Storybook Farm
Chatham County (Chapel Hill), NC
Saturday, September 5, 2009
General Admission
Patron Pass: $140
I've been having trouble getting started writing about ProgDay this year. It's always been my favorite of the progressive rock festivals. This year, it was surrounded by more high profile shows. The festival itself seemed to go by so quickly. I enjoyed it, but it didn't have as much impact.
ProgDay weekend was the beginning of a wild trip for Roy. After the festival, I'd be going back home, but Roy would fly to New York to see some days of the US Open tennis tournament. A week after the start of this trip, we'd rendezvous in Montreal for the FMPM festival.
This is my 13th year in a row coming to ProgDay. A few years ago, I wrote my general thoughts about the festival here. The outdoor location makes it feel like a big family picnic, and Roy and I always enjoy visiting the Chapel Hill area. Being outdoors in the South in the summer can be uncomfortable. This was the best weather sustained throughout the whole weekend the festival has ever had.
Roy and I arrived on Friday morning. This is the last time we'll be flying non-stop to the Raleigh Durham airport - American Airlines is going to drop this route and there will be no more direct flights. There was a pre-show concert with some bands playing on Friday, but we usually skip that. It goes on late and we'd rather be refreshed for the actual event. We did go to another local event on Friday evening, the Paperhand Puppet Intervention performance of "The Living Sea of Memory". It was geared towards families and ended before the preshow even began.
My big reaction to ProgDay this year was, wow that went by quick. I think it might be a function of two variables. The way we perceive time is relative. It was so pleasant outside, in the 80s with low humidity, that it never dragged. I wonder if sitting out there in the heat in previous years made it feel longer than it would otherwise. The other possibility is that we didn't do as much socializing. Roy and I have a group of friends who we used to hang out with at every festival. Everyone's cut back a bit, and the last time we were all together was at our wedding. This time, none of our group from out of the area came, and even Gerhard who lives nearby wasn't there. Roy and I went out to dinner by ourselves each night. Our friend Chris from Ohio didn't tell us he was coming and surprised us in the hotel lobby.
I enjoyed the opening band Brave. Along with the two headliners, they were my favorites of the festival. Brave was described to me as a prog-metal band, but with flutes and a woman singer with a great voice, they had a lot more to their sound than a typical metal band. Good songs too. Roy bought one of their CDs after their performance.
I'm going to skip over some of the other bands to talk about the Saturday headliner La Maschera di Cera. My favorite all-time performance at a prog festival was Finisterre's in 1997. It's not just that the music was awesome and the presentation was so enthusiastic, so perfect. It was the response they got from the audience. I remember people not just standing up to applaud, but grabbing their lawn chairs and holding them up as a way to show our appreciation. Roy remembers people just hugging afterward, that we witnessed something so special. We saw Finisterre again at Baja Prog in 2001, but it was missing that spark. Maybe it was the surprise of how good they were, how young they were, or maybe it was the atmosphere. I know a number of people who, like me, first came to ProgDay in 1997 and keep coming back every year. This performance is a big reason why.
Finisterre broke up, but bassist Fabio Zuffanti is still active in progressive rock. He plays bass in La Maschera. This would be his return to Storybook Farm. we saw this band at Nearfest a few years ago, and it was solid, but nothing spectacular. Roy and I visited La Maschera's table and bought a few CDs. One was a Finisterre CD from 2004 that we never knew about. I was surprised at how much older Fabio looked. His mustache and goatee were grey. We guessed he was about 40 now. The band seemed so young, close to my age, back in 1997. You wonder if the Finisterre show was as special to the band as it was to the audience. They did release it as a live album.
There's something about ProgDay and this venue that makes bands sound better. I've seen a number of bands here that I've also seen at other prog festivals, and I almost always enjoy it more here. The mix is always clear, it's a relaxed atmosphere, we're all spread out in our tents and lawn chairs. It's possible to sit right by the stage for bands you want to see up close. I liked La Maschera better this time around.
Fabio was one of the frontmen in Finisterre, but in La Maschera, he just plays bass and sings backing vocals. But he took the microphone during the set. He wanted to commemorate the last time he was here at ProgDay, playing that legendary show with Finisterre. La Maschera plays original music, but for this one performance, they were going to play a Finisterre song. The singer joked that they were going to become a Finisterre cover band. Ironically, they played a song off the 2004 Finisterre album that Roy and I weren't familiar with, and not a song that was actually performed in 1997. But it was nice to see that recognition, to see that it was still special to the musicians after all these years.
