Next Friday will see the running of the 10th Night of the Prog and TPA will be there to cover it, providing a full post-review as well as live updates via our Facebook page. With the beautiful natural setting of Freilichtbühne Loreley and three days of diverse prog acts, both established and up-coming, we whet your appetite with a brief look back at last year’s festival…
There’s a photo gallery at the foot of the post.
Day One
Gran Turismo Veloce looking a little bit like Devo on their matching red overalls, with a mix of rhythmic, ambient post-rock and traditional symphonic Prog.
German band Traumhaus – also very symphonic with a a dark and heavy sound, strong drums and thumping bass. Traditional prog elements and somewhat reminiscent of Anglagard, hints of Genesis plus, neo-prog and edging into Prog-metal territory at times.
Polish legends, Collage, gave a great neo-prog performance.
Long Distance Calling were one of the ‘finds’ for many, giving a very high energy post-rock performance…
IQ treated us to a lot of material from the acclaimed Road of Bones album; like a fine wine, they just get better and better as the years pass.
Finally, Mike Portnoy makes it to Loreley with Transatlantic, who delivered a fun performance of jaw-dropping musicianship. Would be expect anything less? Mike and Neil are back again in 2015 with The Neal Morse Band – I’ve seen them earlier this year and, well, just unbelievable…
Day Two
One of the hot new bands of the moment, Synaesthesia had the difficult task to open day two with their fresh take on symphonic Prog.
Dutch band, A Liquid Landscape, gave us a huge slice of post-rock. Lots of energy playing songs from their Nightingale Express album.
American band, Dream The Electric Sleep, provided more post-rock, with some strong influence from Radiohead mixing up ambient melancholy with hard driving riffs.
Swiss neo-Proggers, Clepsydra, have recently re-formed and gave a fine performance. Fans of IQ and Marillion would certainly have enjoyed their set.
Brian Cummins stepped-in at the last moment following a late no-showing by Big Elf, due to sickness. Brian’s the lead singer with Genesis cover band, Carpet Crawlers, and he played a set of Peter Gabriel songs. A very relaxed performance with a lot of crowd interaction that was very appreciated.
Anathema have been on a massive roll in recent years and they were a very popular band once again on the rock with their particular blend of high-energy, atmospheric, pop/rock/prog.
Closing out the weekend were Marillion. It has to be said that Steve Hogarth looked like he’d had one too many beers before going on stage, but nevertheless there were some great moments, not least of all the damp eyes during the Misplaced Childhood Suite. This year we’ll have Fish perform the home album!
Photos by Dave Baird – Photos of Gran Truism Velocé by Gerianne Brenters
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