The Veruno "2 Days Prog + 1" was on last weekend and was my second time there. There was a good lineup, although while not as strong as last year, it provided an interesting mix of acts.
Friday - 4th
Opening act was a Suncage, a young Italian band. There were quite good, a bit of progmetal and harder edged prog. It will be interesting to see how they develop if they stick at it.
Next act was Yuka and Chronoship which were very good. Nothing particularly original but well constructed symphonic prog, mostly instrumental. They played a couple of the suites off the second album and some stuff of the new album.
Beardfish followed and did a fine performance. They are not my favourite, mostly due to my dislike of Rikard Sjöblom vocal style but musically they were very tight.
Magma were the headlining act of the first night. They gave a superb performance, and for me was the highlight of the weekend. Unfortunately they didn't get to do an encore as they finished at midnight and I guess there was a midnight concert curfew for Friday night.
Saturday 5th
Runaway Totem were the first act. They were brilliant and now have a superb vocalist, Raffeallo Regoli. He is strongly influenced by the vocal experimentation of Demetrio Stratos (Area) and did a few weird vocals himself.
Arabs in Aspic were on next. They were more of a hard rock band, with a strong similarly to Uriah Heep with a bit of Deep Purple thrown into the mix, especially in the keyboards. So while not very original they were fun to watch.
Pineapple Thief followed. They were OK, not really my cup of tea, I always think that when playing live they sound more like an alternative rock band than a prog band.
Headlining act for Saturday was John Lee's Barclay James Harvest. I guess John Lees is the only original member, the others were a lot younger. BJH were never a favourite of mine, I have some of their CDs, but only got them when Ken had them heavily discounted or where I found them in a record shop sales bin. Pleasant enough listening but not really a headlining act. Most of the audience seem to agree with me on that, as a lot of people left during their performance (although the weather didn't help, a cold front moved down across northern Italy over the weekend and that night it was unseasonably cold, must have been about 10C).
Sunday 6th
Fabio Zuffanti opened on Sunday. That was great, he played a mixture of his solo material and tracks from his various other bands. Some of his solo material was very good, quite jazzy in places.
Maschine followed and were very good. There was some great guitar playing from Luke Machin. They mentioned that they have a new album coming out early next year so I will be looking forward to getting my hands on that.
Sylvan followed and also put on a great performance. I saw them live at Loreley this year and thought they were good, but they seemed even better at Veruno, maybe smaller stage and more intimate audience had something to do with it.
The final act on Sunday night at Veruno is normally the main headliner of the festival. It was supposed to be Banco but they cancelled, not sure exactly why although somebody mentioned the guitarist had a heart problem. Area was the replacement. I was not at all familiar with their music, other than knowing it was more avant guard than the RPI bands of the 1970's. Although it very jazz orientated, the musicians were outstanding. If given a choice I would have preferred to have seen Banco but Area were a worthy replacement.
I stocked up on CDs, got three from Runaway Totem that Ken didn't stock, the new CDs from Yuka and Arabs in Aspic. I got three Area CDs but made a mistake when I got Demetro Stratos' Cantare La Voce. The band were not at the stall when I got there and a woman was handling the merchandise. I asked her if it was similar to Area, she didn't know. The short answer to that is No, it's not!!. I got half way into the first track before I couldn't take anymore weird vocal noises.
Happiest band of the festival - Yuka and Chronoship. They were so delighted when I bought their first and third CDs and asked them to sign them.
Party band of the festival - Arabs in Aspic. They were staying in our hotel and were partying out in the garden on Sunday afternoon and apparently continued until 3 am (fortunately they were in another block, hotel consisted of two apartment buildings separated by about 400m).
The Veruno festival is FREE !!!!
I guess it is paid for in sponsorship, food and drink, banners to the left and right of the stage have a list of about 35 companies/organizations that I presume are sponsors. I did my bit to support the festival by drinking a vast amount of beer !!!!
Friday - 4th
Opening act was a Suncage, a young Italian band. There were quite good, a bit of progmetal and harder edged prog. It will be interesting to see how they develop if they stick at it.
Next act was Yuka and Chronoship which were very good. Nothing particularly original but well constructed symphonic prog, mostly instrumental. They played a couple of the suites off the second album and some stuff of the new album.
Beardfish followed and did a fine performance. They are not my favourite, mostly due to my dislike of Rikard Sjöblom vocal style but musically they were very tight.
Magma were the headlining act of the first night. They gave a superb performance, and for me was the highlight of the weekend. Unfortunately they didn't get to do an encore as they finished at midnight and I guess there was a midnight concert curfew for Friday night.
Saturday 5th
Runaway Totem were the first act. They were brilliant and now have a superb vocalist, Raffeallo Regoli. He is strongly influenced by the vocal experimentation of Demetrio Stratos (Area) and did a few weird vocals himself.
Arabs in Aspic were on next. They were more of a hard rock band, with a strong similarly to Uriah Heep with a bit of Deep Purple thrown into the mix, especially in the keyboards. So while not very original they were fun to watch.
Pineapple Thief followed. They were OK, not really my cup of tea, I always think that when playing live they sound more like an alternative rock band than a prog band.
Headlining act for Saturday was John Lee's Barclay James Harvest. I guess John Lees is the only original member, the others were a lot younger. BJH were never a favourite of mine, I have some of their CDs, but only got them when Ken had them heavily discounted or where I found them in a record shop sales bin. Pleasant enough listening but not really a headlining act. Most of the audience seem to agree with me on that, as a lot of people left during their performance (although the weather didn't help, a cold front moved down across northern Italy over the weekend and that night it was unseasonably cold, must have been about 10C).
Sunday 6th
Fabio Zuffanti opened on Sunday. That was great, he played a mixture of his solo material and tracks from his various other bands. Some of his solo material was very good, quite jazzy in places.
Maschine followed and were very good. There was some great guitar playing from Luke Machin. They mentioned that they have a new album coming out early next year so I will be looking forward to getting my hands on that.
Sylvan followed and also put on a great performance. I saw them live at Loreley this year and thought they were good, but they seemed even better at Veruno, maybe smaller stage and more intimate audience had something to do with it.
The final act on Sunday night at Veruno is normally the main headliner of the festival. It was supposed to be Banco but they cancelled, not sure exactly why although somebody mentioned the guitarist had a heart problem. Area was the replacement. I was not at all familiar with their music, other than knowing it was more avant guard than the RPI bands of the 1970's. Although it very jazz orientated, the musicians were outstanding. If given a choice I would have preferred to have seen Banco but Area were a worthy replacement.
I stocked up on CDs, got three from Runaway Totem that Ken didn't stock, the new CDs from Yuka and Arabs in Aspic. I got three Area CDs but made a mistake when I got Demetro Stratos' Cantare La Voce. The band were not at the stall when I got there and a woman was handling the merchandise. I asked her if it was similar to Area, she didn't know. The short answer to that is No, it's not!!. I got half way into the first track before I couldn't take anymore weird vocal noises.
Happiest band of the festival - Yuka and Chronoship. They were so delighted when I bought their first and third CDs and asked them to sign them.
Party band of the festival - Arabs in Aspic. They were staying in our hotel and were partying out in the garden on Sunday afternoon and apparently continued until 3 am (fortunately they were in another block, hotel consisted of two apartment buildings separated by about 400m).
The Veruno festival is FREE !!!!
I guess it is paid for in sponsorship, food and drink, banners to the left and right of the stage have a list of about 35 companies/organizations that I presume are sponsors. I did my bit to support the festival by drinking a vast amount of beer !!!!
