Kevin Gilbert's "Lamb" performance 25th anniversary

[proggy_jazzer]

Unless I missed it, the 25th anniversary of this show passed without a mention yesterday. I've been a latecomer to the music of Kevin Gilbert, but over the past few months I've listened to everything I could find, including this one-off from Progfest. I doubt I can add anything substantive to the accolades already posted in various places on this site and elsewhere, but thought it at least deserved a mention.

[Top Cat]

I love this performance of the Lamb..what a great show and Kevin's interpretation is simply brilliant to me.
Dave Kerzner posted this concert on FB several months ago and I'd never seen it before.

After watching the concert I set out on a Kevin Gilbert journey and couldn't stop researching and listening to his music from the beginning to the end.

I'm deeply saddened we lost him at such a young age and can only imagine the wonderful music he would've continued sharing with the world.

I know Kerzner is releasing some best of cds, some including songs he did with Keven as well and Nick.

[mnprogger]

yeah it was 25 years ago today

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/giraf...-13dc3135.html

That was the November of my Freshman year in College. I wish I had known about him back then, but I also would assume there would have been no way I could have afforded to fly out to LA and see it being only 18.

[strawberrybrick]

The Variety Arts, I remember it well. Those Prog Fests were very exciting, thank you Greg Walker and David Overstreet

[Paulrus]

What was almost better than KG's performance at PF was running into him in the record dealer's lobby rifling through the crates looking for rare copies of, you guessed it -- Peter Gabriel records!

[ytserush]

Love that performance.

[3RDegree_Robert]

You are ALL gonna want to listen to this!

[mnprogger]

bump.

not the Lamb performance, but today is Kevin's birthday.

"Marc Bonilla and I used to jam on Monkees tunes just for fun." -Kevin Gilbert

5:34-5:42

[Wah3]

Was a DVD of Gilbert's Lamb performance ever released? I know there was talk of it at one time, but I think they may have only released it on CD.

[fiberman]

You are ALL gonna want to listen to this!

Nice podcast thanks.

[interbellum]

Was a DVD of Gilbert's Lamb performance ever released? I know there was talk of it at one time, but I think they may have only released it on CD.

Not officially....

[Mythos]

The Variety Arts, I remember it well. Those Prog Fests were very exciting, thank you Greg Walker and David Overstreet

I was there too, and knew both of those guys....!

It was an awesome show, Kevin (and the band) did an awesome job!

I loved the Variety Arts Venue, I saw the Chameleons and Mighty Lemondrops there as well...

[Firth]

Not officially....

[Firth]

I think there was a DVD release and I will check my stuff when I get back. That YouTube above ain’t bad.

[infandous]

yeah it was 25 years ago today

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/giraf...-13dc3135.html

That was the November of my Freshman year in College. I wish I had known about him back then, but I also would assume there would have been no way I could have afforded to fly out to LA and see it being only 18.

Crazy that I was actually living in L.A. at the time and was completely unaware of Prog Fest at all! Kills me that I could have been there but didn't even know it existed. I wasn't on the internet yet at that point (didn't even have a computer), but I can't believe there wasn't some other way I might have known since I was living in the area. Oh well, at least I made it to almost every Nearfest, which sort of makes up for it.

That said, I didn't even know about Kevin until many years later, but still love his music and wish he could have stuck around to make more.

[Paulrus]

Crazy that I was actually living in L.A. at the time and was completely unaware of Prog Fest at all! Kills me that I could have been there but didn't even know it existed.

Yeah, marketing for PF was, shall we say... stealthy.

[interbellum]

I think there was a DVD release and I will check my stuff when I get back. That YouTube above ain’t bad.

Yes there is a DVD(R) release, but not everybody is convinced it's official. Still available at http://synphonicmusic.com/country/DVD.html with or without CD.

[infandous]

Yes there is a DVD(R) release, but not everybody is convinced it's official. Still available at http://synphonicmusic.com/country/DVD.html with or without CD.

I would question whether it's actually available from Greg. I emailed him a couple months ago about picking up a couple albums, he said he'd get back to me after he checked if he had them. I haven't heard anything since, despite sending him an email last week to check on the status. Not sure what the deal is, but he's usually been pretty quick to get back to me (other than when he's at festivals, which I think there aren't any since October?). Hope everything is all right with him.

[moecurlythanu]

Crazy that I was actually living in L.A. at the time and was completely unaware of Prog Fest at all! Kills me that I could have been there but didn't even know it existed. I wasn't on the internet yet at that point (didn't even have a computer), but I can't believe there wasn't some other way I might have known since I was living in the area.

I wasn't online either, but I knew about Progfest because I was one of Greg's customers from the beginning, and I think I found him (as well as the other Prog-Rock CD vendors) in Goldmine. It wasn't as easy as a search engine, but there were ways, and there was a "word of mouth" network too, if you knew the right people.

[interbellum]

I would question whether it's actually available from Greg. I emailed him a couple months ago about picking up a couple albums, he said he'd get back to me after he checked if he had them. I haven't heard anything since, despite sending him an email last week to check on the status. Not sure what the deal is, but he's usually been pretty quick to get back to me (other than when he's at festivals, which I think there aren't any since October?). Hope everything is all right with him.

Well, I bought it from him some years ago and as it was recorded during "his" festival and Kevin and he were friends he also added some nice liner-notes.
Haven't ordered from him a lot lately, which is partly due to the high shipping-rates and the fact that I often ordered based on his latest emails (which have become very rare).

[Mythos]

I wasn't online either, but I knew about Progfest because I was one of Greg's customers from the beginning, and I think I found him (as well as the other Prog-Rock CD vendors) in Goldmine. It wasn't as easy as a search engine, but there were ways, and there was a "word of mouth" network too, if you knew the right people.

Yeah, I think I met David through Round Sounds and the met Greg through David, I loved those early days too, he lived in Stanton about 10 minutes from my house and on Saturday mornings I'd grab my Discman and head over to his garage for a couple hours and always came home with some cool stuff...

[Twelfth Earl of Mar]

I just watched the Lamb performance on YouTube; it was the first time I watched the whole thing. I thought Gilbert gave a great performance, and it was cool to see a young NDV and Dave Kerzner. I have a couple of questions since I was 'unaware' in the mid 90s:

1. Leading up to Progfest 94, was the Prog community aware that Kevin Gilbert was going to perform the Lamb? Was Kevin Gilbert well-known yet?
2. Was the Giraffe 'reunion' a big thing? They only had 2 prior albums, and of those who performed The Lamb with Gilbert, I think only the guitar player played on Giraffe albums.

[Paulrus]

I just watched the Lamb performance on YouTube; it was the first time I watched the whole thing. I thought Gilbert gave a great performance, and it was cool to see a young NDV and Dave Kerzner. I have a couple of questions since I was 'unaware' in the mid 90s:

1. Leading up to Progfest 94, was the Prog community aware that Kevin Gilbert was going to perform the Lamb? Was Kevin Gilbert well-known yet?
2. Was the Giraffe 'reunion' a big thing? They only had 2 prior albums, and of those who performed The Lamb with Gilbert, I think only the guitar player played on Giraffe albums.

Speaking for myself...

1. The "Prog community" in 1994 was mostly a bi-coastal affair. Some people on one side knew what the other side was up to, and vice versa, but everything I knew at the time here in the Bay Area came word of mouth through my local network of friends and a little bit of radio promotion. Remember, there was little to no Internet at the time.

I'd say awareness about Kevin and Giraffe was spotty, mostly confined to west coast fans. Toy Matinee had been moderately successful (the "Ballad of Jenny Ledge" got reasonably good airplay on the radio, and the video popped up regularly on MTV & VH-1, as I recall), but again I think most of their success was concentrated in the west coast markets of LA and the Bay Area, where Kevin was from and where Giraffe got started.

Those of us who knew about ProgFest probably saw the lineup and either already knew who Kevin/Giraffe were, or did a bit of research on him/them. I'm not sure I'd heard a lick of Giraffe music before I saw the PF show, they were that obscure. Which means...

2. The reunion was not a big thing, mainly because it wasn't a true reunion. I think only two other guys from the band were part of that performance. Plus it's not like Giraffe were well known in the prog sphere. They were closer to bands like Level 42 than anything else, so expectations were muted going into the show. That's what made that show so great. A LOT of people were suddenly rushing out to learn more about Kevin, Giraffe, etc.

[moecurlythanu]

I only knew about Giraffe from Greg Walker, so I hadn't heard a note. He talked them up, but as I had made the trip in '93, I couldn't justify the expense the following year in '94.

[Firth]

I just watched the Lamb performance on YouTube; it was the first time I watched the whole thing. I thought Gilbert gave a great performance, and it was cool to see a young NDV and Dave Kerzner. I have a couple of questions since I was 'unaware' in the mid 90s:

1. Leading up to Progfest 94, was the Prog community aware that Kevin Gilbert was going to perform the Lamb? Was Kevin Gilbert well-known yet?
2. Was the Giraffe 'reunion' a big thing? They only had 2 prior albums, and of those who performed The Lamb with Gilbert, I think only the guitar player played on Giraffe albums.

Good questions. Also did that Lamb performance introduce some people who were KG fans, but hadn’t been exposed to that version of Genesis?