SECTION ARCHIVES - 2006
CRITIQUES ET COMPTE RENDUS DES SPECTACLES À MONTRÉAL (et un peu partout ailleurs!)
December 29, 2006
In The Air Tonight at La Tulipe
Now what a cool concert that was! The group In The Air Tonight, a great Phil Collins tribute band, performed a splendid show at La Tulipe in Montreal on Thursday, December 28. Steve Gagné is the leader of this formidable group of 10 musicians, emulating Phil Collins brilliantly, singing, playing drums and piano, he is accompanied by a 3-piece horn section, two back (and lead) vocal singers, as well as an additional drummer, a keyboardist, a guitarist and a bassist. His vocal style is dead on on the mid to high range, and his drumming is dynamic and precise.
Around 8:00 PM, Steve stepped onstage with pinstripe suit and tie, and proceeded to blow our minds with a solid 2 hours of energy and skill! The setlist consisted of Phil Collins solo stuff and Genesis tracks, including Something Happened On The Way To Heaven, Against All Odds, Don't Lose My Number, Who Said I Would, Another Day In Paradise, Separate Lives, Misunderstanding and Mama, followed by a 20-minute interlude, and for the second set, In The Air Tonight, I Missed Again, Easy Lover, One More Night, I Can't Dance, Land of Confusion, Invisible Touch, a very cool version of the live Genesis Drum Duet, You Can't Hurry Love/Two Hearts and Sussudio, and for the encore, Turn It On Again and Take Me Home. Oh what a fun evening! That was a crazy cool set!
The first portion of the show concentrated on the smoother ballads and proggy tracks, putting more emphasis on the toe tappin' compositions and party tunes towards the end, where people were dancing on the floor during Easy Lover, You Can't Hurry Love/Two Hearts and Sussudio. Steve wore sunshades and a hat, «Blues Brothers» style, during You Can't Hurry Love. Francis, the guitarist, was simply brilliant, using a classic Telecaster throughout the evening. The keyboardist was superb, setting the tone for the evening, using a Yamaha Motif ES and a cool Kurzweil 2600. Kudos to the horn section, who did an exceptional job, with trumpet, trombone and saxophone, it's quite a challenge to sound like Earth, Wind and Fire! The light show was very well done, even though there are no moving lights at La Tulipe.
One of the key moments of the evening was of course, the interpretation of the hit In The Air Tonight, intense and powerful, and with a very original and unusual take on the famous drum duo. The eerie green background lighting on Mama was particularly effective and dramatic, with Steve drumming and singing simultaneously without effort on that number. The backup singer, Marie Josée, a lovely blue-eyed blonde, performed a wonderful vocal duo with Steve on Separate Lives... and she wore a particularly effective little black dress! Towards the end, both drummers performed a very cool and dynamic version of the Drum Duet, just like Phil Collins and Chester Thompson did in the late 70's... I was almost hoping that it would be followed by Los Endos, but I digress...
Overall, just a delicious performance from Steve, a dynamic and very talented individual, I just wish he would drop the fake Brit speaking French accent narrations because it doesn't work that well. If you have a chance to see this group, don't miss them, their show is just plain and simple fun from the first note to the last, and you'll leave the auditorium with a big smile on your face!
Text by Robert Dansereau (29-12-2006)
December 16, 2006
The Musical Box at the Bell Center
7000 people. That's how many people there were on Friday, December 15 2006 at the Bell Center for Montreal's own The Musical Box and their majestic re-creation of the legendary Selling England By The Pound tour of progressive giants Genesis in the 70's.
After meeting in the late afternoon with a group of 15 friends at the Sheraton Hotel pub, many of them from the Progressive Ears forum, we made our way to the Bell Center for this long-awaited event.
The evening began when around 8:00 PM, the opening band Vecteur-K stepped onstage for a short but sweet performance. Vecteur-K is a Repentigny-based band composed of Benoit Dalpé on bass, Éric Cournoyer on drums, Jonathan Cabot on guitars and Marc-André Noël on guitar and vocals. Their style of proggy rock is influenced by Rush, Queensrÿche and Genesis, kudos to them for singing in French. Their 30 min. set included among others their eponymous instrumental Vecteur K and La Dame Dans l'Escalier. A great young band with a rich sound. These guys will go far, and I was happy for them because it's one heck of a start to perform in front of such a big crowd. Great reaction by the audience, who cheered loudly.
Then on to the main event of the evening, TMB stepped onstage a bit before 9:00 PM. The Musical Box is composed of David Myers on keyboards and piano, François Gagnon on guitars, Martin Levac on drums, David Lamothe on bass and guitars and of course, the incredible Denis Gagné on vocals, flute and tambourine. Their setlist consisted of Watcher Of the Skies, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, The Cinema Show, I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe), Firth Of Fifth, The Musical Box, Horizons, The Battle Of Epping Forest, Supper's Ready and for the encore, The Knife. Another brilliant performance by this stunning ensemble of talented musicians.
Highlights of the show include the glorious mellotron intro of Watcher of the Skies, and Denis Gagné's batwing Watcher costume. Denis narrated as per usual in French, imitating perfectly Peter Gabriel's thick british accent, just like Peter did when he came in Montreal as Genesis' lead singer (when Denis plays anywhere esle, he narrates of course in English). Other heart-pounding moments included the beautiful piano intro of Firth of Fifth and the wacky walk at the beginning of the toe-tapping interpretation of I Know What I Like, and the grandiose finale of Supper's Ready with the strobe light, the pyrotechnics and the black light that gave me goosebumps. After a long standing ovation, the group came back for The Knife, or as Denis called it, "le couteau"!
My colleagues Stephen, Jerry and I had box seats, which is fun because of the food and the free drinks, but on the other hand, you're quite far from the stage, which takes a bit away from the enjoyment of the show, whose visuals are so important. The other problem was that the skybox next to ours (of which I will not reveal the name, other than it's a well known Montreal newspaper) was full of drunken stupid idiots, who were more interested in talking and laughing loudly during the quiet parts instead of listening to the show, which was infuriating, and plain disrespectful to the fans all around. Good thing they left before the end of the show.
Over 7000 attended this show... That's a lot of people. That's a lot of prog fans. Gives us hope in our efforts to bring more good progressive music in Montreal.
There have been rumours that the band's existence as we know it is slowly winding down and this may be their farewell tour, or at least the one before last... I truly hope these are only rumors and that this magnificent band will go on. If not, well... they had a hell of a good run, perfecting these great shows over the past 12-13 years, and I feel privileged to have seen them over 6 times, and being blown away on every occasion by The Musical Box magic!
Many thanks again to Gillett Entertainment Group for bringing such a great show at the Bell Center and to The Musical Box for making us travel through time for just a couple of moments!
November 27, 2006
Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Bell Center!
On Sunday, November 26, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra performed one of their incredible concerts in front of a nearly packed audience at the Bell Center in Montreal. The group is renowned to put on a hell of a show, but I could never imagine how jaw-dropping this performance would be!
On a tour that includes over 100 performances in the space of two months (more on that later), TSO is a great rockin' band composed of highly skilled musicians, performing music from their Christmas albums and classically-inspired rock albums, accompanied by a light show of gigantic proportions.
100 shows in 2 months? How can that be? As incredibly as it may seem, TSO is actually composed of two complete formations, often performing on the same day at opposite ends of the continent! (There was a TSO show in Phoenix, Arizona on the same day as the Montreal show) The group(s) also occasionnally presents "matinees", putting on two complete performances on the same day.
The show began a bit after 7:30 PM. The setlist consisted, among others, of Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, Good King Joy, Ornament, Old City Bar, Promises to Keep, This Christmas Day, An Angel Returned, Christmas Nights in Blue, Layla (Derek & the Dominos cover), Siberian Sleigh Ride, An Angel's Share, Christmas Canon Rock, Carmina Burana, Queen of the Winter Night, Wizards of Winter, Beethoven, Requiem and to conclude the show, a reprise of Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24. The concert was simply magical! Very good sound (a hard thing to achieve at the Bell Center) and a fantastic setlist that included their "Christmas story" for part one of the show, and for part two, all hell broke loose with a series of amazing rock compositions that included a fantastic rendition of Derek & the Dominos' Layla, with accompanying choir and mesmerizing light display and also a spine-tingling, mind-blowing version of Carmina Burana!
And then there's the light show to end all light shows! I can't begin to describe how impressive it is! It features gigantic moving arrays of spotlights that look like a giant version of the transformers bots! Added to the gazillion watts of lights, you also had the incredibly tight sychronism of the display, the lasers, the multi-colored balls of flames (I could feel the heat even though I was hundreds of feet away!) and other pyrotechnics. It's absolutely magical, and it supports the music oh so well! From the quietest ballad to the most exuberant hair-metal guitar solo, the light show conveyed with much precision the mood and energy of the music played. At one point during the show, it snowed! I don't know the particular dry-ice technology involved, but let's say that it looked like snowflakes and it sublimated instantly when it touched your skin... My friend Michel said "I'll never see a live show the same way after this!"... It was something to see indeed.
Other incredible moments were when the two guitarist ran into the crowd to the back of the floor area, stepping on a pneumatic platform that elevated a good 50 feet! ...Caffery wearing a Montreal Canadiens jersey had the crowd standing on its feet, he also pulled out a Gibson double neck on one of the heavier numbers of the show... the absolutely lovely ladies of the choir, just wonderful in their little black dresses! There was also a great Barber of Seville keyboard duel between Mee Eun Kim and Robert Kinkel that turned into a rockin' version of Charlie Brown's Peanuts theme, and the amazing Tany Ling performing intense operatic vocal acrobatics on the track Queen of the Winter Night. The fun part about a TSO show is that it's a great way drag your loved ones to a prog concert and to share a Christmas event that will appeal to the entire family, from the kids all the way to the grand-parents.
"But is it prog?" you ask... Let's say that it has the elements of progressive music in the complex chords and the multilayered harmonies, the addition of classical instruments and the bombasm reminiscent of the most exuberant Yes concerts of the mid-seventies and Pink Floyd shows of the 80's. Trans-Siberian Orchestra was originally formed by the members of prog-metal band Savatage in the mid 1990's, it would be accurate to say that their music falls in the category of "proggy" arena rock, grandiose metallic Christmas music on a scale you can't begin to imagine. It's like Mannheim Steamroller meets Kiss and Dream Theater with a good dose of blues, opera and classical.
Among the numerous musicians onstage, founding members Dave Z. on bass and Robert Kinkel on keyboards, were accompanied by over 20 fantastic musicians, including Alex Skolnick and Chris Caffery on guitar, Mee Eun Kim and Robert Kinkel on keyboards, Jeff Plate on drums, Mark Wood on violins, Steve Broderick, Jill Gioia, Kristin Gorman, Danielle Landherr, Tany Ling, Stephanie Linn and Jay Pierce, on vocals, and a wonderful string ensemble from Montreal. I just wish the string ensemble would have been a little higher in the mix, as you could barely hear them during the show.
Towards the end of the show, Chris Caffery, who had been the host of the evening, asked if the audience would be interested in having TSO again in Montreal next year, to which the crowd reacted with a loud cheer! So if any of you missed the chance to see this magical show, be sure to catch them next year, because for those who have never seen them, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience not to be missed, and for those who have already seen them, it's a great Christmas tradition to be shared with the entire family! Again, a big thanks to Gillett Entertainment Group for the great promotion and for bringing at long last this great show to the Bell Center!
November 19, 2006
Crimson Sunset at the Cabaret Playhouse!
Montreal/Ottawa band Crimson Sunset, a Dream Theater tribute band, performed on Friday, November 17 at the Cabaret Playhouse on Park Avenue along with opening band Wishmaster, a Nightwish tribute band, to a modest crowd of around 40-50 people. A fun show by two great bands, in a not so perfect club though...
Around 9:45 PM, Wishmaster stepped onstage. The group is composed of Sandy on vocals, Étienne Lafond on guitars and vocals, Philip Charbonneau on keyboards, Fred on drums and newcomber Daniel on bass, on what was his first live performance with the band. Their setlist was composed of Planet Hell, Wishmaster, Devil & the Deep Dark Ocean, Feel For You, Wanderlust, The Pharaoh Sails to Orion, 10th Man Down, Dark Chest of Wonders, Over the Hills and Far Away, Wish I Had An Angel, Slaying The Dreamer and Siren. An excellent performance by a great band, Sandy has a powerful, melodic voice with great harmonies, an excellent approximation of Tarja's grandiose operatic voice...and the girl can hit the high notes without a sweat! Étienne is an amazing guitarist and his voice was intense and agressive, even though he mentioned that he had a bit of a cold. Daniel is an intense bass player, very exuberant and energetic. On the down side, Sandy seemed nervous and added quite a bit of unnecessary banter between the songs, unfortunately breaking the rhythm of the performance. But overall, a great show by a fun, dynamic band.
Around 11:30 PM, Crimson Sunset began their set. The band is composed of Isaac Dumont on drums, Marc O'Brien on bass, Sébastien Jutras on guitars, Johnny Maz on keyboards, Angie MacIvor on saxophone and back vocals, and Rick Neilson on vocals. Their setlist consisted of Metropolis, Overture 1928, Strange Déja-Vu, Home, As I Am, Ytse Jam (drum solo), Another Day, Under A Glass Moon, Learning To Live, Erotomania, Sacrificed Sons, and for the encore, A Change Of Seasons. What a tight band... these guys blew me away! Crimson Sunset is one hell of a good tribute band... and you can imagine that you need some serious chops to play Dream Theater stuff... this band has got chops-a-plenty! All the band members are highly skilled musicians and they know their stuff very well, from the insanely complex rhythms, the crazy time signatures and brilliant counterpoints right down to Isaac's drum solo in the best Portnoy-ish style, with strobe and all... Sébastien is simply awesome on guitars, Mark has a fine bass finger-tapping technique and Rick's voice is superb! This was a gorgeous performance, with an excellent setlist, by one of the most talented bands I've seen since Close To The Edge!
But what about the Cabaret Playhouse... what at terrible place! It's rather small, and when they don't do live shows, it's a strip club! My main peeve however is that the sound is absolutely horrible, it distorted intensely throughout both performances, and the incessant feedback was simply mind-numbing! The mix was also problematic, the vocals of both bands often being drowned-out by the drums and the bass. Sad to say but I can't recommend that place for live performances to any group, however modest it is...
I hope to see Crimson Sunset again soon, hopefully in better settings!
Text by Robert Dansereau (19-11-2006)
October 22, 2006
Close To The Edge at La Place à Côté!
After the the immense success of their last performance on September 8, that saw the Place à Côté packed with over 250 people, I had great expectations for the encore performance of the Yes tribute band Close To The Edge on Saturday, October 21 at La Place À Côté. All I can say is that it was one heck of a fun and satisfying show! A slightly more modest crowd than last time... about 100 people filled the pub. Sitting down with a couple of good friends, we shared a few beers and stories until around 9:40, when the show began.
The group, whose playlist concentrates on the 1971-1974 era of the legendary british band, is composed of Pierre Dragon on drums, Richard Lanthier on bass, Benoit David on vocals and guitar, Phil «Mandrake» Charmettant on guitars, lapsteel and vocals and Julien Valiquette on keyboards and vocals. Their brilliant setlist, divided in two parts with a 20 min. break, consisted of Siberian Khatru, Heart Of The Sunrise, Southside Of The Sky, Mood For A Day, And You And I, and for the second part of the show, Close To The Edge, Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (with bass and drum solos), a short medley that included excerpts of Tempus Fugit, introducing Gates of Delirium, Nous Sommes Du Soleil, The Six Wives of Henry VIII/Starship Trooper. For the encore, they offered the two old standards I've Seen All Good People and Roundabout.
A spellbinding performance, even better than the already amazing one they gave last September. The concert began on the sounds of Stravinsky's Firebird suite intro as the musicians stepped slowly onstage, then the group broke into a delicious version of Siberian Khatru. Great mellotron sound during Heart Of The Sunrise, (we only wish the real thing had been there if it wasn't such a delicate piece of machinery). Phil switched to an acoustic nylon-string guitar for Mood For A Day, and the group ended their first set with an emotional version of And You And I. They began the second set with their "title" track, Close To The Edge. On the track The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus), Richard offered a blistering bass solo that had people screaming in admiration throughout, and Pierre delivered one of those amazing drum solos that brought people to their feet. Benoit was just majestic during Nous Sommes Du Soleil. Julien's solo portion was a stunning version of Wakeman'sThe Six Wives of Henry VIII, with a cool bit on the Theremin. The group ended their show with a gorgeous version of Starship Trooper. The audience cheered with much enthusiasm, and was rewarded with an encore consisting of the two major hits of Yes, I've Seen All Good People and Roundabout. I clapped my hands so vigorously that they were hurting!
They offered a sensational show, just what you want from a good tribute band; a precise, clean reproduction of the music they pay tribute to, without being overly static or emotionless. Ben's voice is so absolutely perfect, it's just scary, and it's even a little bit eerie when he speaks in French between songs, because this is exactly what Jon Anderson would sound like if he were born in Québec! Phil's guitar work is much improved and he sounds more loose and relaxed than ever, great guitar solos from him. Pierre's drum work is intense and captivating, while still capturing all the subtleties of the ultra-complex arrangements of Yes, one of the top drummers in Quebec! Julien nailed Wakeman's Six Wives with great ease, and gave a grandiose symphonic dimension to the entire evening. Richard was simply magnificent, often offering a better Squire sound than Chris Squire would himself! The timing of the group is simply impeccable, the sound mix was also much improved, with a great balance between the keys and the vocals, without being buried by the drums and bass. It's pretty impressive to successfully adapt the big arena sound of Yes into a small club.
It was cool to see the enthusiasm of the people there... prog fans out for a good evening of music, all wearing their "colors", from Yes t-shirts, Flower Kings and Iron Maiden t-shirts, even some proudly wearing the FMPM t-shirt. Nothing beats the atmosphere of a good prog show! Close To The Edge is truly a phenomenon, not unlike The Musical Box, in their precise reproduction of the music they play. All that's missing is a frizzy wig for Phil and a glittering cape for Julien! If you have a chance to catch a show of this group, please do so... they are simply out of this world!
Text by Robert Dansereau (22-10-2006)
October 16, 2006
Progtoberfest in Ottawa!
The second edition of Ottawa's Progtoberfest, organized by Gary Lauzon (of the Villa Strangiato radio show) and Rick Barkhouse (Widow's Walk's keyboardist), was a fun one-day event on a lovely autumn weekend! Held on Saturday, October 14 2006 at the Alumni Theater of the University of Ottawa, Progtoberfest II, featured the talents of Casse-Tête, Widow's Walk and Nathan Mahl!
A group of friends from Ottawa and Montreal, including us, had planned to meet at the Royal Oak pub in mid-afternoon, but unfortunately, we ended up at the right place, but the wrong address... we didn't know that there are several Royal Oak pub franchises in the surrounding area of U of O... oh well, we now know that the right one is just a street away from the Alumni Theater.
The evening began with Casse-Tête, a great band that plays a cool mix of progressive, jazz and gothic, featuring Gary Lauzon on bass, Chuck Ho on drums & percussion, David Campbell on guitars and vocals, Greg Kampf on electric guitar, acoustic 12-String guitar, Eric Robillard on keyboards, guitars and flute and the lovely Christina Abraham on lead vocals. Their setlist included Off Beaten Paths, Hiding in Waiting (which will appear on the second The Rebel Wheel CD), Leave That Thing Alone (a Rush cover), Balade De l'Araignée, Acquiring Glass Friends (A tribute to Gentle Giant written by David Campbell), Tectonic Plates, and ending with 1 Oz. (on the first The Rebel Wheel CD already released). Great set from these guys, Eric is just an incredible multi-instrumentalist, what a talented guy! Gary gave the tone of the performance with his groovy rhythms on the bass. The sound was a bit loud, according to many attendants, but I always come prepared with several earplug pairs, and I gave all of them away! A fun show from Gary and the guys (and gal) but sadly, this was to be their last performance, as Gary recently announced this new project, The Rebel Wheel, on which he's working with Alain Bergeron (Nathan Mahl's drummer on The Clever use of Shadows), Eric Robillard and David Campbell.
A group of us made its way to the real Royal Oak for a quick beer, and then back to the auditorium for the next concert of the evening, and around 8:30, Widow's Walk walked onstage... a brilliant young prog metal band featuring Rick Barkhouse on keyboards, Yves Richer on bass, Tristan Vaillancourt on guitar and Roger Verdon on drums. Their setlist included Suspiria (a Goblin cover), Whispered Messages, The Agenda, Working Day, City Of Embers, Mae Dae (an Enchant cover), Moonrise, Hell's Kitchen (a Dream Theater cover) , Dryad Of The Woods (a PoS cover), Third Person, Perfect Memory and Insignia. An amazing set from a very tight band, these guys are incredible!
And after a 15-min break, it was time for Nathan Mahl to step onstage around 10:00 PM. Ottawa's renowned symphonic prog quartet features Guy LeBlanc on keyboards and vocals, Dan Lacasse on drums, Mark Spenard on guitars and Guy Dagenais on bass. The setlist included Entrance, Without Words, Shadows Unbound, Moral Values part I, Crimen Excepta, Ad Judicium, Casual Seizures, Heretik part IV, No Vacancy, Beyond the Rims Of Despair, The Trial and ended with the classic Carpe Diem. An enthusiastic crowd cheered the four brilliant musicians, but they did not offer an encore, due to time constraints of the auditorium. The sound again was a bit loud, but the overall mix was much better than on Nathan Mahl's last performance at the same place last April. Dan Lacasse played on a real drum this time, none of that techno hobble gobble electronic drumkit stuff, and his performance was fantastic, very energetic. Guy blew the roof off on the bass, as well as a few woofers! A killer performance from Mark, with some unforgettable solos and inspired jams! He ran into the crowd on many occasions with his wireless guitar setup! And what can I say about the great keyboard master and birthday boy, Guy Leblanc... a stunning performance, what a formidable keyboardist, intense, precise, quirky and with a great sense of humour! Overall, a relentless show from beginning to end, powerful, elegant and dynamic!
According to the organizers, next year's event may include four bands! Thanks to Rick and Gary for a fun weekend of prog in Ottawa! And Thanks to Guy Leblanc and the whole Nathan Mahl team for the magnificent show!
Text by Robert Dansereau (16-10-2006)
October 14, 2006
Flower Kings in Montreal
Another great moment for prog fans in Montreal, on Tuesday, October 10 2006 at the Medley, the Flower Kings performed the most incredible concert we've seen in this city in a long time!
Coming to Montreal and Quebec city for their Paradox Hotel tour, it was again such a pleasure to have the Flower Kings on the stage of the Medley, one of the best and classiest bands in the world of progressive music. The concert preparations went on flawessly, the band arrived in their tour bus around noon. After a great sound check, everything was ready around 5:00 PM. By 6:30 as the doors of the auditorium opened, a modest crowd of 150 slowly streamed in. Around 8:00 PM, the band members, who were well-rested and in great shape, stepped onto the stage for a gorgeous performance.
The sound was great, although a bit loud (thank God for ear-plugs), and all five musicians were in top shape. The setlist included Paradox Hotel, Hit Me With A Hit, Psychedelic Postcard / Hudson River Sirens Call, Jealousy, What If God Is Alone, Just This Once, Pioneers Of Aviation, Touch My Heaven, Ghost Of The Red Cloud, Mommy Leave The Light On, End On A High Note, World Of Adventures / Silent Sorrow, I Am The Sun (short version) and for the encore, Life Will Kill You and The Flower King. The band offered a sensational performance, they were much more dynamic, exuberant and enthusiastic than on their June 2, 2005 performance in Montreal, which was already splendid... Tomas was enjoying thoroughly his new toy, a spiffy Mini Moog, which he used extensively during the jams and improvs. Hasse's voice was simply magnificent, this guy is just a fountain of energy, as always and it was fun to see Tomas and Jonas participate more actively in the vocal portions of the show, along with Roine. The track Pioneers of Aviation was the ideal moment for Marcus and Jonas to insert short and sweet solos. A cool medley of World Of Adventures with Silent Sorrow, was one of the highlights of the show. The other big highlights were two tracks from the new album, What If God Is Alone, which got a long standing ovation, and Life Will Kill You, a killer version of that incredible track, it really highlights Hasse's voice! One of the coolest things was the great setlist that included some old classics seldom played like Psychedelic Postcard, The Flower King and Silent Sorrow... Roine made some humorous remarks about the Iron Maiden concert happening at the same time at the Bell Center in Montreal, and thanked the audience for choosing wisely the Flower Kings instead, especially to the guy wearing the Iron Maiden t-shirt in the audience! Jonas sported a brand new fuzzy white hat that he bought in Montreal, as a replacement for the other one, who died... All five members were also sporting a relatively new, stubby goatee... a new trend? The concert concluded with the anthem of the group, the title track of Roine's 1994 solo CD, who is widely accepted as being the very first Flower Kings album. Just before leaving the stage, Jonas did the obligatory bass balancing act on his chin. At the end of last encore, the mighty Flower Kings had played a whopping 2 hours and 36 minutes of progressive bliss! After the concert, Roine, Hasse, Tomas, Jonas and Marcus mingled for a good while with the crowd, singing autographs and having their pictures taken, much to the delight of their adoring fans. A class act. The 150 or so people who were there were privileged to see this majestic performance, who will be remembered for a long time.
It's truly too bad that such a wonderful performance was seen by so few people! Are prog fans becoming again an endangered species? It is understandable that mid-week shows are always a bit harder to attend for some folks, we were also against the fact that it was the day after thanksgiving, Iron Maiden was also in town at the same time, but still, it was almost embarassing that such a quality act play in front of so few people. And who knows, the group hinted at a well-deserved break, so we might not have the pleasure to see them for quite a while. But those who were there enjoyed every second of the show, every perfect note. People had their money's worth and then some!
Thanks to Roine Stolt, Hasse Froberg, Tomas Bodin, Marcus Liliequist and Jonas Reingold for their generous and wonderful performance, thanks to Bob Snyder, the Flower Kings' excellent tour manager and to Brian Dorbuck, their stage manager and lifetime friend, Ray and Noreen Loboda for all their help, and to the entire entourage of the band for being efficient competent and most gracious. Thanks to Simon Fauteux of Fusion III for his constant support, a big thanks to Denis Jalbert for his precious assistance during the entire day, and most importantly, Thanks to Michel St-Père of Unicorn Digital for bringing this amazing act to Montreal.
Photos by Claude Dufresne © 2006 All Rights Reserved - Text by Robert Dansereau (14-10-2006)
October 2, 2006
Terra Incognita convention in Quebec City
Last year, in honor of the 2nd anniversary of the Terra Incognita magazine, a Quebec City-based french language prog magazine, its editor-in-chief, Michel Bilodeau, organized a one-day prog fest, the Terra Incognita convention, a cool event that gathered various local artists at the Impérial de Québec. With the success of that first event, Michel decided to go at it again with the second edition of the Terra Incognita convention. So on Saturday, September 30 2006, I headed to Quebec City for TIC2, again representing Unicorn Digital and ProgQuébec in the vendor area, with my colleague Jerry. This year's edition is held again at the Impérial de Québec and features four bands: Pangloss, Quartik, The D Project and Jester's Tear.
Around 3:20 PM, Montreal band Pangloss opened the festivities with their great performance. The group is composed of Jean Pelletier on bass, Peter Korbis on drums, Daniel D'Aoust on guitars, Richard Blais on keyboards and Jannick Tremblay on lead vocals. Their music is an excellent mix of symphonic prog with shades of jazz fusion and neo prog. The highly expressive Jannick Tremblay incorporates a theatrical component to the performance. You can hear elements of Pallas, Gong and even renowned Quebec band Red Sand in their music. Their set sonsisted of tracks from their their first album, entitled Joe Barr, released in 2002, as well as a preview of their upcoming album entitled Mensonges, and included Légendes Urbaines, Joe Barr, Le Local, Pouvoir, Hippocrate, Rose, Médias, Burn-Out and La Garderie. One of the rare prog bands in North America that sings in French, the five highly skilled and talented musicians form a very dynamic ensemble, alternating from delicate ballads to exuberant power rock compositions flawlessly. Their performance was simply wonderful, the sound was impeccable, thanks to the D Project's Stéphane Desbiens behind the console. A very fun show, and a perfect way to start the day!
And for the second musical offering of the day, the brilliant group Quartik stepped onstage at around 5:00 PM and simply blew the roof off the Impérial! The Lévis-based quartet is composed of Phil Binette on drums, Nicolas Couture on guitars, Jean-Félix Bélanger-Auclair on bass and Norbert Couture on the vibraphone. Their set consisted almost exclusively of tracks from their upcoming second album, entitled Progress By Demolition, and included 6/9, Bump and Jump, a wildly rearranged version of the jazz standard A Night In Tunisia, That Funk, the warm latin jazz La Salsa Di Quartiko, the highly improvised Guacamole, a masterfully rearranged Well, You Needen't and Progress by Demolition, and after a loud and enthusiastic standing ovation, they played Luck in Time from their first album. Quartik plays a blistering mix of instrumental contemporary jazz with elements of prog rock, or as they describe themselves... urban groove / alternative jazz / blues, latin, funk and prog. Also featured at the first edition of the Terra Incognita convention in 2005, the group, who was already quite impressive last year, refined its performance to near perfection this year! A riveting, passionate show from these marvelous musicians... the almighty Jean Félix delivered a knock-down set on the bass, Phil was explosive on drums, Nicolas was magnificent on the guitars, with his precision, his impeccable timing and his great sense of humour... and what can I say about Norbert, the Gary Burton of prog! His performance was a perfect mix of his skills, his creativity and his intensity... sublime! Again with Stéphane behind the console, the sound was superb. Bravo to Quartik, a group worthy of the best spot at the Montreal Jazz Fest, as well as on the stage of the finest prog festivals worldwide.
Then on to the main event of the day, and one of the most anticipated performances of the convention for many people, Stéphane Desbiens and the D Project stepped onstage at 7:30 PM. Stéphane, one of the most renowned guitarists from the Quebec region, is best known for his brilliant work with Sense and his contributions with Qwaarn, Red Sand and Ère G. We all recall his great performances at the Medley in Montréal and at the Impérial in Quebec City in November 2005 when Sense opened for british group Arena. His first solo work, entitled Shimmering Lights by the D Project, received much praise from the international prog community, featuring splendid contributions by legendary musicians like IQ's Martin Orford, TFK's Tomas Bodin and Fred Schindel of Glass Hammer. Stéphane gathered a brilliant team of musicians with him for this performance, including his old Sense buddies Mathieu Gosselin on bass, acoustic guitar, samples and Chapman Stick, and Dany Robertson on drums, completing his live band with Mario Paradis on keyboards and the lovely Sandra Poulin on violin. The setlist consisted of the entire D Project album, Shimmering Lights, a few excerpts from Mathieu's Jupiter 9 project and a floydish surprise at the end. They played Shimmering Lights, They Come And Grow, Hide From The Sun, What Is Done Is Done (Rat), Jupiter 9's Jupiter suite, That's Life and September Solitudes. The crowd cheered loudly and the long standing ovation was rewarded with the band coming back for a great encore, a cover of Pink Floyd's Sorrow, much to the delight of the audience. What a splendid concert!
Here are some of the highlights of this performance: The eerie e-bow sounds of Mathieu's 6-string bass gave a dramatic tone on They Come And Grow. The melancholic violin, the emotional guitar solo and the great vocals of Stéphane made Hide From The Sun one of the key moments of the show. High-spirited moments and powerful keyboard work from Mario during What Is Done Is Done (Rat), with a fun "audience participation" bit by Stéphane. Then, Stéphane left the stage to Dany and Mathieu, affectionately calling them "la pieuvre" and "le fou du roi", (The octopus and the King's jester) for one of Mathieu's Jupiter 9 tracks, the Jupiter suite, which featured great Chapman Stick licks from Mathieu and insanely brilliant drum work from Dany. Powerful and dynamic work from the band during That's Life, which featured one of Mathieu's most blistering bass solo, just mind-bending! September Solitudes was accompanied by a projection featuring poignant images of the futility of war... and featured a fantastic keyboard solo by Mario. People had high expectations from this group and all I can say is that they weren't disappointed, because Stéphane and the gang gave it all! See my review of Stéphane's D Project album, it's a grandiose piece of work!
And finally, to end the evening on an enthusiastic proggy note, the Marillion tribute band Jester's Tear presented a great performance. Composed of François Gobeil on guitars, Philippe Lachance on drums, Danny Lassiseraye on bass, Jean Sébastien Carrier aux claviers et David Chemm on vocals, the group presents a great hommage to Marillion. Their set included among others, White Russian, Tales From A Jester's Tears, and then, to conclude their show, the entire Misplaced Childhood suite. Truly spot on, the group performed the old Marillion classics with skill and precision, right down to David's face paint and Jean Sébastien's impressive collection of vintage keyboards.
We had to leave a bit before the end of their performance due to our long trip back from Quebec City to Montreal, but again the Terra Incognita convention was a success, with a great selection of bands and plenty of fun! Thanks to Michel Bilodeau, Stéphane Desbiens, Francis Foy and the entire team behind Terra Incognita 2, we had a great time and we look forward to the third edition of the fest!
text by Robert Dansereau (02/10//2006)
October 1st, 2006
Steve Howe/Martin Taylor guitar duo in L'Assomption
There are these perfects moments in time you just want to freeze forever... Friday, September 29 at the Théatre Hector Charland in L'Assomption was one of them for me. Steve Howe, legendary guitarist of Yes and Martin Taylor, renowned british jazz guitarist, teamed-up in 2004 and made a wonderful album called Masterpiece Guitars, featuring the two guitar virtuosos playing some beautiful jazzy / classical music on a variety of rare and exotic acoustic guitars. Presenting the only live performances of this show in North America right here in L'Assomption, Ste-Thérèse and in Beloeil, it was a privilege for fans of Yes and classical guitar fans in general to witness these two great musicians at work! Here now is a short review of the first of these three performances.
After arriving late afternoon in L'Assomption, I stopped at the lovely Bistro L'Ange Cornu (you must stop there when in L'assomption, it's a truly wonderful place), right next to the Théâtre Hector Charland for an exquisite meal (delicious bruchetta, followed by a veal/blue cheese burger... yum!) and as a great bonus, at the table next to mine, Steve Howe and Martin Taylor were finishing their supper so I was very happy to salute them on their way out!
The show began at around 8:10 PM. A very simple setup onstage with two chairs, a few monitors and a few mikes, the two master guitarists hopped onstage for a sublime performance. Two sets of 45 minutes with a 20 min. break, consisting among others of several tracks from their Masterpiece Guitars album, including Two Teardrops, All The Things You Are, Tailpieces. Of course, Steve couldn't get away without playing a few tidbits from his extensive solo career and his Yes repertoire... much to the delight of the numerous Yes aficionados, he performed a wonderfully reworked version of To Be Over, as well as the classics Mood For A Day and Clap. But what about that Martin Taylor... he performed some jaw-dropping guitar gymnastics, like playing multiple harmonies and rhythms while telling humorous tales! His superhuman guitar skills, associated with his brilliant, syncopated style and his compositional and improvisational talent made his solo part one of the highlights of the evening, especially when he dedicated one of his songs to his son, who passed away last year at the age of 21... very emotional, tender moment. During the second set, mister Howe pulled out an electric guitar (the crowd reacted with a few enthusiastic ooh's and aah's), and played a few of his solo compostions, heavily influenced by one of his idols, Chet Atkins. The evening ended with a fun, carribean-themed duo, and after a long and exuberant standing ovation, the two guitarists played a hot, lush big old blues duo!
After the show, the two musicians were available for an autograph session. I would have loved to see all three shows, but since I was covering the Terra Incognita convention on Saturday, I couldn't make it to the Beloeil and Ste-Thérèse shows. A delightful evening indeed for the lucky ones who had the pleasure to be there!
text by Robert Dansereau (01/10/2006)
September 24, 2006
FMPM 2006
Oh it has been quite a ride! The first edition of the Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montréal was a success. Many factors were involved, whether it was the time of the year, the comfort and the great acoustics of the venue, the selection of groups, many people who attended really enjoyed the entire thing. Pretty good for a newbie fest.
The Preshow
It all started on Thursday, September 14, the day of FMPM's preshow at the Place à Côté, on Papineau Street, near Mont-Royal, featuring Talisma and Hamadryad. Of course, The group Talisma didn't make it because of an unfortunate accident, Donald Fleurent, bass player of the band, broke his arm two weeks before the event, so we had to find a substitute band, and with much thanks for being available at the last minute, the group Signs of One stepped in the vacant slot left by Talisma.
Signs of One at La Place à Côté • Photo by Yves Dubé ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Around 9:35 PM, the festival officially began. I introduced Signs of One as the very first artist to grace the stage of FMPM, the first in what we hope, will become a long list of performers at our annual event, in the same tradition as NEARfest, ProgDay or RoSFest. Signs of One is a group from Quebec city, composed of Steeve Tremblay on guitars and vocals, Phil Prince on drums and percussion, Yannick Lapointe on keyboards and vocals, Dan Gagnon on bass and vocals and Dave Schram on lead vocals. Their material is a great mix of symphonic, melodic prog with more straightforward pop rock, inspired by groups as varied as Rush, Marillion, Arena, Radiohead and Jethro Tull. Their setlist was composed of Innerlight, Frantic Memories, Confusion, Innerland, Remember, Farewell Master, Ice Cream Silence and I, from their various studio efforts. Dave is a very energetic singer, very expressive and exuberant, Steeve is an amazing, talented guitarist. I would have loved to hear a bit more of the keyboards in the mix. The group was tight and really had fun onstage, setting the tone for the evening.
All the while, a bit of drama when the band members of Hatfield and the North arrived very late from their long trip from France and from England. Phil Miller and Alex Maguire had to endure a hellish trip; Their plane, scheduled to land at 4 PM, was delayed over an hour, they were held at customs for quite a while, and then got stuck in traffic on their way to the hotel for a solid two hours, poor Phil Miller was very tired and utterly uncomfortable, but around 8 PM, I got the news that everyone had arrived safely and my partner Stephen had treated them to a lovely meal at a fine steak house. I only started breathing again after that moment.
The atmosphere was at its peak at La Place à Côté as Hamadryad prepared to go onstage. Second group presented at the preshow, they really needed no introduction (but I gave them one anyway) as they are one of our most celebrated Montreal-based contemporary progressive bands. They didn't dissapoint, as they gave a triumphant performance, worthy of their immense talent. Hamadryad is composed of Denis Jalbert on guitars and vocals, Yves Jalbert on drums, Jean-François Désilets on bass and vocals and Sébastien Cloutier on keyboards and vocals. Their set was composed of tracks from their two highly popular studio albums, and consisted of Spark of Benign Magic, Self-Made Men, Anatomy of a Dream, Amora Demonis, Watercourse Hymn, 24, Nameless, Omnipresent Umbra, Sunburnt, One Voice, Polaroid Vendetta, Alien Spheres, Still they Laugh - parts 1 & 2 and Action. Reworking some of the tracks as instrumental compositions, the set was fantastic, the guys were full of energy and gave an all-out performance, much to the pleasure of their fans. Quickly back home to catch a few hours of sleep, we all needed the energy for the day after!
Day one
And so it begins... arriving early at the Gesu to drop equipment as well as one of our volunteers, Allison, and after going quickly to the airport ot Pick-up Leonardo, Hatfield and the North's agent, I finally made my way to the auditorium in the early afternoon to help in the setup, which was already well in its way. I caught a brief glimpse of the Hatfield and the North sound check, and even though they were unrehearsed, tired of their long plane trip and still heavy-hearted at the loss of their old friend, Pip Pyle a few days earlier, they were simply sublime. Mr. Sinclair had a bit of trouble with the bass amp head, so I quickly went to the Boîte à Musique for a substitute bass amp. By then the band members of Echolyn had arrived at the hotel from their long road trip from Pennsylvania, so I quickly greeted them and helped them setup their merchandise in the vendors area back at the venue. Poor Ray Weston realized much to his dismay that one of his tires was flat while waiting at the canadian border crossing, so he had to drive all the way to Montreal on his spare tire. More on that later.
As people started arriving in the late afternoon, it was time for Jérôme Langlois' sound check and setup. Again, it was a great, intimate musical moment, just watching these great musicians perform a few passages of the set they would present later in the evening. Sadly it was all that I would see of Jérôme Langlois' magical performance, as I had so many things to take care, including setting-up the after-hours party, so I had to miss the entire Molignak show with a heavy heart. Thankfully, John Kelman, of the All About Jazz website, saw the show and had this to say about the Jérôme Langlois set:
"The festival opened up with a performance by Jérôme Langlois, co-founder of Maneige, one of Quebec’s most beloved progressive groups from the 1970s. With his new Molignak project, clarinettist/pianist Langlois was accompanied by bassist Mario Légaré, drummer/percussionist Gilles Schetagne, violinist Bernard Cormier, flautist/pianist François Richard and clarinettist Romie de Guise-Langlois. Atmospheric lighting created a warm backdrop for Langlois’ classically influenced music. But the introduction of electric instruments and, on occasion, more propulsive rhythms make a case for this kind of music being classical music for the 21st Century.
Relying more on polyphony than counterpoint, Langlois’ music was approachable; complex in its episodic and extended nature, but not so in its more straightforward rhythms. While solos were kept to a minimum and always within context of the material’s structure, Cormier and Richard stood out—as did, of course, Langlois, who was often seen cuing the sextet from his place at the piano.
The appreciative audience was clearly familiar with the material and it was a lyrical way to start the festival, proving that two terms so often associated with progressive music—bombast and inaccessibility—need not be applicable at all." - John Kelman, Senior Editor - All About Jazz website (www.allaboutjazz.com) Read the complete review at: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=23106 .
At 7:00 PM on day one of the festival, Jérôme Langlois played with the Molignak ensemble, composed of Mario Légaré on bass, Bernard Cormier on violin, François Richard on flute and keyboards, Gilles Schetagne on drums and percussion, Paul Picard on percussion, Romie De Guise-Langlois on clarinet and of course, Jérôme Langlois, on piano, clarinet and guitar. Their set consisted of Le Cri, Arrivée, Huard 2, Le Rafiot, Chanson des Îles, La Balloune, L'Envol du Papillon, Mars 97, Tango 2000 and for the encore, Rhapsodie Molinienne and La Molinie (from Jérôme's setlist). The magnificent performance was most appreciated by the audience, who left for the dinner break with smiles on their faces, as I was coming back from setting-up the after-hours party...
Jérôme Langlois and the Molignak ensemble at the Gesù • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Bernard Cormier, Jérôme Langlois and Romie De Guise-Langlois • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Then on to the next performance, the long-awaited first-ever performance of Hatfield and the North in Montreal. It was nearly never to be, when in the last days of August, Pip Pyle, Hatfield and the North's drummer for the past 34 years, died suddenly in Paris, just days after a gig in Holland. But the group decided to honor their fans, and found a replacement drummer that was quite familiar with the Hatfield material (Mark Fletcher is in Phil Miller's band In Cahoots, and substituted for Pip Pyle occasionnally on a few Hatfield gigs), so the Montreal show was on. And what a show they put on!
Hatfield and the North is composed of Richard Sinclair on vocals and on bass, Phil Miller on guitars, Alex Maguire on keyboards (substituting for Dave Stewart, who decided not to reunite with the band) and Mark Fletcher on drums (substituting for Pip Pyle). After a quick intro by our colleague Sean McFee, the guys put on a majestic show. When you think that Mark Fletcher pretty much had to "wing it", since he had very little time to re-familiarize himself with the Hatfield material, and all four musicians still reeling from the death of their beloved old friend Pip, it was an extremely emotional experience. Alex and Richard's banter lightened up the mood, and their contagious humour made the audience laugh out loud often. Their performance was subtle and melodic at times, with blistering jams and heavenly improvisations at others. A jaw-dropping set from these legends of the Canterbury scene. I felt privileged to witness this perfect embodiment of classy british prog at its best. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Their beautiful set consisted of Licks for the Ladies, Part Of The Dance, Rifferama, Calyx/Underdub/God Song/Lything and Gracing, Share it, Didn’t Matter Anyway, Halfway Between Heaven and Earth, the Miller/Wyatt classic Nan's True Hole, What's Rattlin' (from Richard's RSVP CD...lyrics by Pip), Gigantic Landcrabs in Earth Takeover Bid (titled 'Amsterdamage 11/19' on Hatwise Choice), Fitter Stoke Has a Bath, Psychic Warrior (an Alex MaGuire tune), Seven Sisters (from Pip's 7 Year Itch album). I do not recall the specific order and I may have forgotten a few numbers, but the setlist above is close to reality. The group was treated to a long standing ovation from the audience... nothing less was to be expected after such a sublime performance.
Hatfield And The North at the Gesù • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Hatfield And The North at the Gesù • Photo byYves Dubé ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Day one went without a hitch, the sound was wonderful, and all the shows began in time. The technical crew of the Gesù, under the guidance of our great technical director, Michel St-Père, and the auditorium's Mario Lachance, was simply impeccable, and ensured the smooth flow of all the shows all day long. People came out of the auditorium happy and ready to take on day two the morning after.
The after-hours VIP artist's party was a great attempt at emulating the cool fun events accompanying the celebrations of great festivals like RoSFest and NEARfest, but unlike the aforementioned, our attempt never really took off the ground. With much fewer people than we had expected, tired attendees and musicians, the jam session took a bit of time to warm up, and ended prematurely. Next year, this formula will be reworked from scratch, probably moved to another day, and definitely another location.
Day Two
With a near-perfect day one under our wing, we felt confident that the second day of the festival would be equally succesful, and aside from a few delays due to our rather tight schedule, we were extremely happy how things went. It all started quite early with the Echolyn crew ready to setup and rehearse at 8:45 sharp! Their setup and reharsal went on impeccably. Soon after, Ray Weston, asked me where he could have his deflated tire repaired, and I directed him to the closest Canadian Tire store where we spent a few minutes discussing about Echolyn's trip to Canada and their various upcoming projects.
At 2:15 PM, we were finally ready for the first performance of the day with Karcius. It was for me a pleasure to introduce them onstage because i'm proud of these kids and how wonderfully they evolved over the years. Karcius is composed of Dominique Blouin on bass, Thomas Brodeur on drums, Mingan Sauriol on keyboards and Simon L'Espérance on guitars. Their unique brand of powerful, proggy jazz fusion really shook everyone awake! Their set consisted of a great mix of tracks from their two brilliant studio releases, and a few surpises! They played Destination, Tunnel, Highway to the Moon, Back to Earth, Epilogue, a Led Zeppelin medley featuring cool excerpts of Black Dog, The Ocean and Kashmir among others and to conclude their set, they played the Hypothèse A, B and C suite. Simon awed the audience with his virtuosity, and his contagious enthusiasm, great showmanship and intensity from this guy. The stoic Dominique really let loose during the show and offered some stunning jammy bass riffs throughout the set. Thomas is a powerful and precise drummer with soul and an impeccable technique. Mingan just wowed the audience with his great improvisations, he was simply brilliant on the keys. Standing ovation for this young band of prodigious musicians from Montreal. That was a perfect way to start the day, and the guys were literally assaulted by the crowd at the signing table after their set! One final note, you might have noticed the drumkit used for most of the bands with the FMPM logo on it... that was Thomas Brodeur's kit, who courteously offered it to us for the duration of the festival. Dominique Blouin also kindly offered his bass amp to the other invited artists! Thanks Thomas and Dom!
Thomas Brodeur of Karcius • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Karcius at the Gesù • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
A great article in the Journal de Montreal was published on that Saturday, which was posted in the lobby of the Gesù. It featured a great interview with the Guys from Karcius and a cool overview of the entire festival. Thanks to the Journal's Philippe Renault for the great thumbs-up!
Due to the church service mid-afternoon, there was this very long break from 3:30 to 6:45 we had to live with, so it was the ideal time for the FMPM sympozium on Quebec's progressive pionners, hosted by Sean McFee and Stephen Takacsy, featuring Yves Laferrière, André Duchesne, Alain Bergeron, Tom Rivest and Gary Green. The format was a panel with a Q & A session, a truly fascinating journey through the history of progressive music in Quebec in the early 70's. Gary had the pleasure of playing with many of the artists sitting on this panel during his time with Gentle Giant, as many of them opened for the legendary british group.
The very tight changeover period between Kaos Moon and Miriodor would have made it nearly impossible to respect the schedule, but thanks to the highly competent Gesù crew, and the fact that we organized for Miriodor to partially set-up their gear while the Kaos Moon crew were setting-up and rehearsing, we were actually able to make it work. Both bands have an insanely complex setup (the two most elaborate setups at FMPM this year), so we were lucky that we had so little delays. The Kaos Moon performance was 10 minutes late, the Miriodor set was 20 minutes late and the Echolyn set was 40 minutes late... We'll make sure to shuffle the bands next year in a way that this time period accomodates groups with a relatively simple setup. But as I mentioned, if not for the amazing efficiency of the bandmembers of Kaos Moon, Miriodor and the Gesù crew, it could have been much worse.
Close to 7:00 PM, the Kaos Moon set began. The group is composed of Denis Mailloux on drums, Norman Lachapelle on bass, Jean-François Bélanger on violin, nykelharpa, sitar and bouzouki, Sylvain Provost on guitars, Denis Boulanger on keyboards and of course, Bernard Ouellette on vocals, keyboards, guitars and percussion. Their musical style is a wonderful mix of symphonic prog with elements of fusion, celtic/Middle-East, Arena rock, a bit reminiscent of Jadis, RPWL and the likes, even hints of Echolyn at times. Their set consisted mostly of tracks from their latest album, Circle of Madness and included Presidency, S.O.A.B., Crawl, The Cold Fish, Groove in G minor, Say to Me, The Wall of Silence, The Waves and Eternal Light Avenue. The guys just performed a wonderful, elegant set, their performance marked by great musicianship and emotion. The key of their set was variety, from the most delicate ballads to the most enthusiastic jams! It was also sort of a reunion for Kaos Moon and Echolyn, since they performed together several years ago. Jean-François was responsible for the exotic sounds of the group, with his selection of unusual instruments like the complex nykelharpa, the sitar and the bouzouki, a brilliant multi-instrumentalist. Sylvain really blew away the crowd with his chops on guitar, with captivating solos and caustic riffs! Denis Boulanger really gave an awe-inspiring performance on the keys, putting the ol' B3/Leslie to good use! Bernard was magnificent and sang admirably well, considering that pollen allergies had bothered him much of the weekend, just a dazzling performance.
Bernard Ouellette of Kaos Moon • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Kaos Moon at the Gesù • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
A bit before 8:30, it was Miriodor's turn. The group is composed of Pascal Globensky on keyboards, Rémi Leclerc on drum and percussion, Chantal Bergeron on violin, Nicolas Masino on bass and keyboards, Marie-Chantal Leclair on saxophone and Bernard Falaise on guitars. Their setlist consisted of tracks from Mekano and Parade, plus a few new things, and included Écart-type (a new track), Scarabée, Mille-pattes, Toutes proportions gardées, Tartine, Boîte à surprises, Polar, Avanti (another new never-played number), Contrées liquides, Pas à ce que je sache, Sacha, Cruciverbiste, Uppsala, and for the encore, Le règne des termites. The group was treated to a long and well-deserved standing ovation. Many times during their set, people stood up and cheered loudly, their performance was one of the highlights of the festival, a true killer set from one of the world's most renowned ambassadors of what is known as Rock In Opposition. The only thing I can say about Rémi Leclerc is that he has an atomic clock in his body! The level of precision and the insane time signatures of his work on drums is beyond anything you've ever seen! It is pure delight. Marie-Chantal was amazing on the clarinet, delivering a blaze of blistering passages throughout the show, Nicolas was brilliant during the splendid bass duo on Cruciverbiste, the audience laughing at his humorous banter between tracks, Bernard simply rewrote the book on guitar playing, what a splendid, imaginative guitarist, with such a remarkable tone and a fine technique. Chantal shredded our souls with her sharp violin tones and her exquisite virtuosity. And what can I say about Pascal, the gracious leader of this joyful orchestra, just perfect on keyboards ans synths. The group is very inventive and offers brilliant, captivating music on CD, but seeing them live is something even more amazing... the precision, the grace, the world-class virtuosity, the intensity, it's just a whole new level! I truly believe that Miriodor is responsible for making the whole RIO genre more accessible to the general population, blending the unusual rhythms and melodies of RIO with their own brand of alternative, truly unclassifiable harmonies and beats, resulting in stimulating, enthusiastic, exuberant, clever music. A live DVD of this group would be simply incredible. Pascal is hinting at the release of a new album, but nothing before 2008. We will be waiting in anticipation!
Miriodor at the Gesù • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Chantal Bergeron of Miriodor • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Time flew by so fast, that it was already time for the final performance of FMPM, featuring one of the most beloved american progressive bands, Echolyn. Again, a race against time to set-up the equipment and gear of the group, while Miriodor were breaking-down their setup. At one point, Paul Ramsey was a bit stressed out as the drumkit he had carefully set-up earlier in the day was nowhere to be found... pulling on a cord revealed his drumkit intact, behind the curtains, as well as the entire keyboard setup, thanks to the Gesù's very deep stage area! A humorous moment backstage before the show with all the members of the band singing, and Ray performing some sort of rain dance... precious, intimate moments of a group getting psyched for their upcoming set. An efficient changeover permitted us to be just 40 minutes late in our schedule, not bad for such an elaborate setup. The Echolyn crew quickly made a final line-check and all was ready for the show. At 10:40 PM, Yves Dubé introduced the group onstage. Echolyn is composed of Ray Weston on lead vocals, bass and guitar, Tom Hyatt on bass, Chris Buzby on keyboards and vocals, Paul Ramsey on drums and percussion and Brett Kull on guitars and vocals. They performed a highly dynamic, energetic set that included tracks from most of their albums, with Georgia Pine, The Cheese Stands Alone, Arc of Descent, The End is Beautiful, Mei, One Voice, Those that Want To Buy, Suffocating The Bloom, So Ready, Brittany, As The World and for the encore, Human Lottery. What can I say, a sublime performance with all the intensity and majesty for which they are renowned for, just perfection! Ray's voice was fantastic, going from the softest whisper to the most powerful death-metal growl effortlessly. All of the musicians were equally perfect, one of the tightest bands to see live, just plain fun! Paul's drumming rattled the auditorium walls, what power and precision! Probably the most amazing live performance I've seen in decades! As Echolyn were taking their final bow, our team stepped onstage to thank everyone, and we finished with these words: "See you next year!"
Echolyn at the Gesù • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
Ray Weston of Echolyn • Photo by André Bazinet ©2006 All Rights Reserved
The list of people to thank is long, to the kind people who volunteered their time, their resources and so much more to make of the first edition of FMPM such a resounding success. Many thanks and our deepest gratitude to our photographers, Claude Labrecque and Claude Dufresne, Allison Rich and Nadine Benny, Béatrice and Martin Maheux for their help at the boxoffice and vendor areas, Gérald Laurion for his work at security and hall coordination, Thomas Brodeur and Dominique Blouin of Karcius for lending us their gear during the festival, Pascal Globensky for his invaluable input in the organization of the festival, Mario Lachance, Technical Director of the Gesù and the whole Gesù technical staff for their competence and efficiency, making our festival such a success, Martin Siberok of Hour, Philippe Renault of Journal de Montréal and Réjean Beaucage of Voir for their interest and support of the prog music scene, and ttheir great newspaper articles, Alain Lalancette of CKIA FM in Québec, Tom Gagliardi of the Gagliarchives, Michel Parent of QuébecPop, Jean Doyon and Réjean Charbonneau of La Filière Progressive for their unwavering support, Rob LaDuca and Chad Hutchinson of NEARFest for their kind help and support, Stéphane Desbiens of Sense for being our guest, Michel Bilodeau of Ipso Facto and Terra Incognita for his support and friendship, Guy Leblanc and Daniel Lacasse and Nathan Mahl for being our guests, George Roldan and Tom Smith of RoSFest for their support, CD Mélomane from Québec city for their great selection of prog CDs in our vendor area, Yves and Denis Jalbert, Jean-François Désilets and Sébastien Cloutier of Hamadryad for their help and technical assistance, as well as being among our guests, the incomparable Gary Green for being our guest of honor and star panelist, Yves Laferrière, André Duchesne, Alain Bergeron, Tom Rivest for the great afternoon of musical history 101 at the symposium. A big thanks to Groupe Geloso for the great sponsorship and providing to our festival attendees, musicians and staff the great new Gros Cochon beer! We wish to thank all of our sponsors, including Cannacord, Belair Direct, Seagrams Coolers, CG3 Communication, Pharmacies Jean Coutu, and of course, Unicorn Digital for their commitment to the FMPM team and their financial support, and finally, thanks to everyone who bought tickets and made this festival a reality.
See all the great pictures of the inaugural edition of the festival on the FMPM website "picture book".
July 16, 2006
Rick Wakeman at the Quebec Summer Festival
Quebec City is host to a very popular annual music festival, known as the Quebec Summer Festival, covering all styles of music, from pop to metal and blues, and yes... even progressive music! This renowned festival attracts literally hundreds of thousands of people yearly. And this year, Saturday July 15 was THE prog event of the fest... and dare I say, of the year!
Imagine a sensational outdoors show with the California Guitar Trio, Tony Levin, Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman, presenting great acoustic sets, followed by a world-class multimedia presentation of Rick Wakeman's famous 1999 solo album Return to The Center Of The Earth...
Here are the festival's description of the day's events:
"Freely adapted from Jules Verne’s novel, Voyage to the Centre of the Earth, and composed in 1999 by the incomparable keyboardist of prog-rock group YES, Rick Wakeman, this genuine musical and visual panorama is a multidisciplinary extravaganza bringing together on stage:
Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson of YES (together they will also provide the first portion of the show at 8:00 p.m.) and the English Rock Ensemble, The Québec City Summer Festival Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble Vocalys (20-person choir), Annie Villeneuve and other soloists, Guy Nadon as narrator.
The 40-metre-high (130’) Scène Bell Stage will be the backdrop for gigantic projections designed and screened by Souverbie Projections Géantes, whose list of accomplishments includes, most notably, major creations for Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre and Ex Machina (Robert Lepage). Special effects, pyrotechnics and other effects will be created by Concept FiatLux, winner of numerous prizes at international and national pyrotechnic art competitions, including that of the Loto-Québec International Fireworks Competition.
Exclusive world appearance, Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 9:30 pm on the Scène Bell (stage) on the Plains of Abraham."
THE SHOW
I can honestly say that I haven't seen anything like that ever! It was grandiose, and completely mind-blowing!
The day itself had started on a sour note, after a long drive to Quebec City, and the afternoon being horribly hot and hazy, it started raining just before the gates to the main outdoors Bell stage opened to the public, the torrential downpour ending about an hour before the show, with raindrops here and there during the CGT set.... thankfully it cleared completely for the Wakeman show.
The show started a bit after 7:00 PM with a wonderful set of the California Guitar Trio, who played some of their classics and a few of their new compositions, then the legendary Tony Levin joins them, adding his classic bass fingerstick tapping sound... among the material they played was an impressive version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird , soon followed by Jon Anderson joining CGT for a few numbers, and then it was Jon Anderson doing a solo acoustic set, Jon was then joined by Rick Wakeman... all these transitions were all very gradual and subtle... the setlist consisted of Yes favorites like Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Nous Sommes Du Soleil, And You And I, Soon, Roundabout, but the absolute highlight being Heart Of The Sunrise performed by Anderson, Wakeman, Levin and the CGT crew together... Wow! Another highlight of that set was the moving interpretation of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby by Rick Wakeman on the grand piano... Although life has been hard for Rick, he has not lost one bit of his amazing dexterity, his musicianship is better than ever... just like the finest old wine!
By this point, the crowd had swelled to a staggering 10000-15000... hard to evaluate with so many people on the vast plains of Abraham. There was a 40-min. break to set up the stage for the extravaganza, including the large symphonic orchestra.
The show started with the grandiose sounds of the symphonic orchestra and the mesmerizing choir, flawlessly mixed with the powerful sound of Rick's synthetizers, and an absolutely captivating narration by well-known Quebec actor Guy Nadon, en français of course! The absolutely sublime big screen projection spanning hundreds of feet, associated with the fireworks, the colorful fireballs, it was sublime! Jon Anderson even sung one of the compositions! Everyone was simply blown away by the grandeur of this show, even those who were there just because they live close by and had never heard of Yes or anything prog for that matter.
At the end of the evening, Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson were available for autographs... but sadly, people who wanted autographs were obligated to buy merchandise available at the table to have autographed... which I found to be unfortunate and unnecessary.
Overall, I came back to Montreal mesmerized by what I had just witnessed... my favorite style of music, presented on a scale of which I would have never imagined! No... I never saw the legendary shows like ELP in 1977 at the big-O... this was my first monster show, and what a show it was!
Click on the banner below of a few pictures taken at the event:
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.
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Tony Levin on the Electric Cello
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Tony Levin on the Chapman Stick
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Tony Levin doing some fancy pickin'
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The Tony Levin Band
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Tony, Jesse and Larry
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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.
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Phil Miller on the guitar
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Richard Sinclair & Pip Pyle
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Richard Sinclair on the bass
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The light was in my eyes!
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Smooth guitar licks from Mr. Miller
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Alex Maguire and Richard Sinclair
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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.
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Dani on the bass
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Akihisa Tsuboy and Toshimitsu Takahashi
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The skillful Akihisa on violin
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The KBB quartet
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Dani and Akihisa Tsuboy
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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.
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Piotr Grudzinsky and Piotr Kodzieradski
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Drummer Piotr Kodzieradski
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Michal Lapaj on keyboards
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Riverside
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Mariusz Duda on bass
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An inspired Piotr Grudzinsky
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The powerful voice of Mariusz Duda
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Marius and Piotr
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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.
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Claudio Vena on electric mandolin
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Martin Deller on drums
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Cameron Hawkins and Martin Deller
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The multitasking Cameron Hawkins
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Claudio Vena on violin
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Cameron Hawkins on bass
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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.
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Justin and Brandi
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The Ozric Tentacle's current lineup
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A cool psychedelic light show
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Brandi Winn on synths and sequencers
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Hmmm.. now where was I ?
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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.
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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
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James on the bass
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Kavus on the guitar
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Danny in the crowd, on the ocarina
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The talented Danny on the stage piano
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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.
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Saturday's spotlight artist...
Richard Leo Jiohnson
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Sunday's spotlight artist...
Michael Manring
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Michael Manring and his Zon Hyper Bass
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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!
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Christian Décamps on the acoustic guitar
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the deliciously insane Ange from France
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Guitar madman Hassan Hajdi
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The very lovely Catherine Crozat
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This one is really beyond explanation....
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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!
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Billy Sheehan and Dennis Chambers
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Niacin blew the roof off the Zoellner!
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Powerful bass riffs from Billy
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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.
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Mark Bonilla on guitars
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The old master behind the keys again
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Keith and his Moog controller stick
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Hey! You can't do that!
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Keith on the harmonica, Mark looking on
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Mark Bonilla and Phil Williams
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Keith surrounded himself with a team of exceptional musicians
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Phil Williams on bass
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closeup of the Emerson magic!
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Mark Bonilla and Phil Williams on double bass
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A surprise at the end of this stick for many!
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Incredible! He's playing behind his keyboard
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Now where's that button again....
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Keith and gang, signing autographs
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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...
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The canadian delegation is getting stronger
each year: Brigitte and family.
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A fun moment with the Echolyn crew when the
guys wanted to pilfer Ray Weston's gourmet meal
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Mark Wilkinson and wife
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A great group of friends, meeting yearly for a great music fest
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Sean at the FMPM\ProgQuebec booth
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Rob LaDuca in a brief moment of madness
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Chad Hutchinson, looking a bit tired, but intensely
satisfied at how NF06 was such a success
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Steve of Cuneiform Records
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The KBB band, very generous with their
availability to their fans all weekend long
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Mr. Gueffier at the Musea table
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The Kerman-a-tor!
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John of Progression Magazine... Quarterly???
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the legendary Roger Dean
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Some of Roger's stunning artwork
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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)
June 14, 2006
Karcius launches the album Kaleidoscope
at the Just For Laughs Cabaret!
The Montreal prog Fusion group Karcius put on a heck of a good show last Tuesday, June 13, the official launch party of their brand new CD, entitled Kaleidoscope, at the Cabaret Juste Pour Rire. This band just keeps getting better and better, they have reached a level of maturity and assurance that makes them just plain fun to see. They really don't have anything to prove anymore, and although their concert was mostly composed of brand new material, it's as if they've been playing this stuff forever, a very satisfying new album, and a thoroughly satisfying show!
The concert began around 8:30 PM with the opening act, the group Myxomatosis, a great new Montreal band featuring Olivier Laroche on drums, Marc Papillon on guitars, Simon Brault on bass and Alexandre Pelletier on vocals. Their setlist consisted of Sam, Ars Nova, New Wave, Hyper, Part 1, Hyper Part 2, Technically, Being, Space Tap, Octopuses and Augment. Their music is a combination of heavy rock/alternative with space rock and progressive themes, their compositions are loosely inspired of Dream Theater and Tool, Mark has an impeccable technique on guitars, an amazing musician, and so are all the other members. Alexandre has a poweful, precise voice a bit reminiscent of Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. This group has all the elements to become a great success, perhaps a few more melodic compositions would give them the ideal recipe. Myxomatosis gave a fun, dynamic performance, a great 1-hour set to whet our appetites for the main event of the evening.
A bit before 10:00, Karcius steps onstage. Immediately you could see the great complicity of all four musicians, completely at ease, they presented the great new material of their album Kaleidoscope with great skill and a lot of fun! A fantastic set that consisted of Hypothèse A, Maintenant, Destination/Tunnel, Hypothèse B, A-0-14/Épilogue, ending their set with Hypothèse C. The crowd was on its feet, cheering loudly for an encore, so the guys came back to play the very popular Absolute Decadence from their first album, Sphère. The concert was incredibly dynamic and powerful with impeccably exuberant showmanship, and the crowd of about 100 people just loved it! Karcius is composed of Mingan Sauriol on keyboards, Thomas Brodeur on drums, Simon L'Espérance on guitars, and Dominique Blouin on bass, and what makes this group so unique is the brilliant combination of jazz fusion with edgy hard rock and progressive music, this new album of theirs is a great evolution from their already impressive first release.
Karcius will be opening for The Flower Kings at the Prog In The Park festival, in Rochester, NY next October, and of course, they will be the opening group of day two of the Festival Des Musiques Progressives De Montréal this September.
June 9, 2006
Roger Hodgson at the Place des Arts
On Tuesday, June 6, the voice and soul of Supertramp, Roger Hodgson, played in front of a nearly sold out crowd at the prestigious Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of the Place des Arts in Montreal, the long-awaited return of Montreal's favorite troubadour. The show was pure perfection from beginning to end, an elegant acoustic duo with saxophonist Aaron MacDonald, from London ON.
A few moments after 8:00, the show began with the opening act, singer/songwriter/guitarist Jean-François Breau, who performed a great 40-min. set of some of his best-known compositions, as well as a few groovy covers like Marley's I Shot The Sheriff.
Then on to the main event, around 9:10. We were in for a great surprise when concert promoter Kim Zimmer announced that this show would be filmed for a future DVD... great news. A simple setup on this gigantic stage, consisting of a grand piano, a keyboard and two twelve-string guitars for Roger, a clarinet, a barytone and an alto sax for Erin. After an exuberant, warm reception from the crowd, Roger declared that he should have taken the short way home back to Montreal. His setlist consisted of Take The Long Way Home, Give A Little Bit, Lovers In The Wind, Hide In Your Shell, Keep The Pigeons Warm, The Logical Song, Easy Does It, Sister Moonshine, Love Is A 1000 Times, Breakfast In America, a medley consisting of Only Because Of You/Fool's Overture/Lord Is It Mine, Along Came Mary, Even In The Quietest Moments, If Everyone Was Listening, Don't Leave Me Now, Dreamer, It's Raining Again, and for the encore, School, Two Of Us, Give A Little Bit (reprise).
Being recorded for a DVD, Roger mentioned that he might redo some parts during the show, so he redid the beginnings of Hide In Your Shell and Don't Leave Me Now after humorous false starts. A few people repeatedly asked for "School!", so Roger answered with a smile and a "Peut-être". Some of the most enthusiastic responses from the audience were for Give A Little Bit and School, but all of the songs were warmly cheered by the crowd, including a new track, called Keep The Pigeons Warm, which hasn't been recorded in a studio yet. Many people were standing-up for several of the songs, to a point where Roger said "It's hard to know whether to stand-up or sit, isn't it!". At the end of It's Raining Again, the last song of the regular set, the audience cheered loudly for more, and more they received! For the encore, Roger gave the crowd what they wanted and played School, asking in his words for "mucho audience participation", and the crowd obliged with much pleasure. The intense satisfaction of hearing these great songs of our youth, played by the man who made them simply unforgettable, was an extraordinary experience... the atmosphere at the Wilfrid-Pelletier hall was simply electric! I left the auditorium literally walking on a cloud! My only regret was that he didn't play the full version of Fool's Overture, my absolute favorite, which he had played in 2002 for the encore at the Spectrum in Montreal.
Big thanks to Kim Zimmer of Get It Promotions for organizing this wonderful show, and thank you Roger, for a magical evening.
May 29, 2006
Carl Palmer at the Medley: A triumph!
Last Saturday, May 27 at the Medley in Montreal, I had the pleasure of helping in the production of a unique event, sponsored by Unicorn Digital and Couche Tard, a great instrumental concert with the drummer of one of the groups that defined progressive music, ELP. It was with much anticipation that I waited to meet the "P" of this legendary band, Mr. Carl Palmer.
The group arrived at 3:00 PM as planned, and immediately started setting-up their gear. Around 4:30, they began their soundcheck and setup. By 6:00, everything was ready for the show, so we invited the team to Bistro L'Adresse (1254 St-Denis Street) for a lovely meal before their set.
Carl Palmer was accompanied by musicians Paul Bielatowicz on guitar and Stuart Clayton on bass, a promising power trio. Paul is a graduate of Leeds College Of Music where he gained BA Hons Degree in Jazz Studies, a splendid guitarist who easily deserves this very desirable gig with Carl. Stuart has been writing very popular books on bass techniques and bass transcriptions over the years, and aside from a few gigs with Cirkus Arena, the Carl Palmer gig is his first major road experience, he is an accomplished bassman with an impressive slap bass technique. At 7:30 PM sharp, the doors opened and a crowd of about 350 people flocked in for this great evening of classic prog music by one of the legends of the 70s progressive era. After bringing the grand winners of the CHOM VIP contest to the backstage area for a meet & greet with Mr. Palmer, Carl, Paul and Stuart were ready for their performance. So at 9:00 PM, they made their way towards the stage.
The show began with a humorous introduction of Gaieté Parisienne Cancan while the musicians were embarking onstage, and then the show began with the instantly recognizable theme from Peter Gunn. Carl and his band then played The Barbarian, Copland's Hoedown, Prokofiev's The Enemy God, Trilogy, L.A. Nights, Rimskij-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee, followed by a cool bass solo from Stuart (at one point, his bass lit-up with embedded ultrabright green LEDs on the neck, it looked pretty spiffy), then on to a gorgeous and dark version of Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, Tank, Bullfrog, Alberto Ginastera's Toccata, Canario, Tarkus, ending the show with the classic of classics, and ELP's anthem, Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man, with a splendid drum solo midway through. By then the crowd was on its feet, cheering loudly until Carl came back for the encore, a blistering version of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, what a grand finale! For those who are skeptical of ELP music being played without a keyboardist, I can truly erase any doubt in your mind: Imagine the good old days of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, only one solid notch above in intensity and enthusiasm. These rearranged interpretations of classic ELP material sounded great, and Carl being such a great showman, it truly enhanced the already impeccable performance. Carl Palmer is one of those rare drummers that can get away with a drum solo, which in recent years, started to qualify as filler material or self-indulgence. Carl's drum solo was fun, cool, not too long and straight to the point, only a Peart, a Bruford, a Portnoy or a Palmer can get away with it these days. As the evening wound down, Carl made his way to the merchandise tables along with his two buddies Paul and Stuart for autographs and pictures. One very popular item was the Remo drumskins (a neat item to have autographed). After cleaning-up the backstage area, we bid farewell to Carl and the gang and thanked them for such a great evening.
Many more people need to be thanked for making this great show a success. First off, thanks to the people at Couche Tard for the most generous sponsorship and coproduction, we couldn't have done it without your support, you guys are tops! Thanks to Patrick at Bistro L'Adresse, who offered an exquisite meal to these hungry musicians and staff (Carl was absolutely enchanted). Thank to the staff at Le Medley, Jacques, Thed, the sound and light engineers, the great security team and bar staff, professional as always, ensured that the show went without a hitch. Many thanks to Jean and Réjean of La Filière Progressive in Sorel-Tracy for their unwavering support. A special thanks to CHOM FM 97,7 for their great promotion, to Mark Bromby, Liliana DaCosta, Matt Cundill and Melissa Mancuso, their work truly made a difference and their future support will permit us to persevere. Thanks to Martin Siberok of Hour newspaper for the great write-up, happy to meet you sir! Thanks also to Réjean Beaucage for the great article in Voir and to Vincent Larouche of Journal de Montreal for the interview. Thanks to Stephen Takacsy of ProgQuébec for all his support and help. Thanks to Gérald Laurion for manning the concession tables. Thanks to Richard Addison of Trillium Sound for all his help that evening. Thanks to Simon, Mingan, Dominique and Thomas of the group Karcius for their invaluable assistance (and thanks guys for the copy of your new CD!). Thanks to Claude Labrecque and Claude Dufresne for the great pictures. Thanks to Bruce Pilato for sending Carl our way and taking care of everything. Thanks to Paul Bielatowicz and Stuart Clayton for such a great performance, you guys truly rocked the Medley! And of course, a great big thanks to Carl Palmer for being a wonderful musician, a friendly, funny, patient man, we had a great time with him! On final thanks goes to the man responsible for this whole great evening, Michel St-Père of Unicorn Digital, who took on the challenge of producing an event of this magnitude without hesitation, his enthusiasm and passion is one of the reasons why there is go much good progressive music in Montreal. And of course, thanks to all of those who supported us by buying a ticket to our show, we're proud of our prog community in Montreal and we hope it will continue growing.
Below are a few pictures of the Montreal show. Click on any of them to see the entire library of images.
May 21, 2006
Nathan Mahl at the University of Ottawa
One of Canada's most prestigious prog musician, Guy Leblanc (Camel's keyboardist 2000-2003), the leader of the famed Nathan Mahl group, performed with his band last Saturday, May 20 at the University of Ottawa. It was the first time since their great show at the Prog In The Park festival last year, and for the first time since 1999 in Ottawa!
The show was fantastic. The quartet was tight, running like a well-oiled machine. They played tracks from their albums Parallel Eccentricities and Shadows Cleverly Unbound during the first set of the evening, and after a 15-min. pause, we were treated to an entire set composed of tracks from the splendid Heretik trilogy, ending the show with Carpe Diem for the encore.
Nathan Mahl is composed of Guy Leblanc on vocals and keyboards (including a vintage Hohner Clavinet and a Hammond XK-2), Guy Dagenais on bass and vocals, Dan Lacasse on drums (a wacky electronic drumkit by Yamaha unlike anything I have ever seen) and Mark Spénard on guitars. The guys were full of energy, and gave a sensational performance. The sound was a bit loud, but thanks to my earplugs, It looks like I was the only one comfortable, many of my neighboors putting their fingers in their ears from time to time.
A wonderful evening and a great opportunity to see good friends from the area. The very respectacle crowd of about 100 people gave a warm standing ovation to the group. The show was well worth the trip! Maybe we'll have a chance to see Nathan Mahl in Montreal soon.
May 2, 2006
RosFest 2006
The third edition of the Rites Of Spring progressive music festival was held this weekend, April 28-30 in the city of Phoenixville, PA. What a wonderful festival it was! A fantastic lineup, a great auditorium and a fun gathering of friends, musicians and their fans.
We arrived Friday afternoon by car from Montreal to Phoenixville, a long 10-hour ride, complicated by the rather vague Mapquest itinerary. We stayed at the Hampton Inn, right next to the Sheraton hotel, where the special after hours party was held on Saturday evening. After making our way to the vendor area at Jester's Pub and Grill and setting-up our booth (we represented ProgQuebec and Unicorn Digital), we made our way to the Colonial Theater in the early evening for the first concert of the preshow.
Day One
Ephemeral Sun: A wonderful group that would remind you a bit of Stream Of Passion with elements of Anglagard and Anekdoten, a mix of heavy prog with atmospheric fusion. Singer Laurie Ann Haus has a very melodic voice with eastern influences. Their set consisted of tracks from their album Broken Door, and ended with a dramatic 20-min. epic, a new unnamed track. Excellent compositions, great musicianship, Ephemeral Sun is a very promising new band, who might need just a little bit of polishing on the stage presence, but overall, a fantastic beginning to what promises to be a great festival.
John Young: After a good meal at Jester's Pub and Grill, we headed back to the auditorium to see the last part of John Young's set. A last minute replacement for Peter Banks, who unfortunately couldn't make it because of visa problems. Great solo artist with poppy prog material, his set was composed for a "one man orchestra" with all instruments and back vocals sampled. He has some fine compositions, melodic, light prog with wonderful vocals. It would have been more fun to see his full band as many prog purists felt his extended usage of samples was a bit sacrilegious. A very enjoyable set from a very talented musician.
Then on to the main event of the evening, the amazing group NEO, a supergroup made up of members of IQ and Arena, with John Jowitt on bass, Mark Westwood on guitars, Clive Nolan on the keys and Andy Edwards on drums... Oh it was so cool to see these great musicians having more fun than a barrel of monkeys, playing great stuff from Pendragon, IQ, Arena, Shadowlands, Pallas and more. Their set began with IQ's Subterranea Overture, and among the tracks they played Arena's The Hanging Tree, Pallas The Greater Glory, Crown of Thorns, Hide and Seek with none other than Alan Reed on vocals, Shadowland's Mindgames and Ring of Roses, IQ's The Outer Limits, Pendragon's Paintbox, Masters Of Illusions, Black Night with special guest Nick Barrett on vocals and guitars, and IQ's The Enemy Smacks... a fantastic set, exuberant, captivating and just plain ol' fun! A few technical gremlins and bloopers but overall, a really good performance. John Jowitt was wearing a lovely pair of leopard trousers (that crazy bloke!), Alan Reed was just a living ping-pong ball, jumping all over the stage, delivering intense, dramatic vocals on the Pallas portion of the set. it was a pleasure to see Nick Barrett, relaxed and having fun during the Pendragon portion! Clive was amazing, delivering his usual keyboard magic with perfection, and it's wonderful what a great singer he is! Andy and Mark were excellent, keeping the rhythm of this neo progressive extravaganza! After such an amazing, fun show, and after being up for over 23 hours, we made our way back to the hotel for a well-deserved rest.
Day Two
After a good breakfast and plenty of coffee to kickstart our brains, we headed back to the auditorium for one of the more captivating days of the festival, with sets from the legendary Mithrandir, my old buddies from Hamadryad, Karmakanic, the afterhours party... A lot of excitement indeed! So on to the first artist of the day:
Mithrandir: These guys were great. Reunited after almost 30 years, they played a fantastic set. I must admit I was totally unfamiliar with their material, so it was a pleasure for me to discover another musical gem. Mithrandir (not to be confused with the mid 80's british metal band bearing the same name) plays a style of jazzy symphonic fusion, truly brilliant compositions, a great stage presence, the two guitarists John Callahan and Alan Benjamin played some sensational harmonies. John Vislocky, the lead singer/trumpetist of the band is an elegant, tall man with perfect hair and a short mustache, impeccably delivered some very intense, high pitched vocals... wow! Just a fantastic start to the day!
Hamadryad: Our guys made us proud! An amazing set that blew away the RoSFest crowd. Their great setlist consisted of a mixture of tracks from their first and second CDs, and ended on a high note with a great interpretation of Genesis' Firth of Fifth. The combination of Christian's great light show, Denis' stunning guitar work and Sébastien's blistering keyboard work made for a fantastic performance. I missed a bit of their set, as I had to try to locate their merchandise box with their CDs and t-shirts, who unfortunately, never arrived at the auditorium nor the vendor area... what a shame, as many people would have bought their stuff, Greg Walker was very kind by providing me with all of his Hamadryad CDs, who sold out in mere seconds! Just before the next artist was to step onstage, George asked me to go onstage and plug our FMPM festival, which I did with a few butterflies, in front of the crowd! Then on to the zany swedes!
Karmakanic: Absolute highlight of the whole festival, Karmakanic raised the roof of the Colonial theater. What a perfect set from a stunning band! The group consisted of Jonas Reingold on bass, Zoltan Csorz on drums, Goran Edman on lead vocals, Krister Jonsson on guitars, Lalle Larsson on keyboards and Rob Palmen (TFK's producer) on guitars, vocals and keys. Their set consisted of many classic trackls from their first album, like Masterplan, Where Earth Meets The Sky, Alex In Paradise, Do U Tango, and also some new tracks from their upcoming CD, including a gorgeous epic called A Message From The Heart, a beautiful, emotional track with majestic harmonies and melodies. More technical gremlins cropped up with a bit of feedback, quickly taken care of though. Krister played some of the most emotional, inspired guitar work I've seen that weekend, although he has a terrible posture when he plays, he will wear his back playing like this! Jonas was beyond amazing on the bass, furiously strumming some Hendrix rhythms, to the point where he ripped the cord off his bass... then slowly said "huh? I think I killed it!" ...hilarious! It was quite an event to think that Goran, the singer, was celebrating his 50th anniversary on that day, right on the stage of the Colonial, what a great gift to us! Zoltan was totally awesome... what a fantastic drummer, some serious chops! Heading back to the pub, I had a good lunch that extended a bit into the beginning of the next set, the last performance of the evening.
Satellite: Another band I was quite unfamiliar with, Satellite plays melodic prog with many modern elements combined with the classic 70's prog, resulting in a great, varied sound. The group originates from Poland and is led by the drummer/writer Wojtek Szadkowski, previously of the group Collage. Their set was marred a bit by technical difficulties, a bit too loud for many, combined with unimpressive stage antics, nervousness and long winded, pointless narrations between songs... It was only their third performance live, so let's cut them some slack on that. The highlight of the show was the guitarist sitting at the 2nd drumkit for a stunning drum duet reminiscent of the good old days of the Genesis' Collins/Thompson duets, also Wojtek's drumkit setup was quite an unusual thing to see, he is an extremely dynamic and accomplished drummer. Great melodies and good musicianship, sadly, their performance fell just a bit short of the high expectations of being the main event of day two.
Quite late in the evening, we headed back to the Sheraton hotel where the aftershow party was held. Oh what fun! After chatting with friends, musicians and fans over a few Yuengling Devil's Hops, we went downstairs to see the cool jam sessions, The entire group Pallas played some Deep Purple stuff, Nick Barrett, Clive Nolan and John Jowitt had a ball onstage, laughing hysterically. Then Jonas, Krister and Andrew Booker (the drummer of Harmony in Diversity) played some very cool jazz tracks, including some Scofield, followed by a young group of talented musicians who played some rather loud prog metal. Good times were had by all, a great opportunity to chat with all the musicians around us, to share a brew with old pals and to enjoy some great improvised music from some of the best musicians in the world. One of the funny moments was when Sébastien (Hamadryad's keyboardist) and Krister (Karmakanik's guitarist) both a little bit drunk, sat at the grand piano and played a hilarious interpretation of "My Funny Valentine", much to the delight of all. The whole thing ended around 3:00 - 3:30 AM.
Day Three
Coffee was most welcome after such a captivating, exciting day yesterday, I'm a bit exhausted, but exhilarated at the upcoming day. The first event of Sunday morning would prove to be much like at NEARFest, the gem that everyone talks about as the surprise of the festival!
Magic Pie is a group from Norway, who plays a groovy mix of symphonic prog with highly technical musical arrangements, slighly reminiscent of Transatlantic, it features great vocal harmonies, elements of metal prog and neo, and a vast diversity of sounds and styles. Their set, consisting of tracks from their album Motions of Desire, including their epics Change and Dream Vision really raised the roof (again!). Their high energy, impeccable musicianship, and the splendid vocals made for a mindblowing performance, Their set kicked ass big time, and the crowd gave them a long standing ovation. A few technical difficulties caused by a faulty acoustic guitar and a bit of feedback did not in any way detract from their brilliant set. They are every bit as good live as they are on CD. We then headed for a nice meal at Jester's in the company of Tim Roach (giving a hand with the light show) and the entire group Pallas, while watching the first period of the Flyers' game on the telly!
Pinnaple Thief: "Now for something completely different!" like the old Monty Python line says, Pineapple Thief is a young band playing a proggy style of alternative music very reminiscent of Sigur Ros, with elements of Porcupine Tree, Coldplay and even bits of Godspeed You Black Emperor. Their set was quite good despite some technical difficulties and some bloopers. Their fresh, youthful approach was a way to make fans of various styles and ages cross the bridge and experiment new stuff, sadly, many did not take the challenge and walked out for a beer or to catch the beautiful sun. For those who stayed though, it was a great set from a very promising young band, and the remaining crowd cheered the band enthusiastically. The guys were a bit disappointed by their performance, but to play as part of a festival to a crowd that is quite unnaccustomed to this musical style, it was a daring, gutsy thing to do and I can only say that they fared admirably well despite the circumstances.
Pallas: Oh my god! A jaw-dropping performance from the old scottish proggers, their set was sublime, and we were in for a treat during that show! Pallas is composed of the highly dynamic Alan Reed on lead vocals and guitar, the imposing Graeme Murray on bass and vocals, Ronnie Brown on keyboards, Colin Fraser on drum and Niall Mathewson on guitars, and now for the treat... A special appearance by none other than Euan Lawson, the original singer of the group on vocals and extreme theatrics for many of the older tracks. Their set consisted of tracks from their two latest CDs, like Bringer Of Dreams, Warriors, Executioner, Ghostdancers, Niall's lovely solo, Northern Star, Midas Touch, Invincible and older classics like Queen of the Deep, Heart Attack, The Atlantis Suite, Cut and Run, and a stunning version of The Ripper. Enter Euan Lawson with a kilt, an intense experience and a pleasure to see the old standards with the original singer behind the mike, with Alan Reed on rhythm guitars in the back. Their set was accompanied by a multimedia video setup with a live camera and video snippets, which unfortunately either locked up, rebooted or didn't work most of the time... it was hilarious when their set began with a "would you like to restart your computer?" prompt on the video screen! There were a few feedbacks, caused by a faulty monitors console, but overall, pure perfection from these seasoned musicians. Their rendition of The Atlantis Suite was simply beautiful and emotional, and then... they presented for the encore a very surprising and slightly disturbing interpretation of The Ripper with Euan Lawson as the psychopath murderer, dressed with a biohazard suit and a blue duct tape face mask, his demented, cynical performance was amazing! After going one last time to the vendor area to pack up, we congratulated George and Tom on a job well done for RosFest 2006. Then, the last show of the festival, the conclusion to a wonderful weekend that passed too quickly!
Time for The Watch: After hearing so many comments on their similarity to Genesis, I knew what to expect, but I have to admit that I was unprepared at how much they were similar! And I mean that in a good way! Imagine if Genesis stayed together with Gabriel, this is what they would sound and look like! Even the singers has all the mannerisms of Peter Gabriel, from the fluid, syncopated movements right down to the white face makeup. One could compare them to what RPWL did with their likeness to Pink Floyd. Their material is composed of rich, gorgeous symphonic prog, keyboard heavy with the classic Mellotron and Hammond B3, and although the material is all made up of original compositions, you can distinguish riffs and passages loosely borrowed from old Genesis classics here and there. Their set was composed of tracks from their two albums, like Goddess, The Vacuum and And The winner Is... ending their set with an interpretation of the old Genesis standard Get 'Em Out By Friday, much to the delight of the crowd, so the two cover tracks played this year by RosFest bands were both old Genesis tracks! (Hamadryad played Firth of Fifth) The group is composed of the highly expressive Simone Rossetti on vocals, flute and tambourine, Ettore Salation on electric, acoustic, and 12-string guitars, bass pedals and backing vocals, Marco Schembri on bass guitars, electric and acoustic guitars, Fabio Mancini on the piano, mellotron, organ, moogs and synths, Roberto Leoni on drums and percussions. A brilliant set, and although some purists might find them a bit too derivative, it was one hell of a good show! After saying goodbye to many friends, we headed back to the hotel one last time. The trip back to Montreal would prove to be as long, save for good company and plenty of good music.
My purchases at RoSFest... Two Anglagard CDs, Hybris and Epilog, Spock's Beard Day For Night, Porcupine Tree Up The Downstair and a subscription to the Progression magazine (comes with four cool CDs). So I guess I was quite moderated in my purchases compared to some who left the vendor area with so many CDs they needeed cardboard boxes! Adding the presence of a bar in the middle of the vendor area made for an interesting combination: alcohol, associated with enthusiastic prog fans and a vast variety of inexpensive prog CDs... the vendors were grinning and rubbing their hands together!
I was very happy to have met old friends I see regularly at festivals and shows, new friends I only knew by name from different lists like ProgressiveEars and the various Yahoo groups, and fascinating people, musicians and prog fans! There's nothing like the festival atmosphere, it's unique, it's a gathering of people anticipating good music, good friends, good food and inexpensive beer for a whole weekend! Can't beat that!
Finally, I just want to thank the whole RoSFest team, with three people in particular: George Roldan and Tom Smith, the organizers of this great festival, their hard work and dedication paid off in a big way with one of the most amazing festivals since NEARFest 2003! I also want to thank Krista, George's trusted assistant and go-to girl, who was there during the entire fest to make sure everyone was happy and taken care of. Thank you guys for your professionalism, your kind hospitality and your generosity, your festival is top notch and you can be proud of your accomplishments, because I saw over 400 people leave the festival with a big happy grin on their face.
April 22, 2006
Ville Emard at the Plaza Theater
It was such a pleasure to finally catch a show of the Ville Emard "new generation"... What an awesome group! For those unfamiliar with the Ville Emard Blues Band (VEBB) of the seventies, they were a very original group playing a rich mixture of progressive music, blues, folk, rock, jazz fusion, characterized by its sheer number of musicians (sometimes up to 20), all of them immensely talented.
The new generation of Ville emard Blues Band, or simply Le Ville Emard as they are called nowadays, is a proud heir to the original team, following in the footsteps of the 70's formation, while having a fresh new sound that one could classify as "progressive trad". It has the elements of traditional Quebec music, the elaborate musical instrumentation of progressive, it features a combination of rock, funk, blues, fusion, folk, and it's plain fun!
This great new team combines some of the original members with all of these great kids. The current lineup is composed of Christian Gagnon on guitars, vocals and taking care of musical direction, Kathleen Sergerie, Lisa Grenier and Gabrielle Gagnon on vocals, Michel Séguin Jr. on percussions, Hugo St-Cyr and Richard Perrotte on drums, Luc Lemire on saxophone, Charles Imbeau on trumpet and flugelhorn, Éric Sauvé on keyboards and two original members of VEBB, Michel Dion on bass and Serge Vallières on guitars. Added to this all-star cast, two other original members joined the gang onstage for a few tracks: Michel Séguin Sr. and Ron Bankley, bringing the total to 14 musicians... what a party!
So on this great evening of Friday, April 21 at the Théâtre Plaza on St-Hubert Street, a good crowd of about 100 gathered and the concert began at around 8:20 with an opening show by Ron Bankley, a composer, singer and guitarist from Montreal, and founding member of the great VEBB, who offered us a great folky performance that would remind you of a mixture of Bruce Cockburn, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. He mesmerized us with his deep, narrative voice and his edgy lyrics, he was accompanied by a few members of the old and the new VEBB on a few numbers during his 45-min. performance.
After a half-hour break, Le Ville Emard arrives onstage. This was just a delicious show from beginning to end: wonderful musicianship, a cool band of people who are having a lot of fun onstage, a really tight, precise band (remarkable for such a large group) and a captivating set of old and new music. The setlist consisted of: Soumis/Octobre Au Mois De Mai, Ville Emard Blues, La Poutine À Ma Tante Anna, Walter's Van, Konky Donky, Ste-Mélanie Blues, Va T'en Vite, 30 Years Ago, City Musik, That Ain't no Way to Be, Strangle/drums & percussions solo/free jam, Yama Nekh, and for the encore, a beautiful acoustic version of Octobre au Mois de Mai, and ending with a powerful interpretation of You and Your Mother. A splendid performance, full of energy, Michel Séguin Jr. is a true madman on percussions, giving an exuberant performance, the three ladies are simply wonderful, visually and vocally, Kathleen Sergerie if we all recall, had a very succesful carreer in pop music in the 80's, with her hit "Ca va bien", great to see her again, singing for a brilliant band. The two veterans were in top shape, Michel Dion, playing some great fuzzy bass à la Tony Levin and Serge Vallières playing guitar with inspiration and passion. We were simply blown away by the stunning keyboard work of Éric Sauvé, majestic on the Korg CX3. And kudos to Christian Gagnon keeping this huge team together, grand master of this musical three-ring circus! Just a few little glitches, like when Ron's guitar just died during City Music. After the show, all of the musicians were more than happy to chat with their fans. Le Ville Emard is a great live experience and I hope that we'll see and hear more of them real soon!
April 8, 2006
Neural Mass, André Lépine and Hamadryad
at the Café Chaos in Montreal
A great triple bill of prog musicians performed on the humble stage of the Café Chaos yesterday, April 7 2006. Neural Mass, keyboardist André Lépine and Hamadryad presented a generous evening of prog to an enthusiastic crowd of about 60 people (a good turnout for such a small club). The evening began with Neural Mass, who stepped onstage around 8:15 PM. The heavy prog trio is composed of Mark Tremblay (also of Spaced Out) on guitar, Sylvain Rodrigue on drums and Fred Thompson on bass. Their performance was powerful and flawless, their 45-min. set was composed of Airbrush Astronaut, Aqua Mullet, The Color of Regrets and they ended their show with a medley of their best known compositions. Great energy and impeccable performance from the three power proggers.
After a 20-min. break, André Lépine began his solo set on the keyboard. A fantastic set of space rock, prog and jazz fusion, great melodies and quite a bit of originality in his compositions, he played two J.S. Bach composition on his keyboard... mesmerizing church organ sound inspired by the style of John Lord of Deep Purple. André ended his performance with a great duo with Yves Jalbert on drums, an intense, exuberant space rock composition.
click on the pictures above for excellent photos of the gig, courtesy of Claude and Cynthia Dufresne!
People were flocking in steadily during the next 20 min. break, and around 10:00 PM, the guys from Hamadryad began their set. The group, featuring Jean-François Désilets on bass, Yves Jalbert on drums, Denis Jalbert on guitars and Sébastien Cloutier on keyboards is presenting this performance as a little warm-up show in preparation for their appearances at two great progressive music festivals this year, RoSFest 2006 in Pennsylvania at the end of April and the Crescendo festival in France this July. They presented their show in two sets. The guys had fun and played with enthusiasm and passion, their first set was composed of Sparks of Benign Magic, Self Made Man, Anatomy of A Dream, Action, 24, Amora Demonis and Sunburnt. That first set was unfortunately cut short when the band members were informed that their van was about to be towed away, so they rushed out to avoid a visit to the city pound. Aah, the perils of being a musician! Back from their emotion and after another 20 min. break, the guys began their second set with a fantastic cover of Tull's Thick As A Brick, followed by as blistering version of Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man, then they played Alien Sphere, Still They Laugh, parts 1 & 2, One Voice, Polaroid Vendetta, and finished with Watercourse Hymn. For the encore, they treated us to Genesis' Firth Of Fifth. A captivating, dynamic performance, the unscheduled interruption of their first set might have affected a bit their concentration for a moment or two, but the entire show overall was just a joy! Jocelyn Beaulieu, Hamadryad's ex-lead singer, was among the crowd. Many people were sure when they saw him, that he might step onstage for a number or two, especially for numbers like Amora Demonis, Still They Laugh and Watercourse Hymn, but alas it wasn't to be. The audience cheered loudly and it was just a fun gathering of prog enthusiasts and friends! Big thanks to Gaël Lapierre of Fusion Prog Management who organized this cool event.
text by Robert Dansereau 08/04/2006
March 30, 2006
Martin Maheux Circle at the Petit Medley
On March 29th, I was witness to a brilliant, unforgettable concert at the Petit Medley. Martin Maheux, drummer of the renowned prog group Spaced Out, has joined with seven exceptional musicians to form the Martin Maheux Circle, a completely original concept that associates a classical jazz quartet with a string quartet with two cellos. The result is some of the most unusual, refreshing, innovative music you can imagine... see my review of their latest CD, Sybille, in the album reviews page!
The Martin Maheux Circle live band is composed of David Carbonneau on the trumpet, Éric St-Jean on the piano, Frédéric Grenier on the double bass, Martine Gaumond on violin, Sarah Ouellet on the alto, Sophie Coderre and Catherine Lesaulnier on the cello and of course, Martin Maheux on drums. Their set consisted of the album Sybille in its entirety: Tergiversation, Mauvais Cirque, Aller Simple, Métamorphose, La Danse des Cadavres, and Résignation. The smooth concoction of the cool jazz sounds with the solemn majesty of the string quartet was pure bliss! The crowd of over 100 was completely captivated, attentive and mesmerised by the exceptional musicianship of the eight musicians. A performance that was satisfying to fans of jazz and progressive musique alike, the set was yet another example that progressive music encompasses an ever-growing variety of styles. Great musical moments from each and every musicians, Catherine's moving solo on the cello, David's exquisite trumpet bits, and Martin's inspired drum solo, he truly seems in a transe! A long and well-deserved standing ovation at the end of this sublime performance.
If you get a chance to see the Martin Maheux Circle in concert sometimes soon, please do so, it's a marvellous experience and something you'll enjoy thoroughly!
text by Robert Dansereau 30/03/2006
March 26, 2006
California Guitar Trio at the Medley
A guitar player's dream, the performance of the California Guitar Trio at the Medley on Friday, March 24, 2006 with an opening performance by Willy Porter was truly phenomenal. Another great event brought to Montreal by Mark Morrow of M+E Productions, it was a summit of some of the world's best guitarists. It is a bit sad though, that such a great concert attracted less than 150 people.
At 8:00 sharp, Willy Porter took the stage and played a sensational set. His great voice, his sense of humour, his skillful guitar playing and tapping, plus the usage of multilayer samplings made for a great, warm folky sound, with proggy overtones. The crowd, unfamiliar with this brillant player from Milwaukee, WI was in for a surprise and a great musical discovery. Mr. Porter made many new fans. His set was warmly applauded and the kind and soft-spoken guitarist was happy to sign numerous autographs at the evening's end.
Then, on to the main event of the evening, the mighty CGT! Composed of classical guitarists Paul Richards, Bert Lams, and Hideyo Moriya, the trio played a glorious set: precise, masterful, emotional and versatile. The set consisted of tracks like their classic Melrose Avenue, an impressive version of Yes' Heart Of The Sunrise and to continue in this line, they also played the first movement of the Jon Anderson Concerto, a project they have been working on with M. Anderson. They concluded their set with their great interpretation of Queen's Bohemian Rhaposody, much to the crowd's delight. Supported by a great sound and a colorful light show, they mesmerized the crowd, which in return, offered a long and well-deserved standing ovation to the trio.
After the performance, all the musicians kindly gave their time signing autographs, having their pictures taken with fans and talking to the people. Many fans bought CDs to the point that some titles were sold out. Many thanks go to Mark Morrow for bringing all these great artists to Montreal, for his perseverance and his passion, and we truly hope that his efforts will be rewarded tenfold! A big thanks to Simon Fauteux of Fusion III for his unwavering support and friendship. Thanks to the great people at the Medley for the impeccable sound and cool light show. And thanks to the fans that showed-up, your consistent support is why we work so hard to bring all this great music to Montreal.
March 24, 2006
An evening with Dream Theater
at the Métropolis in Montreal
The Montreal performance of Dream Theater at the Métropolis on Thursday, March 23 2006 was all that it's been labeled to be and more! Entitled "An Evening with Dream Theater", this tour is kind of a chronological retrospective of the 20 years of existence of that group. Their almost 3-hour show was divided in two parts with an intermission and consisted of the heavier tracks from all their albums from the Majesty era, When Dream and Day Unite, Awake, Six Degrees, all the way to Octavarium among others. The current lineup is composed of Mike Portnoy on drums, John Petrucci on guitars, Jordan Rudess on keyboards, slide guitar and continuum, John Myung on bass and James Labrie on lead vocals. Among the tracks they played, there was The Root of All Evil, These Walls, Another Won, Afterlife, Caught In A Web, Raise the Knife, Strange DeJaVu. They resumed after the 20-min. break with War Inside My Head, The Test That Stumped Them All, Endless Sacrifice, I Walk Beside You, Sacrificed Sons, then, a stunning version of Octavarium, and for the encore, the dramatic Floydian intro of Through Her Eyes that led to The Spirit Carries On and finally, Take the Time.
The show itself was pure perfection. An impeccable performance that blended technical virtuosity with emotion and intensity. Myung was solid, confident and immaculate. Rudess wowed the crowd with his technical wizardry (I found the caricature of him surrounded by an octogon-shaped keyboard hilarious), his fluid playing and dramatic harmonies. Petrucci was truly on fire, a true master of the guitar. Labrie was strong, his voice was clear and consistent and he gave a fine performance, and as always, Portnoy was simply a monster behind the drums, a bold sovereign of the percussions, his amazing showmanship, combined with his incredible skills and his twisted sense of humour was the highlight of the evening. On the track Octavarium, Rudess treated us to a majestic, lenghty intro on the continuum, an awesome piece of technology, also called fingerboard... imagine a tactile keyboard without keys, and it makes for a unique, unforgettable sound! Very intense solo from Petrucci on Through Her Eyes. Overall, visuals were outstanding, a spectacular light show, with lots of strobes and well balanced-color schemes, captivating back projections on three screens... James' "Octavarium" shaped-mike stand was a spiffy-looking detail. A splendid evening of hard-rockin' prog!
March 5, 2006
Karcius at La Place À Côté
The guys from Karcius know how to put on a show, and yesterday, March 4 at La Place à Côté, did they ever! An impressive crowd gathered for this great show, celebrating the re-release of the remastered version of their first CD, Sphère (and a splendid job it is, a vast improvement from their original release). Karcius is composed of Thomas Brodeur on drums, Simon L'Espérance on guitars, Mingan Sauriol on the keys and Dominique Blouin on bass, a great group, getting more and more skillful and confident every time I see them. The guys were pumped-up and ready to give it all, and their performance began around 10:00 PM in front of an audience of over 100. Their set was wildly different from their recent concerts, with cool medleys and re-arranged versions of their material. It began with a blistering medley of Kunidé with parts of Evolution, followed by a particularly intense version of Liquid Meat, an abridged version of Lunatik consisting of Highway To The Moon, Back To Earth and 1111, and ending the first set with Labyrinthe. After a 20 min. break, the second set started with a mighty drum solo from our pal Thomas, mixed with Synapse, followed by a few tracks from their soon-to-be-released second album, including Hypothèse A, Destination, A014 and finishing their show with their classic Absolute Decadence. The crowd roared with pleasure, requesting more, and the gentlemen from Karcius offered us for the encore another track from theit next CD, the very muscular Tunnel. Another masterful performance that blew everyone away, Mingan was terrific and very expressive on the keyboards, jumping up and down enthusiastically, Dom was wicked on bass, with red-hot riffs, Thomas gave a sublime performance, just one of the most intense, combative drummers I have seen in a long time, and Simon was just spot on with wild riffs, great solos and zany new sound effects. A cool, young, talented band that successfully bridged the generational and musical gaps, combining brilliantly jazz fusion, hard rock and progressive, and appealing to audiences of all generations. That's entertainment!
text and photos by Robert Dansereau 05/03/2006
February 6, 2006
Mangrove at La Place À Côté
To begin the new year in a most agreable fashion, our good friends of the funk/prog/jazz trio Mangrove offered us a great show at La Place à Côté (4571 Papineau Street, near Mont-Royal) last Saturday, February 4. Mangrove is composed of Thomas Brodeur (Karcius) on drums, Simon L'Espérance (Karcius) on guitars and Carlo Birri on bass. In front of a crowd of about 30 people, the guys really gave it all and it was a fantastic performance! Their setlist, quite different from their previous show, was a great mix of classic covers and a few compositions of their own. Among the tracks they played, John Scofield's Kelpers, Outch, Reverb, The Meters Sissy Strut, Zep's The Crunge and Kashmir, Wabash, Brother and ended with the Hendrix classic Crosstown Traffic with Simon on the kazoo! For the encore, a great drum solo by Thomas, followed by Jeff Beck's Scatter Brain for the grand finale! Thomas was as always, powerful and precise, guardian of the rhythm, Carlo was outstanding, really showing his chops with a few frenzied bass solos on his trusty Fender precision jazz and of course, Simon was on fire, with brilliant versions of classic Hendrix and Zeppelin tracks, highly representative of his dexterity and immense talent. The modest crowd was enthusiastic, demanding an encore at the end of the show. A great evening of funk fusion from a group of talented, passionate young musicians. A band to be seen, these guys really know how to throw a great party!
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