A little late (well ok two weeks) but here goes:
Rites of Spring Festival, Keswick Theater, Glenside, PA May 2-4, 2008 -
Having had the good fortune of seeing all of the Rosfests, it's almost routine. But it never gets old...especially when the festival is run on time and professionally. This year reminded me of the inaugural 2004 festival, where the entire weekend went off flawlessly. It was almost as if they didn't know they were a music festival! George and Tom did a masterful job in overcoing a complete change of venue, hotels, and the like. Any apprehension I had about losing the coziness and comfort of the Colonial turned out to be no issue at all. Helping matters was the return of RPWL (played in 2004), and the booking of acts that heretofore had limited exposure, and ended up gaining a whole new legion of fans. In 2004 it was Salem Hill and Little Atlas, and this year it was Ritual and Black Bonzo.
The only beef I had with the location was some of the Keswick staff. If anyone is familiar with S.A.F.E. management, you know what I mean. I run into many friends that I do not see too often, and if I want to say hi or talk, I will stop and do so in the most unobtrusive manner possible. But we were constantly herded by the staff to other areas, it was a bit annoying. But a minor thing...on to the bands themselves:
GPS -
I had heard some of the record coming into the show - their music is pleasant and professionally done, but it does not particularly move me. Also, Guthrie Govan is so miscast in this band. His fusion material and guitar work are so strong, it seems background in a melodic neo setting. The solo section by Govan was neat but so odd in the middle of the set. But again, GPS is solid and talented. Although many suggest the thing they took away from this weekend was the guitarists, I felt the vocalists (save for John Palumbo) were in top form. John Payne can really sing. And having the incomparable Erik Norlander filling in on keys was a plus. He's solid as the day is long. Overall, they were well-received by those who like their material.
Ambrosia -
A perfect litmus test of my views towards concerts. I used to worry about set lists, and whether bands would play certain songs. I've come to terms that bands will play the material they want to, and it is up to the listener to put himself in the proper frame of mind to enjoy it. I had heard that they would do their "prog" songs (this one of only three times I will mention that word in this review). I took that to mean they would concentrate on their material from the first four records, eliminating the blockbusters "How Much I Feel" and "Biggest Part of Me". I like those those songs, but if they played them they would be wearing tomatoes! Plus, David Pack is long gone from the group.
Their performance was everything I'd hoped. Joe Puerta is a commanding presence - comfortable in his talent and having a great time. Again, vocals were handled very well by Shem Von Schroeck and Puerta. "Nice, Nice, Very, Nice" was a perfect opener, done without rushing and with bravado. Almost all of their selections featured extended solo passages, many of them drifting into jazz sections. The twin keyboardist barrage of longtime member David Cutler Lewis and original member Christopher North were a lot of fun. Their solos were one-trick ponies (Lewis had the overamped Jan Hammer keys, and North had the Hammond) but the tricks were definitely treats. They closed with a song that's a personal favorite, "Holdin' On To Yesterday". It lost a little without the violin and was a bit rushed, but it's still one of the greatest songs ever written. The encore was the powerful "Life Beyond L.A.".
Speaking briefly to Puerta, I complimented him on his work in the Range (Bruce Hornsby), and shared a few jokes. At the end of the little meet and greet they were packing up and Burleigh Drummond (who was in absolutely fine form on drums) had to pack up their wares and the whopping $160 from the CD sales...such is the life of a band.
Although I'm not going to bore/regale you with personal stories, I will say the band at the bar Friday night was GREAT. They were the Rebel Wheel from Ottawa. A mix of VDGG, Giant, and straight rock, they were exciting. Now I have to get on my horse and check them out. Angie MacIvor's sax was the highlight of the set.
Blind Ego -
Most of the set was from their enjoyable "Mirror" record. And of course, Rosfest would have not been complete without John Jowitt. I joked with him the night before that "you should play one of these". As usual he was great. I was orginally disappointed with this booking - having them and Blind Ego, sharing two members, I thought was shorting deserving bands to play Rosfest. Plus, I was put off a few years ago when "Neo" played, a band formed for the sole purpose of playing Rosfest. All that said, I needn't have worried. Kalle Wallner could have played five times over the weekend and I wouldn't have minded. His playing was flawless and uplifting. And Yogi Lang handled the keys beautifully, while providing the backing vocals.
Paul Wrightson was terrific. He and Wallner provided an emotional rendition of "Black Despair" and "Forbidden to Remain". Wonderful songs, grabbing at the audiences' hearts. The RPWL tune "Sugar for the Ape" was rocked out like Deep Purple's classic "Bloodsucker". Which was appropriate - The encore was "Perfect Strangers", one of the great rock and roll songs of all time. A bit fast, but intentionally so - it put the crowd in a great mood.
Ritual -
Probably the band that benefitted most from their appearance. They have been at it since the early 90's...I only had their first record - another great Swedish band (I think Sweden is the country with the greatest music...) - but what separates Ritual is the rustic passages in their music. They did a good twenty minutes of acoustic music that was beautiful. The opening song, the title cut of "The Hemulic Voluntary Band", is a dead ringer for Gentle Giant's "Experience". But hell, you never see Giant live and this was a great song. In fact, the songs from that 2007 record sealed the deal on purchasing it. I bought it immediately after the set and it is great! "Late In November" is so nice, and "In The Wild" features excellent acoustic piano (I'm a sucker for power acoustic piano in a rocking song) - and that song features what I termed "The Neil Young Memorial Progressive Guitar Lead" - one note repeated over ten times
The final song "A Dangerous Journey" was 26+ minutes of epic music. It's also on the "Hemulic" record. Like Wobbler did at Nearfest a few years back, the long song captured the crowd. An unforgettable set that was added to by the friendliness of frontman Patrik Lundstrom.
RPWL -
Markedly different from their headlinding Rosfest appearance (that was a surround sound aural palate), this was a good middle of the day rock and roll set. Yogi and Kalle are great together, and the performance was stellar. Too many songs about war/gov't, but that's their theme. They did some fun things like the "This is not a prog song"..keep on progging me baby! Just goes to show that too many people are hung up on what's prog and what's not and forget to enjoy themselves.
"Breathe In Breathe Out" was excellent, along with "Sleep" and "Roses". I was hoping the finale "Hole In The Sky" was the Black Sabbath cover (Yogi bears a resemblance to Ozzy) but oh well!
Circa -
I was not real excited about the band...I had made my mind up after a Friday night of less than 2 hrs sleep and seeing so many old friends, I was going to cut out prior to the medley. I tried to focus on the music and learning the songs. I'm not familiar with their record, so I wanted to hear it live - but I really didn't get to focus on it too much. First, the bass was amped up way too much, second, the Jimmy Haun pedal steel split my ears - unfortunately that was the only thing of his amped up. Finally, I was taken with Billy Sherwood's musicianship. He played the baddest bass, while handling the vocals nicely. I'd not seen him live and he really impressed me.
The first tune reminded me of Yours Is No Disgrace, that kind of song...and there was a dancey chorus in another song, so dancey Marla from Maryland was impressive on the dance floor...don't have an opinion on the medley, cut out early. And missed the party - I'm not a big fan of seeing more jamming after music all day - and got 8 hrs of sleep in (a record!) - served me well as I only got another two hours Sunday PM...
Credo -
Summers End, 2006 - seen Credo during a great weekend in the UK. Was looking forward to them - they are a perfect match for Sunday morning - get the blood moving British march type music, get rid of the hangovers and cobwebs. They are what Marillion may have been with Fish still there.
I had a conversation with singer Mark Colton at Summers' End in the UK in 2006. During the epic song "The Letter", Mark's lyrics and passionate performance contained so much vitriol that I feared for the safety of the woman he sung about. He assured me it was long time ago and that police protection was uneccesary! So before the song this time he pointed to me and explained our little conversation to the crowd (I spent Sunday in the front row courtest of Buster). Also, Mark was saying the day before how nervous he was...he needn't worried. The band kicked Rosfest ass.
"Turn the Gun Around" was another highlight. Mark told a long story about how Americans kill those they really like who become famous. He mentioned that he was talking to his son about John Lennon - and his son hoped that Credo would not be famous! So Mark says, "if you end up liking us, our name is Magenta"
... He also threatened to kick someone in the audience's ass, jokingly of course....I hope.....the Gun song reminded a lot of Gabriel's "Family Snapshot", same theme for the lyric. When the assasination was impending the music was rushed and intense, then after the shooting, it was plodding and riveting. A great effect.
Tim Birrell on guitar reminded me a lot of Martin Barre, from the appearance, to the PRS, to the tasteful playing. A very professional band.
Black Bonzo -
I was most interested in seeing BB. I'm taken by their 2 discs, a nice mix of retro rock and contemporary sound. I've heard the Uriah Heep comparisons but personally I don't see it. I find them similar to Magic Pie, great new music with a hand in the past.
They had a lot of fun during the set. When they said they were to play the title cut from the "Sound of the Apocalypse" I asked what's the name of the song.....they picked up on that pretty fast...
Considering all of their challenges over the week, they came through with flying colors. They played in VA the night before and hauled ass up to PA to play. All this after Nicklas Ahlund's keyboards were stolen at their gig near Pittsburgh (welcome to America!). Then talking to Nicklas later on that evening I found out they went nine hours to get to their flight (they live in Northern Sweden), and time zones and gigs were severly testing their endurance. We had a good 20 minute talk and it would have been a lot longer if guitarist Joakim Karlsson would have laid off the tequila! (Nicklas hauled him out of the room just in time). I am always amazed by non-Americans who speak one more language than I do. And I'm fascinated by the difficulties of trying to keep a band together while working "regular" jobs. Nicklas is a welder, for instance.
Anyway, all that explains why the only keys were a Hammond that looked like it was 35 years old. The band ripped through an intense set, capped by the great "Lady of the Light". "Iscariot" and "Days of Sorrow" were powerful and the last two songs were perfect - the balls out "Jailbait" (funny, Wishbone Ash didn't do their Jailbait song this time) and the epic "Where The River Meets The Sea". Hooray for Sweden!
Crack the Sky -
I've seen this band 17 times...and I was most excited to see them here for two reasons - one was to have everyone experience at least once the fun of a CTS show. The other more selfish reason was to hear the music, sitting down, without having assholes screaming during the quiet passages. Oh how I was looking forward to hearing Glenn Workman's "Ice" piano solo, unfettered.
The evening prior I was talking to guitarist extrodinnaire Rick Witkowski. I asked if they were going to "prog up" their set. He assured me thay were going to "do what they do". That was what I was hoping to hear. Only a few songs they normally play were missing, like "Skin Deep", "I Don't Have A Tie" (they usually play about 1/2 hour longer), but all the favorites were there. Their signature "Surf City" medley was all Beatles songs...usually it's Johnny Cash, War, etc. John Palumbo is a big Lennon fan, so no surprise there. Palumbo's voice has been gone for 15 years now, but that's ok - it's not Crack the Sky without him.
"A Sea Epic" was a lot of fun. They stopped three times in the middle when they messed up, very playful. And after Palumbo spoke about how they weren't really a "prog" band anymore, he introduced Epic "a song about eating people"....I told him "THAT's PROG"!
If you enjoyed the show, please get the "Live At The Recher" 2 CD set. It was recorded at a hall about 5 miles from where I live (and they will be there again on July 12), and not only has the songs they played here, but the 17+ minute tunes "She's A Dancer" and "Flashlight" with a sax/trumbone/trumpet combo.
They had fun - a big balloon was released during the opener - they like to throw things...ask Buster about the pizza slice he caught many years ago! And although they didn't do the double drum solo (Witkowski taking on the drums too) a lot of neat twists were done. They grabbed Mark from Credo to help sing "Hot Razors" - he didn't know the song...so I whispered to him "It's a song about a relationship gone bad, you'll be fine"
and he was of course.
I'd not seen original bassist Joe Macre. Although former bassists Cary Ziegler and Sonny Petrovsky were awesome, Joe Macre was excellent! And good to see Joey D'Amico back with the group on drums.
Wishbone Ash -
My only live experience was in a small venue last year. Pretty much the same set w/o a couple of Argus songs (Time Was and King Will Come were missing). That's ok - they did do "Blowing Free" (final song, a happy one to close out the weekend), "Sometime World", and "Warrior" from Argus - in my top 10 of all-time greatest records. In fact I'm a little non-plussed about Martin Turner's decision to re-record it, but that's for another time.
It's unbelievable how good they are...Andy Powell's been at it for 38 years now...and the they flew into the US after playing in the UK the night before.
Of course only Andy Powell is the only original member. But the others are fine musicians...Finnish shredder Muddy Manninen on guitar is really good, smilin' Bob Skeat is solid on bass, and Joe Crabtree's a fine drummer. His spinning sticks on "Phoenix" was great. "Way of the World" was well done as always.
ok my wrists are toast....thanks for reading....
Rick