I think Iwent to 8 of them.....yes, I miss them....
I think Iwent to 8 of them.....yes, I miss them....
and thanks to Rob and Chad for so many freaking good memories!
I miss NEARfest....but there is always Maryland Death Fest....
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
I'm looking forward to that. Buy say, weren't you also on the bill 100 years earlier?Originally Posted by nosebone
My first NF was in 2000. I also went in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009 & 2012.
It wasn't always easy making the trip from the West Coast, but it was always worth it.
What always sucked for me was that I only lived about 40 minutes away and with work schedule always had a difficult time trying to make it. I made it to every one but not all the shows. Had a great time though and always think about it every summer.
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2006,2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
if rob, chad and kevin ever decide to have another festival, can we get the vendor from MDF with the leather armor and drinking horns?
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
I went to all but the first two and had a ticket for the aborted New Trolls/Umphrey's McGee year. So many great memories. My favorites were 2003 and 2007 but I greatly enjoyed every one. It was an opportunity to see so many great bands that I would have never otherwise been able to see and it was also a great way to discover new bands.
David J. Wimer, author of The Seatopia Trilogy
Hmmm....2003 and 2007. That wouldn't have anything to do with a certain planet called Kobaia, would it?
neil
I went to every one through 2004, but dropped it completely until Apocalypse. The problem for me came when I realized at 2004 that I didn't enjoy a single band in the lineup. There were a couple times I thought about returning. (07 for Pure Reason Revolution, 09 for Banco) but since I was out of phase, I kept missing the sales date and having the festival sell out before I could get tickets. I wonder if I was feeling even that early that the format was getting stale. I know that in general I wasn't all that excited by the headliners as time went on, mainly because I didn't really grow up with many of these bands, so their appeal was mostly lost on me. The main value were in the bands 'discovered'. Unfortunately for me, there weren't any in 2004, which left me wondering why I was still there.
No fault of the organizers, BTW. Just my own personal taste.
I only went to 2007 (with Kay) & 2010 solo.
I remember Kay's reaction to both Hawkwind & Magma. I'll never forget after Hawkwind's set (since they're not my cuppa either, we both walked out after 15 minutes, while I watched all of Magma alone after 10 minutes
), Cyndee & Jeff asked us what we thought of Hawkwind. Kay, who was there at the time only because of me (she did come around musically and expand from just jazz to incl prog eventually) replied, "God, I thought they were absolutely horrible". Kay spent the rest of the festival feeling guilty for the looks of abject horror on their faces and was embarrassed to talk to them the rest of the festival
She did subsequently figure out that the concept of YMMV existed.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
2003 was my first also, followed by: 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 12....had tix for 04 but sold them as my Wife got laid off and I felt bad that I was spending $ on NF while she would be home job searching.
seems like 2003 was an inaugural year for many here.
I'm a pretty big Hawkwind fan, but I thought that performance was pretty bad and I walked out as well.
but, as you say, YMMV.
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
I never got to go, it was always too far away and too much $$$. I'd just enjoy it vicariously, sifting through the tales of after hours debauchery, reading Yanks' comprehensive reviews, and laughing my ass off because there was always one band that Lino and Yanks were in vehement disagreement about.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
NearFEST 2002 front row center. Should've snagged a Nektar concert DVD while they were still in print...
-=Will you stand by me against the cold night, or are you afraid of the ice?=-
No one should have to apologize for their opinion. Even though technically there really isn't anything wrong with saying it that way many people might say it is insensitive. I suppose another way to put it would be "well, they weren't my thing" or "I didn't enjoy them." But the truth is strong reactions will often result in a strong choice of words. No one should ever take someone else's statements personally regardless.I only went to 2007 (with Kay) & 2010 solo.
I remember Kay's reaction to both Hawkwind & Magma
She did subsequently figure out that the concept of YMMV existed.
Yes, I did (can't remember exactly, but I think it was Ray I had contacted), but nothing happened. Even Frank Wyatt tried to help out.
But don't worry, my only NEARfest-experience (2000, with Happy The Man) isn't spoiled by this experience. That "pissed" just came to the surface while reading another post.
I always thought when Steve posted that it meant: You Make Me Vomit
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
I enjoyed it! And thanks to Karl (Magic Mountain) for getting me a ticket. And for all the good food!
That is incredibly disappointing. I can only say that would not have happened in the years Chad and I were at the helm.
Yeah, I wasn't too crazy about that particular Hawkwind performance either. Too much piano, for one thing. Never in my life have I heard so much piano in Hawkwind! Just seemed out of place to my ears.
Then you had that fact that all the spacey synth stuff was apparently pre-recorded. They'd get to the end of a song and you'd see Dave Brock push a button on control panel (presumably for a CD player or whatever) and the synths would abruptly stop. If you're gonna have the spacey synth noise stuff pre-recorded, then what's the point of having a keyboardist (yeah, I know, to play piano on songs that never had piano on them). I suppose, it's not much worse than The Who playing along to prerecorded tapes, but this just struck me as Dave Brock trying to be a control freak. I sure as hell hope they're not doing that now, with Tim Blake being back in the band!
Then the guitar dropped out of the mix for what I remember being something like half the set. I think it was said that the stage right PA power amp dyed or something like that, and I can't remember if it was Rob, Chad, but I remember someone saying they got the PA problem fixed inside a matter of minutes, though I could swear there was no guitar for much longer than that.
So yeah, that was a weird set for me, though my friends Roy and Rhea let me have their patron seats because I guess they bugged out to go see Adrian Belew, I think it was, that night.
But that particular Hawkwind Stateside visit was very Spinal Tap in general, from what I heard later, from various people involved in the Allentown show the next night.
One good thing about that Hawkwind debacle: Cyndee and Jeff's band ended up opening for Hawkwind in Allentown, so they let me have their 2nd or 3rd row seats, I forget which it was, for Magma. So I was right up in the bosom, as it were, for that performance. And it was awesome!!!!
I only missed the first two (because I did't know it existed even though I lived less than two hours away), 2002, 2006 and I think 2009. I wasn't going to be able to make it to make 2011, but not because of the line up.
Man do I miss it!
My favorite was 2001, mainly for the incredibly emotional banco performance and discovering white willow. But every one of them was awesome in it's own way.
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Hehe. Tim has left again. Hawkwind are onto the forty-somethingth lineup now. Keyboards are (primarily) in the hands of (Dead) Fred Reeves now. Since Jason Stuart (their keyboard player when they played NEARfest) died, they've reverted to more typical keyboard parts and Niall Hone has joined and is more involved in the synth sequences, gradually moving it from the simple tape-like sequences that Dave was operating to a much more dynamic Ableton controlled live sequencing. Most recently Mr Dibs has expanded into a mixed role of vocals, cello, guitar and second bass while new recruit Haz Wheaton has taken over primary bass duties. The current generation of the band has a lot of chemistry together and they are a very engaging live ensemble. I'd say that they're as good as I've seen them in a very long time.
What's Nearfest?
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