BajaProg 10 (March 2006)

Date of Performance: March 8 - 11, 2006
Venue: Mexicali, Baja California, MX

Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - Coffee or café. This will become one of the highest priorities of life for the next five days. One last cup before E (mi espousa) and I head out the door at about 8 AM. Pack the car, go buy some smokes and fill up the tank. On Interstate 8, set the cruise control and head east for El Centro, then south to Calexico and the border crossing into Mexicali, Mexico. About two and a half hours after locking the front door we're crossing into Mexico. There is no one manning the border crossing. No one on either side of the line, lunch time maybe? That's fine with me. It's the quickest we've ever been able to get across the border. So far, so good.

We find the hotel Araiza in about fifteen minutes and, thank you very much? instead of having to wait until check in time at 2 PM, they have rooms ready now. This is a nice, nice hotel, full of marble and pretty plush. This compares real well to some of the better hotels in Las Vegas that I've stayed in. I am told that the hotel was put up in 1933 and was torn down and completely rebuilt in its current form in 1973. Daniel, the major domo of the doormen, has been here for 26 years and he's a great source of information about the hotel, the town and the people of this area.

Room 430. Again, very nice. The room is big, but at the expense of the bathroom. No problem, we've brought a lot of stuff and need a big room. Space to do an interview, have dinner, examine the anticipated pile of swag, you know, that kind of thing. And... wait!!! Score! We have a balcony! Well, a ledge really. Just big enough to step outside, shut the door and smoke in my no smoking room. I can watch the entrance to the hotel parking lot, all the sidewalks and the main entrance to the hotel lobby. I can also keep an eye out for Alan Benjamin, guitarist with Advent and Mirthrandir, who are playing here on Saturday. I'm supposed to meet up with him and John Callahan III, the other guitarist in Mirthrandir, who I don't know yet. Actually, I don't really know Alan yet either but I've exchanged a few emails with him and at least I know what he looks like.

It's time to scope out the hotel. We came here for the last day of the festival last year but I need to know what the best elevator is to use to get to the lobby, and which is closest to the rear of the hotel, where the pool, the field and tennis courts are located. The stage is set up at the end of the tennis courts and the bands face out into the soccer field. There are people pouring into the rear of the hotel now. Cast, the Mexicali hometown favorites are going to be onstage in half an hour. Cast keyboardist and primary songwriter Alfonso Vidales is one of the driving forces behind this festival and for the next four days I will see him not only on stage with Cast, but at soundchecks at 8AM through to the last band, and the last man out the door (usually about 1 or 2 AM) at the Teatro del Estado, this festival's other venue. Ok, off to the lobby. Leave a message for Alan at the main desk and get his room number. Sweet, he and John Callahan III are just across the hall from me.

So far everything has been suspiciously easy. Something is going to go wrong, I know it.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

Someone opens a door leading to the concert and the blast of an amplified Mini-Moog comes roaring in. Time to get my ass into gear and get out there and listen to Cast. The band is featuring music from their new album Mosaiqe. The current lineup is being augmented with their old lead singer and Alfonso's beautiful wife Lupita on vocals, among other special guests. Their blend of classic English style symphonic progressive with some Italian overtones is instantly appealing to fans of classic prog and neo-proggers alike and their set is tight and quite enjoyable. The only problem with Cast's set was that it was way too short to include many of my old favorites.

Next will be the Marillion Acoustic Trio with Steve Rothery, Pete Trewavas and Hogarth, but I'm on the prowl now. I have to find Alan and John. I'm looking in the crowd and checking out all the CD and DVD vendors and the food booths. I spy Alan near the sound board, and here we go. After finding one Mirthrandir guitarist we quickly find the other, and then it's up to the room to start getting to know each other. I'm checking out their guitars, trying to arrange an interview and doing my best to convince them to ride along with us to the evening show at the Teatro del Estado. Which, in the end, takes little convincing. We're back down in time to hear the last four or five songs from Marillion, eat some lunch and start accumulating some CD's. Umm ... ... what the hell happened to the afternoon? It's almost four and the concert at the Teatro del Estado is supposed to start at five. Back to the room, leave this, grab that, get the two guitar players and we're off.

WEDNESDAY EVENING

The Teatro del Estado is on a long, open stretch of Ave. Mateo Lopez and it looks pretty much like a lot of community college theaters. I've been there before and I'm guessing that it seats maybe a thousand or so. It has pretty good sound and because it is one large sloping room, there are no bad seats. We grab seats in the sixth row from the stage, dead in the center. Tonight the lineup will be Evolucion, the Chilean fusion band led by Pedro Munoz, then Swedish long timers Trettioåriga Kriget and The Flower Kings.

I've never seen so many digital cameras and video cameras at one time in my life. One of the very nice things about BajaProg is that most of the bands don't mind if you videotape their performances. One or two forbid it and no one really makes a fuss about it.

Evolucion comes on and begins a set of dynamic jazzy prog instrumentals. The band formed in the early 1980s, released several good albums, reformed in 2002, and is probably better now than they have ever been. Munoz is a great keyboardist and the other members of the quartet (bass, drums, guitar, and keyboards) are all very smooth and impressive. I really enjoyed their set and you could compare them to a cross between the Pat Methany Group and Camel. This is definitely a group I'll want to listen to in more depth in the future.

In between every set, two thirds of the audience spills out into the lobby and the tiny, tiny (are you getting my point?) vendors room. There must be more than a dozen CD/DVD/T-Shirt vendors crammed in here, including Syn-Phonic which must take up a quarter of the space alone, but everyone deals well with it and the goodies are snapped up at a frightening pace.

The call goes out that Trettioåriga Kriget is about to go on stage, so in we go. The Swedish group has been together and usually active for close to thirty years and the amazing thing that I notice is that in all that time they have not gone in for slick arrangements and studio trickery. They are still raw and they have the strong gut level appeal that goes along with it. They played a set that included my two favorites "Ljuset" and "Kriggsang." As you surely know, the vocals are delivered in Swedish and I must say that I enjoy hearing a band that sticks to their native tongue. So many bands the world over hope that singing in English will spur CD sales but, as an English speaker only, I would rather hear Swedish, French, Italian, Japanese or Spanish vocals. It enhances the sense of mystery around progressive rock, and if the lyrics are silly, I don't have to know about it.

During the break, I notice that Richard Sinclair of Caravan, Hatfield And The North and Camel fame is being surrounded in the snack bar, playing requests on acoustic guitar and signing autographs. I head for the vendors room and squeeze my way in, buy a copy of Hatfield's The Rotters Club, and make it back to the snack bar and Mr. Sinclair in record time. The lights in the lobby are going on and off and a voice announces the last call, the signal that the next band is ready to step on stage. I'm back in my seat just in time for the curtain to open on the evening's headliner, The Flower Kings. Last summer at CalProg in Whittier, California, The FKs stuck mostly to material from their then new release Adam And Eve, so I'm hoping for a completely different set. The FKs receive a rapturous welcome; this for merely walking out onstage and Roine makes an observation that goes something like this: "So you would like to hear some prog? After four days of this you're going to want to hear anything but prog." I guess we'll find out, won't we?

Well, I get my wish. The FKs are doing mostly epics and the classic material. Luckily, they have kept the two best tracks from Adam And Eve in the set and they bust out with "Cosmic Circus" and "Babylon" and continue through a one and a half hour set that includes classics such as "Stardust We Are," "The Truth Will Set You Free" and "There Is More To This World." Roine's guitar playing is superb tonight, Hasse has the hair flipping down to a science and Tomas Bodin's keyboards are loud this time. I couldn't ask for any more from them and I am much more impressed with the band this time than last year.

The only challenge now will be to successfully navigate the exact path back to the hotel. It's been a pretty good day of music and we are having a great time getting to know the two Mirthrandir guitarists. Ok, and I wasn't really paying full attention to where we were going on the way to the theater this afternoon. With calm nerves and good luck, we find our way back to the roundabout on Benito Juarez and are soon in our rooms, some of us with the expectation of 6 or 7 hours of sleep. Not me though, I'm too wired to sleep after this. At 2AM or so I pop in a Gentle Giant DVD and start writing out my notes for an interview tomorrow morning with Alan Benjamin about the new release from Advent, Cantus Firmus (see review).

THURSDAY MORNING

Whoa, I don't deserve to feel this good after staying up till 4AM last night. So I compound this magnificent feeling with a breakfast of Marlboros and a café grande. Other like-minded health fanatics are at the coffee shop with the same fare as I. A fellow who limped in with a broken foot is sitting next to me looking for a light, so I light him up. It's Pip Pyle, the drummer for Hatfield And The North, Gong and National Health, among others. "I never lived in Canterbury. I never even spend much time there, but you get stuck with a label and there it is," he observes as I try to get him to tell me about the likelihood of continued activity from Hatfield. "Well, we've been playing for about a year and a half, done a number of gigs and it's going well so far." He tells me that security at the airport took away his lighter and matches. I tell him that perhaps they fear he has a bomb hidden in his cast. I'm prepared though. I have a plethora of lighters. I hand him one, buy another coffee and head for the room.

There is something wrong with the power up here. My tape recorder keeps taping a half dozen radio signals at once instead of what's coming through the mike. I go around the room plugging it in here and there. Should have brought batteries for this piece of?. ok, it works now. I call Alan, the interview goes just fine and an hour later E and I head down to the outdoor stage.

The Japanese band Kinzoku Ebisu are working out some problems with their keyboards and I'm standing on the side of the outdoor stage trying to figure out what's going wrong. There is an old Mellotron there, so I guess that this is the source of the trouble. Yup, here comes the Mellotron off the stage, a tech begins replacing the tape mechanism and then I see that they have an extra Mellotron backstage. I'm getting light headed. TWO Mellotrons in the same place at the same time, wow! A few minutes go by, then a few more, and it's not looking good. The two keyboards are dead. No Mellotron today. So on with the show. A few minutes pass and I notice keyboardist/guitarist Daichi Takagi pounding the keys of the Moog. No sound, and the set is supposed to begin in less than ten minutes. The stage crew brings the Moog to life just in time and the set starts on schedule.

Kinzoku Ebisu is insane. One of the guitarists is dressed like a Ninja warrior and Daichi is in a Rick Wakeman cape. He starts his antics by scaling the stage rigging and greeting the crowd from about thirty feet above the masses. Kinzoku Ebisu sounds like a metal band crossed with King Crimson and ELP. The people love these guys and their set is entertaining as hell. There is a lot of dissonance and screaming guitar and Hammond organ. These guys are playing as if their lives depended on it, and while they are not the most rock solid unit I have seen, they are really fun to see and hear.

Next up is multi-keyboardist Sergio Alvarez from Argentina. I've heard him described as a player and composer in the style of Rick Wakeman. Hmmm, no guitar or bass rigs are set out, so it looks like this will be just keys and drums.

Time for a carne asada plate. The food stand out on the soccer field will provide darn near all my food for the next few days and I couldn't be happier. I could eat Mexican food every day with no problem and this is a lot tastier than the Mexican food in San Diego, so I'm in heaven, gastronomically speaking. I don't need a lot of variety in my diet. I know what I like and I stick to it. There is just time to drop by the vendors stands and look for a few discs I have been wanting, say hi to Syn-Phonic's Greg Walker and Aeon Record's David Overstreet.

Sergio Alvarez and his drummer walk out on stage and begin their set. The comparison with Rick Wakeman doesn't really tell the story in my opinion. While Wakeman is a great player (please don't hurt me, Ok?), he is not the most interesting composer. Alvarez's original material is far more to my liking. He is quite aggressive and his work is very compelling. He does play a bit like Rick, but I think there is as much a Keith Emerson influence as a Wakeman influence. He plays very busy pieces with complex interplay between the keys and the drums. He has released more than a dozen discs in his native Argentina and if you are a keyboard aficionado as I am, then I would definitely steer you towards Alvarez's work.

I want to say something at this point about the very hard working stage crew that is making all of this happen. These guys are going to set up, tear down and trouble shoot 20 acts in the course of four days. There are almost no glitches, no panic and no visible confusion. None of them have an attitude and they work seamlessly with musicians without even the benefit of a common language in many cases. Only one unhappy musician will have any real problem with this busy bunch of techs. More about that later. All in good time.

Time for Toccata. I've been looking forward to seeing this band. I don't really care for progressive metal, but with this band I make an exception. They are a Mexican quintet with a female vocalist and a great keyboardist. Their keys player is not under the false impression that he is in fact a lead guitarist as most prog metal keyboardists seem to think they are. You know what? Prog metal with the addition of good keyboards that actually sound like keyboards can be pretty enjoyable. Toccata is very tight, very powerful and the highlight of their set is the killer instrumental "Anonima Existencia," which sounds a lot like Dream Theater with Keith Emerson on keyboards. I talk to their keyboardist after the set and he agrees with me. "Keyboards should sound like keyboards," he says. "When I play piano, I want it to sound like piano. When I play the organ, I want it to sound like a Hammond organ." That makes sense to me. There are enough guitar gods around. When I want to hear shrieking guitar through a Marshall stack, I'll listen to a guitar player do it, thank you.

John and Alan from Mirthrandir have skipped this afternoon's show, choosing to sit in their room and rehearse their guitar parts for the show on Saturday. If you know the Mirthrandir album For You The Old Women then you know that the guitar work is hellishly difficult to pull off, with bizarre harmonies, lightning fast changes from lead lines to complex finger picking rhythms and a lot of palm muting. We roust them out of their room and head for the theater again.

THURSDAY EVENING

Tonight is ladies night at the theater. No, women don't get in for free, women are leading all the bands that are playing tonight. Flamborough Head with Margriet Boomsma on vocals and flute, Amarok with Marta Riba on lead vocals and Mireia Sisquella on saxophone and Mostly Autumn with Heather Findlay singing lead and Angela Gordon playing keys, flute, recorder and singing backup vocals. We spent a short time at the pool swimming and chatting with the folks from Flamborough Head yesterday and Heather Findlay has been catching my eye for the last two days. I may be old, but I'm not dead.

I've heard no Flamborough Head and very little from Mostly Autumn, so I'm really looking forward to hearing a lot of unfamiliar music. I've heard and liked a bit of Amarok as well and I can't wait to see what they are like live.

We secure just about the same seats as last night and settle in for the first set. The Netherland's Flamborough Head is good live, playing mostly songs from the last two releases, Tales Of Imperfection and One For The Crow. Margriet is easy to listen to and her flute playing is a nice addition to the band's sound. All the members are good journeyman players, but Margriet is definitely the focus of attention in this band. Her sweet voice is the best thing this group has going for it and while their neo-prog sound doesn't blaze any new trails I still like them.

From Spain, Amarok is next up. Amarok is one of the most interesting and musically eclectic bands going today. I hear that their sound and their stage show changes mightily from year to year and album to album, so I have no idea what to expect tonight. I suppose that one must describe them as a mix of prog and world music. I don't really think this is sufficient to accurately convey what Amarok sounds like, but to understand Amarok you have to hear them. The stage is set with the familiar bass rig, drums and synthesizers but in addition to this there is what I think looks like an electric balalaika, a lute, tabla drums and a variety of exotic percussion instruments.

I've been really taken with the few tunes I've heard from Amarok so I was predisposed to like them, but I think that Amarok is brilliant tonight, magical and completely charming. So far, this is the best band I've seen. First it's folky prog, the next it's jazz or flamenco or klezmer and the next moment it has a trance inducing Moroccan ethnic sound. There are many moments of exciting interplay between flute and saxophone, majestic washes of synthesized strings and interludes of funky electric piano. The drummer is a clown, at one point doing a huge wind up to hit a gong and losing the beater in mid swing, causing it to arc through the air and disappear with the drummer in hot pursuit. He stumbles off his drum riser and rolls across the stage like Jethro Tull's John Evan used to do. Another spot in the set sees everyone drop to the stage floor while one does a solo spot. They all come up wearing monster masks, and as the music becomes a mad swirl of sound, they writhe around the stage and leap into the audience, grabbing peoples cameras away and turning them on the transfixed crowd. The band's final number segues into PFM's "E'Festa" and by the time some people got it and started to applaud it had changed to the "I'll judge you all and make damn sure that no one judges me" part of Tull's "Thick As A Brick." In addition to all this visual appeal, the group's music is exciting, satisfying and sometimes sublimely beautiful. Principal lead vocalist Marta Riba is a marvelous singer and she fronts the band with great skill.

We all agree that Amarok's set has been among the best that we have heard yet. I need another cup of coffee. When I announce this to our group, I have to suffer the (good natured) mockery of the prog fans sitting just behind us. The old geezer is going to nod off, they're probably thinking. Ok, and they might just be right. I go to the snack bar and get two cups of coffee. They're small.

Mostly Autumn now. Heather Findley is spinning around with her long skirt flashing out like a kind of prog possessed Stevie Nicks and back up vocalist/keyboardist/flautist Angela Gordon is in control of stage right. The seven piece begins with a tune that is kind of heavy and sounds a bit like something from Pink Floyd's The Wall mixed with "The Great Gig In The Sky," using simple rock chord changes and a virtual David Gilmour guitar solo.

Unfortunately (for me anyhow) the next and the next and the next song sounded pretty much like the same song with the chords re-arranged and that same Gilmour solo again and again. Lots of the lyrics are about lost love and heartbreak, and when they do a song written for the guitar player's deceased father I'm feeling that I'm in danger of losing the great feeling that Amarok left me with. Mostly Depressing I'm thinking. I'm pretty much alone in feeling that, however. They get rousing cheers and applause. Mostly Puzzling I guess.

Back to the hotel again. I'm having just about as much fun as a person can have and it's only getting better. Tomorrow the French band Lazuli is playing outdoors and two legends from the UK, England and Nektar, are headlining the Teatro del Estado. It's hard to sleep just thinking about it all. I nod off to rock n' roll dreams.

FRIDAY MORNING

Uh-oh, there is some wind coming up and the sky looks like there could be rain today. But it doesn't rain here, really. It rains maybe a day or two every four or five years. No time to ponder any of this. It's time for another concert.

Another Mexican group, Arbatel is supposed to be opening the outdoor show today, but when the concert begins it's Sergio Alvarez again. Was he cut short yesterday? I don't think so, but no matter. He was good yesterday and he is good today, too.

The other four members of Mirthrandir show up at last. A flight into San Diego and then a shuttle bus across the desert to beautiful, always sunny Mexico. Alan Benjamin makes all the introductions and I finally get to meet all the guys I've been emailing for months.

Arbatel goes on second and they perform a nice set of mostly instrumental prog/metal/fusion tunes. They keep things interesting with frequent changes of time signature and tempo. Arbatel features a pretty good keyboardist and lead guitarist and, while nothing sticks in my head after their set, it was enjoyable while it lasted.

The top band at this afternoon's show is the French band Lazuli. There is a bit of a buzz going around about them and they are the object of a lot of curiosity here. They have a unique look and they are said to have a quite different approach to progressive rock as well. Their founder, Claude Leonetti, developed a one of a kind instrument called the Leode after a hand injury forced him to abandon his previous instrument. The group sports a Chapman Stick player instead of bass, vibes in almost every song and two members playing percussion and no traditional drum set whatsoever. Their lead guitarist uses his guitar to sound more like a Theremin than anything you would recognize as guitar. Lazuli creates a unique sonic soundscape and sticks to that signature sound exclusively. While the band's approach is new, their songwriting is not. Everything sounds just like a cross between the third Peter Gabriel album (you know, the one with "Intruder" and "Games Without Frontiers") and Depeche Mode. Ok, so nothing very memorable so far today, but the evening show will be a thrill for the old timers like me.

FRIDAY EVENING

It has actually rained a bit late in the afternoon. We get to the theater with Alan and John, but we have to run back to the hotel for some forgotten item and when I get back down to the car my wife has picked up Koen, Edo and Eddie from Flamborough Head and I am banished to the hatchback, way in the rear. But I'm enjoying their commentary about the music I have playing in the car. "That's Roine Stolt, from Sweden you know. Oh, Focus ?. they are from the Netherlands like us." Despite one little instance of the car sliding a bit in the rain, we get everyone there alive. Hey, was that the potential disaster I was expecting a day or two ago? If so, then that came out all right, didn't it?

The Mirthrandir guitarists have saved us a couple of seats and it's almost time for the opening act, Interpose, a Japanese symphonic/fusion outfit.

Interpose is a gem and a real treat for the ears. They play jazzy prog with a guitarist (Kenji Tanaka) who sounds just a bit like Allan Holdsworth (which means he's trying to phrase like a sax player) but without all the legato, and Sayuri Aruga, whose light and airy voice lends a touch of soft femininity to the bands lean arrangements. One of my observations about Japanese bands is being de-constructed here and now on stage. I have said more than once that I thought many Japanese players were more concerned with flashy, state of the art technique than were with developing good songwriting skills. Well, Interpose puts the lie to that statement. Yes, there is still a lot of room here for improvisation but their compositions have melodic depth while remaining sleek and accessible on the first listen. Yup, I admit it, another band I'm hearing for the first time. Out of the twenty bands here, there are probably seven or eight that I have never heard, or heard no more than two or three songs. Interpose just released their first disc a few months ago (Interpose+ on Poseidon/Musea ) and this is definitely one that I'll be getting.

I'm on pins and needles now. One of my favorite albums is England's Garden Shed and I'm really hoping that they will pull it all off. England's bassist Martin Henderson told me yesterday that not only will this be England's first gig after re-uniting; it will be their first live gig ever. Their label at the time, Arista, wanted to get in with a prog band of their own but waited far, far too long before doing so in 1977. Sadly, punk, new wave and disco intervened, England was dropped and no tour ever materialized.

Robert Webb, the keyboardist and lead vocalist is using a set of vintage keyboards tonight and it's a total blast from the past. He has a B-3, Mellotron, Mini-Moog, Clavinet, Fender Rhodes electric piano and a Steinway Concert Grand as well. I'm digging this already.

The lights go down and the stage curtain shuts. The synthesized intro to "Midnight Madness" begins and the curtain swings open on England. Robert goes at his stacks of keys and nails the falsetto vocals. They run through all the shorter songs from the album, throw in a couple of other tunes including Robert's "Lament For Alex" during his solo piano section, and the only really questionable part of the set, a bluesy tune with lyrics by Bob Dylan. Their set ends with the real red meat of this show, the two epics "Three Piece Suite" and the closer, "Poisoned Youth." Both are well done and delight the audience, who respond with cheers and applause. For their first ever gig with material of this complexity and arrangements that had surely been long forgotten, they performed quite well. I am discussing the technical points of England's set with some newly made friends when a Mexican gentleman my age leans over and grabs my arm "You know England?" he asks, pointing at the stage. I've met and spoken with the bassist but I don't really know him, I tell him. "No, you know their music?" he says. I think so. I wrote a review of it and I've listened to it maybe a hundred times. I say this and he looks at me very seriously and says that this music has made him feel in acid. I ask him to repeat this. Feel in acid. It has given him a burning rash? It takes me a second before I get it. I nod, tell him that I know what he means and slap him on the shoulder. We smile knowingly, and wish each other well.

Nektar will be on next. They have banned video recording during their set. Some people have grumpily wondered why and my new pal John Callahan III explains it to me as we wait. He is a buddy of Nektar drummer Ron Howden and he tells me that Nektar has only recently been able to legally win back the rights to their back catalog and they are now in a position to get paid for their music for the first time in their long career. Right now they are very conscious of the marketing of bootleg materials and well they should be. Still photography was permitted and, as far as I could see, the band members were available and gracious for the entire span of the festival.

As Nektar steps out and explodes into "Recycled," besides being blown away by this band, I notice something I remember from the old days, that being headliner's privilege. Part of the lighting rig that had gone unused until tonight is in full use. Nektar have a couple of extra banks of swiveling strobes and hi beam spots that no one else got to use. They also are twice as loud as anyone who has played before them. They come out charging and this is just like I remember it being way back when.

Nektar's new organist Tom Hughes is just the type of player I'm taken with. He plays nonstop power chords with wind mill chops and smears aplenty. He can't get the monitor sound he's looking for so he pushes his monitor aside and tries to shout instructions to the stage crew with the band roaring away at full volume. Strange, for some reason they can't hear him. But they do put his monitor back. And unplug the speaker cord running to his Leslie cabinet. He gives the monitor a kick and pounds out another chord progression and, nothing. He turns his back on the audience, charges toward the stage wings and animatedly speaks in Italian to a stage hand. I know it was Italian because he was speaking with his hands. He runs back to the keyboard, looks around, plugs himself back in and falls back into the music.

And what music it is! Next the band plows through a couple of medleys of classics, "Cryin In The Dark/King Of Twilight," and "Dream Nebula/Desolation Valley/Waves." They also crank out "Remember The Future Part 1" and even "A Tab In The Ocean" before they are through.

Nektar is still awesome, Ron has his huge double bass kit with tympani for "Recycled" and their bass player has Taurus bass pedals for that good old gut piercing low end. Tom plays the Hammond organ with fierce determination and Royce Albrighton still hits all the notes. Better than that, his voice has kept its youthful character, with little sign of age at all.

Mirthrandir is topping the bill at the outdoor stage tomorrow, set up and sound check begins at 8 AM in the morning. Everyone needs some sleep. We head back to the Araiza and hit the sack as quick as possible.

SATURDAY MORNING

I'm up at 7AM and it looks like there has been rain all night. The wind is stronger than yesterday and is picking up intensity all the time. I buy coffee for everyone and head over to the outdoor stage. I get there at 8 and Mirthrandir are already setting up their gear. One of the hotel employees is out on the tennis court with a mop and a bucket. Henry, aka Enrique, aka Ricky has actually been sent out here to clean up the wet spots ?.. honest man. It's begun to rain again and the wind is approaching a dangerous level. I hand out coffee and start looking around. The wind catches the boom mikes on the drum set and two of them tumble off the riser. Then it catches a cymbal and it comes crashing down too. Rain is coming down steadily as we notice something very bad above us. The awning over the stage has accumulated a lot of pooled water. Right over the keyboard rig is probably sixty or seventy gallons and there's a pool almost as large over one of the guitar amps at the other end of the stage as well. Someone could get hurt in this situation. Ok, I had a fear that something was going to happen and this is about as bad as anything I could imagine. The band I've waited years and years to hear live is getting rained out. The gear comes back down, there is no other choice. Wind is blowing the rain right across the stage and it isn't safe. By now it's well past 9:30, the scheduled time for the Italian band Odessa to begin their soundcheck. The huddled discussions begin between Odessa, Mirthrandir and the stage crew. Someone is getting in touch with Alfonso Vidales to try to get definitive word as to what to do. This has never happened before and there seems to be a feeling among some of the crew and some of the musicians that this will soon blow over. Odessa doesn't want to let this opportunity slip away. They've come a long way and they want to play no matter what the conditions. Despite the now on and off rain and the pooled water, they start setting up on stage. Mirthrandir has retreated with their gear to a nearby hotel entrance and the options for today are discussed. Alfonso has called and the only choice is to take the risk and play on the outdoor stage in the sporadic rain or play in a meeting room next to the main pool. The room seats 150.

I have a considerable personal and emotional investment in this day going well for both these bands. I've come here in large part to see Mirthrandir and I've spent enough time talking with the guys in Odessa to have really come to enjoy them and their music. In my mind, this afternoon's concert is the high point of the entire festival and damn it, something must be done!

The first thing done is to get Odessa's gear off stage and out of the rain quickly. That idea didn't last long. I don't think anyone is taking the idea of playing outdoors seriously now. Alfonso has arrived and agrees that playing on the stage in the rain is out of the question. Everyone is pretty stunned. The options are few and mostly unattractive. Finally Odessa settles on playing in the small meeting room. Now something can begin and the stage crew sets to work transforming the room into an impromptu concert hall. They have a PA set up, the chairs removed from the room and the band's gear set up in less than an hour and the set scheduled for one this afternoon gets rolling about 30 minutes late. Odessa is a young quartet with drums, bass, guitar and a keyboardist who also has one of the best voices I heard all week. A couple of them look to be no more than 23 or 24, yet the band put out their first release in 1999. They all have an incredibly energetic virtuosity and a passion that few youthful players, still in their first romance with music, can match. Their vocalist/keyboardist Lorenzo Giovagnoli has a voice akin to a melding of Deep Purple's Ian Gillian and former Lucifer's Friend/Uriah Heep singer John Lawton with a healthy dose of Demetrio Stratos in there for good measure. He and Odessa are one of the festivals greatest surprises this year. The music from their 1999 album Stazione Getsemani is heavy Italian prog at its core, but it is also influenced by the classic Deep Purple albums of the early 1970s and Odessa sounds like a mix of Museo Rosenbach, RDM, Lucifer's Friend and of course, a bit of Purple. Guitarist Giulio Vampa and bassist Vallerio De Angelis are very adept, flashy players and drummer Marco Fabbri is on fire from beginning to end. Lorenzo keeps topping himself in song after song. He is a good keyboardist but it is his warbling, broken crooning ala Stratos and his fierce, piercing, hard rock front man voice that will make your jaw drop. There are far more people waiting outside to hear Odessa than the room will allow, but after clearing the room of chairs I suspect that about 300 people are eventually squeezed in.

And all this while Mirthrandir's fate is still being negotiated. Their vocalist/trumpeter John Vislocky III has an idea. How about putting Mirthrandir on first at the Teatro del Estado show tonight? The stage crew really has only 2 ? bands to set up tonight. The Marillion Acoustic Trio needs minimal time to set up and even Hatfield And The North have only four players and very little in the way of back line gear. Only the headliner, SBB have any significant amount of stage gear. A little circle forms around Alfonso as he makes call after call. The theater manager, the stage manager, the managers of some of the other bands, all have to sign off on a change of this magnitude. The theater would have to open an hour early and bands already at the venue will have to finish their soundchecks early to make way for one last set up before the doors open. Everything will have to be adjusted to make this happen.

As this is going on next to the pool, Odessa is playing fifty feet away. Even with the doors flung wide open you can still make phone calls or chat without having to raise your voice much, but once I walk through those doors it's a different story, it's cranked up in here, both the volume level and the energy level. The sheer numbers of bodies in this room have absorbed the pinging that Odessa was experiencing during their hasty soundcheck and the band is playing at full throttle, bristling with energy. Starting with a couple of tunes from their 1999 release Lorenzo quickly wows this crowd with the power and range of his voice. Lorenzo told me that he's taking opera vocal training and it shows. He can match the range of Albero Pirras, perform vocal gyrations like Stratos, and hold a note seemingly forever. It is however, his ability to belt out tortured cries like Ian Gillian and Robert Plant that draw cheers and whistles every time. They start their set with "Esilio" and pull out a fiery take of "Cometa Rossa" that has my head turning around backwards. Lorenzo's voice is superb on this one. They include their own ripping arrangement of The Trip's "Caronte" and the wonderful "L'Incontro" in the set as well. They also feature their take of RDM's "Alzo Un Muro Elettrico."

Vallo makes the group's driving progressive rock rip and roar. He often plays lengthy sections with both hands fretting the neck but guitarist Giulio Vampa makes sure to steal as much attention from Vallo as possible with his stinging single note lines, his flowing legato licks and his command of the whammy bar. Drummer Marco (the soccer player) Fabbri is in his element and responds to the sweaty crowd with boundless energy and enthusiasm. Odessa had planned a 75 minute set, but that was back when they were opening for someone. They have the show all to themselves now and they give the crowd exactly what they want but didn't know they wanted. They start doing Deep Purple covers and this room goes wild, absolutely wild. "Speed King," "Smoke On The Water," "Child In Time," "Burn" and more. People are screaming out requests and Odessa plays some of them. This fires up the audience even further. "Whole Lotta Love" and "Rock N' Roll," too. Odessa eventually does like a half dozen encores. Something like that. They play for over two hours and the audience still wants more.

Someone comes up to the mike and announces that the evening show will begin early and that Mirthrandir will be opening the final show of Baja Prog tonight. I'd been in and out of Odessa's show a few times to see how the negotiations were going but wasn't there when the final word came down. This is an awesome resolution! Mirthrandir has a big line up and a huge sound and I think they would blow the doors and windows off this room.

As a few people leave I can finally get up close to Odessa. I ask Marco if Lorenzo always sings like this. He smiles at me and says "No, sometimes he sing better."

SATURDAY EVENING

To the theater ASAP! We pick up Alan and John C., their guitars and other gear and drive to the Teatro del Estado. We find the stage door and after getting everything in I find vocalist John V. and ask him if plans have been made to get their merchandise sold. Yes, their keyboardist's sister will take care of it, but she's not here right now. He hasn't seen the vendor's room; I have. Great, I say, but I volunteer to stake out some territory now. After some advice from an experienced vendor I get there just in time to snag the very last tiny table inside the tiny vendors' room and E and I begin to lay out T-shirts and CDs. John V. and I decide to make a last minute drive back to the hotel for more shirts and discs. After returning, I leave the Mirthrandir table in E's capable hands and go sightseeing backstage. Marillion is just finishing their soundcheck and the stage is being set for Hatfield And The North to have a go at the sound system.

When Hatfield is through, Mirthrandir's gear will be set up in front. Compromises have been agreed to. They will have no soundcheck. There will be a line check only. Their hour plus set will be reduced to 45 minutes. But the show will go on. There was really no other viable option because Mirthrandir's six piece line up wouldn't have had enough space to set up in the room Odessa played in. Plus, the band can now say that they opened for Hatfield And The North, Marillion and SBB. This disaster has worked out to some peoples benefit, you know that?

Hatfield And The North are done and Pip needs a shoulder to lean on as he attempts to climb down from the drum riser. I do a great imitation of a step ladder so I help him down.

There is this amazing room behind the stage wings, a room where all the rented equipment for the festival is stored. The bands are coming in from Poland, Italy, England, Chile, Argentina, Japan, everywhere. They have to leave the great majority of their gear at home and they show up here with only guitars and basses, cymbals, a couple of critical keyboards, some small percussion instruments or a flute or saxophone. All the back line gear, the amps and speaker cabinets, the majority of the keyboards, all the drums and the priceless items, the Mellotrons, Mini-Moogs and the Hammond L100 and B-3 organs are rented or donated by local musicians for the duration of the festival. I feel as if I've just stumbled into El Dorado, the city of gold. If they would let me, I'd stay in here all night. But it's nearing show time and Mirthrandir is getting their gear set up for the performance. Keyboardist Simon Gannett has a nice surprise waiting for him. The Steinway brought in yesterday for Robert Webb of England is still here and Simon will do his first show ever with a concert grand piano. Another benefit of appearing at the theater. Worried if everyone got the word that tonight's show is starting early, I peek out into the lobby. Whew,,, ,,,.it's packed. I go and get E out of the vendor's room. The vendor's room is cleared and locked during every performance, so we find some nice seats and wait for the curtain to part. I am armed with several cameras (take some pics of us onstage, ok?) and I am SO ready to hear the band play live. I have my Mirthrandir 30th year anniversary shirt on and E is wearing John Callahan III's lucky hat just to be sure.

Mirthrandir comes on, vocalist John Vislocky III greets the crowd and it's off to the races. There will be no time for chatting. They have only 45 minutes and they plan to play their entire album, which runs 38 minutes. There is 7 minutes of lag time in case anything goes wrong. They launch into "For You The Old Women" and even with no soundcheck they already sound damn good. Keyboard arpeggios ripple and the guitars intertwine in brilliant and baffling harmony while James and Rob lead the band through impossibly complex and constantly shifting rhythms and metric patterns. For the first verse the vocal level is all over the place but before the end of the first tune the band mix was nailed down. Sometimes you see the reunion of some band and even with all or most of the original members it still often sounds like a mediocre cover band. Not this band though. Mirthrandir sounds exactly like their album, only more vital, more dynamic. And louder. Even John V's awesome vocals are darn near dead on with the recorded versions. The two new members, guitarists John C and Alan are doing an amazing job of reproducing some of the most intricate and unusual harmony work and melodic patterns you will ever likely hear two guitars attempt. The rhythm section is locked in and James Miller's bass tone is crisp with a heavy bottom end that perfectly suits the intricate lines he plays. With no time to spare they tear into "Number Six" and the rest of the set like King Crimson mugging Gentle Giant in an alleyway. "Conversation With Personality Giver" is a darn near perfect prog tune in my opinion and it comes across with even more flair and excitement on stage, beginning with Rob Arace's off kilter drum intro. The vocals are really up in the high range on this and I hear no flaws. John Callahan plays this guitar showpiece with seeming ease and authority and my wife and I exchange some huge smiles. The epic "For Four" rips and flows for almost fifteen minutes. The seven minutes of lag time come in handy when someone knocks Simon's power strip out and the keyboards go dead for a few minutes. After power is restored the band finishes their set with "Light Of The Candle."

The set is short, very, very tight and immensely powerful. This is the closest thing we've heard yet to the days when prog ruled the land. This band still lives and breathes with the zeitgeist of the early 70s and this is immediately felt and heard. This time I'm not the only one who feels this way and a lengthy standing ovation begins. The crowd stamps and shouts for an encore, but to no avail. It's time for another set I've been salivating at the thought of for days.

Hatfield And The North will be on stage soon. I got to listen to their soundcheck earlier and they're going to be good tonight. They're playing a lot of stuff from The Rotter's Club, the only one of their albums I'm really familiar with, so I'm pretty pleased.

Richard Sinclair and Pip are the only holdovers from the original line up but new keyboardist Alex Maguire went to original keys man Dave Stewart's (Egg, Khan, Hatfield And The North, etc.) house and spent a day getting samples of Dave's signature keyboard voices, like the essential fuzz-organ and unique electric piano tones. Hatfield's performance is going to be a major shift from the thundering symphonic dissonance of Mirthrandir and I enjoy that stark contrast. This is one of the greatest aspects of progressive rock, don't you think? Marillion Acoustic, Mirthrandir, Interpose, Amarok and Hatfield And The North, none of them sound anything like any of the others, but it's all still progressive and you can't get this eclectic variety from some genres of music that, in my opinion, oh??.. I digress, and I'm sorry.

It's a treat to hear Richard Sinclair's voice and the new arrangements are filled with lengthy keyboard excursions, scat singing and Pip's ever shifting drum beats. They begin slowly with a whispery song from Richard and then they burst into a medley from The Rotter's Club including "Chaos At The Greasy Spoon," "The Yes No Interlude" and the amazing "Fitter Stoke Has A Bath." Richard's voice is still friendly and rich even though his tone has somewhat mellowed over the years. Alex's keyboard rules "The Yes No Interlude" and he displays his own unique version of fuzz-organ madness. I'm missing Jimmy Hastings flute and the bevy of horns and woodwinds that Hatfield featured on their studio albums, but this is still a great treat for me. The crowd gives the group their undivided attention and applaud wildly at every opportunity. Hatfield And The North play a fairly short set, and after a well-earned standing ovation, the stage crew descends and clears the stage for Marillion's acoustic set.

I head out to the lobby to mingle and people watch. I run into Richard Sinclair's wife Heather, and Alex and his wife, and give them my compliments. The ladies are both lovely people and Alex is a real gentleman. Over by the snack bar an impromptu jam session is happening so I wander over to see what's going on. A couple of local guys have brought a nylon string classical guitar in with them and when I get close enough I hear the first of them playing an amazingly accurate version of Steve Howe's "Mood For A Day." Giulio and Lorenzo from Odessa are there listening, too. The guitar is passed on and the next guy plays another Steve Howe staple, "The Clap" and Steve Hackett's "Horizons." These guys really have this stuff down and we all give them a big round of applause. I turn around and there are dozens of people crowded around listening intently. The guitar is passed to Giulio Vampa of Odessa. He tries to refuse his turn, but everyone eggs him on and he plays what sounds like an improvised semi-classical, semi-flamenco piece. He gets the growing crowd even more excited, and then disaster strikes. I knew it. He passes the guitar to me. Oh no! I begin a half assed version of Jethro Tull's "My God" and, thank God, Lorenzo knows the lyrics and he sings along. I'm saved. No one is listening to me, they're all enjoying Lorenzo's magnificent voice. I finish as quickly as possible, thank Lorenzo, and we (he) actually manage to earn some applause as well.

Time to reveal my shameful little secret now, I guess. I'm not a Marillion fan, acoustic or otherwise. So I miss their set. I see a couple of members of Amarok, including their wonderful lead vocalist Marta. We talk for a while before I run into Brian Parker, program director of ProgRadio.com. Like always, I'm pitching ideas for a couple of shows. What a nice guy he is to put up with me again. I spy all the members of Interpose and do my best to introduce myself (none of them speak much, if any, English) and tell them how much I enjoyed their set.

I decide to take one last look backstage and see if I can find any of the Mirthrandir members hanging around. As I approach the stage it looks like Marillion, and Hogarth in particular, have the crowd in the palms of their hands, especially E, who is a huge fan of theirs. I see Pip Pyle tottering away from the backstage stairs and for the first time this week he appears to be in a bit of pain. "Tom, give me a hand, will you?" he asks, and I hunch over so he can lean on my shoulder. I get him to the main floor without either of us falling over and after a slap on my back he heads for the lobby. Backstage is mostly deserted other than the stage hands and I wander back to the dressing rooms. Richard Sinclair is alone with only a bottle of wine for company. I give him a bit of fawning praise and continue on down the hallway and out the door to the front of the venue. The sky is clearing and the rain has stopped. The sky is full of twinkling stars and traffic has almost disappeared on the street.

By this time Marillion has finished their show and I begin to feel the effects of four 18 hour days. The fatigue begins to wash over me and pretty soon I'm going to crash and burn.

I manage to talk E into driving me back to the hotel, finally run into Alan and John C. from Mirthrandir, wish them a good evening and anticipating a good snooze, make my exit. She drops me off and, full of vim and vigor, she returns to the show to see Poland's finest, SBB. After the show she heads back to the hotel along with our two guitarists and runs into the police along the way. They have set up a checkpoint right down the street from the theater and are pulling everyone over and checking for drunk drivers. She has a sealed bottle of Tequila in the front seat and gets a good going over by the officer. For some reason, she is under the impression that "alto" means closed, and with the officer reaching in for the bottle, she is telling him that the bottle is unopened, repeating to him "alto, alto." Of course she is actually shouting at him to "stop, stop!" Well, he doesn't stop; he inspects the bottle, shines his flashlight in everyone's eyes and sends them on their way.

She wakes me up and tells me that I would have enjoyed SBB and tells me that the shuttle to take Mirthrandir back to the airport in San Diego is leaving at six in the morning. Good lord! Before I can even pity them their fate I'm sound asleep again.

SUNDAY MORNING

We are up at 7 AM and head down to the main lobby to see the last of the bands heading home. We take the huge couch outside the restaurant entrance where Nektar was holding court yesterday morning. I buy coffee and smokes and we settle in to see the circus as it leaves town. Four of the Mirthrandir members have managed to get later rides back to San Diego and are busy loading up their gear and luggage. We see them off at about 8AM and wish them luck in getting to their flight. There was a lot of snow in the mountain to the east of San Diego on Friday and Saturday and there is the possibility that they won't make it in time.

Then comes a moment I had been hoping for all week. England's keyboardist/vocalist Robert Webb is waiting for a shuttle and I finally get a chance to speak with him privately for a while. He is a charming and enthusiastic fellow and he tells me he has been musically revitalized by this week's activities. He wants to continue playing live with England and hopes to iron out all the kinks in their set, as if anyone but him would even notice anything wrong. Of course, we have a little chat about B-3s and Mellotrons before he has to go to the airport and he leaves regretfully for the start of a very long trip home. He has had a great week and is unwilling to let it go yet.

The guys from Odessa get off an elevator and head for our couch. They have another day at the hotel before they head out to San Diego for three days of vacation and then it's back to Italy. We exchange phone numbers and email addresses with them and begin a discussion of the relative merits of various Deep Purple tunes. They have to find something for breakfast and so we bid them farewell, wish them well and return to our people watching. Daniel, the head doorman brings us the entertainment sections of a couple of the local papers and we see that the festival has been extensively covered by the Mexicali press.

If this festival were to occur in San Diego, I doubt the paper would even cover the event. With that pessimistic thought, that and a look at the clock, I see it is about time to check out and go home. Crossing the border on a Sunday morning is nothing like crossing in the middle of the week and it takes two hours to get back into the USA. Gas up, buy ciggies and set the cruise control for the westbound trip on I-8.

I don't even want to go into the six hour delay at the summit due to a hundred foot section where the freeway went down to one lane. I'm not gonna say a word about it, other than to say that Cal Trans has really got their heads firmly up their???.

Nope, I don't want to lose this amazing sense of well-being and this feeling of inclusion in something bigger than myself. It's a blessing that this worldwide smattering of progressive rock fans can come together for a short time to share this music, and this wonderful experience that makes brothers and sisters of us. I'm holding on to all of it for as long as possible.

Until next year,
Adios amigos and amigas!