HRH Prog Fest

Well it’s a week since I found myself on the other side of Snowdonia staring down the prospect of finally seeing Fish live, what with him parting ways with Marillion before I saw them the first time (The Forum, London on the Brave tour – needless to say they was well good bruv).
So I thought I’d post a wee summation of fings wot I saw and did be hearing wid me own earshaped listening holes.
Thursday evening saw Synaesthesia and Credo getting the weekend off to a cracking start. Even if numbers were a bit low – most people would be attending Friday/Saturday we thought.
Friday morning was taken up by a wander down to the beach followed by the time honoured act of pebble skimming. The tide was coming in so I only managed six bounces, but I was happy with that. It ought to be noted that the facilities at Pwhelli Haven holiday camp were perfect, everything you needed was to hand and the beach was a five minute walk if that.
Once we’d wandered back from the beach and warmed up a bit having been caught by one of the weekend’s ninja rain showers (the only one to catch us luckily), it was off to the venue which was less than five minutes in the opposite direction to catch The Custodian. Turns out his was their first gig and it was a goodie. I’d been looking forward to seeing them since I got hold of their album (having heard then on the prog mag radio show on teamrockradio.com). The acoustic flavour of the set worked well and although it would have been nice to see more people there, I guess that’s the problem with the early slots, it got a thumbs up from the UT contingent.
Next up were The Physics House Band, now I knew nothing of this trio of young chaps but they impressed on a scale that normally gets used to measure the distance between planetary bodies. They quite simply blew my mind, and this was before lunch you understand. Lashings of math rock, heaps of energy and song lengths of girth, not to mention some of the best banter heard all weekend ‘we’ve got mini discs and diagrams of tracks’ – brilliant. I’m looking forward to more from this lot.
Chimp Spanner filled the ‘none of these guitars have the correct amount of strings on’ quota and for fans of Animals As Leaders and the like this was manna from heaven. Lovely.
The Pineapple Thief delivered the kind of set that had the UT posse turning to each other and uttering the phrase ‘dude, gotta get some more Pineapple Thief’, quality stuff and Mr Soard, if you’re reading this don’t worry about the 20p! Ark ark.
At this point let me point out that one of the great things about the festival was that a lot of the musicians who played hung around for the whole weekend, which led to the 20p incident and a lovely discussion with one of The Custodian guitarists on the pros of playing a Parker Fly guitar. Yep that’s right a Parker Fly. I spotted two during the festival, which is unheard of in my books!
Anyhoooooooo Focus popped up next and I must admit I was thinking ‘oh yes, hocus pocus, yodelling, this should be a laugh’ what I didn’t expect was a tour de force of groove. Which is what landed, with aplomb. The venue suddenly contained twice as many people as it had earlier (or so it seemed) and Focus laid down the kind of heavy grooves you only get from the 70’s. It was a masterclass. I take my hat off to them, put it back on and then take it off again. Awesome.
Following that was going to be tricky and The Flower Kings seemed to suffer from a diminishing crowd. However their set was enjoyable featuring as it did a medley of some of their classics as well a great rendition of numbers. They may have been the headline act but I think Focus stole it.
Sunday started in the soft prog rock vibe with Crimson Sky and Panic Room, the later seemingly achieving what the former we’re aiming for. Then around teatime The Hawklords appeared and injected the day with some well needed space lunacy. Watching these guys navigate the twisted corners of their own consciousness or is it my consciousness, am I me or me am I?
Sorry flashback – in short – brilliant, as out of this world as you’d expect them to be and more besides.
Not to be outdone in the brilliant stakes, Arcane Roots threw enough energy in your face to cause you to throw up (in a good way). Think of a three man The Mars Volta. Ace.
Now hear at Thangcentral we’d never heard The Enid, but heard, seen enough mentions of them to know that they were something pretty special. As more and more equipment got hauled onto the stage, including tympanies and a stupidly large bass drum, you got the impression this wasn’t going to be straight forward. Sadly the midi wind instrument caused issues but once that got sorted they embarked on a symphonic prog work out which was darned impressive. Mr. Enid’s comments regarding dynamics and loud not necessarily being good, suggesting to these ears that he hadn’t enjoyed Arcane Roots as much as we had!
So to the headline act – Fish.
The fact that he played ‘Script For A Jester’s Tear’, ‘Assassing’ and ‘White Feather’ amongst tracks of the new album, recounted a great story about the writing of the track ‘Script’ whilst in a hovel in Wales, led a few singalongs, got up close and personal with the crowd, demonstrated the kind of stage craft most acts dream of and was just generally awesome (have I mentioned that as a teenager I viewed him as some kind of god?). It may have taken me roughly 25 years to see Fish live but it was worth it.

March 29, 2014 | Categories: Music, Uncategorized | Leave a comment