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Negoba

Prog Reviewer

Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
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Posted: August 05 2009 at 10:03

3 weeks....getting excited.

You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.

Zitro

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Location: United States
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Points: 1321

Posted: August 06 2009 at 20:46

Bigelf was underrated. What an entertaining set of songs. What rock&roll attitude!! And they even brought a mellotron and old-skool hammond organ to the stage! :D

Of course, Zappa plays Zappa was the superior band, but Dream Theater came very very close. They were excellent that night and John Myung could actually be heard. Sometimes, they played too many solos, but I can't expect them to be restrained on a live show.

Moatilliatta View Drop Down

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Joined: December 01 2005
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Points: 3083

Posted: August 07 2009 at 00:11

Zitro wrote:

The setlist seems much better than in 2008. There's barely any "random" average songs, and I hope they would play "Nightmare" and "Tuscany" in Boston.

I'm also excited to see Zappa plays Zappa and Bigelf. Bigelf reminds me of the classic rock era.

I disagree. My setlist last year was:

In the Presence of Enemies, Pt. 1

Beyond This Life

Blind Faith

Erotomania

Voices

Forsaken

The Ministry of the Lost Souls

(the order might be a little jumbled in the middle)

Encore Medley: Metropolis, Learning to Live, A Change of Seasons, pt. 7

We both got the Erotomania/Voices bit I see, but I would actually take the Systematic Chaos numbers over the Black Clouds ones any day. And Beyond This Life and Blind Faith are great numbers as well.

In fact, seeing this setlist pretty much solidifies my decision not to attend this year.

Would be great if the band decided to do a tour alone again; those shows will always be the best. But maybe they're getting too old for that, and it's good of them to help get up-and-coming bands out there.

www.last.fm/user/ThisCenotaph

Conor Fynes View Drop Down

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Joined: February 11 2009
Location: Vancouver, CA
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Points: 3196

Posted: August 07 2009 at 04:47

I would comment on my prognation experience if they had decided to come to vancouver agian... They played a sold out show here in 2008!!!

Zitro

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Points: 1321

Posted: August 07 2009 at 09:15

Moatilliatta wrote:

I disagree. My setlist last year was:

In the Presence of Enemies, Pt. 1

Beyond This Life

Blind Faith

Erotomania

Voices

Forsaken

The Ministry of the Lost Souls

(the order might be a little jumbled in the middle)

Encore Medley: Metropolis, Learning to Live, A Change of Seasons, pt. 7

wow, I'm jealous. I got a bunch of weaker tunes like "Constant Motion" "Dark Eternal Night" "Never Enough" while you got that amazing encore and starting a show with "In The Presence of". My show started with Constant Motion if I'm not mistaken and it wasn't until "Misunderstood" when I started having a great time.

Moatilliatta View Drop Down

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Joined: December 01 2005
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Points: 3083

Posted: August 07 2009 at 10:45

^Ah, yes I did see that they were opening some sets with Constant Motion. That's a shame.

www.last.fm/user/ThisCenotaph

The T

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Joined: October 16 2006
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Posted: August 08 2009 at 21:57

My girl, my band, and off picture, my friends... don't need much more...

OzzProg

Forum Senior Member

Joined: January 02 2008
Location: Quebec
Status: Offline
Points: 540

Posted: August 08 2009 at 22:36

^
That's a keeper :)

Failcore

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Joined: October 27 2006
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Points: 4625

Posted: August 12 2009 at 01:50

Portnoy (wow, I accidentally typed in Porntoy at first, lol, never saw the anagram before) looks hilarious, karate pose ftw.

EDIT: FYI, I found out that photos in your sig will show up a lot better (IE: less pixellation) if you downsize the photo first in photoshop using one of the filtering methods, instead of just letting the server do it for you.

Edited by Deathrabbit - August 12 2009 at 01:53

The T

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Posted: August 12 2009 at 11:12

^I'll try that, thaks.

Guitar1Jesse View Drop Down

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Joined: June 22 2008
Location: Twin Cities, MN
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Posted: August 22 2009 at 00:10

Just got back from the show. I did not stay for all of Dream Theater, I couldn't take it anymore. They were bad to say the least. Rudess' continuum solo was the most horrific thing I may have ever seen, and was that his Mii character he was playing with?

Anyway, the first 3 bands were AWESOME.

Scale the Summit was a great opener. Just a few regular guys (seemingly) who have mastered their instruments. Good to see an instrumental band too, it's cool to see how the absense of vocals really hones you in on the technicality of the music.

Bigelf blew me away. They sound a lot like Led Zeppelin and David Gilmour, in a strangely doom-like manner. I bought a CD, but I don't hear the Zeppelin influence as much as I did live. I can see this band becoming HUGE.

Zappa Plays Zappa. Incredible as expected. That woman, I forget her name, on the keys/sax/flute was awesome.

Take a few minutes and listen to this!
http://www.myspace.com/jlangmusic

micky

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Posted: August 22 2009 at 07:40

^ hahahha

and yepper... that woman was something wasn't she.

The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip

Negoba

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Joined: July 24 2008
Location: Big Muddy
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Points: 5208

Posted: August 23 2009 at 17:49

All right my butt is tired. Yesterday drove from St. Louis to Milwaukee, back today....

I had a very good time at Prognation. I have never been to a prog festival before and it was a cool atmosphere with a lot of people really knowing their music. Lots of diehard DT fans, including my friend who organized our group, probably went away mildly disappointed. The sound was boomy and echo-ey for all the bands except Zappa play Zappa. It completely ruined my experience of Scale the Summit. They were obviously very very good at their instruments. I went down for the meet and greet at the merchandise booth, and they were normal young guys. They were also charging $20 for their CD at a show??!!!?? WTF? If you're trying to get your name out there on the biggest venue you're going to get, you sell your CD for $10 so almost everyone in the place walks out with a copy and at least you break even. I'll probably download it after I'm done here.

Bigelf was exactly what I expected, maybe a little better. Their dark, massive sound wasn't harmed by the over-reverbed hall, and the frontman was awesome. Clearly the best voice of the show. He had a real Hammond, a mini-Moog, and I think a real Mellotron to his left and right and the microphone center and stood straddling the two pianos while singing his Billy Squier with 30 more IQ points and much better acid sound....Portnoy came out and played a song with them and that was fun. They are complete 70's ripoffs but they are 10000 better than Wolfmother, who made their money on the same Schtick. Alot of luck in showbiz.

Zappa play Zappa was the most complex show I've ever seen in my life and they sounded great. One of our party, a music fan but not really prog, kept asking why ZpZ was not the headliner. I cannot possibly think of a prog show more satisfying than their performance. Dweezil pretty much matched Pertucci's shredding but the music was so much more complex, and the solos so much tastier. You have to credit Portnoy for having the love of music to allow bands on his tour that actually have the ability to upstage him. (I can't imagine what it would be like if PoS, Beardfish, or especially Opeth and Unexpect had come first)

In any case, ZpZ was great. "The Black Page" was mind-boggling and there was one other piece earlier in the set just as complex which I'm guessing is "Echidna's Arf" from what I've read, though I don't have a copy of that song. They did not play Peaches en Regalia, but did play Inca Roads and a short version of "Willie the Pimp," along with standards "Apostrophe" and "Montana."

Dream Theater put on a very nice metal show. The new stuff, even with Portnoy's processed barks, worked pretty well live, but after ZpZ seemed like simple simple stuff. They played the three epics off the new album and we also gut lucky and got both Metropolis and Erotomania. The stage looked awesome, with Rudess's swivel keyboard and midi-triggered video of himself being quite visual entertaining.

The boomy sound killed all the intricacies, and frankly, compared to when I saw DT on the Awake tour years ago, there wasn't nearly as much intricacy. It was fun, but not very prog. The band actually got a little loose on the hard parts of Metropolis which is pretty unheard of.

So ZpZ steals the show, I have a great time despite about 16 hours of driving or more to enjoy it.

Cheers fellow proggers.

You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all.

Kix

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Joined: September 01 2008
Location: Milwaukee, WI
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Posted: August 23 2009 at 22:14

^^ drove from STL, wow.

anyway, I live in Milwaukee, so of course I went.

way, way too much metal, especially DT

also agree ZpZ should've been the headliner of those bands, still though, I'm not the biggest Zappa guy

Scale the Sumitts drummer is very good, he'll go somewhere

Bigelf was good......but at times, not. At times though, I thought they were going to go right into 21st Centruy..man, frontman sounded just like KC, the whole band could've pulled it off, would've been great.

My first Prog Nation Tour, Overall, for 45 bucks for FIVE hrs of music, great.

micky

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Posted: August 24 2009 at 15:23

yeah.... for all the sh*t we give DT... give them props for spotlighting a band and music FAR more advanced and ..well... simply better in many ways than their own. They were upstaged. Funny thing is... I think they'd be the first to admit it, and that gets my respect.

The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip

Diaby

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Posted: August 24 2009 at 15:51

The T wrote:

The next choice was unexpected. After an excellent slow solo by Petrucci, a solo full of FEELING for those who call the guy "cold", "Hollow Years" from FII started.

Why was it unexpected? They did play it on almost all of the European shows this year (luckily, also here in Budapest).

yeah

The T

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Posted: August 24 2009 at 17:16

^Well, unexpected for me...

And yes, I hope you people realize that DT is always ready to promote less-popular bands like your own ZpZ or 3 last year... Not many famous acts do that...

They do more for the promotion of prog(metal) that constantly whine about them...

Fieldofsorrow View Drop Down

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Joined: December 27 2008
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Posted: August 25 2009 at 01:59

micky wrote:

yeah.... for all the sh*t we give DT... give them props for spotlighting a band and music FAR more advanced and ..well... simply better in many ways than their own. They were upstaged. Funny thing is... I think they'd be the first to admit it, and that gets my respect.

To be honest, I think they just see it as demonstrating the wide variety of prog that is available, not worrying about who upstages whom.

Groovy teenage rock with mild prog tendencies: http://www.myspace.com/omniabsenceband

hirszu

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Joined: April 03 2009
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Posted: August 25 2009 at 16:48

35 days and I'll see them! Can't wait.
Here, in Europe, the supporting bands are Unexpect, Bigelf and Opeth.

I haven't checked Unexpect yet, but as far as I read people love it or hate it and it's pure avant-garde metal.

For Bigelf, I've heard two albums so far, and I agree with all you say about their style. I'm sure they are going to be a nice warm up band before the main show.

Opeth - although I know only three albums, I really like them. We have a pretty strong fan base here in Poland. I know some people bough the tickets for the show mainy to see Opeth, not DT. Opeth will for sure give us more than an hour of great music.

But as I said before, DT is the main course. The setlists from previous shows aren't bad, I think. I pray for Beyond This Life, which is my Theatre's favourite from their heavier stuff, and Hollow Years, just to hear Petrucci's extended solo, which is my fav guitar part ever for now.

Edited by hirszu - August 25 2009 at 16:50

micky

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Posted: August 25 2009 at 17:49

Fieldofsorrow wrote:

To be honest, I think they just see it as demonstrating the wide variety of prog that is available, not worrying about who upstages whom.

then they'd be the first band to be so self-righteous... LOL

Do they worry.. of course not... they have a proven fanbase that will lap up whatever sh*t they release.

however don't tell me they didn't notice large segments of the crowd that that came for music, not to worship the group, walking out in the middle of their set....

The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip