Day One - Rites of Spring Festival - Keswick Theatre, Pennsylvania
May 2, 2008
The Keswick Theatre is a really nice venue. It is an older theatre in the vain of the Fox Theatres. It is ornate in subtle ways (nothing like the grandeur of the Fox Theatre in Atlanta with it's Arabian Nights theme) but it shows the opulance of the times when it was built.
The stage is a great size allowing the bands to streatch out. (From what I've heard about past ROS spaces, that's a huge improvement.) The acoustics are very good as well. Seating could use a little better rake in the front section. All of us big-headed proggers can cause sight obstructions. :mrgreen: Those in the patrons seats up front, I'm sure, don't have that issue. I was about midway back.
There's lighting this year! (also a missing element from years back.) It's a fairly decent R&R set-up. Veri-lights, big projection screen behind showing video feed of the musicians, two spots (thank you), and nice color selections for mood lighting. Only glitch in the lighting was that the stage left area down front was void of decent front lighting. Both bands had their keyboard player set up there, just out of the light. This made picture taking of that area a real challenge. So missing good photos of Eric Norlander was regrettable.
Okay, now for the music. GPS opened the show. They are a rock oriented with symphonic style keys and PT stylings on the guitar. The bass player (John Payne) is the leader and Vocalist. You may know him from his tour with the 2nd version of Asia. Guthrie Govan and Jay Shellen (also of that version of Asia) were on guitar and drums, respectively. Ryo Okumoto (spock's beard) usually is the keyboardist. He had a schedule conflict and so they had to put up with the styling of Eric Norlander as a substitue (poor guys.)
The songs were pretty good. I found, in general, that they were just a little subpar in abilities. John's vocals are very strong. Jay on percussion was very good and had a very nice solo near the end of the set. Guthrie was adaquate. He had some good technique, but to me it seemed he had quite a few mis-fingerings so the performance didn't come off rock solid. Sometimes it feel into the metal trappings of 'too many notes.' The band did 3 Asia covers (or were they really covers since they were the representatives of that group?). That didn't seem to win the favor of many of the audience members. There was very little applause when the songs were introduced as an Asia song.
Anyway to sum it up, they did a decent job. I know a few other more talented and creative bands that probably would have done a better job. But we had a good time. (although someone needs to teach John how to tune his own bass guitar. He had problems with that several times through the show, with Guthrie having to come over in the middle of the song and return the bass while John was playing - but it did improve the song once back on track). :roll:
Ambrosia was next. The change over was done with alacrity but it was not thorough enough. They stated out with several issues with Shem Von Schroeck's acoustic guitar and then later wiht Doug Jackson's (lead guitar) amp. There was no sound check session between bands to check these things out. But that may be due to the openness of the theatre. There is not a full partition between the house and lobby area, which is a little cramped. So they could not segregate the band from the audience.
That said, I should say that once everyone, in both bands, got hooked up and working, the Mix was excellent. I could pick bones at individual moments, but overall a very smooth and not ear shattering mix.
Musically, Ambrosia has matured very well. Great energy from all the performers. Again I did find the lead guitarist (a later addition to the band about 10 years ago) just a little lacking in technique, but he had some really good moments at times. Shem Von Schroeck lends a nice rhythm acoustic guitar and powerful and melodic lead and backing vocals. The percussionist, Burleigh Drummund creates a great percussion battery with his jazz influenced stylings. Very enjoyable. He also had a very good solo section. His back up vocals were also in good harmony.
The heart and soul of the band is Bass player (sometimes guitar) and lead vocalist Joe Puerta. Excellent musician and vocalist. Nice R&B section vocally from him as well as multiple influences from Jazz, latin, ska, and R&B in his bass playing. I quite enjoyed his personality and playing.
There are two keyboardists, David Cutler Lewis on piano and synth, and Christopher North on Organ and Piano and synth. David was at one point a keyboardist with Shadowfax. His programming is a nice touch to the overall sound. Christopher is an animal on the organ and other keys. Good stuff on a old reliable Hammond. As a side note, there were times I thought he looked just like Stephen King.
So overall a great show. The even did a new song which was very good. the end of the show was, of course, their big hit with a cool jam opening. They even got to do an encore that almost took us past the city curfew. So day one began very well.
It was hard to walk through the lobby before and during the show without bumping into fellow Moon-lovers. It's a veritble Moon Fest.