NEARfest 2009

Two weekends ago, a friend and I made the annual pilgrimmage to Bethlehem PA, and the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University, to attend what is arguably the USA's premier progressive music festival. We eat this stuff up. This year we went for three days - which I think we decided is too much music for almost anyone. But it was a great time, and we also had time to tour Bethlehem, which we think is a pretty neat town despite the local economy (in its heyday, it was home to Bethlehem Steel Corporation - the steel works now sit empty, and are the site of a new casino, which is not exactly as promising to a local economy as, say, steel production once was.)

Friday night kicked off with a band that has been around since 1970 or so. Ever hear of Van der Graaf Generator? I didn't think so. They are a pretty intense bunch of guys; their sax player split a couple years ago, but they are fully capable of a full sound with the threesome. The organ player, Hugh Banton, builds organs for churches and such as a day job (very few of these bands can support their members without some alternative source of income). Van der Graaf was followed by Steve Hillage, guitarist for Saturday's headliner band, Gong, and his band.

the inimitable VdGG - a great show

Saturday kicked off with Cabezas de Cera, three young Mexican lads who played a mix of traditional sounding and avant garde music. The guitar player went through five different instruments, some quite exotic, during the course of the show.

Cabezas' multi-instrumentalist Mauricio Sotelo

Next up, Oblivion Sun, an outgrowth of '70s band Happy the Man, was in great form, and they even busted out a grand piano for a brand new suite.

Oblivion Sun

I admit it: I lust after those classic Mini-Moogs!

Italian jazz-rock band DFA ("duty free area") hit the stage and played their second NEARFest.

DFA

Saturday closed with Gong, a band of aging hippies and such from Britain, led by 71-year-old Daevid Allen. He would be the one in the wizard get-up.

This is most of Gong - Steve Hillage on the left. The dude in the hat would be Daevid Allen

Sunday started out with Belgian band Quantum Fantay, a sort of space rock band. They were better than I had expected, and they had a good stage patter. It's always interesting to hear these folks from foreign lands with their decent command of English.

Belgium's Quantum Fantay

Two Swedish bands followed, Beardfish and Trettioariga Kriget (it means "Thirty Years War"). I don't know what it is about the Swedes, but they easily have the most good prog music makers per capita on the planet.

Beardfish - they achieve that retro B-3 and dirty guitar sound.

Trettioariga Kriget - say that fast three times!

We wrapped it up Sunday night, going on midnight, with Premiata Forneroa Marconi (PFM), an Italian band from the 70's, and probably my favorite of the festival, because, like Van der Graaf (my other fave), I remember their stuff from back in the day. They blend the rock with some nice classical sounding nylon guitar/violin sounds.

PFM's Franco Mussida (guitar since late 60's) and Gianluca Tagliavini (relative newcomer)

All in all, not in my top three overall lineups, but hey, you cannot go wrong with this stuff. They consistently sell out the Zoellner in a matter of hours every year - meaning there are at least 1,200 or so of us hard core types willing to come back year after year. And many of us were listening to the likes of Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake and Palmer, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, early pre-hit machine Genesis, and a host of other back in the "golden era" of 1969-1975 or so.

PFM (also on the blog banner above), with one of their accompanying documentary graphics

Enough of this esoteric music stuff. Just wanted to get it in the record here. I hope to do a future piece on Bethlehem, a very interesting town.