Nearfest 2005
 

The bands this year were a lot better than last year. However, last year I had the time of my life. Still had a ton of fun this time. Stayed at the hotel with the bands again, and ran into many an artist. In 2006, there may not be this opportunity, so I'll have to improvise (Nearfest is booking most of the main hotel early).

Mostly with my good friends Buster and Jeff, we came close to hitting bystanders with frisbees, drinking a bit, and staying up late (although I didn't come close to the ridiculous pace of last year.

Oh yes, the music. I arrived four tunes into the Proto-Kaw set. I didn't leave until after 5 PM, Buster was caught on the DC Beltway. We eventually decided to go separately, and we stayed in constant touch. Listening to Dada and the Stone Temple Pilots loud made the ride much easier.

Jeff drove from Dayton, OH and got there early and checked in the hotel. A good thing, I didn't get to the hotel until midnight. The drive was otherwise brutal, off and on rain, a Wal-Mart truck in a ditch, rush hour traffic. When I got into the dark venue, I decided not to disturb the others in trying to find my seat (3rd row center cool: ) so I sat on the side in front of Kerry Livgren's speaker. I could see all of the band but him, but he crushed on guitar. What a talent! I'd seen Kansas twice but never him. After two more tunes I spotted Buster scurrying down the far side. He'd been driving 5 hours and was determined to make his seat. So I met him at the seat and finally relaxed.

The bass player was too much! I can't remember his name...the whole band was tight. Livgren seems very happy with this band. Skont was a great tune, and the entire Death of Mother Nature Suite and Belexes was just super. It's neat to hear those tunes with a sax...adds a lot. Lots of jamming, and I was very pleased with the show. There's another CD coming out soon.

PFM was absolutely stunning. I did not know what to expect, but the musicianship was top-shelf. Wild solos (esp the violin) were in abundance. The drummer would come out every few tunes and sing. He's a world-class ham! Such energy for a seasoned musician. Their most enjoyable tune was a bluesy tune, probably their non-proggiest (take that!). They seemed to really have fun. Between the two acts, I enjoyed it more than the Musical Box last year (to take nothing away from that!).

After briefly checking in, I hung out in the lobby. As was the case last year, a small group was in the conference room playing acoustic and singing. The highlight for me was trying to sing and remember the words to "Rendezvous 6:02". A strange dichotomy was in place...next door was Karaeoke at the bar:rolleyes:

We ran into Matthew Parmenter, and talked for about an hour...more on that later.

Wobbler opened up the Saturday show. I've found a lot of Scandinavian bands to be mostly brooding, with lots of minor sounds...but almost always enjoyable. Wobbler had a more mature sound, although they're young. The first two tunes were 20 and 30 minutes (on a 75 minute set lol). The keys player had a very retro hammond sound.

Every year the bands from that area of the world (Flower Kings, Anekdoten, White Willow) bring their "A" game. Wobbler also did. I heard some complaints about it being a bit boring, but I was damn pleased. And the singer's got some stage presence.

Frogg Cafe was really stellar. I saw them last year at the bar at Rosfest, but I was too busy meeting vax for the first time to pay attention. They're outstanding. I didn't know much about them, but picked up on the Zappa influence right away. They closed with "Peaches"...next to "Comfortably Numb", a favorite progger cover tune. Nick Lieto is amazing. He reminds me a bit of Tom Galgano from Izz, with his vocal and keyboard wizardry. But Nick had a trumpet and flugelhorn to play too. Wow! A lot of the tunes were funky, and it was an upbeat performance.

I decided that I needed some time off, so I missed Steve Roach. I'm not an ambient fan, and after the Richard Pinhaus drudgery last year, I wasn't in the mood. Maybe someone can add on how he was.

Present was different...:cool: I had a chance to see them at Orion last week, but couldn't make it. It's a rare miss at Orion for me. I was told Cozy was there, and missed a chance to meet him. Present is not for everyone. There was a tune where Dave Kerman would occasionally yell "Didn't you hear what your mother said"! That was the tune he used the dolls to smack his symbols. I liked the soloing, but the supporting themes were very repetitive. I saw no reason for that, really. But it's a fun show. Not knowing the band, I was a bit confused about Roger Trigaux's lack of playing (he did almost nothing), but realized he has stepped back completely.

IQ was pretty good. I'm not a big fan....I have only the Wake and the Lush Attic records, and they're excellent. My big beef is the singing of Peter Nicholls. But in concert, he was good, quite Gabrielesque. I guess 20 years makes one better. I felt sorry for him, he was having a rough go of it early in the show. Not evident to those more than several rows back, he was pissed about his monitor. Every few minutes he would shoot a menacing glance back to the techs, and periodically run off the stage. Only after he remembered they were shooting a DVD did he mellow out. But it was clear he wasn't happy (at least he didn't pull a "Sherinian"). IQ needs all the coherence they can get. They don't record together, and it's a testament to their musicianship that they make the show work so well. John Jowitt and Marty Orford play together in Jadis and work well together. The new drummer is outstanding, and I was especially impressed by Mike Holmes' guitar work.

The Seventh House was a favorite, a good piece. And a lot of the lyrics were very serious, especially the macabre early tune "Widow's Peak". "The Magic Roundabout", "The Wake", and opening tune "Sacred Sound" were also excellent. The only other issue was the problems of John Jowitt. He developed nasty blisters and applied liquid glue to the hand about six times. Lo and behold, his fingers were sticking to the bass. I saw him the next morning on the elevator and he showed me his fingertips. Gruesome! He said he was "fetching skin" all night. John's a good guy, having played in Jadis and Arena at Rosfest and always looking to have fun.

Knight Area had a hard act to follow. The Sunday AM slot the past two years had Sleepytime and Hidria Spacefolk, two dynamic acts. However, they ended up being very enjoyable. Mark Smit's a great singer. I found two keyboards too much for a band like this...and two guitarists too? But that wasn't so bad cause they filled in each other nicely. The second guitarist reminded me of Gilmour. good strong neo.

The Muffins were neat. Bands like this usually work poorly at Nearfest. Also, I don't think a microphone is a useful instrument for them, they kept talking away from it. It must have been impossible to hear them speak in the back. But they were fun. They went from exciting jams to odd signatures. Billy Swann's Willem Dafoe countenance made for a scary bassist! Tom Scott played a clarinet and sax at one time:eek: and all the instruments seemed to be from WWII. But they were fun.

Matthew Parmenter played the best 40-minute set I'd ever seen. I gave up my seat to Jeff (he was in the balcony) and I moved back about six rows (another friend dislikes Discipline!..and I took his seat). I wanted Jeff to see the show up close. Matthew was riveting. Three tunes on piano, VERY absorbing. Then five more on acoustic guitar. Also, we had a great time Friday evening and at chance meetings throughout the weekend, especially at breakfast Sunday and Monday. Here's an excerpt from my post on the Yahoo group....

I ran into Matthew on five separate occasions in the hotel lobby. As is my wont with musicians, I try to talk about things other
than "how's the weather" and steer clear mostly of discussing music. Some of the subjects we talked about were slugs, lanyards, youth sports, and Barry Manilow. I can't blame this all on Matthew because I usually initated the topic.

Matthew is quite shy yet easily able to engage in fascinating
discourses when prompted. We talked quite a bit on Friday evening and ate breakfast on Sun AM. I caught him as he was leaving Monday (Monday AM at Nearfest is always the saddest day of the year) and we shared some favorite jokes.

Ryan (Parmenter, Eyestrings) is also a lot a fun to talk to, and hopefully I'll cross paths with both of them sometime. In a couple of weeks, we can have some pics up of the show (note - there are several on the groups site and they are stunning). I was in the 3rd row center, but for Matthew I moved back to the 7th row. My friend from Ohio I was rooming with had a balcony seat, and another friend did not like Discipline (wow!!!) so I moved to his seat and gave my Ohio friend the good seat. He got some great pics.

Part two in the next post.....

Part two......
 

I was also introduced to the man behind the Acuity CD (name escapes me). He was helping out Matthew all weekend. That's great that he sold out of the DVD's (note - the Discipline DVD is out!). I may watch this weekend.

I was kicking myself on Sunday. I said to Matthew in the
morning "Your time slot is odd. Will you get tired after lunch?"
Given his distaste for live performance, I hoped that I didn't drive
him off the edge! Turns out I had nothing to worry about. He was
really f'ing great.

Some banter from the performance:

Someone shouted from the back "Turn it up!". Matthew seriously
thought he meant to turn up the volume. But he wasn't convinced, so he asks, "Do you mean turn it up like turn it up, or rock and roll!" Hilarious. He also explained his face paint, explaining the separate personas. He says "I don't wear this offstage and I don't fart onstage".

Some people tell him mimes don't talk like it's an educational
process!

My favorite line was "I had trouble talking when I was born...my
parents worked with me for months before I finally could"!

And here's Matthew's post, with set list, from today...........


Thanks to everyone who attended. It was great to meet so many of you face-to-face.

Thanks to Rick & Jeff for adopting me Friday evening and at breakfast. Great fun.

I can't tell you all how much I enjoyed my time there. Thanks Bill K.
for everything. Emotional and heartfelt thanks to Rob & Chad for
allowing me to sing at their festival. Thanks to Janice for visiting
with me Saturday evening.

Wow. What a great response.

This set timed out at 29 minutes in my living room. Somehow it
sprawled during the show. Oops. Perhaps between each title I should write blah blah blah.

- Scheherazade
- Snug Bottom Flute and Starveling
- O Cesare
- Feel (by Syd Barrett)
- Lair of the Damned (I get scared when it rains)
- Crutches (The Carrot)
- Rogue (Blush and Rouge)
- Some Fear Growing Old

Thanks,
Matthew

I can't wait to see the DVD.....

And now to Kenso.....what a show!!!!!!

Having heard them on the Moon, I thought they would be simply classy, smooth fusion. They were smokin! The keyboards were just fantastic. Incredible musicianship. The drummer NEVER stopped. And any superlative heaped on guitarist Yoshihisa Shimizu is not enough. An actual dentist, he brings power and presicion to his guitar work. He was crying at the conclusion of the show. He whipped out a few bars of "Heartbreaker" and led a medley of "We're An American Band", "Carry On Wayward Son", and damn..what was that other tune? He played a solo that along with Roine Stolt's "Blade of Cain" solo from this year is still ringing in my ears. My favorite part was a corny tune he wrote just for Nearfest. They'd been recruited for years but finally made it over. The crowd was thrilled.

One of the keyboardists, in his incredible solo portion, played some of "Allentown", funny considering the proximity to the venue. They all NEVER stopped smiling...almost two hours!

This band was incredibly tight. Maybe the best show at Nearfest I've seen. I'll try to get my friend Wayne in Japan to see if he can track them down for an interview.

I was joking that Le Orme would cancel again after hearing Kenso. I really tried to get into them, and eschewed the hangover from Kenso and tried to give them an unbiased ear. On balance, they failed to move me. The reminded me of Metamorphosi last year, except that Metamorphosi had great vocals and a commanding presence. Le Orme was a bit too far back from the stage, and looked like four separate entities. Also, they seemed a bit standoffish. There were some real die-hard fans in the crowd...more power to them. It just seemed cold and without feeling.

At the same bar as the Karaeoke...Gags did his show Saturday night. I was able to finally meet Tom about 8PM that evening. I was happy to catch him before he got REAL busy...

Oh well...now to ice my aching wrist.......

Re: Nearfest 2005
 

It can be described in one word: BORING!

Imagine a 45 minute set in the dark with visual projections and Steve Roach blowing a drone on his didgeridoo while his synthesizer's VCO slowly modulates its VFC's Q on a white noise source.


That tune is "The Limping Little Girl" from No.6. They also did "Ceux D'en Bas" from No.6 (the one with the "give the people what they want" chant). I, personally, was looking forward to seeing this performance and they did not disappoint.


As musicianship goes, they were pretty good. I was really looking forward to seeing IQ and was disappointed especially after KeithieW's comments about them last year. KW said, after seeing Marillion with me at the Astoria, that IQ at Chippenham ProgsFest blew away the Marillion performance and that Nicholls was a better front man than Hogarth was. I was expecting to be blown away by IQ at NEARfest from this description. I was not. Their performance was simply underwhelming. 3 tracks from Dark Matter: Sacred Sound (their opener), Born Brilliant, and the epic Harvest Of Souls.


These guys changed costumes more than key signatures... and their singer worked too hard looking like a big-hair arena-rock act than a progressive rock band frontman. There was more metal in the ring he wore than in the space shuttle.


To each his own.


FWIW, my NEARfest 2005 pix are at:

http://www.tmesis.com/bands_2005/NEARfest/

Re: Part two......
 

DITTO! Kenso was SMOKIN'!

Having been born and raised in the Lehigh Valley, I never understood the appeal of that Billy Joel tune. It's completely insulting and derisive of Allentown and Bethlehem. Obvioulsy, Kenso didn't understand the lyrics in "ingrish".

I was in the access section behing the orchestra seats. I was taking pictures directly behind Rob LaDuca when Le Orme announced they were doing their '70s set. Rob was -- leterally -- moved to tears!

Re: Re: Part two......
 

It's a vapid tune musically. But the way it was played was like a hotel lobby pianist, and it was funny. Since there was no vocal, it doesn't seem to me too important if they understood the lyrics or not.

I thought they went out of their way to converse in English, with the prepared sheet and the attempts at banter. In fact, one guy tried to converse in Japanese, and after a sentence or two, the guitarist recognized that no one was understanding it. So he says "right" and moved on. It was a very subtle way of saying, "look you idiot, you're not cool"...

Re: Re: Nearfest 2005
 

Knight Area.....I forgot about that, he changed his shirt four times. Reminds me of the kid who had four shirts for the four bands that played a show years ago...

But the singer had a great voice, didn't yell, and really was unobtrusive. Really, what does a frontman have to look like? It's the singing that counts. Two singers with great voices,The Proto-Kaw guy and the Cryptic Vision guy did the obligatory air-soloing and handclapping, that gets on my nerves after a while. And the pointing to the soloist...that's just dumb. Oh yes, the tambourine! Must have that! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

The ring did hurt my eyes...but just because he's a prettyboy doesn't mean a thing either way to me. He sang, walked around a little and left. Sounds good to me.

Re: Re: Re: Part two......
 

They were really funny too with the pictures of the audience. They looked like typical Japanese tourists when they pulled the cameras out.

They did a fantastic job attempting to speak in "ingrish". :D

Martha came home from work yesterday with a story about a message left on the voice mail from one of their colleagues in Japan. He spells out important things so that they do not misunderstand him. She said he spelled out something with an R in it and said, "R as in remon" (lemon).
:D 'Twas quite humorous.

VAX's NEARfest 2005 pix
 

NEARfest 2005 Pictures

http://www.tmesis.com/Bands_2005/NEARfest/

boy, I wish someone had taken some pictures....

yeah that looks like the place:cool:

Hey I forgot to look for the back of my head!

I only posted pix of interest. The back of your head is in the bit bucket.

the only question is how much faster would a picture of the FRONT of his head hit the bit bucket?
hahahahahaha:D I crack me up.

Such a picture would have damaged the camera's optics... I was careful to avoid that. :p

well,
 

Maybe if you had a second row seat you could avoid the trouble...

:D

By the way, my friend Buster really likes the pics....I'll look at them when i catch up on my DVD's. So sometime in November it looks like.....:rolleyes:

Re: well,
 

You bet.

Chad told me I was the fourth person to buy a patron ticket but that "randomizing lottery" of theirs put me at 109... how fair is that? Had the initial purchase order stood, I would definately have had a 1st row seat. Howerver, with a 28-300mm lens and, now, a doubler (making it a 600mm lens) I don't need front row to get a close up shot.

The only real complaint would be for better lighting. Stop putting spots behind the performers... oh yeah, and when a performer has a solo, it's customary to put he limelight on that performer -- not one of the other band members taking a quick break and catching a drink of water. When you look at the pix, you will see lots of colored light but many faces in shadow.

Find Rick
 

I was informed a pic Kenso took at Nearfest is on their website. I looked and sure enough it is. The band is superimposed in front, but on the left three rows back you will see me. My head is abouve the Kenso member on the far left. Red hair and glasses.

See if you can.....


http://www1.u-netsurf.ne.jp/~kenso/

You've been spotted Rick. You look just like your picture in the gallery.

cool. a celebrity. :D