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Is there anybody out there who misses BajaProg

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moshkito View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 27 2020 at 07:43
Originally posted by zwordser zwordser wrote:

Yeah, I miss Baja Prog!  
...
Both years were awesome, but I think attendance declined in 2014 after a bumper in 2013 with Steve Hackett performing (he packed the house) so I don't think they could maintain if financially, though I don't know the whole story. 
...

Hi,

And here is another major issue of these Prog shows ... in 1999, at the SFPMF (San Francisco), there were a couple of things listed. In that list were a few "no names" ... but some nice ones ... so are you ready?

Lana Lane and the Rocket Scientists. Put on one of the most professional and clean shows I have ever seen any band do ... at most half the audience in there, and some of the complaints were that it had a bit too much metal in it! I find that comment really harsh ... and not appreciative of the music itself, and their work, which was unlike most of the bands, well rehearsed and ready for prime time ... and they will never even get a thread on PA about their shows!

Brand X. A fractured band showed up with just John on his guitar ... it wasn't super, but it looked like they rehearsed a bit and tried ... sadly it sounded ... weak. Half the audience ... probably because Phil Collins was not there! (Right!!!!!)

Buckethead. I'm not sure this belongs in the "progressive" mold of things, unless you consider watching someone play his guitar to Godzilla a great ... something or other ... might go better in Japan, but in SF with only one third of the audience? I ended up thinking that no one was gonna buy a single Buckethead CD that night!

Bondage Fruit. Probably a complete unknown band for most fans, and you could tell ... most of the audience were going in and out ... and did not pay attention to the music, and even the guitarist got upset during a solo and turned around and just played for his band! The did a nice show, but I think they were hoping for a nicer appreciation, and they got none ... and barely 50 claps at the end ... saddest thing I have ever seen in a "progressive" show!

The Per Lindh Project. With Ms. Hedberg at the front playing violin, and helping the band, it showed more "metal" on stage than Lana Lane. But the keyboard wizardry was nice, and Per Lindh did not use it to simply show off solos and do a RW impression! He stuck to their music and did well. Only half an audience!

Gong. A new bunch of folks on this one, with Travis, (sorry, forgot the drummer's name from Soul2Soul), and what I would say was a not a great show by the band, compiled by the fact that Daevid Allen got upset and I wished he had stopped the show and tell the video camera folks off and out of the stage ... there was a moment when he was "telling a story" and the camera was on him and the camera person walked away, half way through the whole thing ... DA threw a finger on his side step, and continued on, but you could tell by his tone he was not happy, and then the show straightened up and continued. About 2/3's of the audience. It wasn't bad ... just sad to see that after 30 years, a camera idiot still did not know what was important or not in the music!

Porcupine Tree. Supposedly a bad show, according to a roadie, because the Prophet 5 took a nasty spill at the airport and they spent from noon 4 or 5PM to try and fix it with it spread out on the floor backstage. Richard, spent at least 3 of these hours backstage while 2 other bands played, and fixed up a couple of synths to do the parts he needed. For me, and I had NEVER heard PT at that time, it was a fantastic show even with SW making a snide remark about the keyboard that broke ... but the band sounded absolutely fantastic ... and I was standing next to the producer of the show when that roadie came buy and I told him to shut up and leave the building ... he was hurting his band. Sean looked at him and pointed to the door! I have never seen, PT do a bad show! Full audience.

Magma. This was the show that I think everyone wanted to see. And the worst part of it, was waiting 30 minutes for Christian to nail his drum set down, which had to be done again later ... so he could play hard and harder, the only thing that determines what Magma is like, so to speak! It was an absolutely magical night and so special, and I am not sure that most folks in the audience had ever seen anything like it, even if they more than likely had a single album of Magma's (I had 13 of them!). Stunning sets and a 15 minute standing ovation ... that had both Stella and Christian in tears. Full audience.

My only desire and point here, is that even though I was one of the professional photographers for the show, I watched and saw all the bands, and gave them all the proper assistance in pictures ... with only one thing that soured me on SW ... he saw me with camera backstage and he immediately put his hand up front and said no pictures of his band or the show or they would stop. 

I have to tell you that SW was not one of my favorite folks, and that the "commercial" side of PT was already in full bloom. I didn't get a PT album for at least 5 years! I just didn't want a jerk-off in my collection! I've eased up since, but that moment is, for me, one of the saddest ever ... SW could give a sh*t about "progressive" anything, except what comes out of his crapper!

And this is the main issue I have with a lot of folks here ... there is not enough care, and respect for a lot of music, and too much of too many posts is about the favorites and the rest is crap ... and that is a very sad state of affairs, and until someone can improve that, and ensure that any band gets a better handshake for their music, I am not sure that most fans will ever give it a listen ... what I saw happening to Bondage Fruit and Lana Lane and the Rocket Scientists is one of the saddest realities of a lot of live shows ... RESPECT ... and appreciation for the music.

And this, kinda soured me on the chance of going to any other shows ... I just did not see the point ... and I remembered what Roy Harper said when he turned down touring with PF ... what for? so folks could throw sh*t at me to get off the stage?

We do not have enough respect for the music ... and some cynics here will report on all the stuff I wrote that they won't read because they are one of those folks! Ouch


Edited by moshkito - February 27 2020 at 07:44
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote zwordser Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 27 2020 at 18:58
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by zwordser zwordser wrote:

Yeah, I miss Baja Prog!  
...
Both years were awesome, but I think attendance declined in 2014 after a bumper in 2013 with Steve Hackett performing (he packed the house) so I don't think they could maintain if financially, though I don't know the whole story. 
...

Hi,

And here is another major issue of these Prog shows ... in 1999, at the SFPMF (San Francisco), there were a couple of things listed. In that list were a few "no names" ... but some nice ones ... so are you ready?....

 

Great rant, but kinda getting off topic. Perhaps would be good to post it again in another section, and it will probably get more notice!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote zwordser Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 27 2020 at 20:12
OK, on to 2014.  I saw more bands, and actually tried to see them all but overextended myself and ended up  crashing (i.e., sleeping) at one of the performances mentioned below (felt a little guilty about it, but it couldn't help it).

Here are the bands I remember the best.

Haken I was thinking they should be performing at the night venue (more attendance, not as hot)  but they did superb in day, played the entire Visions finale.

Museo Rosenbach  They look old, but performances were on point, and sounded almost just like (the great studio quality of) 2012 rerecording of Zarathustra.

Neal Morse Band  Musicianship was fantastic, esp. Portnoy (as usual I'm guessing), tho Neal's going into the audience to sit and sing to a couple folks with his arm around them was a bit awkward, and didn't necessarily go over well.

PFM  Really glad to see them perform some of their classics.

Frak Not even sure they're on PA; first I'd heard them the lead singer's blue costume is what I remember most.

Gnu Quartet  A string quartet from Italy that plays prog. classics.  Very enjoyable; first I'd heard them.

Felix Martin  First listen; this guy and band were fantastic hard-rock virtuosi, and I chatted with him and got T-shirt.

IO Earth First listen; the lead vocal girl was gorgeous, and the punk-like guitarist was just rippin'.

Ossanna Totally cool with their face paint, but this is where I crashed, (and felt a bit guilty about it). But sort of made it up to them by buying their Paleopli CD (since a fave).

Cast/Gnu Quartet performed together and were pretty good. I'm not a big Cast fan, but the keyboardist was really skilled, and I think he's the one who organizes the whole event (not sure of his name).

Last day:

Elora kind of like IO Earth, with a lovely chick vocalist, and some good jamming. I remember the really drunk guy dancing wildly in the crowd--he collapsed at the end.

Spock's Beard  Excellent performance, although the lead singer was not in a good mood to start as the sound setup was wrong and took several minutes to fix. He also chided the people walking away. I talked to the bassist later who expressed his displeasure over Neal leaving the band, and disagreed with me about X being one of their better albums.

Shylock was just excellent!; first I'd heard them. The psychadelic background images suited them perfectly.

Fish He's looking pretty old compared to his Marillion days, but still has a great  voice and stage presence, and he's quite witty. His first time performing in Mexico, (I think I remember him saying ... or was that Hackett??, well probably true for both of them).

Unfortunately I only saw half of Fish as I had to leave early to try to get back across the border by a decent time--yes even late at night it there's a long line that can take a couple hours or more, and I had learned the previous year that they would probably want to pull me over and inspect, (me being a single suspicious-looking hippie-ish  guy).

OK, and I give nods to Saga, Moon Safari, and Castello Di Atlante. Not bands I like much, but they had really energetic performances. I missed Moraine, so can't comment.

The Documental is a little shorter than the 2013 but still has clips of all the bands ...










Edited by zwordser - February 27 2020 at 20:15
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 28 2020 at 09:46
Originally posted by zwordser zwordser wrote:

...
Great rant, but kinda getting off topic. Perhaps would be good to post it again in another section, and it will probably get more notice!


Hi,

The point is that the show suffers, when so many of the performers are ignored or not appreciated.

I would, probably, go to Seattle of SF to see a show, but you won't get me into LA or below. I might even go to the Folk Festival up north in Canada ... but at 69, it's hard to make it to those places in one piece.

BTW, Osanna had been doing "face paint" and costumes ever since their first album and there is enough out there about how Genesis toured with them in the early days and it impressed PG, who promptly went to London and got costumes made!

PFM has always been a great show, anywhere, as far as I can tell ... heck, my roommate used to play all 4 or 5 versions of "Celebration" in a row back to back!

Spock's Beard has been very good for a long time.

Shylock is a 2nd generation of the band I think. It wasn't great but was very good.

Fish was, and is, a very good performer. It's kinda sad that he never got the credit for it, other than being a PG copy, when he was the actor that PG was not!

A couple of others that did the various progressive shows:

Caravan -- Excellent and it shows on the DVD's
Nektar -- Really good, even with Roye not feeling well, but still sounding good
Guru Guru -- although most of these would be in Europe
Ange -- Probably not as strong as they would have been in the past (my guess)
Banco -- even though this is now Vittorio's band, it still sounds damn good!





Edited by moshkito - February 28 2020 at 09:47
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote charcoz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2020 at 05:21
BAJAPROG 2005

Once again 20 Bands/Artists participated. At the Theatre played:
Arti e Mestieri, Ashtar, Asturias, Caravan, Flash, Ken Hensley, Ozric Tentacles, Taal, The Carl Palmer Band, Tripod, Tryo and Van.

And at the Hotel were:
Aural, Eclat, Fantasmagoria, Il Castello di Atlante, Jacques Menache, Niño Astronauta, Steve Adams and Trigon.

My best performance were:
Arti e Mestieri, Caravan, Ken Hensley, Ozric Tentacles, Taal and a special mention to Tryo: my god what a show! Clap

5 bands i didn't know its music and liked their show were:  Fantasmagoria, Jacques Menache, Asturias, Tripod and Trigon. And about  Eclat, Il Castello di Atlante, The Carl Palmer Band, i like its music and liked their show also.

I have some special good memories of this edition: 
  • Miki Fujimoto from Fantasmagoria playin with Ken Hensley!
  • Carl Palmer Drum Clinic.
  • The special performance of Flash. I make a quote from cstack3
    Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

    ...Only bassist Ray Bennett and vocalist Colin Carter showed up, and Bennett told some story that Pete Banks and Mike Hough couldn't make it due to "visa problems."  Bennett played 6 string electric, and Carter played tamborine and sang....I guess it was quite disappointing. ...
  • Steve Adams giving away his CDs to students!
  • Ozric Tentacles wanting to play more.
I want to share with you these complete performaces:


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote charcoz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 26 2020 at 21:08
BAJAPROG 2006

20 Bands/Artists in that year. (Marillion played twice)

At the Theatre played:
Evolución, Trettioariga Kriget, The Flower Kings, Flamborough Head, Amarok, Mostly Autumn, Interpose+, England, Nektar, Mirthrandir, Mariillion Acoustic Trio, Hatfield And The North and SBB.

And at the Hotel were:
Cast, Mariillion Acoustic Trio, Kinzoku Ebizu, Sergio Alvarez, Toccata, Arbatel, Lazuli and Odessa.

For me is one of the best BajaProg.
There were many bands I had never seen live and i was specting to see them for the first time, bands i like and know well: England, Hatfield And The North, Mostly Autumn, Nektar, SBB, The Flower Kings and Trettioariga Kriget. It was a kind of "a dream come true". Thumbs Up

Other bands that i liked their performance were: Amarok, Evolución, Mirthrandir, Odessa and Toccata, but Flamborough Head, Interpose, Kinzoku Ebizu were great too.

I can't remeber exactly the show of Cast because they played the same day Marillion played and there was crowd. About Marillion... They were just good for me, they played the first day at the Hotel and the last day at the Teatre with diferent setlist and enjoyable (i like its music), but i like more electric shows, with drums also. Fortunately I have seen the complete band live before and after that BajaProg 2006.
By the way taking about drums... SBB played with two sets of drums! Without words! Beer

For you to share of this BajaProg 2006, i'll leave this videos:
Trettioåriga Kriget: https://youtu.be/NYKxiov8evk


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote charcoz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 15 2020 at 09:32
FOR BAJAPROG 2007

There were 20 Bands/Artists.

At the Theater played:
Ain Soph, Cast, Focus, Fromuz, Il Balletto Di Bronzo, Lazuli, RPWL, Ritual, Rudess / Morgenstein Project, Satellite, The Tony Levin Band and Univers Zero

At the Hotel were:
Ezoo, Flor de Loto, Indukti, La Perra, Mar de Robles, Naikaku, Time's Forgotten and Tom Griesgraber & Jerry Morotta.

Time for me to see Univers Zero, RPWL, Ritual and Ain Soph for the first time playing live... Amazing! not only because i like their music, the had a great performance. Clap

And i had fortune to see once again: Focus and Il Balletto Di Bronzo, also great. Thumbs Up

Two bands i enjoyed definitely were Fromuz and Satellite (Kind of new bands for me in that moment). Clap
Indukti Flor de Loto, Mar de Robles, Naikaku and Time's Forgotten i didn't know what to expect before their performace, nevertheless I liked them. Beer

The Tony Levin Band, Rudess / Morgenstein Project and Lazuli were the expected.Handshake

A special mention for the renewed Cast, the lineup they had has beeing the one i like the most.

I'll leave this videos from BajaProg 2007:

Univers Zero: 
Indukti: 
Rudess / Morgenstein Project: 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote charcoz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 30 2021 at 12:03
The twelfth edition of BajaProg took place in 2008.
This edition ended an era of uninterrupted festivals year by year Unhappy, it was until 2013 when Festival BajaProg (Edition XIII) was held again.
There were 18 Bands/Artists. (counting that New Trolls played twice, one with orchestra)

At the Theater played:
Alonso Arreola, Cast, Circa, Le Orme, New Trolls (and with the Orchestra of Baja California), OMNI, Quikiion+Lithuma Qnombus, Riverside and Rocket Scientist.

At the Hotel were:
2112, Alex Carpani Band featuring Tony Spada, Anima Inside, Djamra, Entrance, Octopus, Platurno and Prisma.

Three expected bands for me to see were: Riverside, Rocket Scientist and New Trolls with Orchestra. Those three because i had seen Circa and Le Orme before.
Definitely all they were better than the expected! Clap 

The rest of the bands surprised me in some way, i really enjoyed them all, different styles between them and excellent music! Handshake

I want to mention that along with baja prog 2004, this edition had also 7 bands from Latinamerica! Thumbs Up Beer

I'll leave this videos from BajaProg XII:
Rocket Scientist:  https://youtu.be/UsJHPAt0Oyc
New Trolls with the "Orquesta de Baja California": https://youtu.be/D24XPQoRnTg

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote charcoz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 24 2021 at 09:55
BajaProg XIII took place in 2013, after 4 years without BajaProg Fest.

At the Theater played:
Anglagard, Eddie Jobson, Locanda Delle Fate, Mystery, Steve Hackett, Storia New Trolls, The Crimson Project and Three Friends.

At the Hotel were:
Cast, Crisalida, Galahad, Gran Turismo Veloce, Introvision, Jelonek, Luz de Riada and Panzerballet

In that edition the number of Bands/Artists were reduced for the Theatre, in order to give more time for the bands to play, but also because some other artists started to play small performances outside the theater.

I really got a big suprise with the band Introvision, i didn't know them, but during its show i was getting involved within its music, and really joined it and enjoyed it. Hug

I had the expectation to see Gran Turismo Veloce, Anglagard, Locanda delle fate, Hackett, Crimson Project and Three Friends, an expectation that could not explain, because i'm a fan of their music, and because the festival was held once again. So I was really shocked at their shows. ClapThumbs UpBeer

Eddie Jobson, Mystery and Storia New Trolls also had great concerts. And I also liked Galahad, Cast and Crisalida. Star

Here I share a playlist of some concerts of this BajaProg edition. Don't miss it!!! LOL


Handshake

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote charcoz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 14 2021 at 11:48
BajaProg XIV was in 2014, it is the last edition of the festival so far. Disapprove

At the Theater played:
Fish, Moon Safari, Museo Rosenbach, Neal Morse Band, Osanna + Gianni Leone + David Jackson, PFM, Saga and Shylock.

At the Hotel were:
Cast + GNU Quartet, Elora, Felix Martin, Frak, GNU Quartet, Haken, Il Castello Di Atlante, IO Earth, Moraine and Spock's Beard.

As in last year, the number of Bands/Artists were reduced for the Theatre, in order to give more time for the bands to play.

There were many bands I like and never seen live before, so I had great expectation for the shows to come! Approve

I really think they all offered great shows, although at the theater there were some technical troubles with much public around with a kind of noise. Stern Smile

My expectations were with Moon Safari, Museo Rosenbach, Osanna, Saga and Shylock, it was the first and only time i've seen them live. 
I have no words to describe my emotion during their shows, really amazing! Clap
Fish, Neal Morse Band and PFM were also great as i expected, because i've already seen them before. LOL

Talking about the performace at the Hotel, I wish that many of them had played in the theater, anyway they were good shows and I really enjoyed Haken, IO Earth and Spock's Beard. Handshake
Unfortunatelly I missed the second day show where Frak, GNU Quartet and Il Castello Di Atlante played. Ouch

I share you a playlist of some concerts of the last BajaProg edition (2014)
Hope you enjoy! Hug


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