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Saturday, May 05, 2007
RoSFest 2007, what a great festival!
Category: Music
Here's a review of one of the great progressive music festivals, the
fourth edition of the Rites of Spring festival, held at the Colonial
Theater in Phoenixville, PA. The festival is organized by two
selfless, generous and passionate individuals, George Roldan and Tom
Smith. RoSFest is renowned to cater to fans of the more symphonic rock
facet of prog music. The Colonial is a great theater with pretty good
acoustics, and is also known as the location where the classic B movie
"The Blob" with Steve McQueen, was filmed many years ago. The vendor
area is located on the other side of the street, at Jester's Sports
Bar. As we arrived Friday, early in the afternoon, after our long 10-
hour trek from Montreal to Phoenixville, the group Magic Pie was
throwing a big album launch party at Jester's for their latest CD,
Circus Of Life. Sadly, we had arrived in time, but it seems none of
our merchandise had arrived yet... and neither did our colleague
Michel St-Père, who was unfortunately delayed at the border. The
schedule of the day was delayed a bit because of the lighting company
hired for the duration of the festival, arrived several hours late for
the setup, and as we'll learn over the weekend, they weren't exactly
up to specs.
First show of Friday evening is Tempustry, beginning a solid 90
minutes late because of the lighting company problems. Tempustry is a
duo composed of Allen Brunelle on keyboards and percussion and Jim
Rezek (of Iluvatar fame) on keyboards. Their style is a keyboard-
based, mostly instrumental electronic music, is inspired by the german
school of electronica in the style of Klaus Schulze with a few touches
of techno rhythms. Jim Rezek (mr. Mellotron as he's known in certain
circles) had his trusty lod mellotron with a mini moog on top, and
Allen had a classic Oberheim and a Roland, as well as an impressive
array of exotic-looking percussion instruments, shame though that his
vocorder and most of his syndrums didn't cooperate for their
performance. Their setlist included Before Dawn, Astral Gate, Ridin'
the Magsail and The Space Between, all from the upcoming Astral Gate
CD. A very enjoyable set, albeit a bit short, with hypnotizing
melodies and groovy rhythms, their great performance unfortunately
marred by technical difficulties, and a rather quirky, unsynchronized
light show. But after this long delay, it was a welcome start to the
day!
(
www.myspace.com/tempustry)
--------
Then on to the second performance of the evening, Puppet Show. The
group is composed of Chris Ogbum on guitar, Craig Poison (love that
name!) on bass, Chris Mack on drums, Mike Grimes on keyboards and Sean
Frazier on vocals. The group gave a powerful and dynamic performance,
a very tight band. Their style is inspired by early Genesis and Gentle
Giant I enjoyed Sean's humorous banter between songs, and he has a
great voice, it was hilarious when he was shouting at people nodding
off during their set! Chris was just sensationnal on the guitars, and
some delicious keyboard work by Mike Grimes, very melodious. Their set
consised of most of the tracks of their latest CD, The Tale of Woe,
including Seasons, Relativity, The Seven Gentle Spirits, Harold Cane,
The Past Has Just Begun and On Second Thought and they played a Gentle
Giant classic, Cogs in Cogs, much to the pleasure of the crowd. Again,
the quirky, offbeat light show put a damper on the performance, the
lighting guy really looked spaced-out.
(
http://www.puppetshow.com/)
--------
And finally, quite late into the evening, It was finally Starcastle's
turn to step on the stage. Starcastle's lineup for their RoSFest
performance was Al Lewis on vocals, Steve Tassler on drums, Bruce
Botts, Steve Hagler and Matt Stewart on guitars (yes, three
guitarists!), Woody Lingle on bass the superlative Oliver Wakeman on
keyboards and with very very special guest Annie Haslam on vocals. A
renowned band from the 70's, the group's lush symphonic sound was very
much inspired by Yes, so it is quite ironic that for the RoSFest
performance, Rick Wakeman's son, Oliver, is behind the keyboards.
Their performance was intense, emotional, precise and very
entertaining, truly a majestic show! Their setlist included Red
Season, Shine On Brightly, Children Believe, Love Is The Only Place,
Forces, Faces of Change, Song of Times, Portraits, All For The
Thunder, Diamond Song (Deep Is The light), Babylon, Master Machine,
Lady Of The Lake, and for the encore, Fountains. The long awaited
moment for me was Annie Haslam's performance, which was bittersweet, a
short duet on Love Is The Only Place, an emotional tribute to the late
Gary Strater, I wanted to hear more of her lovely, heavenly voice, but
I was immensely touched by her presence and it was one of the more
intense moments of RoSFest 2007 for me. Speaking of vocals, how about
this new guy, Al Lewis? Very very good, he fits the band's style to a
tee. Oliver's performance was simply sublime, I guess the apple
doesn't fall off far from the tree! Then the whole lighting guy fiasco
came to a tragicomic end as this bozo became even more erratic,
cursing at the artists and banging on the light console like a
madman... by then the organizers has enough and called the cops on
that guy, they needed three cops to subsue him and throw him out of
the theater, causing a very enthusiastic cheer from the crowd! At that
point, two securty guys took over the light show best they could, and
by the end of the set, they were quite good actually! The band
continued on without skipping a beat with all this commotion going on
behind them. A magnificent way to end the evening, although I was
beginning to nod off towards the end of their set... 24 hours without
sleep will do that to you.
(
http://www.starcastlemusic.com/)
--------
Finally got the story about the lighting guy, seems he was drinking
and snorting heavily before the shows and was severely under the
influence, and after his arrest, he spent the night in jail. He was
totally incompetent, even his expensive moving lights weren't even
plugged in to the console! George graciously handled the matter, and
by Saturday morning, a new lighting company was hired for the rest of
the weekend and they did a wonderful job! Back at the hotel, sleep
came easy, even though I was up again at 6:30... ready to take on day
two!
--------
After a great breakfeast at the Hampton Inn, where we met with many
friends including Dale, the band members of Darwin's Radio and
Retroheads, we headed to the Colonial for the first show of the day.
The Rocket Scientists stepped onstage around 11:00 AM, for a
performance that splapped more than a few people awake! Rocket
Scientists' lineup is composed of Mark McCrite on guitars and vocals,
Peer Verschuren on guitar, Don Schiff on bass and NS Stick, Ernst Van
Ee on drums and the amazing Erik Norlander on keyboards, and with
special guest Lana Lane on vocals. Decidedly, some top notch
keyboardists at the festival this year! A blistering set, just
mesmerizing keyboard work from Mr. Norlander, and Peer delivered some
wicked guitar licks, towards the end of their set, the lovely Lana
Lane joined them for a few tracks, including one of Lana's
compositions, A Dream that Never Ends from her album Lady McBeth...
what a great artist with a glorious voice! Don Schiff played this
amazing instrument called the NS Stick, (
http://www.stick.com/
instruments/ns/) a device designed specially for Don from a
collaboration between Emmett Chapman (creator of the Stick) and Ned
Steinberger (creator of the NS Double Bass, Bass Cello and many other
instruments) which is a cross between a chapman stick and a bass, and
sounds wickedly cool! A splendid start to the day!
(
http://www.thetank.com/rocketscientists.htm)
------------
Finally at Jester's, all of our merchandise had finally arrived, phew!
And it was not a moment too late, as sales were quite brisk after
Rocket Scientists' fantastic performance, beer was flowing, people had
a blast!
------------
In the early afternoon, time for the Galahad set. This famed band who
first started playing in the mid 80's has over 15 albums to its
credits. The band is composed of Roy Keyworth on guitars, Lee Abraham
on bass, Spencer Luckman on drums, Dean Baker on keyboards and the
intense Stuart Nicholson on vocals. Their style of exuberant symphonic
progressive music leans towards the heavier and harder "neo" side of
the progressive music spectrum, in the tradition of Marillion and
Arena. Their great set included I Could Be God, Year Zero (parts 1 -
4), Bug Eye, Sidewinder, Lady Messiah, Exorcising Demons, Sleepers,
Empires Never Last, This Life Could Be My Last. Stuart first arrived
onstage with a bright red priest costume, for the interpretation of I
Could Be God, shaking his star-shaped tambourine vigorously, what an
amazing singer with such an imposing stage presence. The first thing
we noticed is that the light show was back almost to normal, with
moving lights that moved and projectors that followed the rhythm of
the music... yay! Dean was sensational on his good old Roland A90 and
Korg Triton, giving the tone to the entire show with his lush, melodic
keyboard work. The first part of the show had several pre-recorded
parts and synth patches that detracted as bit from the performance,
but they more than made up for it in the second part of their set.
Lee's bass overloaded a bit, and on certain notes, literally
overpowered all the other instruments. At one point, Sutart ran into
the crowd, while people were clapping to the rhythm... What a great
show, full of energy, by a highly talented band that really pumped-up
the atmosphere of the fest! Back at Jesters, the band members
generously gave their time and signed tons of autographs sold many
CDs!
(
http://www.galahadonline.com/)
-------------------
Sadly, I missed the entire Carptree set, because I didn't have time to
eat during the break and needed some food, plus I was exhausted and
needed to nap a bit before the Pendragon show... I didn't want to nod
off during their set, plus we have to keep our energies for the after-
hours party who will end at an ungodly hour! Good for me though,
because after a cup of coffee with a few friends, I was re-energized
and ready for the headliner of the day!
(
http://www.carptree.com/)
------------------
Then on to the moment everybody's been waiting for... Pendragon.
Formed over 27 years ago, the legendary band from the UK is composed
of Nick Barrett on guitars and vocals, Clive Nolan on keyboards and
vocals, Peter Gee on bass and Joe Crabtree on drums. Over the years,
Nick and Clive have become literally the "house band" with their
performances with Neo last year, and Arena the year before... and
certainly their set was among the most anticipated performances of the
festival. Their stunning set was quite similar to the performance
captured on their recent DVD, And Now Everybody to the Stage, and
included such classics as No Place For The Innocent, As Good As Gold,
Guardian Of My Soul, Kowtow, The Wishing Well, The Edge Of The World,
Nostradamus, Dance Of The Seven Veils, Paintbox, Breaking The Spell,
Masters Of Illusion, The Lost Children (World's End), Green Eyed
Angel, Sister Bluebird, Last Man On Earth, Am I Really Losing You? A
jaw-dropping performance that raised the roof of the Colonial Theater!
Nick was incredibly sharp and gave a perfect, mesmerizing performance,
with his witty banter and his enthusiasm, he really had the audience
in his back pocket. Clive was magnificent on the keyboards, and unlike
last year, his banter onstage was practically nonexistent. A gorgeous
performance that really had the audience giving several long standing
ovations, and showed why this groups is one of the premier acts of
contemporary symphonic progressive music! A perfect end to a fantastic
day of music... but wait! it's not over yet!
(
http://www.pendragon.mu/)
-------------------
Back at the hotel, we crossed over to the Sheraton for the "after-
hours" VIP party! Imagine the fun of seeing your favorite artists
jamming together in front of an admiring audience in the intimate
setting of a small room! Beer, friends, legendary musicians, what else
can you ask more? As I arrive, Erik Norlander was going at it on the
keys! I was very happy to see my friend Clive (we go way back... LOL)
along with Oliver Wakeman, tried to nudge them into doing a little
performance but alas, there was only one keyboard on the small
stage... oh well! Then two thirds of Spock's Beard started jamming,
their new drummer Jimmy Keegan a veritable dynamo, this guy's
relentless! After a few brews in excellent company, including Rob
Aubrey and Mark Westwood (both of which will be in Montreal
accompanying IQ this September) it was time to get some sleep because
it's 2:30 AM!
---------------------
After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, the final day of the weekend
began with Darwin's Radio. This was my discovery of the festival for
me. Unfamiliar with their material, I was quickly captivated by their
delicious style of edgy symphonic prog with a slight leaning towards
fusion. The band is composed of Mark Westworth on keyboards and
vocals, Sean Spear on bass (both of wich are former members of the
prog band Grey Lady Down), Tim Churchman on drums and percussion, and
the excellent Dec Burke on guitars and lead vocals. Their set was
composed of Stronger, Erase... revind, Windows to your Soul, Breathe
It In, Lapse of Sensation, Eccentric Orbits, Illusions, Pictures, The
Vast Within. A great performance, splendid, catchy compositions and
impeccable musicianship! They had the crowd going! Those cheeky brits
played a trick on George, asking if there was time for one more
track... and proceeded to play a 20-min epic, The Vast Within,
effectively delaying all the other shows that day... but we forgive
them for this little indiscretion as the audience left the theater
delighted by the fun performance! Back at Jester's, I promptly grabbed
a copy of the their latest CD, Eyes Of The World.
(
http://www.darwinsradio.co.uk/)
-----------------------------
Again, the brisk activity at our merchandise table during the break
prevented me from properly eating, and to avoid my headache turning
into an all-out migraine, I skipped a good part of the Retroheads
set... from what I caught, they were very good despite the terrible
technical difficulties they experienced during their set... the group
is composed of Per Nordengen on Hammond B3 and keyboards, Mike Mann on
lead vocals, Kjell Bergland on guitars, Tore Bø Bendixen on bass, bass
pedals, keyboards, Ann-Kristin Bendixen on back vocals, Deborah
Girnius on back vocals, flute and keyboards, and Morten Venli on
drums. Their set was composed of Living In A Bubble, Be Aware, Black
Hole Eyes, I Turn To You, One World, Dreams, Man, Rainy Day, Slaves of
Gold, Tidal Wave and Karma. From what I gathered, the set was
spectacular until a technical glitch killed half of the keyboards
onstage, preventing Debbie from playing anything at all, which
effectively broke their momentum and rhythm a bit. But they carried on
like troopers and gave a great performance, in spite of the
unfortunate problems. Back at the vending area, the band members were
obviously disappointed, but proud of their presentation. Tore
mentioned that they'll have to redesign their stage setup and simplify
it a bit to avoid these gliches ever happening again. They really
appreciated the thumbs' up from the audience and signed many
autographs and sold many CDs too at their table.
(
http://www.retroheads.com/)
------------
Only once in the history of RoSFest has a band been invited twice in a
row... Magic Pie is that good to deserve such an honor! The "coup de
coeur" of last year's festival, it was a pleasure to see them again!
The norwegian group is composed of Kim Stenberg on guitars, Eirik
Hanssen on lead Vocals, Gilbert Marshall on keyboards and lead vocals,
Jan T. Johannessen on drums, Allan Olsen on lead vocals and Lars
Petter Holstad on bass. Oh what a gorgeous set they performed! They
played many tracks from their latest CD, Circus Of Life, including the
title track, Freakshow, Trick of the Mind and Pointless Masquerade.
Gilbert was simply sublime on keyboards, his voice absolutely amazing
as ever, Kim is just a monstrous guitarist, his performance was
brilliant, one of the top guitarists on the stage of RoSFest this
year! The entire band was at the top of its game, and was treated to
numerous well-deserved standing ovations throughout their performance
A few technical glitches towards the end of their set did not detract
from the quality of their killer performance. Although they did not
have the surprise factor of last year, the strenght of their set just
had the crowd on its feet! The Pie does it again! What a great show!
(
http://www.magicpie.net/)
--------------------
Time flies as it was already time for the last performance of the
festival later this evening, with one of the biggest names in prog
music, Spock's Beard. It was also time to pack it in, breaking down
our carefully built vending table and packing our CDs for the next
festival... NEARFest, next June! After dropping our gear in the car,
we headed for the auditorium... and we waited, and waited, and
waited... It was not until nearly 2 hours after the scheduled start
that we were allowedv into the theater. A long sound check, added to
the accumulated delays from earch performances today, made us a bit
impatient to see this long-awaited performance by the Beard!
----------------
Time for the mighty Spock's Beard to hit the stage! I was very excited
as this is the first group that indroduced me to the world of
contemporary progressive music, and through them, I discovered bands
like the Flower Kings, IQ, Transatlantic, Liquid Tension Experiment,
Dream Theater, Pendragon, Arena and countless others! Their influence
on my current musical tastes is huge and V is among my favorite albums
of all times. The group is composed of Ryo Okumoto on keuboards, Dave
Meros on bass, Alan Morse on guitars, Nick D'Virgilio on vocals,
guitars and drums, and newcomber Jimmy Keegan on drums. Their set was
composed of a great mixture of old and new, and included On a Perfect
Day, In the Mouth of Madness, Is This Love? All That's Left, Slow
Crash Landing Man, Crack the Big Sky, Return to Whatever (from Alan
Morse's solo album Four O'Clock and Hysteria), Surfing Down the
Avalanche, Thoughts Part II, Skeletons at the Feast, As Far as the
Mind Can See, Walking on the Wind, The Water / Go the Way You Go. The
group gave a great show, unfortunately marred by a few
imperfections... Nick, Dave and Jimmy were outstanding, but Ryo and
Alan were not at the top of their game, with a few bum notes here and
there, skipping a few beats at times... a bit disappointing for me. On
the bright side, this Jimmy Keegan guy was just mind-boggling, so
precise and intense, his drum play was a cross between Portnoy, Bozzio
and someone suffering from tetanos muscle-spasms, it was fascinating
to see his ultra-fast movements, a million watts of energy glowing
from this guy! Nick had been quite ill the day before, even having to
go to the emergency room, that's why he didn't show up at the after-
hours party, but none of it showed during the show, as he delivered a
flawless performance, his drum duet with Jimmy was something out of
this world! Some of the humorous moments of their set was that short
intro to Freebird, and Ryo's japanese karaoke number while Nick was
fiddling with his amp, but Ryo's "butt paste" jokes kinda fell flat...
Oh well. At one point Anan almost fell into the audience, someone
holding him by his shirt tail to havoid him from toppling over. I
would have loved to see a flawless performance, like they are renowned
to deliver, but they still got the audience on its feet for a good
part of their set!
(
http://www.spocksbeard.com/)
-----------------------
And just like that, it was the end. I really want to thank George
Roldan and Tom Smith for their amazing work, and congratulating them
on making RoSFest 2007 their first sellout. I also want to thank
Krista Phillips, the tiny human dynamo who just made everything
flowing so smoothly all weekend long! No announcement of next year's
lineup, but I have no doubt that George and Tom will pull another
amazing lineup up their sleeves, and I am already planning to attend
next year.
------------------
On Monday morning, we made a quick stop by the post office to drop a
few boxes of merchandise for shipment at NEARFest and then headed back
home, a long 10-hour drive. I arrived in Montreal around 7:30 PM, just
in time to catch Heroes and 24! Thank God I have the week off...
---------------------------
My purchases during the weekend (and I went way over my allocated
budget for that, bad Bob!) included IQ's Stage DVD, Tales From The
Lush Attic and The Wake, Darwin's Radio's Eyes of the World, Porcupine
Tree's Fear Of A Blank Planet, Starcastle's Song Of Times, and I was
given Tunnel's Natural Selection by Andre, a friend of the band, and
Anton Roolaart gave me his latest CD, Dreamer (Thanks Andre and
Anton!). I'll try to review some of those soon. I also grabbed a set
of custom Spock's Beard guitar picks and I was given a very lovely
Yuengling t-shirt because of my constant support of that particular
brewery during the weekend!
---------------------------
So there it is... my review of RoSFest 2007! For those who were
hesitant, you can't imagine what you've missed, RoSFest is as much a
music festival as a social event where a large group of friends and
musicians gather annually to share their love of this weird music
category we know as prog!
- Robert
2:57 PM - 2 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment
CHARLIE
REVIEW OF THE REVIEW!
ROBERT this review was so... SUBLIME!
You covered everything. I liked CARPTREE'S performance, even though I
had never heard a note. A good prog band takes several listens to make
a proper impact, and I wanted to be objective of CARPTREE.... I was
introduced to prog's second coming in 1983 when KERRANG introduced 6
bands as the NEW WAVE OF BRITISH PROGRESSIVE ROCK. One of these bands,
PENDRAGON was listed, and I instantly took notice-great performance
this year at ROSFEST! I purchased both STARCASTLE'S and SPOCK'S
BEARD'S new CDs to familiarize myself with the their new music GREAT
CDs!. As a fan of YES since 1972, I heard the comparisons of
STARCASTLE to YES, but this incarnation of the band really are on
their own path! They had the best vocal harmonies of the weekend, and
having talked with Oliver WAKEMAN after the show, it sounds like
STARCSTLE will keep going--let's hope so!... I was truely amazed by
UNICORN label's RETROHEADS- despite the stage problems, I really liked
their stage presence. I had previously slammed SPOCK'S BEARD, Alan in
particular for unprofesionalism pre-show behavior unbecoming a
guitarist. I have since decided it is his mistake, I am not going to
chastise the whole band. I love prog, and hate to see band members
make wrong moves but we are all human.
As for MAGIC PIE,
freshest flavor for the EARS of the day! Served hot with lots of
energy, the band was easy on the digestion! I could not wash it down
with the YEUNGLING beer, because I can't mix music and alchohol--can't
mix it with anything actually, so I'll take the prog!
Loved
DARWIN'S R, GALAHAD-missed ROCKET SCIENTISTS!
Another good
ROSFEST, a great review ROBERT, and don't forget you also have
VULTRESS by the COSMIC NOMADS to listen to when you can! Let me know
what you think!
BONSOIR mon AMIS,
CHARLIE NOLAN,
