I arrived the night before NEARFest, on June 22, 2001.
Unfortunately, I was by myself ... I had hoped to bring my wife along, but I happened to be in
Singapore sound asleep when tickets went on sale in the U.S.A. By the time I woke up halfway
around the world, the tickets had sold out. Fortunately, I happened to chat with
NEARFest organizer Rob LaDuca by e-mail
because some photos I took of The Underground Railroad
were going to be in the NEARFest program, so I mentioned
to him that I wasn't going to be able to make it. He smiled (a scary thing over e-mail) and said
they'd just had one cancellation, and asked if I would be interested in the ticket? Of
course, I said "yes" even though it meant going to the concert without my wife. Unfortunately,
I was unable to get a flight early enough to allow me to get over to see the unofficial
pre-concert show by The Red Masque on Friday evening. I hadn't
heard their demo EP yet at that time ... if I had, I might have tried harder. Oh well.
June 23, 2001 I arrived at the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University way too early on Saturday morning. But there was plenty to do since the vendor's tables were already mostly set up. When I went in to find my seat and wait, I was pleasantly surprised to hear an obscure CD being played while we were waiting ... Mark 1's Absolute Zero. I thought this was a great choice for program music, and great exposure for this new band.
 Birdsongs of the Mesozoic
The first band up was Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.
Like most of the bands playing at NEARFest, I had heard
of them, but never actually heard them. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard.
Many reviews talk about their avant-garde noisiness and the difficulty of listening to them.
Personally, I found them to be quite melodic, though in a neo-classical chamber music sort of
way. I would hardly even call this progressive rock, despite the use of a programmed
drum machine in many parts. The music features lots of piano and synthesizer and reeds. Just
a little guitar and drum machine drums, so the rock feel is limited. Progressive it is ... rock
it's not. Or just barely. But really interesting, though quite intellectual. For
Birdsongs fans interested in what they played,
their set list consisted of:
 Under the Sun
After returning to my seat and listening to Halloween (a new
album? They don't seem to have a web site where I can check this out) between acts, the next
band came out. This was the supposedly "neo-prog" band of the festival,
Under the Sun, with a fair dash of prog-metal. Their set was
interesting, but began to suffer from "volume creep", and by the end of their set I was just
getting to the point where I was not comfortable with the sound pressure levels any more. I
was not terribly thrilled by this band, but I did note that the rhythm section (drums and bass)
were incredibly tight and intricate, and vocalist Chris Shryak was quite emotional and
driving with his presentation. The main problem I had (aside from the volume) was that all
the songs started sounding the same after the first twenty minutes or so. As I mentioned in
my review, their CD does not suffer from this at all. It was
just a problem with this particular live performance. Their set list:
 White Willow
The next break featured Isildur's Bane as the canned music.
I was getting to hear nearly as much good music during the breaks as I was during the concert!
Well, I thought so ... until White Willow came out. I have
no recollection of why I thought this was going to be a prog metal band!?!? Nothing could be
further from the way this band sounds! Soft, smooth and pastoral sections interplay with
Yesish rock with a silky female vocalist, Sylvia Erichsen give this
an almost ethnic Celtic feel, making White Willow my favorite
bands of NEARFest 2001. There were some parts that sounded
oddly dissonant during the performance ... I later found out that their airline had lost
their instruments on the flight from Norway, and they were playing with equipment borrowed
from other bands. Due to this, they were very unhappy with their performance in NEARfest, and
seemed genuinely surprised by the uniformly high praise they received for this performance. In
spite of what I thought were some oddities in the sound, this was the only band at NEARFest that
forced me to go and purchase their entire discography on the weight of their performance. I had
an ulterior motive, too ... I thought my wife would like them. And I was right! Here's their
set list:
 Deus Ex Machina Deus Ex Machina was the last of the first-day daytime bands, and delivered a rousing closer to the day's events. Here's another band I had never heard, but their sound was very impressive. An Italian band singing in Latin, I would call their sound "extreme fusion", a heavy metal sound quality but with the intricacy and jazzy aspects of a fusion band. This is too fusiony sounding to be called "prog metal" in my mind. But what do I know? To quote the fellow in the seat next to me, "these guys rock hard"! Yes, they do. I would have looked into purchasing their discography as well, but having just spent a small fortune on CD's during the rest of the day, I didn't do so. But they're high on my list to get some samples of their studio work to listen to. If they mentioned any song titles, I didn't understand them, and they never did tell NEARFest organizers what their song list was either, so it's never been published. Oh well, still a big thumbs up for these guys.
 Porcupine Tree
We had a couple of hours break to get some dinner before the "headliner act" of the day,
Porcupine Tree. I went out and got some dinner, and
came back at the appointed time only to hang around and wait for quite awhile. After a
few delays and extra encores during the day, we were running late anyway, and the setup
for this band seemed to be taking longer than anticipated. Still, I had been looking forward
to hearing these guys after reading their GEPR reviews. So, I hung around. Finally, they
came on. Here's what they played:
June 24, 2001
 The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad is one of my favorite
new bands ... of course, I'm prejudiced because I know these guys, being from my area of
Texas. I reported on seeing them in a little bar in the
first Gibraltar Webzine, and this was going to be my second time to see them. By this
time, I had heard their CD Through and Through about two dozen times, so I had a
pretty good idea of what I was going to hear. Here's their set list:
 Djam Karet Signing autographs after their show
The second day of NEARFest was my day for knowing
some of the bands ... Djam Karet was one of them, so I
thought I knew what I was going to hear. At first, I thought this music was more heavily
composed than what I was expecting. However, as the concert went on, I began to realize
that the pieces were more composed than their totally improv stuff like Still No
Commercial Value, but still had long improv sections with composed structures supporting
the jams. Guitarist Gayle Ellett doubled on keyboards for some nice, slow spacey chord
progressions, while Mike Henderson sometimes picked up a doubleneck guitar in addition to
his standard electric. I believe that bassist Aaron Kenyon is new to the band, and has a
very commanding stage presence compared to the other band members who are more laid back
and quiet. In fact, the photo above is of them signing autographs instead of during the
concert because Gayle Ellett was in the dark during most of the concert (much like another shy
performer, Robert Fripp? In fact, take a look at Gayle ... doesn't
he actually resemble Mr. Fripp?). Here's their set list:
 Tony Levin and The California Guitar Trio
The California Guitar Trio is yet another band I had
seen before ... on tour with King Crimson for their
Thrak tour. Of course, Tony Levin wasn't playing
with them at that time ... he was playing after them, with
King Crimson! This would have to be a great concert!
Their lightness and mostly acoustic approach was a welcome change from the heavy seriousness
of the previous two bands. They played an amazing array of music:
 After Crying
Although I had never heard After Crying, I had certainly
heard of them as being one of Hungary's most professional and interesting progressive rock
bands. They were definitely "pro", in fact in some ways they seemed more like a Las Vegas
show than a prog act. They had every move and song carefully planned, with "voice-over"
introductions beginning as the band vamps behind the speaker. This isn't bad, necessarily,
it was just surprising. For thoose of you who know After
Crying's discography, perhaps the set list will be of use:
 Banco del Mutuo Soccorso
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso was the closing act
of NEARFest 2001. I was vaguely familiar with them,
having once heard one of their earliest albums in the '70's. But that was a long time ago,
and I had not heard any of their music for a long time. For those of you more familiar
with their stuff, here's the set list:
My one regret about this band is that by the time I knew I wanted to buy some Banco CD's to have the band autograph for me and bring home to enjoy, the vendors were all packing up their wares. I should have realized this, and next year I won't be so foolish. But Banco was spectacular and did a great show, so I would highly recommend seeing them if you can, or buying their CD's if you can't. Well, that's it. Except to say that organizers Rob LaDuca and Chad Hutchinson did an incredible job of organizing this extravaganza. Aside from a small time slip on the first day, it's hard to imagine how this could have been done any better. The sound quality was excellent, the band choices were amazing and varied, and there was really not a bad seat in the house. Oh yeah, except for one thing ... they didn't have enough seats! But they are fixing that for NEARFest 2002 with a move to a larger venue in Trenton, New Jersey. With this as my first experience at a festival, I'm definitely spoiled. And I want more! So I'll see you at NEARFest 2002! The band list has already been settled, and there are some great acts on tap including a reformed Nektar and my favorite Italian group, Le Orme, plus eight more. It should be great.
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