Seaprog Festival, June 2,3,4

[rcarlberg]

Hello Seaprog Fans!

As promised, after a yearlong break, we are back and better than ever. Seaprog will be happening on first weekend of June, 2017. As usual, it will kick off with a night at the Royal Room (5000 Rainier Ave S, Seattle) – Friday, June 2. Then we'll have two full days of music at the Columbia City Theater (4916 Rainier Ave S, Seattle), Saturday June 3 and Sunday June 4. The festival will feature the established formula of nationally and internationally known artists and local Northwest performers.

Here is this year’s lineup (so far):

Cabezas de Cera (Mexico)
Jack o' the Clock (Oakland)
Fraktal Phantom (Seattle)
Human Ottoman (Portland, OR)
Ibex (Bellingham)
Moon Letters (Seattle)
Omni (Seattle)
Paraesthesia (Seattle)
Pinto Wagonfire (Seattle)
Points North (San Francisco)
The Machine That We Built (Seattle)
Chemical Clock (Seattle)
+ an all-star jam and more bands to be announced!

Learn more about this year’s lineup at http://seaprogfest.org/artist/index/2017.html

Tickets are on sale now. A weekend pass remains at $75, with individual single day tickets at $40 each, and no service fees. You can buy your tickets here: http://seaprogfest.org/welcome/store.html

See you in June.

Dennis, Jon and John
Seaprog Central Committee

I've never heard of ANY of these bands. Maybe a chance to learn something new???

[aplodon]

Cabezas de Cera is a great band. Never heard the others.

Sent from my phone via Tapatalk

[JKL2000]

I've heard a little of Jack o' The Clock and liked it a lot.

[rcarlberg]

Cabezas de Cera is a great band. Never heard the others.

Remains to be seen though -- and I'm being entirely serious here -- whether they'll be allowed into the U.S.

[dpt3]

Jack O' the Clock are fantastic! Not familiar with any of the others.

[Steve F.]

Newer Prog Festivals are alive and well and in great profusion in 2017, and all in competition for the same 300-350 people...

Tops.

[Proghound]

Newer Prog Festivals are alive and well and in great profusion in 2017, and all in competition for the same 300-350 people...

Tops.

Sadly How true...

[rcarlberg]

Seaprog is in their 4th year I think? Maybe 3rd with 2016 being dormant.

[Digital_Man]

Wow, I thought I knew who all or most of the current prog bands were but I've only heard of two of these bands(Cabezas de Cera and Jack O' the clock).

[Digital_Man]

Newer Prog Festivals are alive and well and in great profusion in 2017, and all in competition for the same 300-350 people...

Tops.

Well, in all fairness Rosfest gets about 600-800 people each year but maybe only 2-300 are the same people every year so I see where you are coming from. The cruises though apparently get more like 800-1,000 people(if not more)if I'm not mistaken but I doubt if most of them are hardcore and only know maybe two to three bands(or maybe they heard of it because Yes is one of the bands or another mainstream performer was on board).

[Baribrotzer]

Most of SeaProg's attendance is local, and so are their bands. That's why you haven't heard of them - they rarely play outside Seattle, and many of them are students at or alumni of Cornish School of the Arts, or guys from Cuong Vu's jazz program at the U-Dub. This doesn't mean they aren't worth seeing; many are quite good. It does mean they tend to be slanted toward current electric jazz, either fusion or the kind of wide-ranging stuff heard in NYC. There does seem to be a certain amount of recycling of musicians, with outstanding or necessary (bass and drums) players repeating from year to year in changing combinations, with changing leaders, changing concepts, and changing material. But that's also what you see in NYC.

On the other hand, a number of acts each year seem to be local indie bands - neo-psych, or prog-metal, or oddball takes on roots music, or other young-guy sub-sub-genres. Also worth seeing, though often a bit rough around the edges. Symph - which is most festivals' staple - isn't very common out there, and is only occasionally heard. Indeed, I can only think of one straight-up symph band that played, and I was in it.

ADDENDUM: This year looks more slanted toward the indie-prog crowd than the jazzbos. There's a lot of power trios, a lot of Eighties-Crimson influences. And a maybe a certain amount of the jam-band thing in there as well.

[Mythos]

Never heard of any of the bands, but it is a great price...!

[arturs]

I think this festival is smart to go mostly local. Local bands are probably relatively inexpensive, they don't need visas or accommodations, and they may have their own local fanbases that will support the event. It helps of course to have a thriving local scene to draw from, which Seattle apparently does!

[Romerovm]

I think this festival is smart to go mostly local. Local bands are probably relatively inexpensive, they don't need visas or accommodations, and they may have their own local fanbases that will support the event. It helps of course to have a thriving local scene to draw from, which Seattle apparently does!

As long as they have enough people locally to support their fest. I certainly wouldn't travel to a fest for one band (I only know Cabezas).

[NogbadTheBad]

As long as they have enough people locally to support their fest. I certainly wouldn't travel to a fest for one band (I only know Cabezas).

I'd recommend checking out Jack O'The Clock, superb band, went down very well at ProgDay a couple of years ago, I'd travel significant distances to see them.

[rcarlberg]

I certainly wouldn't travel to a fest for one band (I only know Cabezas).

What about discovering bands you DON'T know? Would you leave after Cabeza's set?

[rcarlberg]

[rcarlberg]

[rcarlberg]

[rcarlberg]

[Baribrotzer]

I think you made a mistake.

The band in this video, Signals, are not playing. However, one band who are playing are named Paraesthesia - which happens to be the title of this song by the aforementioned Signals.

[boilk]

I'm actually digging the Signals song!

neil

[boilk]

Chemical Clock and Ibex are cool, and the rest are all interesting. If I lived closer to Seattle, I'd definitely check out this festival.

neil

[Baribrotzer]

I'm actually digging the Signals song!

neil

Yeah, they sound a bit like Bent Knee.

[Joe F.]

I play guitar in Pinto Wagonfire.

Seaprog will be our second show.

We're looking forward to playing.