My (as of now) unedited review of the festival.
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Another spring, another Rites of Spring festival. I have made the trip to the beautiful and historic Gettysburg twice before, but only to see one day of the festival. This was to be my first full RoSfest experience and I found it to be well worth the hype I’ve heard from long time participants and patrons.
I unfortunately had to arrive a bit late Friday evening, and as such missed the opener that night, Bolus, though Saturday night they would entertain for awhile at the after party. This meant the festival would open for me with The Flower Kings. I first got into the Roine Stolt led outfit sometime during the Paradox Hotel cycle, and became a bigger fan with each older album I then picked up. However I was quite disappointed with the follow up, The Sum and No Evil and then regrettably missed the subsequent tour, which would be there last for many years as the band took an unexpected hiatus after being one of the most prolific forces in progressive rock. Luckily the band returned last year with The Banks of Eden and I’d now have my chance to see a band that live albums had set high expectations for.
When the band was announced I could tell they were to be a fan favorite, likely because the members had made regular appearances with other projects at the festival in the years The Flower Kings were dormant. The band opened with the epic, new, opening track “Numbers”, and twenty-five minutes later I had felt that I had already gotten my money’s worth for the evening. Having seen lead guitarist Roine Stolt in several bands previously I was already aware of what a fantastic live soloist he was, but he certainly did a wonderful job reminding me. Even more impressive were his vocals which seemed spot on despite having arrived late to the states due to severe illness. And of course there was lead vocalist Hasse Froberg, whose live power and accuracy was stellar. When the two vocalists came together at parts I would say it was a perfect example of two different voices and vocal styles coming together and making something greater than the parts. New drummer (is there any other kind for The Flower Kings?) Felix Lehrmann performed both old and new material very well, and of course Tomas Bodin brought all of his wonderful sounds forth from the keyboards, and shone especially bright during an excerpt from “Stardust We Are”. Other favorites from the evening included “What If God is Alone?”, “Last Minute on Earth”, and “In the Eyes of the World”.
After the Kings wrapped up their show I set off to my hotel to check in and get unpacked, and after the exhaustion of a long day decided to skip the after party that evening which would have included a performance of Kingcrow, a move I’d come to regret after the next two nights. Off to sleep I went for a Saturday of music that would begin at the early hour of 11:00am.
The first act on Saturday was Jolly, a relatively local act hailing out of New York City. Midway through their set drummer Louis Abramson would recall the story of how Jolly came to the RoSfest stage. During hurricane Sandy his apartment, and the band’s rehearsal space where destroyed along with most of their equipment, but thanks to donations from fans, many of which were RoSfest patrons the band was able to rebuild and had toured Europe and now America with constantly rising stars Riverside. Their performance was top notch, and I think they came across better live than in the studio. The band also had a great rapport with the audience, often cracking jokes between songs, and poking fun at bassist Anthony Rondinone for a guitar strap that would break every song until duct tape was brought into the mix. That said there is a bass heavy, somewhat muddy facet to their sound that will likely always bug me. Past that bias Jolly delivered a fantastic set of well constructed songs that should please most prog fans and could even have some potential to break into some more mainstream success.
Next up was a highly anticipated act, Sweden’s Pain of Salvation. Led by prog-metal icon Daniel Gildenlow, the band has seen a drastic transformation since 2007’s Scarsick album, both in the membership of the band and the direction of the music. Luckily I enjoyed the turn in the music, and have a high regard for the bands new Road Salt albums. Sadly, having a history of great music couldn’t quite make a great show. Daniel announced near the start of the show that 2nd guitarist Ragnar Zolberg’s wife had delivered a child three months early the day before the band was supposed to leave for the states, and as such Ragnar would not be present. And while the loss of a guitarist was bad, it certainly wasn’t the only thing lacking from the show. While the performance was accurate enough it came across as uninspired, and “Ashes” in particular seemed bland. Then there was a 3 song semi-acoustic set featuring a very unique version of “Holy Diver” that, while interesting, just didn’t warrant many adjectives past that, and the same could be said for the other songs in the bunch, “Spitfall” and “Stress”. There were highlights, most notably (a sadly abbreviated) “Disco Queen”, and “The Perfect Element”. While Pain of Salvation put on a good show, I can say of the four bands I was familiar with heading into the festival they were the only ones that left me feeling a little disappointed.
Next up was Believe, a Polish act I had not heard a single note from previously, and one I don’t think many readers will be familiar with either. If that is the case, I certainly suggest you look to change that. Believe offered up a very pure form of art-rock full of emotion and a lively performance of vocalist Ragnar Zolberg who, despite an always timid RoSfest audience managed to almost Gabriel-esque lengths to be cinematic as he delivered a solid vocal performance. While the focus on the songs didn’t leave several of the musicians much individual chances to shine, the exceptions were the violin performances of Satomi, and the soloing of Mirek Gil. For those who are familiar with Pendragon, I say that Mirek is similar to Nick Barrett in that his solos are very often memorable, and able draw your complete focus while adding to the song instead of seeming like an outside afterthought or obligation. Several tracks were played from the upcoming June release The Warmest Sun in Winter, and were good enough that I pre-ordered it from my phone at the hotel that night.
The final band on Saturday would be Riverside, another Polish act that managed to create a lot of buzz early on in their career and that seems to be able to build on that with every subsequent album. Having seen them previously on the Out of Myself Tour I had an idea of what to expect from them, but was still blown away by their performance. Mariusz Duda solidified himself as one of my favorite bassist/vocalists, just shy of Geddy Lee, and guitarist Piotr Grudziński was like an optical illusion, a large intimidating figure on stage that played some of the most soulful solos of the day. The band showed their focus on the present and future playing a set that leaned heavily towards their two newest albums. And it’s from those albums that “Egoist Hedonist” and “Feel Like Falling”, the two highlights of the evening came from. Also of note was an excellent ending to “Escalator Shrine” where the lights turned off and the outro tape rolled as the band exited the stage in order to give the impression once the lights came back on that the band had disappeared. Thankfully they came back for a long encore to end the evening.
With the days shows in the bag I took a few minutes back at my hotel to get things in order and then headed to the after party. Along with many of the festivals patrons the party was attended by Bolus, Jolly, most of Pain of Salvation, Believe, Riverside, and some of Shadow Gallery. It was a unique opportunity to not only celebrate and mingle with fellow fans, but to have an informal experience with many of the acts that were playing the festival. I was able to talk with D.C. Cooper about his various projects and the next nights guest appearance with Shadow Gallery, was able to talk with Mariusz Duda about touring the states and the differences in touring different places, was able to talk with the rest of Riverside as they passed a bottle of vodka around with the members of Believe and recalled funny stories about the tour thus far, and was able to get a few more good stories from Jolly after they had consumed a bit of jolly juice!
It’s at this point I must give a general glowing endorsement to the organizers of RoSfest. The show takes place at a beautiful theater, the sound has ranged from good to fantastic every show I’ve seen there, they bring acts in from all over the world that would otherwise not be able to play the US or that couldn’t tour the US without the initial festival support. In addition the light show for all the bands was amazing, especially considering the work that went into it for what was, for many, a one off affair. The vendors the festival attracts and everyone associated with it is pleasant and they make the weekend an incredible experience. Now… onto Sunday!
Sunday began again at 11:00am with another unknown band for me, Dream the Electric Sleep. The Kentucky three-piece started with a soft intro that built into a wonderful song that was the perfect way to shake off the prior night’s festivities and start the day. From there on the band amazed me, playing songs from their debut album, Lost and Gone Forever, and an album due out sometime this year. For the most part drummer Joey Waters was never flashy or overly complicated, but had a nice bag of different rhythms and patterns that I loved to follow along with, and bassist Chris Tackett played with a very clean Chris Squire-esque bass tone that made picking out his fantastic work easy. It was a very easy decision to pick up their album immediately following their set. Unfortunately I did have to miss MoeTar and Electric Astrurias. However the latter, an instrumental outfit from Japan, did end up garnishing gushing reviews from friends and patrons I would talk to later in the day.
The final act of the festival was Pennsylvania’s own, Shadow Gallery. Sadly the band’s in ear monitor system went out as the band was setting up, which caused delays as a monitor system had to be hooked up, and as is often the case with such last minute problems the band commented that night after the show about not being able to hear one another. That didn’t stop the band from putting on a fantastic show. A good start was the one-two punch of “Room V” and “Andromeda Strain”. With far more energy and metal infused excitement than any other band at the festival that year, or probably ever, the band either seemed to either invigorate or estrange the crowd. You could see parts of the crowd get more animated than during any other point in the festival, and you could also see a few old school prog-rockers thinking “these damn kids and their metal!” Despite the sound problems Shadow Gallery stayed tight for most of the night, and on my third time seeing them they brought themselves to a new high as D.C. Cooper came on stage to perform “New World Order”. Despite never having rehearsed the song with the band (sound check cut due to problems) they performed it flawlessly, while D.C. and Shadow Gallery vocalist Brian Ashland acted out a perfect performance of their respective characters in the song. And as if the 4 part vocal lines performed throughout Shadow Gallery’s set weren’t enough, D.C. managed to take things to a new level with his fifth part. Although an intro, and part of drummer Joe Nevolo’s amazing solo were cut due to time concerns, “Crystalline Dreams” managed to be saved when at the very end of “Gold Dust” bassist Carl Cadden-James looked at the clock and got everyone to start the song in time to finish just a minute or two shy of curfew.
After another after party spent mixing with friends and talking with Shadow Gallery about their future plans RoSfest came to a close for me just after 3am on Monday morning. My only major complaints came from what was missed. Missing Kingcrow Friday night and the two acts Sunday, and missing a full band for Pain of Salvation. Pretty much every other bit of the festival met or exceeded my expectations and I would recommend anyone in the Northeast check it out if they ever need a progcation.
Topic: RoSfest 2015 (Haken, Enchant, Spock's headlining) (Read 7479 times)
