Quote:
Originally posted by Rick and Roll
Here's a fan's (me) review of the Rites of Spring festival, held 4/24 & 4/25 in Phoenixville, PA.
The first night was a pre-show at a sports bar(!) down the street. Man on Fire and Frogg Cafe played. I spent the evening drinking with Vaxman and his wife mostly talking about fellow Moonies behind their back (thanks Vax for making the weekend fun). Frogg Cafe had a quirky sound to them and were quite enjoyable. Man on Fire was more straightforward, with a bit of an edge. The rapper, dropping names od every performer for the weekend, was um a bit strange.
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It was a fun evening. I wore my "Quisp" T (same as in my rogue gallery pic) just in case Rick didn't recognize me. Martha (my wife) and I arrived before Frogg Cafe started and grabbed a table. I recognized Rick immediate as he walked through the bar's entrance door. It was, as Rick said, an enjoyable eve. Good music, good company and good beer. (and I didn't even have to twist his arm to drink it)
Saturday and Sunday, Martha and I were accompanied by our son Kris. We arrived a little late and missed about 1/2 hr of Orphan Project. Still, what I caught of their performance was good. Prompted me to add their music to my collection.
IZZ was the great surprize find of the weekend. A spectacular band with great playing talent and compositional talent. I purchased their entire catalog for myself and for the moon. Their CDs will be in the post soon. I hope the moon comes back on line so all can hear this wonderful band.
Martha kept remarking that the bass player, John Galgano, looked familiar. Afterwords, she spoke to him and it turns out that he was at the Marillion Marbles listening party we were invited to in NYC. IZZ was, IIRC, to be one of the support acts at the first Marillion Weekend Conventions in the UK. They couldn't make it. Too bad, I would have discovered them much earlier.
The next band, Alias Eye, wasn't a bad act but didn't really make me sit back and say "Wow!"
They performed well, however, considering the problems that they had. First, the keyboard they brought with them would not work in the setup here in the states. Why? I don't know, they did not elaborate. They borrowed keyboards from one of the other acts but still had problems intermittently throughout their performance. The ROS keyboard tech actually sat on the stage holding cables in the jacks.
Jadis was great. They really rocked the house. I have never seen a performer sweat as profusely as Gary Chandler. He said it was hot on the stage yet Martin Orford (keyboards) sat on stage with a sweatshirt. Go figure. John Jowitt is an amazing bass player.
Patron ticket holders were invited to a party with the bands afterword. Martha, Kris and myself went for a little while but left quite early to make our hour+ trek back home.
Sunday we arrived just as the first number of Sonus Umbra was completing. A rough start after such a late evening and 3 hrs sleep. They were really awesome. They had some fun during the song "Lamprey Man". You'll all see when the pictures are ready.
Little Atlas was another surprise. A good band fronted by a talented keyboard player/songwriter. They hale from Miami and their are certain Miami cultural infuences in the musical composition that I found interesting and refreshing. They have, AFAIK, only one album and they drew from that one for all of their performance.
Salem Hill really rocked the house too. No real surprizes for me as I've heard enough of their music on the moon. Sadly, they are the ONLY band that I managed not to get to autography my ROSfest program.
RPWL... What can I say. When Avian first directed me to the ROSfest web site I saw RPWL listed as the headline. I WAS THERE! I really love this band. Perhaps it's the ontogeny from formerly being a Pink Floyd cover band.
The surround sound system was exploited to it's fullest by RPWL to augment their performance. They pulled material from
God Has Failed,
Trying To Kiss The Son and
Stock.
- Hole In The Sky
- Who Do You THink We Are
- Trying To Kiss The Sun
- Sugar For The Ape
- The Way It Is
- Opel
I took a photograph of Yogi's playlist if you're interested in the full playlist.
As Rick said, they did a few Pink Floyd covers too. An awesome cover of Welcome to the Machine. Really exploiting the surround sound system on this one.
RPWL came back for two encores. The Second time out they did s Pink Floyd medley which was bookended by Cymbaline (from the album More) and was filled with bits from my favorite Pink Floyd, Atom Heart Mother. I was
from ear to ear. That made the eve and their performance so much more endearing.
The only sad part of the whole festival was the low attendance. I doubt that more than 250 seats were sold. The festival was poopooed by the retards that post on rec.music.progressive and probably kept many that might have gone otherwise from attending. They missed one fantastic gig. It was run well with great acts and kept pretty well to the schedule (unlike NEARfest). Will I go next year? You bet! Although I think I might try to stay local instead of commuting. Too much driving; too little sleep.
Kris had a great time. He interfaced with the bands after each show and many of them knew him by name before the event was over. He was the only teenage male in the audience and I'm sure the bands were pleased to see their music was reaching at least one set of younger ears. The little bugger even managed to score a set of signed drum sticks from RPWL.
As usual, I spent WAY TOO MUCH money on CDs, Ts and sundry other items. Another $1K hole in the bank account. Again, well worth it!