OK, so this was my second trip to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania for
the Rites of Spring Festival (the other was in 2005). Overall,
this one was fraught with technical gremlins, and plagued by the
world's least professional lighting specialist, and yet it was
one of the most amazing weekends of music, fun, laughter and
friendship I have ever experienced.
Friday I arrived a bit late, due to some inclement weather in
Philadelphia, so I was a little irritated that I didn't have
time to visit Dalessandro's, which serves the best cheesesteaks
in the universe. However, a quick stop at the rental car counter
and a bit of a drive later, I arrived at the hotel in time to
check in and then go to the Magic Pie CD listening party at
Jester's. At Jester's, I met up with all manner of friends from
across the country (and beyond!) - both those I had met in
person before and some who I only knew through the internet. The
fun had begun! I purchased the new Magic Pie CD and then was
disappointed that the bar's sound system was not good enough for
me to really clearly hear the music. So, I took advantage of the
time to have dinner with a friend.
After dinner and a trip through the vendors' room, in which I
spent a lot of money, we were informed that due to technical
issues, the show would be starting late. Apparently, the
lighting guy had brought the equipment to the theater and then
disappeared to who-knows-where for hours. Eventually he returned
and set up the lights - some of which actually worked. More on
him later. About two hours late, Tempustry finally took the
stage for a short (30 min.) set of ambient, electronic music. It
was not my usual cup of tea, but I still enjoyed it.
Puppet Show was next up, and I was looking forward to them after
listening to their album "The Tale of Woe" a few times in the
days leading up to ROSfest. They didn't disappoint! Great band,
excellent guitarist, interesting songs. During the show, the
lights went completely out on stage for a few minutes, prompting
the house lights to come on. During the set, I noticed what
seemed to be a second keyboardist to the right rear of the
stage. This guy, who looked like a homeless person, was wailing
on this "keyboard" that turned out to be the light board. He was
playing it as if he were a member of the band, and I noticed the
band's REAL keyboard player looking over at him quite often.
Starcastle was up next and I didn't really know what to expect
from this group of musicians, who hadn't been playing live
together. Oliver Wakeman, son of Rick, was playing keys for them
and they had a fill-in bass player - a session musician from
Nashville. Despite all that, they were very tight and they
sounded fantastic. They had the crowd eating them up, and they
finished the weekend as one of the highlights for most
attendees.
Now, during Starcastle's set, the lighting guy mysteriously
disappeared for quite some time, leaving the lighting to some
ROSfest staffers who were studying the craft to perform on short
notice. Eventually, the guy came back and his antics were
annoying the band (and had already annoyed the ROSfest
management). The band apparently asked the guy to simply leave
the lights on for them, at which point he broke into a fit of
shouting obsenities at the band and refusing to leave the stage.
The lead singer turned apologetically to the sellout crowd and
mouthed the word "ooookaaaaayyyy." Moments later, to the great
delight of the crowd, several police officers came in and hauled
the lighting guy away. He spent the night in jail for his
troubles. He seemed to be on something, but whether he was on
drugs or alcohol I can't confirm. It was, however, the most
bizarre thing I've ever seen at a concert.
As Starcastle finished the evening around 2 a.m., I crawled
exhaustedly into my rental, drove back to the hotel and went to
sleep immediately. I had an early morning breakfast date with a
couple I'd met on the Genesis website message board. We met at
an old-style diner and had a fantastic breakfast and great
conversation. I was a little sad to end my time with Chris and
Tara, but it was almost time for Day 2 to begin and I didn't
want to miss the opening act.
Rocket Scientists kicked off Saturday's lineup with a scorching
set that ended up being in my top 4-5 performances of the
weekend (which is saying a lot). They did a nice chunk of their
latest album, as well as some older stuff, and a couple Lana
Lane solo tracks. Don Schiff wowed the morning crowd with an
amazing solo on the NS stick. They announced at the end that
they had rented rehearsal studio time the day before to give ROSfest something special, and then proceeded to play "Aqua
Vitae" from their Oblivion Days album. Great song and an
excellent cap to their set. The lead guitar could have been
louder, but otherwise it was outstanding.
There were about 30 people from the Progressive Ears message
board there and we planned on taking a photo after Rocket
Scientists, but a lot of people either forgot or went to lunch,
so about 12-15 ended up being in the shot. Another trip to the
vendors' room came next, and some catching up with more friends.
Galahad was the next band, and I was looking forward to them
because the stuff from their new album "Empires Never Last"
sounds great, and their bassist, Lee Abraham, is an acquaintance
through the Spock's Beard message board. Galahad was a lot of
fun. Their singer had a great stage presence and their songs
went over well with the crowd. I think they sold tons of
merchandise after their gig. Lee's basswork and backing vocals
were excellent and it was fun to watch him enjoying himself on
stage.
I grabbed some delicious pretzels from a pretzel shop across the
street after Galahad's set. Then more shopping and chatting
before Carptree came on to perform. I was interested to see how
Carptree would translate to the live environment, because they
were a 2-man studio project and this was to be their first
performance. They arrived in suits, with a backing band. Only
the bassist and drummer weren't dressed to kill. Their lack of
live playing showed a bit, and the drums were WAY too loud, but
they still managed to impress me with a few of my favorite
tracks of theirs, particularly "Tilting the Scales." The lead
singer also seemed a bit nervous (possibly about his English)
because he hardly spoke at all between songs. Overall, Carptree
didn't go over well with much of the crowd, but I still think
they made a few new fans and sold some CDs.
In between more shopping and chatting with friends, and having a
few beers, I managed to find some dinner and returned in time to
see the Saturday headliners, Pendragon. This band completely
blew me away. Nick Barrett is a fantastic front man and a very
underrated guitar player. The band was fun and energetic, and
their talent was on full display. Clive Nolan was extremely
animated on the keyboards, and couldn't keep his hair out of his
face from all the "rocking out" he was doing. Nick's banter
between songs was very engaging, funny and touching at times,
particularly when he spoke of writing "The Edge of the World"
for the fans he thought he may never see again. It was evident
the band was excited to be back playing in the U.S. again after
a 12-year absence. They were, to me, quite simply the best band
of the weekend.
The after party for the patron ticket holders came next, as fans
mingled with musicians and several combinations of musicians got
up and jammed together. I was able to speak to Ryo Okumoto and
Alan Morse of Spock's Beard for a bit, and got Clive Nolan and
Nick Barrett to sign a Pendragon CD booklet from an album I'd
purchased earlier in the day. The Rocket Scientist guys did
"Epitaph" and Don Schiff again impressed with his bass work.
Spock's Beard tour drummer Jimmy Keegan and bassist Dave Meros
joined Erik Norlander and Mark McCrite for a nice version of Led
Zeppelin's "Kashmir," and then there was some cool jamming with
Ryo taking over the keys and eventually the guitarist from
Puppet Show joining in. Gilbert from Magic Pie even played some
harmonica. After the music ended, some friends and I spoke to
Jimmy Keegan for about 20-30 minutes. Then, once again, I
crawled to bed in the wee hours, exhausted but happy.
Sunday morning came much too soon, but I was once again up and
running to the theater for Darwin's Radio. This band was quite
impressive and kept alive the streak of Sunday morning bands
totally blowing away a bunch of tired, hungover concert goers.
They were probably the best mixed band of the weekend, with all
instruments and vocals coming through clearly, with good
separation. No muddiness at all. I enjoyed their set. They
seemed genuinely shocked to get such a great response from the
crowd.
Afterwards, I tried to organize a photo of all the attendees
from the Spock's Beard message board. That didn't work too well,
as three guys misunderstood when the photo was to take place,
and they left. We agreed to do it later, and went off for food,
more shopping, etc. Then it was back to the theater again.
Retroheads were next and they were hyped up on adrenaline to
start the show. They were obviously psyched about playing in the
U.S. and in front of such a big crowd. Unfortunately, they were
plagued by technical issues, topped off when a full bank of
keyboards went down and couldn't be coaxed back to life by the
keyboard tech. It seemed to affect them, as they started to seem
more nervous from that point on. Still, they managed to get the
crowd behind them and finish strong.
We were able to get our Spock's message board photo taken (see it below!) after
the Retroheads set. Then...you guessed it! More shopping,
chatting, beer, etc.
Magic Pie was a band I'd been looking forward to seeing, as I
didn't attend last year. Wow, were they ever good! Very tight
band with several different singers and guitarists. They guy who
sings the high parts had his voice unexpectedly lock up on him
midway through the set, but he soldiered on and you really
couldn't tell, but it may have affected their setlist. They were
great, and they took pictures of the crowd to take back to
Norway with them. The only glitch was they lost power to the
guitar right before the big final solo in "Change." They
finished up without too much fuss though. They were treated like
rock royalty all weekend, and they were genuinely down-to-earth
guys. I got to meet Eirik, Gilbert, Kim (a monster guitarist and
their main songwriter) and their manager.
The dinner break saw a bunch of us from the Spock's message
board go out to eat. We tried going to the new Iron Hill
Brewery, but they told us it would be a 45-minute wait. So my
friend Rich took us on a hike to this bar and grill where we
ended up having burgers (eventually). We lost Lee along the way
to some band obligations, but the dinner conversation was great,
the beer went down very easy and we finally managed to get the
waitress to bring out our food so we could eat. My friend Scott
and I left early to do some last minute shopping in the vendors'
area, but when we got there, they were closing up. However, I
did manage to catch Greg Walker of Syn-Phonic Music as he was
packing up his stuff and bought another DVD and two more CDs. :)
Then, finally...90 minutes late...it was time for Sunday
headliner Spock's Beard. I had never seen the Beard live before,
so I was really pumped up for this. The delay was due to the
Beard bringing all their own gear (a truckload!). This all had
to be set up and all the shared backline stuff from ROSfest had
to be torn down. Eventually they were introduced and took the
stage.
There were problems almost immediately with Ryo's keyboards, and
Alan's guitar went silent right as he was launching into a solo
on one song. Nick and Alan both had trouble getting a guitar
tuned. It was a gremlin fest. Despite that, the band sounded
great. They did most of the newest album and stuff from as far
back as their debut album. Although I was very much into their
set, a lot of people seemed to finally give in to their
exhaustion, and failed to give the band any energy to feed off
of. Ryo's risque humor didn't go over well with some, but I
expected it, and he made me laugh with a hilarious Japanese
karaoke love vibe bit. All in all, I was happy with their
performance. Nick had been sick and had fainted the night
before, hitting his head, and he spent the night in the
hospital, but he gamely performed. Both Nick and Jimmy are
incredible drummers, and their drum duels and duets were
definitely festival highlights.
Sadly, the shows were over. We got back to the hotel pretty
late, and barely had time to catch a few beers before the hotel
bar closed, but I did manage to spend a few more hours with
friends. We sat with the guys from Magic Pie and had a couple
beers. Then Steve Katsikas of Little Atlas (there as a fan,
instead of a musician for a change) and his wife sat down and we
talked for awhile.
They eventually threw us out of the bar so it could close down
and I went to my room exhausted and a little sad that the
weekend was about to be over. I managed to somehow draw enough
energy to pack my bags Sunday night. Monday morning was a
whirlwind of showering, gathering up my things, checking out of
the hotel, grabbing breakfast on the run, driving to the
airport, dropping off the rental car and then getting my
boarding pass for the return flight..
It was so weird. There were only about 30-35 people on my flight
home. Everyone basically got their own row. I'm lucky the flight
wasn't cancelled. As the plane took me home, I cranked up my
iPod, reminisced about an unforgettable weekend and wondered
when I'd see my prog pals again. What a trip!
