Nearfest 2004 (plus The Musical Box) (1 Viewer)

[Michael St. Clair]

Trina,

I have been a Keneally fan for fourteen years and I've managed to see him five times (once after Dust Speck, twice each after Sluggo and Dancing). Keneally plus TMB was too much to pass up so I will be in the car for nine hours each way. I'd fly but my friend preferred driving and I haven't had a good 'road trip' in years. I think Keneally is going to try to get back to the eastern US later this year.

If any HTF members want to get together for a beer Friday or Saturday evening call my cell phone five-one-three four-seven-oh five-five-oh-six after that day's performances.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

The Musical Box was excellent, anyone interested in 'old' Genesis needs to check out this amazing recreation of 1973.

I thought that Hidria Spacefolk, Mike Keneally (duh), and Sean Malone were excellent.

But I found Pallas and Metamorfosi to be absolutely wretched, and Planet X, Yezda Urfa, Richard Pinhas, and Univers Zero were not my cup of tea at all.

As a whole, I felt that the fest was not worth the ticket and travel/boarding expense.

Many people have posted to Usenet with similar opinions to mine regarding most of the bands, and some feel that this fest was not up to par with previous ones.

Next year I will certainly be listening to all of the bands before I decide to buy a ticket.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Michael, sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Planet X. I actually quite like them.

I bought a Pallas CD on a lark once and didn't like it at all- so derivative and cheesy. I have one Univers Zero CD and it's interesting but I don't see myself running out to get more.

I would love to see The Musical Box.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Mike,

Planet X was on the bubble for me. I found them too drum-oriented. I can like music that drives but I find projects like Liquid Tension Experiment to have a better balance. FYI, Planet X has a new guitarist.

As a whole I'm happy about the trip but if it had just been the regular event without the special Musical Box pre-show I would have been disappointed.

Excessive construction on the Penna Turnpike, I-81, and I-83 made the 9+ hour drive absolutely miserable, both ways. That probably didn't help my mood very much.

 

[TheLongshot]

Actually, the detour onto US 22 helped with that a lot, at least with the stuff on I-81. It always seems like that section of interstate is under construction.

Jason

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Yeah, we talked about that a lot.

Univers Zero was minimalist contemporary classical. They could play at my local music college and nobody would ever consider labeling them prog. Just not my thing.

My friend and I were discussing in the car yesterday that maybe we aren't really 'prog' fans, at least not what the typical Nearfest attendee would consider a prog fan.

As far as overlap, we both like

(old) Genesis
(old and new) King Crimson
Spock's Beard
Porcupine Tree
Kevin Gilbert
Ozric Tentacles
Bill Laswell

 

[Mike Broadman]

From what you guys are saying and what I read about these bands, I probably would have agreed with a lot of it.

Last year was the only one I went to. I liked some of it (The Flower Kings, a band I still love, and Magma, who for some reason were so awesome) and didn't like other stuff (Glass Hammer, a band I probably would have liked 5 years ago).

I'm definitely less interested in PROG, per say, these days.