Outer Music Diary

It’s been a few years since I saw Izz at ProgWest, and the band is much improved, yet there is still nothing here requiring two drummers. Most of the time they are simply playing the same thing together, not complimenting one another. Ore one is taking a break (playing a shaker or something) while the other is drumming. Better utilization of the two chick singers, though, and the new songs are far more interesting.

Then Nebelnest came on and just put me into a friggin’ trance. Undescribable. Five guys on stage just kicking my ass, and I loved every minute of it. These guys need to just get in a van and start going club to club across the country, like UJD used to. When regular people (meaning non-proggy-proggers) see this band, they will be taken by them. They are wasting their time at prog festivals, where half the audience walks out on them.

Half the audience never even showed up for Bob Drake’s set, which was limited to only about 30 minutes to begin with, and another half walked out before it was over, sadly. He was joined by a second guy playing bass, 2nd guitar and harmony vocals, and occasionally by Dave Kerman (who slept on his drum kit, pillow and all, on all the songs he didn’t play on). They worked through a number of songs in Drake’s catalog, in that rough-edged style that is his. The singer from Red Masque and keyboard player from Nebelnest made brief appearances also. Drake’s set was plain-old fun, but since proggy-proggers don’t know how to have fun, the bulk of the folks there didn’t know what to make of it. After all, there were no mellotrons or 30 minute bombastic epics.

Magenta started playing. I never even went in, instead choosing to hang out in the lobby talking with Tony Spada and Paul Whitehead. I saw this band in Baja a couple years ago, once was enough. My two friends I’m traveling with did, but they had both walked out well before the end of the second song, so we went to dinner and drank a bunch of draft beer at the pub.

Last up was Hawkwind. Wasn’t sure what to expect, having only seen the Nik Turner/Simon House “Space Ritual” version from seven years or so back. Tonight it was Brock and three other guys (not sure exactly who, I’m too bloody cheap to buy a program) but with all the visuals and lasers and lights, this set was surprisingly engaging. Again, I found myself in a trance for about the first 30 minutes or so. People started leaving in droves (I could almost hear them thinking “magenta was so much better than these guys. this isn’t prog…”). There was one very annoying thing in Hawkwind’s set - wasn’t their fault, but there was a screwed up PA that was making this loud clicking sound. They finally got it fixed midway through the main set, and all was well for the remainder of our journey through space. Nice long encore too!

There’s nothing quite like live music, but these festivals are far from the ideal way to take it in. One Shot, perhaps the most intense band of the evening, was only given a friggin’ 30 minute set. What’s with that (other than the people who run NEARfest are a bunch of complete musical retards). That said, these guys certainly met and exceeded my expectations. I went into a trance midway through the first piece and stayed there for the rest of the set.

Secret Oyster played for a bit longer, maybe 45 minutes to an hour. Guitarist, Sax player and drummer are original members, the bassist is from Burning Red Ivanhoe, and the keyboardist looked like a 18 year old kid but was positively amazing and didn’t miss a single note. For a band that hadn’t played together in about 30 years (this is only their 5th gig since the reunion) they sound mighty tight, though if one knows their albums there weren’t any real surprises, other than the live aspect and a few jams (although given their set length, they couldn’t stretch out too much).

Holdsworth’s set is pretty much what I expected, although Chad Wackerman’s presence ratchets the energy up a level… As usual Holdsworth pretty much played the entire set with the same effects gizmos and never got out of his comfort box. Bassist Jimmy Johnson turned in a few great solos, and the choice of material seemed to work well (a couple pieces recognized from Road Games era).