Live Prog Bands vs Studio Only Prog Projekts

Raff wrote: Where in the southern US do you live? Have you ever considered attending ProgDay on Labor Day weekend, in Chapel Hill (NC)? We have been going every year since 2010, and wouldn't miss it for anything in the world. Great vibe, great crowd, and always a first-rate offer of exciting modern bands.

Davesax1965 wrote: I tend to think Skullhead is trying to change reality with this post. Is there a way of playing live gigs and getting lots of people there ? - well, if there is, everyone would be doing it. Reality suggests otherwise. Sadly.

Isn't the goal of any prog musician to change reality?

One thought is that there is a gift in youth.  That typically being light on your feet and able to move etc.
Remember Hendrix going from Seattle to London because he "heard" there was a great scene there?

With the older generation of prog artists, for most all it is not practical to uproot and move their jobs, kids, families to the prog hotbed wherever that is.

Where is the hotbed right now for prog?  It can't be anywhere in the US.  London? Amsterdam?  Rome? Tokyo, Prague?

I might suggest that there is something magical and inspiring about being submerged in a real scene. 
In a sense we are trying to create a scene right here on Progarchives, and it's cool in that we can all kind of feel something, a sense of community, but nothing like a real scene where we all vibe off one another, buyone another a beer, hang out on a couch and listen to some eclectic music being played in a coffee house before heading to a big 4 band prog show down the street, then partying with the musicians after the show at an after hours get together where you get to meet everyone in the band and slip the bass player your own demo tape, and he calls you a week later and asks if you want to open up for them at their next local show...
and you run into people you met last night at the corner market, and they invite you over their flat for a listen to some new music they just picked up from their friend who knows this new band that is moving to town next week, and they ask you if you know of a place they can live, and you have some spare room out in your yard if they don't mind not having running water, and ........




Edited by Skullhead - January 24 2015 at 12:31

In Europe it's very geographyc, there are a few 'hot-spots' for live Prog in Europe, in Holland, bits of Germany, Poland, a lone venue in Walonian Belgium (the 666 in Verviers)... but if you live in Spain for example, forget it, nobody is touring there.

^ A lot of the people filling the old timer's shows are long time fans, who fell in love when the band's were cutting albums and want to see them live again, to get that live feeling again from songs that have been their favourites for decades. Doesn't matter if it's Chicago or Motley Crue.

^ That comes back to exposure. Simple as that. Santana gets played on classic rock stations in ways even Yes doesn't... plus there's that album Supernatural that makes Santana a unique case.

Let us suppose, dear readers, that I put together my "psychedelic backing track and lightshow." I book a venue. I hire a PA. I get all the transport arranged. I get a few musicians together. We hire all the practice rooms, go through the numbers time and time again until we're note perfect, which takes time....

Edited by Davesax1965 - January 25 2015 at 09:18