I wanted to share with you all a few words on how this festival came together, some of my personal experiences at the festival, a few words on the business, some thoughts on the festival itself, and most of all a huge thanks to all that were involved. This is a LONG read, and I really don’t have any way to organize this other than a chronological stream-of-consciousness. This is WAY overdue, and I apologize for not doing this earlier. I am writing this with a lot of different hats—as a fan to the bands, as a festival organizer/businessperson, and as a friend to many of the people here. These perspectives are indelibly intertwined, so this diatribe encapsulates every angle.
THE BUILD-UP
After last years festival, I had some serious contemplation to do—The festival was a tremendous success from the experience delivered to the fans, and the bands. I had the chance to put together my dream lineup with bands whose music emotionally resonated with me, but also with my cohorts Eric and Bear. However, from a financial perspective, it was an utter disaster. I had taken 4 months off in between jobs to do this festival, and build something that I could do as a business supplementing my work doing festivals and shows periodically in the San Francisco area. I made a lot of the mistakes that probably anybody approaching the music business after being a music fan for nearly 30 years would do- I vastly overestimated the draw of the bands based on my personal taste, and underestimated the expense factor associated with running a huge production like this. As a result, I lost a massive sum of money with the first festival.
After the festival, I started a new job. This lasted for about 4 months, and I was out of work again. Starting in October, I began to weigh out the options for the festival for 2008. Obviously, I could not afford to lose money in the 2nd year of the festival for my own sanity. I also felt that I had to increase my appeal beyond the same 5000-10000 people in the US whose top 10 albums are an intersection of progressive and power metal from Savatage, Dream Theater, Helloween, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Spocks Beard, Stratovarius etc.. In order for a festival like this to be successful, you have to build off your local base and tastes in your individual area, and supplement this with some of the international acts. Obviously the Bay Area has mirrored many other major metropolitan areas with a steady decline in attendance for metal shows—Anything that is indie rock will do well here, but other than the local bands like Testament, Y&T etc- there is not much of a following for metal.
In order to truly approach this, I had decided to work on some of the bigger bands and national acts that were coming through town. I had built a good relationship with Another Planet Entertainment who is trying to expand their business in the Bay Area through both one-off shows in venues like the Greek, traditional venues like the Paramount in Oakland, but most importantly through festivals like the Treasure Island Music Festival and the Outside Lands festival with Tom Petty and Radiohead in Golden Gate Park.
I started trying to bring in some national acts to the Bay Area by working with some of the booking agents to try to pull in some national and international bands either through the Bay Area for a one-off show, or hopefully for my actual festival. There was a big gap in the metal scene that I thought I could exploit.. The Pound had closed, and only Slims was doing metal shows here and there.
THE BANDS
By mid- January, I had decided that all of my efforts in this department were for naught- I found another job that I was interested in, and I had flown to LA for my first in-person interview with the founder of the company. I was laying in bed at my hotel on the Sunset Strip mentally preparing for the interview, when I checked my email, and saw that Mike Portnoy had sent me an email wanting to know if I wanted to do a show with Liquid Tension Experiment. I had to quickly say yes, finish my interview, and begin plans for the next festival! Game on! I was able to also work it out to co-promote the Dream Theater/Progressive Nation show along with Another Planet.
After I had things wrapped up with LTE, I needed to fill up Saturday night with the dream prog metal lineup. Zero Hour was a no-brainer- They were not going to play many shows this year because of Troy’s bout with tendinitis, but for MANY reasons, I felt they deserved to have this opportunity. We had been talking to Sun Caged for a while because we all loved their music, they had never been to the US, and they were good buds with Zero Hour. The deal was sealed when Chris Welcher, guitarist extraordinare from Timeline agreed to sponsor them, but also loan Marcel his Marcel Coenen signature guitar so he would not have to bring his equipment through customs.
The next question I had to decide was whether I wanted to do a 2 day festival, or just merely concentrate on a 1 day show that would be an easy success. I opted to go for the more complicated route and began in earnest to find the 2nd headliner. This was an issue—I couldn’t find anyone with the right timing with several bands that I had been talking to. Since the festival was June 27th and 28th, it was REALLY hard to compete with the European festival scene. I went after a lot of the European bands with the help of a great sponsor- Abby Alfulaij, but was unable to nail anything down.
After some careful consideration, I decided on Jeff Scott Soto. I had never seen him live, but had followed virtually every phase of his music—Talisman, Takara, Yngwie, Queen tributes, Soul Sirkus, Journey etc.. I had heard lots of good things about him as a performer and a person, and figured he would be perfect for this festival. He intersects many of the musical boundaries, but is yet in a style of his own—metal, funk, epic, melodic rock – even, god forbid- disco!! We billed this night as JSS and friends, figuring that his impressive catalogue, recent Journey stint, plus the Y&T and Eric Martin guest appearances plus the festival could really help draw out the crowd.
Now that Jeff was finalized, I wanted to fill out the lineup that could help complement him.. I had been talking to Erik Norlander for about a year since he and Lana had moved up to the Sierra Foothills (that’s in between Sacramento and Tahoe for those of you out of the area), and the timing had never worked out for us to do something together- Rocket Scientists plus Lane as a guest crossed that bridge between prog/melodic/symphonic that I felt would be perfect. Enchant was also a no-brainer.. As many of you know, they hold a special place in my heart, and are everything this festival is about—the intersection of progressive, melodic, and just pure EMOTIONAL music- I felt that they would bridge the gap between Rocket Scientists and JSS.
One more to go for Friday night—About 4 years ago, I had picked up an album called the End of the Beginning from Concerto Moon when I had ordered a bunch of CD’s from a mail order retailer. The CD always stuck in my head as a mystery—you could kind of half understand the lyrics, but Norifumi’s guitar tone was memorable. As I have stated before, I really wanted to focus on bands from the Pacific Rim to the Bay Area to provide a differentiation in my festival.Eric and I had started discussions with them back in the fall, but found it very difficult to break the language barrier, and find the right contacts for the band. Coincidentally, they had a member of their parent company who was located in San Jose, so we were able to put together a deal fairly quickly.
Now—I was down to one band—There was a massive drop- ie, an anomaly in the European airfares to the US. For some bizarre reason, it was cheaper to fly from London to SFO than it was to fly from JFK to SFO. With the increase in fuel costs, and homeland security costs assessed to the airfares, it made absolutely no sense.
I started talking to several European bands that had been on my list before- nothing was working. I was looking at the Nightmare roster—Lance and I have had many conversations over the past few years, and I completely respect his musical talents and business acumen. I wanted to have one of his bands on the bill if possible. Bear had been bugging me to listen to a new band called Darkwater that Lance had posted on our forum about. I got a copy of the CD, and burned it on my new work laptop. On a business trip to Portland, I found myself with a dead IPod, and only one album to listen to – Darkwater- Calling the Earth to Witness—I was blown away with the complexity of the music, the melodic sensibility, and the chugging riffs. It reminded me of Circus Maximus in their ability to breach the gap of progressive/instrumental music with something that you could hum as well—plus some metaphorically positive lyrics—I was sold.. Now as I compile this document, I find myself in a similar situation—I am down to one CD on my computer after my I-Pod has bitten the dust!! Lineup set!!
THE FESTIVAL
The festival started off on Thursday night with all the bands arrived at the Tomo hotel in Japantown. This former Best Western Hotel was remodeled with all the great J-Pop images and a spartan style that im sure is reminiscent of the hotels in Japan. The irony of it all was that the only band that was NOT staying at the hotel was Concerto Moon!!
We had dinner at a good local Italian joint in North Beach that we took all the bands last year—we had Concerto Moon with their translator, Darkwater, Sun Caged, JSS, Lana and Erik, as well as a lot of the entire crew.. My evil twin Howie Simon, was responsible for my initial descent into stupidity through a few shots of Wild Turkey 101. Eric and I had a great conversation with Concerto Moon through their translator—They had brought an advance copy of their CD for us, as well as Tshirts and a copy of their box set!
I enjoyed visiting with all the different bands at the festival, and sharing with them what their music means to all of us, why they are here, and getting to know them – it is hard when the festival kicks off to spend that much time with people.. One of the bands joked that watching me was like a wedding where the bride and groom visit with every table and never sit down-
After we left the restaurant, I wound up with Dave and Howie from JSS’s band hitting a few bars in North Beach as well as close to the hotel- After a few too many drinks with my evil twins, I made it back to the hotel and rose to face the new day in a few short hours.
After waking up at 8AM with a few hours of work calls, I downed a couple of hot dogs for breakfast and made it to the venue for setup. Eric, Bear and the crew did an awesome job getting everything together- all the soundchecks went very smooth this year.
I am going to say a few things about the sets—I missed a lot of the show due to other things- I will let other people comment in more detail on the sets.
Doors were at 6:30, and I was very pleased to see quite a few people through the door for Concerto Moon up front. I was worried about how their set was going to be received by the fans- For those of you who don’t listen to their music, they sing the verses in Japanese, but the choruses in English. I thought they went over very well—they were incredibly energetic, and the crowd responded well to them even in the awkward moments of them reading their in-between song banter off of a cue card. Norifumi is a maestro, and their new album shows that they are the best Japanese metal band of all time—
Now for the Rocket Scientists- Erik and the gang came out and in a funny aside Erik commented “Now I know the Japanese word for rock and roll- “Concerto Moon”! The crowd loved it. Their set was a good mix of prog with a few twists.. I was really pleased that the crowd seemed to be in to it—It was hard to follow a heavy set like that, but they did an exceptional job—Don Schiff is the original stick god—I want to see him to a jam w/ Tony Levin!! I got to understand the element that Mark McCrite also brings to the band—his melodic sensibilities accentuate the prog element of this music. Finally, for the last few songs Lana came out and sang a few songs with the guys—her voice live transcends the Ann Wilson-esque phrasings that I typically hear on her album—a real treat!!
Enchant came out and delivered their usual stellar set—they had not played since last years show, so it was fun to watch them deliver some new surprises in their set—My Everafter was played for the first time—Unfortunately we ran out of time, and they did not have time to play their last song- Oasis—however, ending on Prognosis was not so bad! I have to say—I am a complete Enchant bigot—Teds voice, Doug’s guitar tone/writing/backup vocals, Ed’s funk-laden grooves, Sean’s jazz-infused beats and Bills keys (his key leads this show were the best ever!) sum up for me all of what this festival and this style of music are about.
Now for Jeff Scott Soto—Unfortunately I did not get to see as much of JSS as I wanted—this is typically when I am settling up with the other bands, and making sure we are in good shape to clear out after the bands leave- I got to see some of the Talisman material, Stand Up and Shout from the RockStar soundtrack, a little bit of the Eric Martin song- and the cornucopia finale of Dave and Phil from Y&T, the disco medley and Queen.. Jeff added a whole sense of levity to the festival—after the heaviness of the earlier bands it was a great change of direction. Jeff is a phenomenal perfomer- his exuberance radiates and touches all those around him -. My favorite moment from this set was being side-stage with Lana as she was dancing around like a schoolgirl to Jeffs moves—it just really shows how much we are all really fans ! Phil and Dave from Y&T were very gracious- especially considering that they drove 60 miles from San Jose after just returning from the Y&T Japan tour 2 days earlier!! I was not that familiar with Eric Martin’s music, but after seeing how well he sang, plus his eternally youthful looks, he has a new fan!
On to the next day—we all arrived at the venue about 1PM or so to set up for LTE and the other bands. LTE was arriving in the afternoon about 3PM to the venue, so we were going to try to have all the other bands soundchecked and taken care of before LTE arrived. Everything was going on plan until I received a call from LTE that their flights were delayed out of LA, because of the smoke from all of the fires were creating a haze that was impossible to fly through. Fortunately, we had built in some extra time in the schedule between Zero Hour and LTE to account for things like this—We pushed the opening of the doors back a half an hour to make sure we had time to set up properly for LTE. It was quite a feat to have all of the LTE gear plus the opening bands on stage in front- but thanks to the great crew we had, plus the LTE crew we made it all work!
When the doors opened at 7PM, Darkwater opened to a fairly packed crowd. Most of the crowd had not heard of them, from what I could tell, but the intensity of their music resonated well.
I cannot comment on the Sun Caged performance since I missed all of it—I look forward to catching this on video!
Zero Hour was next, or as MP calls them- the “Nelson Twins” of progressive metal! Because of Troy’s tendinitis, Zero Hour had not played in some time- This was their first appearance since their new album had been released in the spring. We were all hoping for the best, not knowing what was going to happen. I sat on the side of the stage by Troy and watched as the adrenaline kicked in and a smile erupted on his face- they delivered the set of their lives to an exultant crowd. Chris’s voice was incredibly powerful and his patented hunched-ogre delivery was spot on. I can’t say how much of a thrill this was for me to watch one of my favorite bands and some of my favorite people overcome the obstacles they had to open for LTE—This was the magic moment of the festival to me-
Now for LTE—When LTE arrived back from the hotel, Mike asked me for a pair of scissors with a mischievous grin—I knew something was up!! LTE came on stage to thunderous applause. I was impressed with the energy that the crowd was able to muster—the club did not have any seating so everyone had been standing for 4 ½ hours. Their performance was truly majestic. From the mystical opening of When the Water Breaks to the souped-up Rhapsody in Blue to the enigmatic Paradigm Shift at the end—it was spectacular. I think there is an element of this music which delivers a heightened emotional state to those who choose to partake. This set had the epic majesty of DT Scenes for a Memory from the constant changes in mood.
Now before I get too contemplative- the epic Beardfest was brought to life at the encore from the strangest dance across the stage and 8 handed octopus playing Jordans keyboards! After John finally sheared Mikes stubbly, Mike handed it to Taylor who had helped with the show—It was a complete unexpected move- I was in the dark on this one—even though I had provided the scissors! A comical end to a magical night!
THE THANKS!!
MY COHORTS
Eric Boles—My initial co-conspirator of this dream-this all started 2 years ago at the House of Shields dreaming about doing this. Thanks to you for steady and even keel which has balanced me out in the times that I have wanted to jump off the bridge with this festival. Your technical acumen, ability to stay cool under pressure, and manage the complexities of the production elements which I know nothing about are a huge help to me. I am proud of how you have done this and managed your work situation at the same time.
Bear-Your energy and passion for this music are always contagious. You have kept me going throughout this time with your sheer love of this space. Your creative element through your music and art have reaped great dividends for this festival. Thanks for sticking this all through and your contribution for the great BBQ experience on Friday.
THE SPONSORS
Abby Alfulaij- Thanks for your generous contribution to this festival to allow me to bring in Concerto Moon and Darkwater to the show—I can’t believe that you flew in all the way from Kuwait to make this happen!!
Chris Welcher- Thanks for being a truly selfless sponsor who not only brings in a band, lends your guitars, and works your tail off for 2 days at the festival to make sure everything goes right. You have my deepest and sincerest thanks!
THE CREW
A huge thanks to everyone here—I am completely ignorant when it comes to gear and how things are done technically- my last on-stage appearance was over 20 years ago! Fortunately, I had a stellar group of volunteers to make this all possible.
Marc Robillard/Henry Moreno- Drum Techs- Thanks for being part of every show that I have ever done, I love the new Imagika stuff that you are doing, and will look forward to you all being on stage at one of my shows in the future!!
Scott Evers- Keyboard tech- you are absolutely sick man—you are one twisted dude behind the keyboards playing, or helping out with the keyboard extravaganza of the show—thanks for your great sense of humour.
Marc Hopper- thanks for flying in from Jersey to see the show, but also help out guitar teching--
Jax/Daffodil- thanks for your merchandising talents—loved introducing you to Sake—why didn’t we do this in the Concerto Moon set, instead of waiting until LTE? What were we thinking?
Keith Sharward- thanks for all your great help as the master of the minivan driving everybody back and forth from the airports and the hotels-!!
Greg Parnell and crew- thanks for a stellar BBQ on Friday and all of your help!
Leah/Elena (sp?)- The goddesses of photography! —Elena- I owe you a cappuccino, which I will fetch for you at YOUR next show  Leah—thanks for all your help with interviewing the bands, and your overall great attitude!
THE BANDS
Concerto Moon- Thanks for pulling out a killer performance for us, and for your kind gifts of the advance CDs/boxsets and Tshirts—you have a bright future for your on the cusp of your 10 year anniversary- I look forward to seeing you again!
Rocket Scientists and Lana Lane- thanks for a great performance, and for just being great people—Im glad you all are so close by- I look forward to working with you again!
Enchant- Thanks for being my inspiration for this festival as well as my neighbors and friends. I treasure your music, but additionally all the great things that you are as people—
JSS- Im not sure if I thank you for getting me wasted on Thursday night- Im not sure who was responsible! Thanks for your incredible performance, incredible affability, and ability to switch musical styles mid-beat to entertain us all!
Darkwater- I am so happy at the reception that you all received at the festival- you have a long and bright career ahead of you. The intensity of your lyrics and musical soundscapes is something that will endear you to the progressive metal world. I look forward to your next moves!
Sun Caged- I am really bummed that I missed most of your set—will you come again and do it all over ? Glad to FINALLY have you all here in the US-
Zero Hour— what I can I possibly say that isn’t already said?? As you would say YOU RULE KATS!
LTE- Thanks for a magical performance——thanks for scaling your epic set into our small club and being ever so gracious about it all. A special thanks to the crew of Eric, Stew, and David—you did a remarkable job with very little time to get things together—my hats off to you—Enjoy your well deserved rest after 14 months of touring!
MOST OF ALL- THE FANS!!- I appreciate your enthusiasm and willingness to support all the different types of music at this festival- from metal, prog, melodic etc., etc—thanks for your great support!! We had fans from Argentina, Germany, India, Mexico, and about 12 states of the US attend this festival. I am deeply honored.
THE FUTURE
Well this one is hard to fully answer—I think that we have had an incredible experiment over the past 2 years to find what works for the Bay Area between the disparate elements of progressive and melodic rock and metal. This festival will continue and you can look forward to some key themes of the past being repeated, but also some exciting new directions in the future that will differentiate this festival from any festival on the planet!! Look forward to a special guest appearance from Beavis and Butthead- because only they would show up at a festival called BARF!
THE BUILD-UP
After last years festival, I had some serious contemplation to do—The festival was a tremendous success from the experience delivered to the fans, and the bands. I had the chance to put together my dream lineup with bands whose music emotionally resonated with me, but also with my cohorts Eric and Bear. However, from a financial perspective, it was an utter disaster. I had taken 4 months off in between jobs to do this festival, and build something that I could do as a business supplementing my work doing festivals and shows periodically in the San Francisco area. I made a lot of the mistakes that probably anybody approaching the music business after being a music fan for nearly 30 years would do- I vastly overestimated the draw of the bands based on my personal taste, and underestimated the expense factor associated with running a huge production like this. As a result, I lost a massive sum of money with the first festival.
After the festival, I started a new job. This lasted for about 4 months, and I was out of work again. Starting in October, I began to weigh out the options for the festival for 2008. Obviously, I could not afford to lose money in the 2nd year of the festival for my own sanity. I also felt that I had to increase my appeal beyond the same 5000-10000 people in the US whose top 10 albums are an intersection of progressive and power metal from Savatage, Dream Theater, Helloween, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Spocks Beard, Stratovarius etc.. In order for a festival like this to be successful, you have to build off your local base and tastes in your individual area, and supplement this with some of the international acts. Obviously the Bay Area has mirrored many other major metropolitan areas with a steady decline in attendance for metal shows—Anything that is indie rock will do well here, but other than the local bands like Testament, Y&T etc- there is not much of a following for metal.
In order to truly approach this, I had decided to work on some of the bigger bands and national acts that were coming through town. I had built a good relationship with Another Planet Entertainment who is trying to expand their business in the Bay Area through both one-off shows in venues like the Greek, traditional venues like the Paramount in Oakland, but most importantly through festivals like the Treasure Island Music Festival and the Outside Lands festival with Tom Petty and Radiohead in Golden Gate Park.
I started trying to bring in some national acts to the Bay Area by working with some of the booking agents to try to pull in some national and international bands either through the Bay Area for a one-off show, or hopefully for my actual festival. There was a big gap in the metal scene that I thought I could exploit.. The Pound had closed, and only Slims was doing metal shows here and there.
THE BANDS
By mid- January, I had decided that all of my efforts in this department were for naught- I found another job that I was interested in, and I had flown to LA for my first in-person interview with the founder of the company. I was laying in bed at my hotel on the Sunset Strip mentally preparing for the interview, when I checked my email, and saw that Mike Portnoy had sent me an email wanting to know if I wanted to do a show with Liquid Tension Experiment. I had to quickly say yes, finish my interview, and begin plans for the next festival! Game on! I was able to also work it out to co-promote the Dream Theater/Progressive Nation show along with Another Planet.
After I had things wrapped up with LTE, I needed to fill up Saturday night with the dream prog metal lineup. Zero Hour was a no-brainer- They were not going to play many shows this year because of Troy’s bout with tendinitis, but for MANY reasons, I felt they deserved to have this opportunity. We had been talking to Sun Caged for a while because we all loved their music, they had never been to the US, and they were good buds with Zero Hour. The deal was sealed when Chris Welcher, guitarist extraordinare from Timeline agreed to sponsor them, but also loan Marcel his Marcel Coenen signature guitar so he would not have to bring his equipment through customs.
The next question I had to decide was whether I wanted to do a 2 day festival, or just merely concentrate on a 1 day show that would be an easy success. I opted to go for the more complicated route and began in earnest to find the 2nd headliner. This was an issue—I couldn’t find anyone with the right timing with several bands that I had been talking to. Since the festival was June 27th and 28th, it was REALLY hard to compete with the European festival scene. I went after a lot of the European bands with the help of a great sponsor- Abby Alfulaij, but was unable to nail anything down.
After some careful consideration, I decided on Jeff Scott Soto. I had never seen him live, but had followed virtually every phase of his music—Talisman, Takara, Yngwie, Queen tributes, Soul Sirkus, Journey etc.. I had heard lots of good things about him as a performer and a person, and figured he would be perfect for this festival. He intersects many of the musical boundaries, but is yet in a style of his own—metal, funk, epic, melodic rock – even, god forbid- disco!! We billed this night as JSS and friends, figuring that his impressive catalogue, recent Journey stint, plus the Y&T and Eric Martin guest appearances plus the festival could really help draw out the crowd.
Now that Jeff was finalized, I wanted to fill out the lineup that could help complement him.. I had been talking to Erik Norlander for about a year since he and Lana had moved up to the Sierra Foothills (that’s in between Sacramento and Tahoe for those of you out of the area), and the timing had never worked out for us to do something together- Rocket Scientists plus Lane as a guest crossed that bridge between prog/melodic/symphonic that I felt would be perfect. Enchant was also a no-brainer.. As many of you know, they hold a special place in my heart, and are everything this festival is about—the intersection of progressive, melodic, and just pure EMOTIONAL music- I felt that they would bridge the gap between Rocket Scientists and JSS.
One more to go for Friday night—About 4 years ago, I had picked up an album called the End of the Beginning from Concerto Moon when I had ordered a bunch of CD’s from a mail order retailer. The CD always stuck in my head as a mystery—you could kind of half understand the lyrics, but Norifumi’s guitar tone was memorable. As I have stated before, I really wanted to focus on bands from the Pacific Rim to the Bay Area to provide a differentiation in my festival.Eric and I had started discussions with them back in the fall, but found it very difficult to break the language barrier, and find the right contacts for the band. Coincidentally, they had a member of their parent company who was located in San Jose, so we were able to put together a deal fairly quickly.
Now—I was down to one band—There was a massive drop- ie, an anomaly in the European airfares to the US. For some bizarre reason, it was cheaper to fly from London to SFO than it was to fly from JFK to SFO. With the increase in fuel costs, and homeland security costs assessed to the airfares, it made absolutely no sense.
I started talking to several European bands that had been on my list before- nothing was working. I was looking at the Nightmare roster—Lance and I have had many conversations over the past few years, and I completely respect his musical talents and business acumen. I wanted to have one of his bands on the bill if possible. Bear had been bugging me to listen to a new band called Darkwater that Lance had posted on our forum about. I got a copy of the CD, and burned it on my new work laptop. On a business trip to Portland, I found myself with a dead IPod, and only one album to listen to – Darkwater- Calling the Earth to Witness—I was blown away with the complexity of the music, the melodic sensibility, and the chugging riffs. It reminded me of Circus Maximus in their ability to breach the gap of progressive/instrumental music with something that you could hum as well—plus some metaphorically positive lyrics—I was sold.. Now as I compile this document, I find myself in a similar situation—I am down to one CD on my computer after my I-Pod has bitten the dust!! Lineup set!!
THE FESTIVAL
The festival started off on Thursday night with all the bands arrived at the Tomo hotel in Japantown. This former Best Western Hotel was remodeled with all the great J-Pop images and a spartan style that im sure is reminiscent of the hotels in Japan. The irony of it all was that the only band that was NOT staying at the hotel was Concerto Moon!!
We had dinner at a good local Italian joint in North Beach that we took all the bands last year—we had Concerto Moon with their translator, Darkwater, Sun Caged, JSS, Lana and Erik, as well as a lot of the entire crew.. My evil twin Howie Simon, was responsible for my initial descent into stupidity through a few shots of Wild Turkey 101. Eric and I had a great conversation with Concerto Moon through their translator—They had brought an advance copy of their CD for us, as well as Tshirts and a copy of their box set!
I enjoyed visiting with all the different bands at the festival, and sharing with them what their music means to all of us, why they are here, and getting to know them – it is hard when the festival kicks off to spend that much time with people.. One of the bands joked that watching me was like a wedding where the bride and groom visit with every table and never sit down-
After we left the restaurant, I wound up with Dave and Howie from JSS’s band hitting a few bars in North Beach as well as close to the hotel- After a few too many drinks with my evil twins, I made it back to the hotel and rose to face the new day in a few short hours.
After waking up at 8AM with a few hours of work calls, I downed a couple of hot dogs for breakfast and made it to the venue for setup. Eric, Bear and the crew did an awesome job getting everything together- all the soundchecks went very smooth this year.
I am going to say a few things about the sets—I missed a lot of the show due to other things- I will let other people comment in more detail on the sets.
Doors were at 6:30, and I was very pleased to see quite a few people through the door for Concerto Moon up front. I was worried about how their set was going to be received by the fans- For those of you who don’t listen to their music, they sing the verses in Japanese, but the choruses in English. I thought they went over very well—they were incredibly energetic, and the crowd responded well to them even in the awkward moments of them reading their in-between song banter off of a cue card. Norifumi is a maestro, and their new album shows that they are the best Japanese metal band of all time—
Now for the Rocket Scientists- Erik and the gang came out and in a funny aside Erik commented “Now I know the Japanese word for rock and roll- “Concerto Moon”! The crowd loved it. Their set was a good mix of prog with a few twists.. I was really pleased that the crowd seemed to be in to it—It was hard to follow a heavy set like that, but they did an exceptional job—Don Schiff is the original stick god—I want to see him to a jam w/ Tony Levin!! I got to understand the element that Mark McCrite also brings to the band—his melodic sensibilities accentuate the prog element of this music. Finally, for the last few songs Lana came out and sang a few songs with the guys—her voice live transcends the Ann Wilson-esque phrasings that I typically hear on her album—a real treat!!
Enchant came out and delivered their usual stellar set—they had not played since last years show, so it was fun to watch them deliver some new surprises in their set—My Everafter was played for the first time—Unfortunately we ran out of time, and they did not have time to play their last song- Oasis—however, ending on Prognosis was not so bad! I have to say—I am a complete Enchant bigot—Teds voice, Doug’s guitar tone/writing/backup vocals, Ed’s funk-laden grooves, Sean’s jazz-infused beats and Bills keys (his key leads this show were the best ever!) sum up for me all of what this festival and this style of music are about.
Now for Jeff Scott Soto—Unfortunately I did not get to see as much of JSS as I wanted—this is typically when I am settling up with the other bands, and making sure we are in good shape to clear out after the bands leave- I got to see some of the Talisman material, Stand Up and Shout from the RockStar soundtrack, a little bit of the Eric Martin song- and the cornucopia finale of Dave and Phil from Y&T, the disco medley and Queen.. Jeff added a whole sense of levity to the festival—after the heaviness of the earlier bands it was a great change of direction. Jeff is a phenomenal perfomer- his exuberance radiates and touches all those around him -. My favorite moment from this set was being side-stage with Lana as she was dancing around like a schoolgirl to Jeffs moves—it just really shows how much we are all really fans ! Phil and Dave from Y&T were very gracious- especially considering that they drove 60 miles from San Jose after just returning from the Y&T Japan tour 2 days earlier!! I was not that familiar with Eric Martin’s music, but after seeing how well he sang, plus his eternally youthful looks, he has a new fan!
On to the next day—we all arrived at the venue about 1PM or so to set up for LTE and the other bands. LTE was arriving in the afternoon about 3PM to the venue, so we were going to try to have all the other bands soundchecked and taken care of before LTE arrived. Everything was going on plan until I received a call from LTE that their flights were delayed out of LA, because of the smoke from all of the fires were creating a haze that was impossible to fly through. Fortunately, we had built in some extra time in the schedule between Zero Hour and LTE to account for things like this—We pushed the opening of the doors back a half an hour to make sure we had time to set up properly for LTE. It was quite a feat to have all of the LTE gear plus the opening bands on stage in front- but thanks to the great crew we had, plus the LTE crew we made it all work!
When the doors opened at 7PM, Darkwater opened to a fairly packed crowd. Most of the crowd had not heard of them, from what I could tell, but the intensity of their music resonated well.
I cannot comment on the Sun Caged performance since I missed all of it—I look forward to catching this on video!
Zero Hour was next, or as MP calls them- the “Nelson Twins” of progressive metal! Because of Troy’s tendinitis, Zero Hour had not played in some time- This was their first appearance since their new album had been released in the spring. We were all hoping for the best, not knowing what was going to happen. I sat on the side of the stage by Troy and watched as the adrenaline kicked in and a smile erupted on his face- they delivered the set of their lives to an exultant crowd. Chris’s voice was incredibly powerful and his patented hunched-ogre delivery was spot on. I can’t say how much of a thrill this was for me to watch one of my favorite bands and some of my favorite people overcome the obstacles they had to open for LTE—This was the magic moment of the festival to me-
Now for LTE—When LTE arrived back from the hotel, Mike asked me for a pair of scissors with a mischievous grin—I knew something was up!! LTE came on stage to thunderous applause. I was impressed with the energy that the crowd was able to muster—the club did not have any seating so everyone had been standing for 4 ½ hours. Their performance was truly majestic. From the mystical opening of When the Water Breaks to the souped-up Rhapsody in Blue to the enigmatic Paradigm Shift at the end—it was spectacular. I think there is an element of this music which delivers a heightened emotional state to those who choose to partake. This set had the epic majesty of DT Scenes for a Memory from the constant changes in mood.
Now before I get too contemplative- the epic Beardfest was brought to life at the encore from the strangest dance across the stage and 8 handed octopus playing Jordans keyboards! After John finally sheared Mikes stubbly, Mike handed it to Taylor who had helped with the show—It was a complete unexpected move- I was in the dark on this one—even though I had provided the scissors! A comical end to a magical night!
THE THANKS!!
MY COHORTS
Eric Boles—My initial co-conspirator of this dream-this all started 2 years ago at the House of Shields dreaming about doing this. Thanks to you for steady and even keel which has balanced me out in the times that I have wanted to jump off the bridge with this festival. Your technical acumen, ability to stay cool under pressure, and manage the complexities of the production elements which I know nothing about are a huge help to me. I am proud of how you have done this and managed your work situation at the same time.
Bear-Your energy and passion for this music are always contagious. You have kept me going throughout this time with your sheer love of this space. Your creative element through your music and art have reaped great dividends for this festival. Thanks for sticking this all through and your contribution for the great BBQ experience on Friday.
THE SPONSORS
Abby Alfulaij- Thanks for your generous contribution to this festival to allow me to bring in Concerto Moon and Darkwater to the show—I can’t believe that you flew in all the way from Kuwait to make this happen!!
Chris Welcher- Thanks for being a truly selfless sponsor who not only brings in a band, lends your guitars, and works your tail off for 2 days at the festival to make sure everything goes right. You have my deepest and sincerest thanks!
THE CREW
A huge thanks to everyone here—I am completely ignorant when it comes to gear and how things are done technically- my last on-stage appearance was over 20 years ago! Fortunately, I had a stellar group of volunteers to make this all possible.
Marc Robillard/Henry Moreno- Drum Techs- Thanks for being part of every show that I have ever done, I love the new Imagika stuff that you are doing, and will look forward to you all being on stage at one of my shows in the future!!
Scott Evers- Keyboard tech- you are absolutely sick man—you are one twisted dude behind the keyboards playing, or helping out with the keyboard extravaganza of the show—thanks for your great sense of humour.
Marc Hopper- thanks for flying in from Jersey to see the show, but also help out guitar teching--
Jax/Daffodil- thanks for your merchandising talents—loved introducing you to Sake—why didn’t we do this in the Concerto Moon set, instead of waiting until LTE? What were we thinking?
Keith Sharward- thanks for all your great help as the master of the minivan driving everybody back and forth from the airports and the hotels-!!
Greg Parnell and crew- thanks for a stellar BBQ on Friday and all of your help!
Leah/Elena (sp?)- The goddesses of photography! —Elena- I owe you a cappuccino, which I will fetch for you at YOUR next show  Leah—thanks for all your help with interviewing the bands, and your overall great attitude!
THE BANDS
Concerto Moon- Thanks for pulling out a killer performance for us, and for your kind gifts of the advance CDs/boxsets and Tshirts—you have a bright future for your on the cusp of your 10 year anniversary- I look forward to seeing you again!
Rocket Scientists and Lana Lane- thanks for a great performance, and for just being great people—Im glad you all are so close by- I look forward to working with you again!
Enchant- Thanks for being my inspiration for this festival as well as my neighbors and friends. I treasure your music, but additionally all the great things that you are as people—
JSS- Im not sure if I thank you for getting me wasted on Thursday night- Im not sure who was responsible! Thanks for your incredible performance, incredible affability, and ability to switch musical styles mid-beat to entertain us all!
Darkwater- I am so happy at the reception that you all received at the festival- you have a long and bright career ahead of you. The intensity of your lyrics and musical soundscapes is something that will endear you to the progressive metal world. I look forward to your next moves!
Sun Caged- I am really bummed that I missed most of your set—will you come again and do it all over ? Glad to FINALLY have you all here in the US-
Zero Hour— what I can I possibly say that isn’t already said?? As you would say YOU RULE KATS!
LTE- Thanks for a magical performance——thanks for scaling your epic set into our small club and being ever so gracious about it all. A special thanks to the crew of Eric, Stew, and David—you did a remarkable job with very little time to get things together—my hats off to you—Enjoy your well deserved rest after 14 months of touring!
MOST OF ALL- THE FANS!!- I appreciate your enthusiasm and willingness to support all the different types of music at this festival- from metal, prog, melodic etc., etc—thanks for your great support!! We had fans from Argentina, Germany, India, Mexico, and about 12 states of the US attend this festival. I am deeply honored.
THE FUTURE
Well this one is hard to fully answer—I think that we have had an incredible experiment over the past 2 years to find what works for the Bay Area between the disparate elements of progressive and melodic rock and metal. This festival will continue and you can look forward to some key themes of the past being repeated, but also some exciting new directions in the future that will differentiate this festival from any festival on the planet!! Look forward to a special guest appearance from Beavis and Butthead- because only they would show up at a festival called BARF!
I WILL DEFINATELY HELP OUT ANYWAY I CAN IN YEARS TO COME BECAUSE THIS FESTIVAL KICKS ASS...THANKS ERIC, BEAR AND EVERYONE ELSE ON THE CREW.. BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS SO COOL, AND WE REALLY DID WORK WELL TOGETHER...ESPECIALLY WHEN ADVERSITY HIT...IT IS STILL ALL I THINK ABOUT.....HOW SICK IS THAT................GREG
