Last weekend I flew back to attend Progfest'99 at the Palace Of Fine Arts in San Francisco. I bought the tickets a long time ago since I was living in San Francisco. They skipped the Progfest'98 last year because of what I am not quite sure.
On the schedule the show was supposed to start at 4:30 p.m. but this would never happen on both days. The show was pretty late due to the sound problem. I and my friend arrived to the Palace of Fine Arts around 2 p.m. They had a lot of prog merchandises in the lobby, such as Musea, Syn-Phonic, Expose, AEther, Pangea, some other prog boot dealers, band booths etc. At least we all had fun checking out all prog merchandises and spent A LOT of money on them. The door was opened around 6:30 p.m. We got very good seats on row C dead center. we got good seats on both night because I called to reserve the tickets many months ago.
It took a long time for Bondage Fruit to do the sound check because of the different formats of electric equipments and language problems. Most of the members could not speak English well enough. They had a lady to do the translation on stage before the show. As soon as we all appreciated their music, language was not a problem at all. I'm not an English speaker as well, so I know the feeling. They played hard and tight. I think their music reminded me of a bit Happy Family and other RIO bands from Europe. But nothing I can recognise that they had some influence from Magma. They're supposed to sing something but they did not have the singer. The violin player was pretty good. I really like the drummer (guy). He's very good. They also had an additional female drummer who played other percussions as well.
One thing I would like to say is the drummer (male) of Bondage Fruit IS really good. His timing is very tight and he could play really fast. I would be happy just to hear his drumming.
After the show I could not help but walked to the Bondage Fruit booth in the lobby to buy their Bondage Fruit III (Recit) album. This band is compromising and they gave me some hope for Japanese avant garde music. I wish I could have seen Happy Family live some day. Maybe.
Bondage Fruit lineup:
Natsuki Kido - guitar
Yuji Katsui - electric violin
Hirohiko Otsubo - bass
Yoichi Okabe - drum & percussion
Takara Kumiko - vibraphone & percussion
Hmm...what can I say...I never heard their music before and from what I saw and heard at this show it did not do anything to me. In my opinion, I believe that PLP does not need to have a female singer or violin player at all. It does not make any different in their songs, plus the vocals bring the music down a bit. She could sing but she is not a good singer at all. Her singing style reminds me of choir but she had a very short range of singing. Pretty boring actually. At least she is a pretty woman, nice to look at.
I was not impressed in the music of PLP at all. His keyboard playing style is similar to Wakeman meets Emerson but more into Wakeman. And the drummer is...well...totally heavy metal style. I'm curious how all the members play together. I might be a bit biased for this band but I can't help it.
PLP lineup:
Par Lindh - keyboards & percussion
Jocke Ramsell - guitar
Marcus Jaderholm - bass
Nisse Bielfeld - drums
Magdalena Hagberg - vocals & violin
Well, this is what I have been waiting to see for a long time. I wish I could have seen Brand X with Phil Collins and Percy Jones some day but that would be just a big dream. Mybe go to see the Phil Collins big band instead. They're pretty good, aren't they?
John Goodsall is only the original member in this current lineup. Other members are new but they played well. John looked like he's drunk a bit from what he acted and said but his playing was totally awesome. They played Lila Dance of Mahavishnu Orchestra at the show. I was surprised. It was really good though. Brand X played a mix setlist between old and new songs. Chris's singing is pretty good actually.
Old fans were asking for Moroccan Roll, Nuclear Burn and others. They played one song from Masques (my favourite album). If I'm not mistaken I believe they played the poke.
Brand X lineup:
John Goodsall - guitar & vocals
Mick Stevens - bass
Chris Sjorbring - keyboards & vocals
John Holmes - drums
Hmm...this lineup did not have Pierre Moerlen since he left during the Europian tour. I can't recall the name of the drummer for this show but he is quite good.
I have seen Gong in San Francisco before around 1998 I think. This time they still had Gilli as a singer. For old Gong, she kicks some serious but to sing those old songs. Gong played mostly old stuff and some more new stuff. I have Shapeshifter but I only listened to it once and did not like it as much as Angle's egg, Flying Teapot, Expresso and other albums in their jazz period. Daevid still wore those funny costumes as usual plus he danced and jumped too much on stage. So much energy for a guy about his age. I was afraid that he would collapse on stage some day. He would be super tired after the show though.
During the Gong show there were 2 girls dancing in front of the stage and both of them walked up to dance on stage with Gilli Smith.
Gong lineup:
Daevid Allen - guitar & vocals
Gilli Smith - space whisper vocals
Mike Howlett - bass
Didier Malherbe - saxophone & flute
Mark Hewins - guitar/midi-guitar
Theo Travis - drums (replace Pierre Moerlen)
It's a good idea to have Gong close the first night. The show ended about 1:30 a.m. All fans went home and prepared for tomorrow show. I was completely ready to see Magma for the first time in my life.
The show was supposed to begin at 4:30 p.m. the schedule says but they had the same problem on the sound check. This was fine with me since I was stuck with the Magma booth to buy their t-shirts, key ring, pin and necklace. I must have them. This would be the first or last time for me to see magma. Who knows.
At the main counter of Pangea music they had merchandises from Magma, Buckethead, Porcupine Tree and others. For Gong, Lana Lane & Rocket scientists and Par Lindh Project, they sold their stuff since the first night.
We all got in the hall after 6:30 p.m. But this time we all were prepared to stay longer. They had a couple bands play in the lobby to keep us cool. Gilli Smith sang with a psychedelic band. It's nice to hear the songs about the hippies in the 70's like what kinds of activities they did. Some people were really into it.
I never heard or known this band before, so this was very fresh to my ears. whe nthe band started I thought of some heavy metal band who tries to be progressive metal. they had a stick player too. This band was quite good but they definitely had nothing to d owith prog music. Just plain rock and heavy metal. Lana Lane's the lead singer. She sang pretty good by the way. But all of the songs sounded similar to me.
She also sang Season's End by Marillion in Hogarth era (Thanks Matt for tell me for the name of this song). The last song they played "In The Court Of The Crimson King" by King Crimson, of course. Well, this time I did recognize because I'm a diehard King Crimson fan. She did not have any range thar's close to Greg Lake at all but she did a good job for this song.
Lana Lane & Rocket scientists lineup:
Lana Lane - vocals
Erik Norlander - keyboards
Mark McCrite - vocals & guitar
Neil Citron - guitar
Don Schiff - chapman stick
Tommy Amato - drums
After the show I did not want to go get their cds at all. But it was nice to see a new band sometimes.
Wow! No need to introduce anything for this guy. I thought he would come out with the Giant Robot with DJ Disk (my favourite) but not...Buckethead flew here from Georgia just by himself. He played his guitars and some bass with the backing tracks and the robot video on the screen.
Buckethead's still good to me whatever he played. He's a very talent guitar player who could play nice, beautiful, aggressive, funny, etc. He also gave away some prop like the hand to some fan. His guitar playing had so much energy in it. There were a lot of Buckethead fans at the show.
After the show he had to fly back to play with Primus at Ozzfest. Busy guy. That's very nice of him to take sometime off to join with the progfest. I believe that some prog fans would enjoy seeing his show.
Buckethead lineup:
Just Buckethead on guitar and bass...and dancing??
I have never seen Porcupine tree live before. I remember they used to play at Slim's (San Francisco) in 1994 but I had not arrived to America yet.
I'm not a big fan of PT, really, even though I have been listening to their music for a couple of years. The band put on a very good performance especially the drummer. He's good. The band had some problem with the equipments that used different formats between U.K. and U.S.A. Steve's guitar playing reminded a lot of David Gilmour. Could not help it. He did sing pretty good, but those songs're not that hard to sing anyway. I may be biased on this but that's what I thought. I never thought of PT as a prog band since their music is like a combination of pop, rock, electronic and other kinds of music depending on their ideas.
Here is the PT setlist. (I would like to thanks Didier for providing me this setlist. You can visit his Porcupine Tree Homepage if you are interested to know more about the band.)
---Encore---
Porcupine tree lineup:
Steve Wilson - guitar, keyboards & vocals
Richard Barbieri - keyboards & synthesizers
Chris Maitland - drums, percussions & backing vocals
Colin Edwin - bass
MAGMA (France)
Ahh....this is the real thing. This is what I have been waiting for, hoping, wishing...etc...to at least have a chance to see Magma once in my entire life.
They changed the stage setting to be spread out. Having the drumset of Christian Vander in the center front of the stage and the keyboard is on the right. All 3 chanting singers were on the left side of the stage. I like it because you could see everyone on stage at the same time. None of the member was in front of others. And no fancy lightings at all. They just had solid spot light on the background. I think Magma's music needs a lot of concentration and no need for laser and stuff. Music can say everything by itself.
Christian had a very tiny drumset with a big fan on his left hand. I wondered why he needed it. But if you have seen him live before you would have no question. He played drums like there's no tomorrow. I was afraid he would collapse during the performance.
When the band started playing I could not move my whole body. It had so much energy in the music, very tight. I have never felt anything like this when I see concerts before, even with the King Crimson (THRaKaTTaK show in July 1996). They played the music from their hearts. Christian's drumming blew me away. The music moved me to tears. It's hard to explain the feeling. But if you love music so much you would understand how I felt.
I did not remember the entire setlist. They played Kohntark, Kobah, Mekanik Zain, Mekanik Kommandoh and maybe other song I can't recall.
Well, all members of Magma did an excellent job. The bass player was very unique. He had his own sound. I like Janik Top very much. But we couldn't have Janik at the show. Things have changed these days.
I forgot to say about some highlight during the Magma show. I was sitting on row "D" and guess who I saw? He's Dave Kerman (the drummer of Present, Thinking Plague, U Totem, Blast, 5 UU's, etc) and Deborah Perry (the singer of Thinking Plagues) at the show. They came to sit in the front row just to see Christian Vander and the band. It's worth flying to San Francisco just to see Magma, in my opinion.
Magma lineup:
Christian Vander - drums & vocals (incredible drummer!)
Stella Vander - Vocals & keyboards
James McGraw - guitar
Philippe Bussonnet - bass
Emmanuel Borghi - fender rhodes piano
Antoine Paganotti - vocals
Isabelle Feuillebois - vocals
I would like to thank the promoter of this Progfest'99 festival (might be Shawn Aharn) and anyone that put on the contribution on this festival. It means so much to a music lover like me. I believe all prog fans who attended this festival would have the similar feeling.
I purchased the progfest'97 video tape just because I was in that event last 2 years. And both nights I could not help but stopped at the Syn-Phonic booth of Greg Walker (a very nice guy) and I got Area (Maledetti and Crac!), Banco (Io Sono Nato Libero), Bi Kyo Ran (A Violent Music). Bought Bondage Fruit III (Recit) cd at their booth. A free cd "Set the controls for the heart of the Aether" from Aether records and a free tape from Tenjinn.
There are quite a lot of prog bootleg cds at the lobby from King Crimson, Genesis, UK, Yes, etc. I would not bother to buy any boot by King Crimson since we all can get their boot cds from the DGM collector club. Unless you feel like you must have everything by the band then go for it.
I do not know if i would be able to attend any Progfest in the near future but I would hope for that.
(All images in this page appear in the Progfest'99 official program book except the tickets.)
AE
Progressive Rock / Metal Concerts