Originally Posted by moecurlythanu
Since Florida is becoming a Hot Spot, it might be ripe for a SEARfest (South East Art Rock Festival).
I have friends that went and it looks almost like prog overload. A weekend's worth is about enough. A whole week would be too much for me.
It's only 5 days, Sean, and day one doesn't really begin until the ship leaves at 4:00 pm or so, I mean it's a lot to take in but we'll be going on our 9th music cruise tomorrow (OTB), we've split the prior 8 between CTTE and TMBC and we have a Hell of time to be honest, I'm chomping at the bit.
I think a whole week of prog concerts in a setting like that sounds fantastic. But could I tolerate a week in close proximity with prog fans? I highly doubt it.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Jesus. Are there lifeboats?
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
What is "A question most likely heard during the Neal Morse set on the cruise"
To Final Jeopardy we go!!
It was an excellent, very excellent, most excellent cruise. Highlight after highlight. Guest artist after guest artist. Incredible, memorable performances. Yes, the fog caused complications on Monday, but by Tuesday it was mostly forgotten.
WANTED: Sig-worthy quote.
How about a full review? What did you like best?
The Prog Report posted a brief review of Mike Portnoy’s show, with video of the Instrumedley:
https://progreport.com/mike-portnoy-...transatlantic/
“Instrumedley”
By the way, while I personally don't think I'd be up for a full week on a boat, I wasn't poo pooing anyone that did. I'm sure it was a blast and wanna hear about it.
^ They do have port excursions, don't they?
While there will be many other better-written synopses, here is my quick summary:
Intentionally starting with the lowlights, I'll begin with the "Prog Fog". On departure day, we found out that fog had rolled into the harbor and had kept our ship from docking. According to locals, this was very rare. It was much more of an issue for those stuck on board that presumably missed flights and created schedule chaos. For the proggers, it was more of a minor hassle. We, like most, were forced to check out of our hotel but the hotel kept our bags. I went with a roommate to a local mall where we wandered around, ate some food court, and saw a movie. We ran into other cruisers and many performers, such as Alan Morse, Randy George, Eric Gillette, Riverside, Adrian Belew, and Casey McPherson. The organizers did a pretty good job of communicating updates throughout the day. When we finally boarded at night, spirits were still generally high and I didn't hear much complaining. Because of the delay, music didn't start until midnight and they only had a few shows the first night. In the end, it felt like they handled an unexpected situation the best they possibly could. They managed to fit all of the missed shows into the next day or two.
The other lowlight that was more discussed among cruisers were the long soundchecks which delayed some shows and the occurrence of audio problems in other shows. I am not an audio engineer and don't know all that it entails to get good sound, but the experience was very uneven and worse than past years. I personally saw dropped channels on Spock's Beard, In Continuum, and Casey McPherson. Alan Morse was particularly upset when his guitar kept going out and had to be lovingly consoled by a Ted Leonard hug to the cheers of fans. Other shows were delayed 30-90 minutes due to "technical" problems, which would then cascade through the day. While some blamed the bands themselves for the delays, I heard one of the sound engineers blame the techs. He said they were far too inexperienced.
However, overall, the cruise was a big success. It feels like the bands have really learned how to take advantage of this unique festival. They plan ahead to play with each other and it's now common to see guest artists make special appearances. The pros also have become very involved with the Late Night Live program (The Fringe played a surprise set together) and even Karaoke. Most cruisers now also know how to behave around the artists and I saw less occurrences of them being hounded. Instead, it's a very casual atmosphere where artists also become fans. Instead of me drooling over Ross Jennings from Haken to tell him how much I love his music, we have a short, casual conversation about Riverside while watching them perform. And often, it's just a "Hi" with recognition in the hallway while passing. It's still tough sometimes to hold back, but it's a more festive environment when everyone is a fan together.
In terms of performance highlights, here are some of mine. Keep in mind that I gravitate towards newer and heavier stuff, so another cruiser would rave more about bands I never even wanted to see.
1) The Haken cover show. While they performed a standard Vector-centered set at the first show, the second was announced as a cover show and it was phenomenal. Extremely tight and filled with guest appearances, it was bananas. While the long In The Court of The Crimson King jam was amazing, I particularly loved the Paranoid Android (Radiohead) cover. This band is so talented.
2) Portnoy. As expected, he brought out Flying Colors and Transatlantic personnel and material, but then also brought out Rudess, Green, and Gillette for the Instrumedley. The sheer technical proficiency of these guys is mind-blowing. To think that they likely did this with minimal rehearsal is amazing. Across the bands, it was a solid 90 minutes of adrenaline.
3) Riverside. They sounded so good and their music lends well towards audience participation. I already loved this band and these shows only cemented it.
4) "Viking Day". On Thursday, three Norwegian bands played back-to-back-to-back on the pool stage - Airbag, Magic Pie, and Gazpacho. Despite being lesser-known among the bands on the ship, they had some great fans who know the material and the bands played with passion and excitement. I was particularly looking forward to Magic Pie and Gazpacho, I enjoyed Airbag also and will be buying their catalog. Specific highlights were King For A Day (Magic Pie), Dream of Stone (Gazpacho), and parts of Tick Tock (Gazpacho).
5) Rudess solo show. Despite being a long-time fan, I did not expect much from this show. I was unsure what he could cover. He turned it into a story-telling session where he basically told his life story and played songs along with it. As he discussed his transition from classical piano to discovering prog to working with various bands, he played pieces from Bach, ELP, Liquid Tension Experiment, and Dream Theater. It was highly interesting and very technically impressive. My comment to a friend was that if I dropped a piano onto another piano I still couldn't hit as many keys as Jordan was hitting.
Other highlights for me included The Sea Within, District 97 (so strong and tight), and Focus (they always bring a smile to my face).
^ Thanks.
Henry
Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/
<<The other lowlight that was more discussed among cruisers were the long soundchecks which delayed some shows and the occurrence of audio problems in other shows. I am not an audio engineer and don't know all that it entails to get good sound, but the experience was very uneven and worse than past years. I personally saw dropped channels on Spock's Beard, In Continuum, and Casey McPherson. Alan Morse was particularly upset when his guitar kept going out and had to be lovingly consoled by a Ted Leonard hug to the cheers of fans. Other shows were delayed 30-90 minutes due to "technical" problems, which would then cascade through the day. While some blamed the bands themselves for the delays, I heard one of the sound engineers blame the techs. He said they were far too inexperienced.>>
This is my biggest problem with CTTE. There have been times where I've sat for an hour while a band soundchecks, only to have to leave before they've even started because it's then time for a band I wanted to see more. On CTTE 2015 I watched Bad Dreams soundcheck for an hour, but didn't see them perform until 2017! And one year Anglagard soundchecked for longer than they played (this was an indoor show, it wasn't weather related - they've sometimes had bad luck with weather).
Thanks for the review, Doh!
Woah... that IS a long soundcheck!
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
A great addition to the set. The more tunes from Tony's early years the better!
The guy that posted that has a great band too, Fernando Perdomo. Anyone catch his set?
Fernando is everywhere. Besides his Out To Sea sets, he also did Fern&Celli (acoustic with a cello) and In Continuum, was a guest artist on several other sets, and also performed with Late Night Live. He is like a kid in a candy shop on board and loves every moment. It's infectious.
I can tell. Good for him. He's one of the cooler recent prog talents to come to the fore.
Two thumbs way up for adding "No Opportunity" to the set!
Steve clearly loves it any time they add Peter-era material, especially stuff he played when he first joined the band. To my knowledge no recordings exist of Steve playing this back in 1970/71 (he mimed to the studio version on the Belgian TV thing, but that doesn't count) so this is also very welcome on that front. He obviously enjoys it when the band just rocks out, and it's cool that they extended his second solo bit.
It's too bad Billy doesn't deliver all of the harmony vocals that Chris did, but they look a bit under-rehearsed and tentative (the tempo is a bit sluggish and Davison looks like he's reading lyrics off his iPad) so maybe that will come with more performances.
Speaking of Jon, this is one of those songs where I miss... Jon. Anderson gave this a bluesier, more full-throated rendition back in the day. Something I wish Davison would pay more attention to.
No Alan? Any news on that front?
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
Alan was there. I'm guessing he played on about a 1/3rd of the set, like he has been doing.
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