First,
A Little History
The seed for the North East Art Rock Festival was planted in April
1998. Rob LaDuca explains, "I was serving as treasurer and fund-raiser
for ProgDay, the annual outdoor progressive rock festival held in
Chapel Hill, NC, in addition to my 'day gig' as a college chemistry
professor at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, PA. I discussed with
organizer Peter Renfro the possibility of moving ProgDay up north
for 1999. I contacted Chad Hutchinson (a web developer and fellow
prog fan, then from Allentown, PA) about getting a prog festival going
in this part of the country, and finding a possible outdoor site.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was chosen as the new location for the festival
due to its strong support of eclectic music. It hosts several popular
annual cultural events such as Musikfest and the Celtic Classic. Bethlehem
is also in a central location near the major population centers of
the northeast U.S. But Peter Renfro and I agreed ProgDay had to keep
its unique charm at Storybook Farm, so ProgDay stayed right where
it belongs."
festival
founders Chad Hutchinson and Rob LaDuca
Chad
Hutchinson goes on: "We were still determined to see the birth of
a new progressive music festival up north in 1999. We selected the
last weekend of June for the event and made a preliminary booking
of the outdoor Moravian Arts Pavilion. Now for a new name…Bethlehem
Art Rock Festival '99 was the choice for awhile until Rob's wife Melissa
pointed out the obvious, 'Guys, do you really want to be known as
BARF '99?' I suggested 'North East' instead of Bethlehem and the North
East Art Rock Festival (NEARfest for short) was born. We began contacting
bands in the summer of 1998. By December 1998, we had booked three
top-echelon prog bands coming from long distances (Spock's Beard,
IQ, Solaris) along with six world-class groups from the northeast
(Alaska, Scott McGill's Hand Farm, Mastermind, Finneus Gauge, Ice
Age, Crucible). We'd even confirmed a 'Prog 101' lecture with electronic
music pioneer Larry Fast."
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A
Nearfest 2000 Review
The 2nd annual North East Art Rock Festival (Nearfest) added a third
day this year, with France's Priam and the return of Echolyn capping
off the 12 band event. For the uninitiated, Nearfest was started as
a means for fans of progressive music, which is currently experiencing
an unexpected resurgence in the US (due in large part to events like
these), to have access to bands that can often only be seen in Europe
and South America, or cannot find appropriate venues in the States.
While bands like Marillion, Yes, Dream Theater, Kansas and others
have continued to find marginal success Stateside, it is really their
overseas (and Japanese) following that has kept them afloat. Seeing
the Zoellner Arts Center, which holds over 1000 people, packed to
capacity for two days raises an eyebrow, that perhaps there is something
larger behind this after all.
France's Priam kicked off the Friday night event (held at the oppressive
Crocodile Rock Cafe in Allentown) with a very solid set of instrumental
acrobatics. Bordering on pretension (but let's be honest, the entire
movement borders on pretension), they were grounded by the fusion
of guitarist Chis Casagrande and keyboardist Laurent Lacombe-Columb.
After two encores, the excitement began to peak with the return of
Echolyn. After a five year absence, one of the only progressive bands
in the last decade to ink a major label contract was back with their
strongest material. The aptly named Cowboy Poems Free was the source
of about half the band's 90 minute set, and served as a powerful return
to form for a group that the prog community had largely written off.
The new influences acquired by the band in their hiatus were evident
as strengths- the acoustic side of Brett Kull was in full form, replete
with a little country twang that would heretofore have been considered
prog heresy. Co-vocalist Ray Weston sang with cathartic abandon throughout
the night, as if exorcising the ghosts of the last half decade. Despite
the overbearing heat of the venue, the overcrowded and poorly designed
room, the band's energy and the inexpensive beer combined to make
an uplifting experience of it all.
visit
the nearfest
99 webcast site
Never
before have two venues been as diametrically opposed as The Crocodile
Rock Cafe and the Zoellner Arts Center. The latter was a beautiful,
well-cooled, acoustically perfect, elegantly-designed venue that served
to force one to focus on the music in front of them. There is literally
not one bad seat in the house. Pennsylvania's own North Star kicked
off the weekend with their first show in 17 years. It was a powerful,
rousing set, led by the imposing Joe Newnam whose voice seemed like
a powerful evolution from Genesis-era Peter Gabriel with a touch of
Gentle Giant. Their intricate songs were evident, especially in keyboardist
Kevin
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