Even at a concert as well programmed as NEARfest, a few things aren’t going to work. LIGHTS OUT: MAGENTA, BOB DRAKE As much as I liked Izz, (see earlier NEARfest Blog) I truly disliked Magenta. Even though they are superficially similar – both playing a symphonic brand of prog – their approaches to presentation…
Month: June 2007
Reviews & Commentary
NEARfest 2007-The Midlights: Izz, Pure Reason Revolution, La Maschera di Cera, Hawkwind, Alan Holdsworth
NEARfest ended this past weekend. Here’s some more impressions from this Progressive Rock conclave. I talked about my over-the-top faves yesterday, but here’s some other bands that made an impression. They also provided some of the best variety and most tantalizing directions of the festival. But there was also the specter of bands who are…
Reviews & Commentary
NEARFEST 2007 Highlights: Magma, Indukti, NeBeLNeST and Secret Oyster
My hotel couldn’t get their internet happening so I couldn’t produce the daily NEARfest Blog I’ve done in the past, so here’s a quick overview take of the North East Art Rock Festival which just took place in Bethlehem, PA this weekend, June 23-24 and its cousin, Progressive Arts Fusion Friday that preceded. I’ll blast…
Reviews & Commentary
Radio Heroes and Acolytes: Dick Summer, Star’s End and Beyond
Dick Summer’s Subway MemoriesEvery Christmas, without fail, I watch Frank Capra’s iconic and cautionary tale, It’s a Wonderful Life. I watch it for its humor, nostalgia but also its central theme, that we all affect the lives we touch in ways you could never expect. I was reminded about this at the Star’s End 30th…
Reviews & Commentary
STAR’S END 30th Anniversary: Robert Rich & Ian Boddy, Jeff Pearce, Ministry of Inside Things, Orbital Decay
On Saturday, June 16th, an anniversary will be celebrated. It’s the 30th year of the Star’s End journey. It’s actually the back end of 30 years since the show was launched in 1976. That’s longer than Voyager has been traveling the galaxy. Since Star’s End took off, there’s been Disco, Punk, New Wave, Ambient, Grunge…
Reviews & Commentary
Sgt. Pepper’s Still Marching 40 Years Later
It was Forty Years Ago Today that Sgt. Pepper’s taught the band to play. Okay, how many articles on the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band have used that line? I still have my original Sgt. Pepper’s LP, complete with the cardboard cutouts of sergeant’s stripes and moustaches. But that’s…