Sunday, October 19, 2008

One Talking Head

David Byrne
Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno
Fox Theatre
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, October 18th, 2008
Section VIP3, Row L, Seat 107
$75

David Byrne came on stage to a standing ovation. Instead of starting with a song, he talked to us first. Hello, did any of you go to Obama's speech today? was the start of the concert. I yelled yeah and applauded even more. I saw quite a few people with Obama t-shirts and pins in the audience, so I knew I wasn't alone.

I first saw David Byrne live a couple years ago, and I enjoyed that concert a lot. I'm actually a bigger fan now. I went to that earlier Byrne show because Roy wanted to go. I liked the songs I knew from the Talking Heads, but I was only familiar with the songs I'd heard on the radio. I didn't start listening to current rock until after their heyday in the 80s, and I never went back into their catalog to discover them, like I had with so many other bands.

All that changed when Byrne played I Zimbra, from the Talking Heads' Fear of Music album. It was my first time hearing the song, and it immediately reminded me of King Crimson's Thela Hun Ginjeet. I know Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew each played with the Talking Heads prior to the 80s lineup of King Crimson. This is what led me to dig into Roy's Talking Heads albums, to listen for the influences and cross-pollination of sounds from this band to my beloved Discipline-era King Crimson. Fripp played on the studio version of I Zimbra, and Adrian Belew played on their next album and tour for Remain in Light. It makes me wonder who brought what to the table.

When we got to our seats, we started chatting with another fan sitting next to Roy. He was younger than me, and it seemed like he was the only fan in the group of three people he was with. Seemed excited to be talking music with us. We discovered we were all King Crimson fans, so we talked about them.

The last time we saw Byrne was at the Sheldon Theater, a small venue that's known for good sound and good sitelines. Every seat offers a good view, even for short people like me. This show was at the Fox, which is a really nice place. I've always been worried about sitting in the orchestra section on the floor there though. The floor isn't sloped enough, so I'm worried about how blocked my view of the stage will be. I used to always get tickets in the balcony, with its tiered rows. But last year, I got free tickets to Avenue Q; the seats were far back in the orchestra section and I could see fine. And we had such luck getting tickets for Return to Forever up close in the orchestra pit. When tickets went on sale for Byrne, I thought we should try for the floor and get the closest seats we could.

I'm heading back to the balcony next time. We bought tickets as part of the presale, and we ended up in Row L, about 17 rows back. Freakishly tall people sat in front of me. I could see part of the stage looking in between the heads and shoulders of the people in front of me. But they were like lovebirds, constantly leaning towards each other to whisper or do other stuff and block my limited view. Roy suggested I switch seats with him. Right then, the guy in front of me turned away from his girlfriend and turned to the guy to his right to whisper something, and started blocking my new view. I can't win.

After David Byrne took the stage and asked us about attending the Obama speech, he and his band started with a song from his new album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. This is an album he did with Brian Eno, another musician with a big connection to Robert Fripp. This whole tour was called Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno, focusing on the albums they did together and the first few Talking Heads albums which Eno produced. That's the making of a good setlist. Byrne also did something smart - making his new album available streaming on his website, so people would at least be familiar with all the new music.

The show was also very interesting visually. I remembered that the last time we saw Byrne, he and all his backing musicians wore brown and it kinda reminded me of UPS drivers' uniforms. This time, they were all wearing white. He had a large band with him, Byrne sang and played guitar, and he had a keyboard player, bassist, drummer, percussionist, and three backing vocalists, one of whom also played guitar. He also had three dancers with him. It wasn't like the dancing singer and the backup dancers that you'd see at pop concerts, but they were integrated into the stage performance. The dancers first came out during I Zimbra, and I think they added to the energy of the song. Sometimes, the oddity of seeing them on stage, and even David Byrne joining in with them for a few steps, gave the concert a sense of whimsy. It added to the fun of the show and took nothing away from the music. They must have done a lot of rehearsals, because it looked so natural. Of course I want to dance to this music. The only unfortunate thing is, with all this fun stuff going on on-stage, it was really distracting to have these people's heads in my way.

I'm cheating with the setlist here. I'm writing this up a month after the concert and reading a setlist from a review on the Riverfront Times webpage. After I Zimbra, Byrne played One Fine Day, another song from the new album. He dedicated it to November 4, election day, and that was the last political comment he made.

The complete setlist was:
Strange Overtones
I Zimbra
One Fine Day
Help Me Somebody
Houses in Motion
My Big Nurse
My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)
Heaven
Never Thought
The River
Crosseyed and Painless
Life Is Long
Once in A Lifetime
Life During Wartime
I Feel My Stuff

Encore One:
Take Me to the River
The Great Curve

Encore Two:
Air
Burning Down the House
Everything That Happens

At some point in the middle of the show, the freakishly tall people in front of me all got up and left, probably to get a drink. They were gone for 4 or 5 songs. Some people in the audience stood up for Heaven, which gave it a bigger reaction than I thought it would. I'm not sure I liked the dancers on Life Is Long. They brought out rolling desk chairs and moved around on those. The song was a slow one and the movements seemed forced.

The people in front of me returned just as Once in a Lifetime started. Here, the whole audience reacted. Everyone on the floor stood up and we all danced along. We stood for the rest of the show. I wonder why it's acceptable to dance to this music, but people never want to join in dancing to Yes or King Crimson. They all move me, and it was fun to be a part of it here. I have no idea what was happening on stage at this point, but after a while, Roy pulled me over to his other side. The people further down on our row must have left and when we moved over, I could actually see between the standing bodies to get a view of the stage. I don't think the bad views would have frustrated me so much if I hadn't also been tired from such a long day. We left home for the Obama rally at 8 that morning, and while I did get to take a little nap in between the events, it was a very full day.

One song on the setlist was a surprise. Burning Down the House was one of the few Talking Heads songs I had been familiar with since I started watching MTV as a teenager and I always liked it. It wasn't from the Byrne/Eno oeuvre and I hadn't seen it listed in the setlists I'd seen for this tour. I don't think he did it the other time we saw him either. It was nice to see performed. The final song was another new, slower song Everything That Happens, which brought an end to the frenetic feeling in the audience. It kinda quieted us down.

I am so glad I went to this show. I was just exhausted when it was over, the results of a couple very full days. There was a Jackson Browne concert at the Fox the next night. Roy and I were both glad we hadn't decided to go to that one, to get a day of rest and recovery before the work week started again. Both times I've seen Byrne, I've been very impressed.

Change We Must (or A Lot of Talking Heads)

Change We Need Rally
with Barack Obama

Under the Gateway Arch
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, October 19th, 2008

I don't normally talk about politics on this blog. I try to keep it work friendly. I have strong feelings on the topic, but I don't want to make people uncomfortable. That said, I'm proud of my beliefs. I think some people on the other side have been dangerous to our country. Not everyone, but some of them. Every vote on that side strengthens them.

I've been a lifelong Democrat. My parents are Democrats and I was raised that way, same as I was raised Jewish. What made me *own* it, strengthening my own convictions, was the year I spent student teaching. I had gone to public schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and then went on to get a math degree from an Ivy League university. I was going to be a math teacher. I student taught at a school in my city, in the same school district I attended. But the differences were staggering. Only a handful of students were going on to college. Many bright kids could have had the same education experiences that I did, if they had had the same examples that I did of education leading to a good future, a good support system, motivated students around them to provide positive peer pressure.

Some social education classes I took at the same time helped me see the issue as clearly as a math proof. This was a whole generation of kids we were failing to educate. Not based on their intelligence, or even their race, but on their neighborhoods. The affects of red-lining from forty years earlier was still affecting these kids. It's all tied together with white flight to the suburbs, suburban sprawl, decline of public transportation, increased gasoline needs, McMansions, inner city poverty...It's not that middle class whites need to move back to poor neighborhoods to "save" people, but that this mess was created by bankers, mortgage lenders, real estate agents playing to people's worst fears. I don't know the solution, but it's not going to undo itself by telling people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. It's still a civil rights issue. Aside from the recent economic problems, the biggest political issue for me is support for our nations' cities. It's tied in with fixing education, using infrastructure we already have, and tearing down both racial and economic segregation.

I agree with most of Obama's politics. But for me, the clincher is his experience in Chicago as a community organizer. Even as a campaigner, he's got the ability to organize all these volunteers into a lean operation, focusing their energy. I can't wait to see what good he can do with the whole country if we are smart enough to elect him.

I grew up in Philadelphia, and it seemed that a lot of people there understood that the issues of race, poverty, jobs, etc. were moral issues and more important than people's sex lives. It's different in Missouri, and that's been hard getting used to. I think people here are too far removed from it. Anyway, this is why I support Barack Obama and why Roy and I went to the rally in St. Louis yesterday.

I found out about the rally on Wednesday. The paper said that it was going to take place, but had no details. We weren't sure if it was just a rumor or not. On Friday, we found that it was definite. The gates would open shortly after 10am and the rally would start at noon.

We planned to take the Metrolink down to the Arch grounds. I was afraid the Metrolink trains would be packed with people, so I wanted to get there early. We left home at 8am and walked to the Metrolink station. At the Laclede's Landing stop, there was a guy with a loud speaker explaining where we'd need to go. Roy and I were going to have breakfast first before getting in line, but this was good information.

There was just one entrance to the rally. The Metrolink station was at 2nd and Washington, and everyone would have to walk a block over to Memorial and down another five blocks to Market to get onto the Arch grounds. Googlemaps says this is 0.4 miles. We walked up to the Lumiere Place casino to have breakfast at their buffet and walked back down 2nd Street. It was maybe 9:30am, and the line now went past the Metrolink station.


View Larger Map

We had to walk a few blocks' worth into the park to get to the end of the line, which went out by the parking lot and metrolink station and around Washington to Memorial. People were selling bootleg Obama pins and t-shirts. We chatted with the couple in front of us and the line moved quickly. Once we got past the metal detectors, we followed the corralled pathways down to an open area. The pathways went towards the Arch on the south side, and then turned north a few hundred feet before the Arch. It let us through to an open area. Later on, as more people were let in, I think the north-south running path was used as a barricade. There were a lot of people behind us, but our area never got too crowded.

I've been to an event before at the Arch where the stage was down at Sullivan Boulevard, east of the Arch and right by the river, and the steps leading up to Arch formed a natural amphitheater. People could sit on the steps and have a tiered view of the concert. I hoped this would be the case this time, so there'd be a better view of Obama. Not this time. The stage was just on the west of the steps.

At first, we tried to get a spot in the center. Roy mentioned the band playing, and I couldn't even tell there were people on a stage. We settled on a spot on the far north side of the closed-in area. There was a fenced off pathway in front of us, so I wasn't surrounded by people taller than me. We had a side view of the band. I was able to see everyone speaking in profile. I think we were 100-150 feet away from the stage. I was in the de facto second row of our section, behind the people right up at the fence. We're still trying to figure out who the band was. They played a lot of R&B classics, and people were singing along and dancing during the wait. Roy thinks it was a quite famous band, Earth Wind and Fire, but we missed their introduction and haven't been able to confirm that.

I was chatting with the woman next to me, who had her daughter with her, a little girl who looked to be two or three years old. The girl looked bored, and I tried to amuse her, watching her making faces and copying them back. The loud speaker played songs like Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" and U2's "It's a Beautiful Day". It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 60s. I brought a jacket, but didn't need it. When the breeze died down, it got kind of warm. Volunteers were passing out free bottled water, for which I was grateful. I even got a little sunburn.

I remember looking back at the crowd behind me. At some point, the organizers must have closed down the one-person-at-a-time metal detectors and the narrow pathways. We just saw huge amounts of people walking down the center of the park. I don't know how far back they went, but it was just a sea of people behind us.

I read that the rally was supposed to start at noon, but the program began around 11. There was a whole array of speakers. I don't remember who went on first, but it was:

Robin Carnahan, the secretary of state of Missouri, talking to the first time voters in the crowd and telling them what to expect
Niko Smith, the American Idol guy, singing the National Anthem. I've never watched American Idol, but I guess I've seen one of them now
Lacy Clay, a congressman in the St. Louis area
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic track star
Russ Carnhan, another congressman
Jay Nixon, Missouri attorney general running for governor
Francis Slay, mayor of St. Louis, who got booed
Claire McCaskill, senator of Missouri, who introduced...

...not Barack Obama, but Keenan Morris. He was introduced as a math teacher from a city charter school. The guy actually did a good job speaking in front of the large crowd. He had a degree in engineering but became a teacher instead. He had to supplement his income by taking a part-time job. I feel guilty when I hear stories like this, that I'm not doing enough. I never did become a math teacher, after my experiences student teaching. I left grad school before getting my certification or MSEd. I did work for the next few years as a tutor, working one-on-one with students to help them outside of their classrooms. I got so much out of helping students. I took a corporate job when I moved to Missouri and I feel like I should continue to volunteer. But my time off work is so filled up with cooking and exercise to try to keep healthy and lose weight. Even cutting back on the exercise to take some evening classes affected my weight. I can't see making a long commitment right now.

The math teacher finished his talk. My 100,000 new friends and I started chanting for Obama. It was such a relief to talk to new people and to know you're on the same page politically. Not that we all agree on everything, but we agree on what matters most to us. It made for a friendly crowd.

Barack Obama came to the stage looking casual. He was wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a tie. Most of the people before him had been wearing suits. His speech contained a lot of talking points I'd already heard on the debates or in commercials, but it was electrifying to hear it in a setting like this. Being able to cheer and hear all these people cheering with me. I don't feel like such an outsider in Missouri anymore.



Obama's speech focused on the middle class, how he's going to lower taxes for people like teachers, health care, housing, education, and college. He also spoke about folksy stuff like a diner not having sweet potato pie that made him seem a little more approachable. The crux of the speech was this message: "Because if we’ve learned anything from this economic crisis, it’s that we’re all connected; we’re all in this together; and we will rise or fall as one nation – as one people." I couldn't agree more.

I knew there was a large crowd in attendance, but I didn't realize yet that it was the biggest for Obama. I am so proud of St. Louis for that. I think a lot had to do with the fact that it was on a Saturday during the day, the weather was so nice, and it was a convenient location. But it mostly had to do with Barack Obama's message. I feel like I was a part of history.

After the rally, we walked back to the Metrolink station. There was a long line, easily an hour before we'd get on a train. I joked to Roy that it was only a 7 mile walk home. We decided to have lunch downtown and take the train afterwards. The restaurants in Laclede's Landing were already packed, but we walked downtown and found a hotel restaurant on Washington. We caught the train home after that. It was the Shrewsbury line, which doesn't stop at Delmar. But we live close to both lines, it would still be about a mile walk home afterwards. We got home around 4pm. I didn't think we'd be away from home for eight hours for this rally. We still had the David Byrne concert at the Fox Theater that night, so we both decided to take a nap. I didn't want to be exhausted for the night's concert.

Comedian Steven Wright

Steven Wright
Lumiere Theater at Lumiere Place
St. Louis, MO
Friday, October 17, 2008
General Admission
$22.50

I've always liked Steven Wright, ever since a teacher showed a video of him in high school. I don't see many comedians live, but Roy and I decided to go a few days beforehand. This was also my first time going to the new Lumiere Place casino. We had dinner at the Burger Bar there.

Wright was funny. He's famous for deadpan one-liners like "If Miles Davis were in Europe, would people call him Kilometers?" I talked to Roy about it after the show, and we were both feeling that even though the one-liners kept us laughing, we were worried it would get boring. Wisely, Wright broke up the one-liners with some humorous songs. My favorite thing of the night was Wright playing a song on guitar that he said he wrote when he was three. It was the kitten song.



I'm still giggling over it. Here kitty, here kitty. I told Roy that the musical segment is why I had to include this show in my blog, even though it's not strictly a concert.

The show lasted an hour and a half, which was a good length for a one-man comedy performance. We both laughed a lot.

Lindsey Buckingham

Lindsey Buckingham
The Pageant
St. Louis, MO
Monday September 29, 2008
Section Balcony-Right, Row A, Seat 10
$36.50

I'm using this entry as a place-holder. I plan on writing more about the show in the future.

This was Roy's and my second time seeing Lindsey Buckingham in a solo performance. His strength is his arrangements, all of the songs come across fully realized with nice harmonies. Roy described the performance as honest. To me, the vibe of the show was not what you'd imagine seeing someone who was a rock star for the past 30 years. It was more like Buckingham was a journeyman singer-songwriter still trying to make it and get recognition. Even he called his solo material "more to the left" than his work with Fleetwood Mac and he expressed amazement that the record company wanted to release a single from his new album.

From our seats, we were on the balcony, way over to the right. I could see the front-line musicians well, but I couldn't see the drummer at all. During the introductions, I was surprised to find out the drummer was percussionist Walfredo Reyes Jr. whom I had previously seen on the Traffic reunion tour in 1994. He also played on one of my favorite albums of the 2000s, Steve Winwood's About Time.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Robert Plant and the Queen of Everything

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
Fox Theatre
St. Louis, MO
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Box T, Table 1, Seat 1
$55

I've always liked Led Zeppelin, and I've managed to see Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in concert over the years. Never got around to seeing Robert Plant. I was intrigued when he did an album with Alison Krauss and moreso when he put off touring with a reunited Led Zeppelin so he could tour with her. Roy and I were so happy that they booked a date for the Fox Theater in St. Louis. This is a show I'd like to see. It's not a style of music I really love - I'm going to sound uneducated here and describe it as "old-timey" - but it was a chance to see a musical legend doing something he is clearly happy about in a nice venue. And I enjoyed seeing Alison Krauss last year at the Crossroads Guitar Festival too. We bought their album Raising Sand, so we'd be familiar with the material.

The concert was originally supposed to take place on Thursday, June 19th. It was postponed until September. It was really a bad night for me to be going to a concert. At work, we were having a week long conference. The day of the show, a coworker and I were giving presentations lasting almost the whole day. I figured I'd be exhausted and just want to crawl into bed afterwards to recover. If I had to go to a concert, I'd want something loud and upbeat. I was worried I wouldn't be in the right mood for this performance.

The company I work for owns one of the corporate boxes at the Fox. It's an employee perk that we're allowed to buy tickets for it at the same price as general orchestra seats. The box holds eight people, and I called our recreation office early enough to reserve seats for Roy and me. The boxes are in their own level, just underneath the mezzanine. Having tickets in the Fox Club Box Seats also opens up other Fox Club amenities. We were able to have dinner in the Fox Club Dining Room, great food in a setting that overlooks the lobby.

The box seats have waiter service, so theoretically, I wouldn't have to face the crowds in the lobby. However, I wanted to buy a program. It was really nice, a hard bound book, even though it cost $40. While I was waiting in line, the guy in front of me told me I looked like I didn't want to be there. It had been am upsetting day at work, and it still showed on my face. I chatted with him a bit, no, I really did want to be there, I promise. He and his brother had driven in from Iowa for the show. I think he was expecting a lot of Led Zeppelin material, I wonder what he thought of the show. I still wondered if I were in the right mood for it.


I shouldn't have worried. The show was captivating.

The opening act was a singer named Sharon Little. We liked the set well enough, but I was anxious to hear the headliners.

The pacing of the show worked really well. Plant and Krauss started out sharing vocals on their first song. They did a few songs like this, including a quite reworked Black Dog. Then, they each did some songs with solo vocals.

Robert Plant was a great frontman. He was entertaining, witty, charismatic and regal. He started out by apologizing to the audience for the delayed show, "so sorry, so very Englishly sorry" and described his singing partner Alison Krauss as "the Queen of Everything". I thought his voice sounded great, but he was mostly singing at the lower end of his register.

I wish our seats were close enough to really see both Plant and Krauss. I don't usually like dealing with binoculars at concerts, but I would have liked them for this one. I thought about buying a pair at the Fox, but they were selling cheap plastic ones. The vendor told me to look through them before buying, and it was blurry. Maybe I should buy a pair for the future.

As I mentioned before, the album Plant and Krauss did together, Raising Sand, isn't a style of music I know much about. It was produced by T-Bone Burnett, and like some of his other work, consists of songs with a pre-rock era Americana feel. One of the songs is from the Everly Brothers.

There were three highlights for me, all in a row. They really packed a punch. First was a song that Alison Krauss started singing a capella. For the second verse, Plant and some of the other musicians came back on stage to sing harmony vocals. It sounded beautiful!

Next, Plant announced they were going to do a Townes Van Zandt song. The song started off slow but built with intensity as it went on. I suddenly realized that this "old timey" backing band was playing with the intensity of Led Zeppelin. It felt so natural as the song progressed.

The third song that got to me was the Battle of Evermore. I had read that they were going to play this one, and it seemed like a great idea. The original version had Sandy Denny on vocals, and Alison Krauss certainly has the voice to pull it off. It's definitely the lighter side of Led Zeppelin and it fit in well with the rest of the material without being reworked. Hearing it just gave me tingles.

The concert put me mentally in a much better place. I needed it, because I got home after 11, and had to be at work the next day at 7 for another day of the conference.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Lord of the Rings Symphony

Lord of the Rings Symphony
Ludwig Wicki, conductor
Powell Hall
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Dress Circle Box X, Seat 3
$65

Roy is a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings story. He has the books in the trilogy, other books Tolkien wrote about Middle Earth, books about the series, the radio series, the DVDs, the special edition DVDs. It was a no-brainer that we'd see the score performed live by the St. Louis Symphony. Me? I liked the movies well enough, but never got past reading The Hobbit. It was kind of exciting to be heading to Powell Hall. This was my first time there, even though I've lived in St. Louis for eight years now. I guess I'm not as cultured as I think.

We got lucky with the tickets. Our seats were in the Dress Circle level, which is the equivalent of front row balcony. It provided an excellent view of all the musicians. Wonderful sound as well. The seats in this section were real chairs too, with lots of leg room and elbow room. Very comfortable.

I had some reservations about this performance coming into it. A movie score is designed to fit what's being shown on screen. Something that's a great score might not work well on its own. And the three movies combined are something like twelve hours long. Different bits of the score were put together to make up this two hour program. They would be showing visuals along with the music, but I still wondered if I'd get bored.

It was such a spectacle. In addition to the orchestra, there was a boys' choir, a choir of adults, solo vocalists. The program notes list well over 100 people. The visuals were illustrations by artists Alan Lee and John Howe.

I'm going to sound so unrefined here, but I got bored. The music was supposed to follow the order of the books, and the artwork was supposed to help. I couldn't follow it at all after the beginning section. Maybe I don't know the story well enough. The artwork was often too abstract for me to follow - pictures of individual characters rather than scenes. I liked the second half better than the first. I really liked the featured vocal soloists. Kaitlyn Lusk, the featured soprano, had a beautiful voice and the boy soprano did a good job too.

Everyone else in the theater loved it, and gave it a long standing ovation. I wasn't disappointed; I figured I wouldn't get much out of two hours of scenery music, no matter how well executed it was. It was a nice evening to get dressed up and go to a fancy venue and nice for Roy to get to add another LOTR event to his fan experience.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

ProgDay 2008 Day 2

ProgDay Day 2
Storybook Farm
Chatham County (Chapel Hill), NC
Sunday, August 31, 2008
General Admission

The first day of ProgDay this year had been alright, you know, it was good to see everyone and be at Storybook Farm again, none of the bands really excited me live. Day 2 however, was one of my all-time favorite festival days.

The day started out well. It was Roy's and my sixth anniversary. We actually got married at ProgDay in 2002, so our anniversary falls on or near the festival. People come up to us all weekend to wish us a happy anniversary. It's sweet. Anyway, we went to Foster's Market for a nice breakfast and then we drove down to Storybook Farm.

We set our chairs up in the second row of people. We were in the sun at first, but after noon, the sun shifted and we'd be in the shade for most of the day. This day's lineup was different than usual. There were five bands playing, and some bands were playing very short sets - less than an hour.

The first band, Cheer Accident, was great for a festival. They had so many different sounds, from more traditional songs to noise, that never got same-y sounding. They were interesting to watch too, with a lot of visual elements too. At one point a band member who wasn't playing on a particular song did a goofy dance on stage to the music. They looked like they were having fun, and they kept my interest the whole time. At first, I was worried the morning ProgDay crowd was too sedate for them. Then at the end of one song, they stopped playing but one note still lingered on. After the note died down, we all applauded. I hoped they could tell that we were really *listening*.

The next band Pinnacle, I didn't know anything about. They were one of the bands with a 45 minute slot. They were one of the big surprises of the festival for me. Nothing hugely special, but they were a power trio with vocals and harmonies. The bass player played upfront melodic lines, and that reminded me of Yes. I like things that remind me of Yes. They played with a lot of enthusiasm. It was a nice change of pace from some of the heavier or more experimental bands. I'm sure the short set helped, because I never felt like they wore out their welcome. They got to do an encore, and it was a cover of Peter Gabriel's Here Comes the Flood.

I grabbed lunch after Pinnacle's set. The next band was Canvas Solaris, a prog metal band. This type of music normally leaves me cold, but their MP3 samples showed some dynamics to their sound. I was sitting under the pavilion chatting with Richard and Mike, and they both left to watch the band, so I did too. This was the one band that day that didn't too much for me. The band's speed and heaviness just made it easier for me to zone out. I think I sat there by the stage for their entire set, but I wasn't really paying attention. Their set was also just 45 minutes, at their request. I heard different stories, that that's all the music they had prepared or that they notice the audience starting to zone out around then.

The next band was one I was really looking forward to, Mirthandir. I should explain that when I started going to festivals, Roy would buy CDs from all the bands' playing and I'd listen to those. Now, I'm not keeping up with the scene and I've gotten lazy. I might not even listen to MP3 samples beforehand, but Roy knows my tastes. If he tells me he thinks I'll like a particular band, he's usually right. Mirthrandir was a real 1970s symphonic progressive rock band that recorded an album that Roy considers a lost classic. He also said they'd remind me of Yes. That's always a good thing. Just before they started, it started to ever so lightly rain. I went to the car and got my raincoat this time.

I thought Mirthrandir were great. The thing that reminded me of Yes was their rhythms. Too many American bands seem to use a regular blues based backing to their music, but Mirthrandir's rhythms just skipped along. I'll mercilessly tease bands if I think they're influenced too much by Yes (like, when I can recognize what song they're trying to copy) but little parts like what Mirthrandir did made me happy. I thought they were a band that could have had a hit like Roundabout - something that found a mass audience but still was true to their sound. We recognized one guy in the band as having played ProgDay last year with the band Advent.

And then, here comes the flood. About halfway through their set, it started to rain. I have this cute little rainhat with a brim to keep water off my face and glasses. I use that at outdoor concerts. I put it on and my raincoat as well. Like the day before, most people moved undercover, either back to their tents or to the pavilion. Roadies covered the speakers and monitors with tarps. Sitting out there, you almost don't notice how much heavier the rain is getting. It wasn't until I looked through the stage to the back side of it and saw the rain coming down hard there.

There were only about six people left sitting in the audience in front of the band. The atmosphere got this epic quality to it, as if we were die-hard fans willing to whatever it takes for this band. And the band too, for playing through the distractions of the audience running to take shelter and the roadies moving around on stage. It was a special moment and it elevated the excitement level of sitting there and getting soaked.

Here's a picture that Debbie Sears took of the band. You almost can't see me. I'm wearing a black raincoat, sitting in a pink chair on the left. Roy's next to me with his umbrella up. Just this little group of people staying close by the stage.


During one song, we heard some thunder. Now a rainstorm, ProgDay can handle, but you don't want to play around with lightning. One of the stagehands came out and had the band stop in the middle of a song. Quite a few people bring their laptops to ProgDay and blog throughout the day. They asked if someone could check the weather reports to see if a thunderstorm was moving in. It looked like we were safe, so Mirthrandir continued. They picked up their song right where they had to stop it before.

After their performance, I went to the pavilion to get out of the rain. Bought a snack to tide me over to dinner. One thing I didn't do was move my chair out of the rain, or at least turn it over. A big pool of water was in my seat. Even though the rain eventually stopped and I tried to dry it off first, I got soaked all the way through.

The final band was Secret Oyster, another band from the 1970s that broke up a long time ago and recently reunited. They were a jazz fusion band, and were even on a major record label. The experience showed. Their polish, stage presence, presentation of music, it was all miles ahead of any other band at the festival this year. But it was fun and sincere too and the music was just wonderful. It was one of the strongest performances at a festival that I've seen. They actually go called back fo a second encore - some of the band members had already wandered away from the stage and had to come back to play some more.

I think I'm going to call Mirthrandir my favorite band at the festival this year, and Secret Oyster second. The festival ended with Steve Sly, the organizer, coming up and giving credits to all the volunteers who made ProgDay happen this year. Then, at the very end, Geoff Lodgson, one of the stagehands, came to the microphone to wish Roy and me a happy anniversary. A group of people behind us applauded. I'm not even sure who they all were, but it's so nice to be a part of this community.

I never really want the festival to end. After the show, Gerhard came over. He wanted to introduce us to his new girlfriend. A group of us stayed around and chatted for over an hour. We ended up not going out to dinner with anyone else, but Roy pointed out later that this was very similar. A group of friends catching up with a low key conversation. It's just what we would be doing waiting for the food to come. It's just nice to have this time together.

Roy and I went back to the hotel. By this point, we both wanted dinner quickly. There's an Outback in the hotel parking lot, so that was it. Roy got there first, in case there was a wait, and I went to the hotel room to put on some warm dry clothing. There's a big party by the hotel pool every year. I'm not much of a party person, but we checked in when we got back from dinner. It was still small and low-key and we knew everyone, so we hung out a while and talked. Once more people came, between the smoke and too many conversations going on at once, we said our goodbyes and went up to our room. That was the end of another fun ProgDay.

ProgDay 2008 Day 1

ProgDay Day 1
Storybook Farm
Chatham County (Chapel Hill), NC
Saturday, August 30, 2008
General Admission
Patron Pass: $140

Welcome to my review of ProgDay, otherwise known as the 12th edition of Rhea versus the heat. I wrote up my general thoughts on ProgDay here last year and why it's so special among all the various progressive rock festivals.


Roy and I flew into Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon. We met another ProgDay person just as we were checking into the hotel. Mike was from the band Kinetic Element and was playing at the preshow that night. We chatted for a bit and he hoped we would go to the Local 506 for the preshow. We hadn't decided yet, but on the whole, I don't like going to preshows. It can make for a late night, and I like being refreshed for the festival itself. Plus, I like this area and there are better things to do than hang out in a smoky club. We ended up going to downtown Chapel Hill for dinner and looking around at the shops. Ironically, we walked right past the Local 506, but we were back at the hotel by the time the bands started.

On Saturday morning, we had breakfast and headed off to Storybook Farm. This is the first time in years that I didn't volunteer for any shifts. I like doing the early morning gate duty, talking to everyone as they arrive. Everyone's always so excited. I wanted to see the opening bands each day this time, so I took the year off. We did buy Patron passes to help out the fest. I always buy my ProgDay tickets right when they go on sale. Having low numbers on my tickets doesn't really mean anything. But Debbie needed to check off what tickets we were and it was fun to yell out that we were #1 and 2.

Roy and I set up our chairs in our usual spot, about ten feet from the stage. It was overcast, so it didn't feel too hot. Von Frickle were the first band. They are an instrumental band, with two guitarists, bassist, and drummer. What was far more exotic was how the looked. All four of them were dressed in white jumpsuits, with white head coverings and white masks. Roy called them "The White Man Group". Some people I talked to afterwards commented that the costumes pushed them to focus more on the music, since they couldn't watch the performer's facial expressions. I was the opposite; I watched for any bit of individuality like small hand gestures. The band had a good mix of sounds, some of the heavier bits were broken up by some more melodic stuff. I swear I heard a little of King Crimson's Vrooom being quoted. I enjoyed their set, but I had had enough after the first hour. Their set lasted about 90 minutes, and I was ready for them to be over.



I spent some time at ProgDay seeing how everyone else experiences the festival. Since Roy and I fly there, we can't bring along a tent and cooler. I wonder what it would be like to spend the whole festival sitting further back, always in the shade and comfortable, but with more distractions. Is the music more of a background to the whole festival atmosphere? I prefer to sit closer and really focus on the bands when I want to, and then escape to the shade when I need a break. Even getting our chairs was kind of ridiculous for us this year - it was actually cheaper to buy new collapsible lawn chairs at Kroger than to bring our own. The new ones were 2 for $10 and we would have had to check ours in for $15 each way on our flight. It seems like a waste to buy new ones when we have perfectly good lawn chairs at home.

I talked to a few friends during the next break. Richard and I talked about Yes, and then a little bit later, Cherry, Fred and I talked about the same thing. I'm writing this so far after the fact that the rumor has been confirmed. But at the time, it was just a rumor that they were going to tour without Jon Anderson, and that they were getting a singer from a tribute band. I have mixed feelings about this. I love the album Drama that they did without Jon, but it was much easier for me to accept an album that came out years before I had become a fan. This is happening now. So much energy at a Yes concert is focused on Jon. I wonder what the vibe would be like without him. I hoped they'd get someone who can really hit his notes, even if the singer doesn't have the same vocal qualities as Jon. I don't blame them at all for wanting to continue. But I won't be going to five shows and paying scalper's prices for tickets like I had planned to for the canceled summer tour.

The next band is one that Roy and I were both looking forward to. Holding Pattern was one of the first bands Roy got into in the early 90s, when he first got on-line and discovered a lot of lesser known or new prog bands. I had only heard their MP3s on the ProgDay website, but I liked it. Holding Pattern was a guitar/bass/drum trio led by the well-regarded guitarist Tony Spada.

Roy and I went back to our chairs to watch this set. It was a getting sunny out, and I didn't feel like dealing with the heat. The roof of the stage provides some shade to the people right in front. There was a "front row" of lawn chairs taking advantage of it. I sat on the grass behind them. The ground was cool, and I was protected by the shade so it was still pleasant sitting outside.

Pleasant is about all I can say for Holding Pattern. Their music sounded nice, but the performance didn't have a lot of energy. Lots of guitar soloing without a lot of structure. When Roy came over and told me he was ready for lunch, I joined him. That's the beauty of ProgDay - we can walk to the covered pavilion and eat and still be able to hear the music.

Next up was Abigail's Ghost, the only band with vocals the whole day. They weren't really proggy; to me they sounded more like modern alternative rock with some keyboards. I've heard them being compared to Porcupine Tree, but they only sounded like Porky's less proggy material. Anyway, it was a good change of pace to hear real songs. I've served on the band committee at ProgDay in the past and I know how hard it is to put a lineup together of bands that people will like and who also will want to play the festival. Still, it seems like traditional symphonic prog and song-based arty rock music haven't gotten enough representation. And, I haven't always enjoyed all their choices in these styles. But Abigail's Ghost was good music, performed with a lot of enthusiasm.

While I was getting lunch, some people moved their chairs to the spot where I had been sitting. I didn't put anything down to hold it. I moved my chair to an open spot in the shade, but further to the side near the speakers. About halfway through Abigail's Ghost's set, I was ready for a break. Storybook Farm has a big line of trees on its western perimeter. As the day goes on, they provide some shade on the lawn near the edge of the field. I went over there, spread my sweatshirt out like a blanket, and lay down on the grass to read and listen to music. And to duck from frisbees.

I was really looking forward to the last band of the day, Ain Soph. Like the rest of the bands that day, I wasn't familiar with their material, but I knew their reputation and Roy thought I'd like them a lot. Descriptions like "Camel-esque" and "Canterbury". I've been struggling with what to say here, part of the reason my blogging is so far behind. I don't want to sound like I didn't enjoy them. I liked Ain Soph's music, but the performance was so laid back. I didn't really connect with them. Roy and I thought maybe our expectations were too high.



Anyway, during Ain Soph's performance, it started to rain. I brought my raincoat with me, but it was in the car. I just threw my sweatshirt around my shoulders and put the hood on. (I had an umbrella, but I used it to keep my stuff dry. Lots of places don't let you open umbrellas because they block the view of the people behind you.) Ain Soph announced their last song. Roy ended up going to the pavilion for shelter from the rain. I didn't really notice how heavy it got until after the performance was over. He brought the car up to the pavilion and we loaded our chairs and other stuff in.

I was thinking at first that Ain Soph had managed to finish their set. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. They had a lengthy encore planned. This was their first show ever in the United States, and I think they had played Baja Prog, so their second in North America. It's too bad they couldn't play a complete set. Honestly, it was just as well for me.

We didn't have plans for dinner with anyone. This is really unusual for ProgDay, but our usual group of friends either didn't come this year or had other plans. Roy and I went to the Japanese Steak Huose by the hotel. We talked to some other people in the lobby whom we recognized from the festival, but we didn't sit at the table with anyone we knew. Still, it was a fun dinner.