Birdland as a tribute to Jaco Pastorius. "Guitars? We don't need no stinkin' guitars!" and that should be really their motto because this power trio sounds like a big band colliding with a freight train. Intensity, precision, skill, power... A healthy combination! The first few compositions were hardly prog, much more straightfoward hard bluesy, funky jazz fusion, but as the show progressed, the proggier material was played. Dennis Chambers is an amazing drummer, I was actually concerned that the riser on which his drumkit was setup would collapse because of the intensity of his playing! And what can be said of Mister Sheehan other than the classic line "We're not worthy! We're not worthy..." A bass genius! John Novello's good old Hammond was appropriately hooked-up to a "big ass" Leslie amp, a classical combination that gives this unique warbly sound that no synthetizer can come close to. Overall a killer set that blew everyone away! Big standing ovation followed by an encore! Thank god I had earplugs, because that was LOUD!

	Billy Sheehan and Dennis Chambers
				Niacin blew the roof off the Zoellner!			Powerful bass riffs from Billy

Keith Emerson
After packing our stuff in the vendor area and saying goodbye to many friends, old and new, it was that time again, the closing act of the festival, and the conclusion of another great year for NEARFest. After seeing Carl Palmer just a month before, it was such a pleasure to see Keith Emerson perform on the stage of NEARFest. First thing we noticed was the grand piano and the behemoth keyboard rig, standing a towering 12 feet above the floor! Keith was accompanied by Pete Riley on drums, Phil Williams on bass, and the incredible Mark Bonilla on guitars. The show began a bit late, understandably so, because such a complex keyboard rig takes time to setup. Keith gave a formidable performance, considering that he's been operated on a few years back for carpal tunnel syndrome, which might have very well ended his career as a musician. The magical setlist consisted of Karn Evil 9, 1st Impression Part 2, the rock version of Piano Concerto No. 1, 4th Movement, Living Sin, Bitche's Crystal, Hoedown, White Noise (a Bonilla composition), Country Pie, New Orleans, From the Beginning, Lucky Man, Karelia Suite, Touch and Go, from the Powell years, America/Blue Rondo, Tarkus in its entirety, and for the encore Fanfare for the Common Man and Nutrocker Suite. Some of the highlights were when Keith went at the back of his rig and started playing flawlessly Bach's Toccata from the back of the piano! There was also that moment where he used the "Moog controller stick", that he had rigged with roman candles... much to the surprise of many (it had been cleared by the Zoellner's staff, though). At one point, Keith started telling a tale about him meeting keyboard legend Jimmy Smith, and about the keyboardist's secret handshake, a bit long winded, but got a good chuckle from the audience. Towards the end, the drum solo was a bit unnecessary. Overall, a terrific fun time was had by all. A fitting conclusion to this remarkable annual event.

Mark Bonilla on guitars

The old master behind the keys again

Keith and his Moog controller stick

Hey! You can't do that!

Keith on the harmonica, Mark looking on

Mark Bonilla and Phil Williams

Keith surrounded himself with a team of exceptional musicians

Phil Williams on bass

closeup of the Emerson magic!

Mark Bonilla and Phil Williams on double bass

A surprise at the end of this stick for many!

Incredible! He's playing behind his keyboard

Now where's that button again....

Keith and gang, signing autographs

Monday morning, after checking out of the Hampton Inn, we made our way back to Montreal with great memories of meeting friends and seeing great bands. During the trip, we listened to the CDs we purchased there... my loot for the weekend was Magma's MDK, Ayreon's Human Equation (special edition) KBB's Four Corner's Sky (which was given to me by Hiroshi Masuda, thanks!) Nektar's Recycled, Univers Zéro Live (06-24-2005). I was very modest in my purchases compared to some who hauled grocery bags filled to the brim with CDs...

The canadian delegation is getting stronger each year: Brigitte and family.

A fun moment with the Echolyn crew when the guys wanted to pilfer Ray Weston's gourmet meal

Mark Wilkinson and wife

A great group of friends, meeting yearly for a great music fest

Sean at the FMPM\ProgQuebec booth

Rob LaDuca in a brief moment of madness

Chad Hutchinson, looking a bit tired, but intensely satisfied at how NF06 was such a success

Steve of Cuneiform Records

The KBB band, very generous with their availability to their fans all weekend long

Mr. Gueffier at the Musea table

The Kerman-a-tor!

John of Progression Magazine... Quarterly???

the legendary Roger Dean

Some of Roger's stunning artwork

NEARFest Firsts
Several firsts at the festival this year... the first year that no band used a mellotron onstage, also the first year that no wind instrument whatsoever was played, no flutes, no trumpets... that is, if you don't count Keith Emerson's harmonica and Guapo's cheapo plastic ocarinas! It was the first time in many years that the weather was so bad, thank goodness it's an indoors fest! NEARFest 2006 can be counted as an exceptional year for bass players, with Billy Sheehan, Tony Levin, Richard Sinclair and Michael Manring, a true summit! On the technical aspect, everything was perfect during the entire festival, the sound was great and well-balanced, and the light shows were well done, probably has to do to the fact that Rob and Chad had their own people behind the consoles this year, a major improvement from the numerous technical gremlins of the 2005 edition.

I want to thank Rob and Chad for all the hard work they do each year to organize such an elaborate, fun festival, and for the amazing time we had. Chad announced the first official group for next year's NEARFest, La Maschera Di Cera, a stunning italian prog band, so it looks like 2007 will be another great fest... who will be coming with us?

text by Robert Dansereau (29/06/2006)