Author: bradbirzer

By day, I'm a father of seven and husband of one. By night, I'm an author, a biographer, and a prog rocker. Interests: Rush, progressive rock, cultural criticisms, the Rocky Mountains, individual liberty, history, hiking, and science fiction.

Interview with Mike Portnoy

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wpid-portnoyoctober122012-2012-10-13-16-51.jpegPortnoy seems happier than he’s been in years. After watching him drum some of the greatest drumming I’ve ever heard or seen last night in Chicago (“Chicago or St. Paul or wherever we are. . .”), I was very excited to see this interview with him today.

http://rollingstoneindia.com/backstage-with-mike-portnoy/

Q.  And finally, how did you manage to get a progressive band like Dream Theater up and running in the late Eighties and early Nineties, at the height of prog-phobia?

A.  When we recorded Images and Words in 1991, it was at the height of the grunge explosion. It was Nirvana-ville at the time. You would think that us getting signed to a label and having success with that album was completely impossible, but somehow it clicked. The only thing I can think of is maybe it was a reaction to the fact that nobody else was doing it. We were so drastically out of fashion, but  there was an audience that was looking for something like that. For the first 10-15 years of Dream Theater’s career, prog was a dirty word. We always embraced it, we never had a problem with it, but all the critics would blast us for it and it wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that it started to turn around, and it was our perseverance that helped that happen.

Mike, I’ve been listening to you since “Pull Me Under.” Now that I’ve seen you live, I only think the absolute best of your ability and your personality.

Neal Morse, Chicago, October 12, 2012.

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Last night, fellow Progarchist Mark Widhalm, our lovely and patient wives, and I had the wonderful privilege of enjoying six hours of live progressive rock.  We saw District 97, Three Friends (Gentle Giant), and Neal Morse.

Here are two photos from the event.  The first is of Three Friends.  The second is of Neal Morse.

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Sorry about the poor quality of the photos; I took these with my Nokia phone.  I also got to see Chicago celebrities (well, at least they’re celebrity in the Birzer house), Mike and Sarah D’Virgilio.  I glimpsed Neal Morse’s manager and Facebook friend, Chris Thompson, from a distance, but he was a man understandably on a mission, and I didn’t want to interfere with his direction of the show.  “Hey Chris, it’s me, Brad, your Facebook friend!”  Yes, I can be obnoxious, but this might have gone a little too far, even for me.

A few quick impressions–Gary Green was one of the single finest guitarists I’d ever seen as was his bassist, Lee Pomeroy (of It Bites).  The music of Gentle Giant was rather mind-boggling and profound.  It was, I think, rock at its highest art.  Steve Hayward has been encouraging me to immerse myself.  Add Steve’s suggestion with actual performance, and I’m sold.  Now, another band to explore in its entirety

But, we went originally to see Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy.  The other music was just an excellent fringe benefit.

Neal Morse is a wonderfully talented madman.  I pretty much hung on his every word and action on stage.  His energy, his talent, and is ability to direct and lead his band is probably beyond compare.  While I’m sure I’m not the first person to place supernatural ability on a great show man, but Morse’s showmanship did seem to be animated by something well beyond (and above) this world.  I know this probably sounds absurd, but there was glow about him that I’ve only seen (once at most) on truly holy persons.

And, while I’ve always considered Mike Portnoy one of the world’s best drummers (along with Nick D’Virgilio and Neil Peart), I’ve always also thought his studio records seem more mechanical than soulful.  Watching him in action convinced me, rather strongly, that he’s a man as full of soul as he is of ability.  In judging his abilities, I realized I should never allow his precision and perfectionism to detract from his power and radiance of soul.  Having him and Neal Morse on the same stage was overwhelming, to say (write) the least.  These are two powerful personalities who served as critical poles of incarnate myth.  Because of my seating, I had a perfect view of Morse but a poor one of Portnoy.  Had I been able to choose between one or the other to focus on during the concert, I would’ve been rather torn.

The two men, despite clearly being perfectionists and powerful personalities, are obviously the best and most trusted of friends.  At one point, two obvious Mike Portnoy fans yelled something at the end of a very powerful moment in Morse’s Testimony.  Morse was a bit taken aback (as was the entire audience), and I would guess that the audience as a whole lost a story of some kind because of the interruption.  Portnoy stood up from his drumkit and yelled directly at the two: “There will be no heckling at a Neal Morse concert.”  He did it with great humor and strength.  Needless to write, no one yelled like that again.

Everyone in Morse’s band, not surprisingly, was an expert and multi-talented musician.  Randy George didn’t move around much, but he played his bass with confidence and skill.  All of the musicians, though, were equally good, and the most impressive part of the whole night were the vocal multipart harmonies which Morse directed with passion.

This was probably the best concert I’ve ever seen (Three Friends as well as Neal Morse).  Yes, I’m still basking in it.

New Aryeon Album for 2013

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ImageWhile I’m still digesting the entire first part of the Ayreon trilogy (and have been for half of a decade or more), Arjen Lucassen has announced a new Ayreon album for 2013.

To write that I’m thrilled would be an understatement.  Nothing this man does is unimportant, and nothing he accomplishes is not accomplished without perfection.  Prog, of course, is full of hyperperfectionists, but Arjen is one of the most perfectionist of the perfectionists.  And, I write that as supreme praise.

Here’s the rather humorous video announcing the new Aryeon.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D776GI1qYwI

Just FYI, I’ve been trying to piece together the brilliant but outrageously complex story that is Ayreon (even using the timeline provided in Timeline).  I hope to post about it once, twice, or many times relatively soon.

Astra and Cailyn: Proof of Revival

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AImagestra, “The Black Chord,” (Metal Blade Records, 2012). As my English friend Richard Thresh has stated (and I’m paraphrasing here), “There are really only two types of folks in the world.  Those who love Astra and those who have yet to hear Astra.”  Richard’s right.  This is stunning stuff, but it’s not for the faint of heart.  Astra rocks more than just about any other band I can think of in the present day.  They never, however, venture into metal.  At least with the guitar.  The dirty organ has a metal feel at times.  Still, it is seriously hard, psychedelic, progressive rock.  In terms of writing and production, this album could’ve have emerged sometime around Iron Butterfly’s (also a San Diego band) 1968 “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” or Led Zeppelin’s first album in 1969.  “The Black Chord” is intense from the opening note to the last, and it really never gets old.  It also never stops moving; perpetual motion, it seems, once the Prime Mover kicks it off.  The gritty organ, the dark vocal harmonies, punctuated guitar riffs, roaring bass, and pounding drums make this, frankly, a real treat, and the band is to be congratulated for so brilliantly mixing the present and the past in a way that would be and is entirely acceptable for both.  My guess is that this album will become legend and this band will continue to grow, rather exponentially, in terms of its own abilities and in the audience it deserves.  At the risk of sounding jingoistic (for all that, I’m an Anglophile), I’m also glad to see some domestic prog living up to current British and Scandinavian standards of brilliance and excellence.

ImageCailyn, “Four Pieces,” (Land of Oz Music, 2012). Cailyn is another progressive act from the U.S. who is starting to garner attention, here and aboard, but her music sounds nothing like Astra’s.  These two albums, if nothing else, reveal the immense variety in the current progressive music scene.  Cailyn has taken three relatively well-known classical pieces–by Thomas Tallas, Antonin Dvorak, and Samuel Barber–and given them progressive rock arrangements.  Unlike some bands (such as Yes) that have unsuccessfully attempted to put orchestras behind their music, Cailyn follows much more in the tradition of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.  Cailyn’s arrangements, though, are far more beautiful and tasteful than ELP’s recording, for examplel, of Pictures at an Exposition.  Much like the Dutch composer and musician, Arjen Anthony Lucassen, Cailyn can seemingly play any instrument, but she also plays everything well, with precision and charm.  Somewhat shockingly, the CD credits list her as guitarist (and it soars and is surprisingly bluesy; hard not to think of Stevie Ray Vaughn, though Cailyn is from Wisconsin, not Texas), bassist, keyboardist, and drummer.  If you’ve been trying to get someone interested in progressive rock, this would be a perfect place to start.  I give this my fullest recommendation for any lover of music.  I’m eager to see what she does next, and I hope she’ll make an appearance (or many) here at Progarchy sooner rather than later.

Fringe Season 4 , “A Short Story About Love”

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Unbelievably creepy and effective moment when serial killer is killing to Jon Anderson’s song, “It Might Be Love.”  Dedra and I are slowly catching up to the present.

The Enemy

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Anyone else get freaked out when Collins or Gabriel yell “Six six six” during “Supper’s Ready?”

Excellent Rush Sites

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ImagePower Windows: http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/main/Home.htm

Rush Vault: http://rushvault.com/

Rush is a Band: http://www.rushisaband.com/

Each is run by a dedicated person, fan, and artist.  Enjoy.

 

Welcome to the Realm of Progarchy

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Welcome.  As I explain on the “Progopolis*Progrepublic*Proghalla” page, four of us (with the help of many, many others) decided to create this blog.  Our model (and its founders and writers are to be admired and mimicked) is the Dutch Progressive Rock Page, which I (Brad) have been following for well over a decade.  Our goal–especially given DRPR’s emphasis on things English and European–is to show that the new world (Latin America, Canada, and the U.S.) is just as interested in all progressive music in rock, jazz, and in new and old forms of classical.  We hope to be geographically neutral, overall, just professing our fondness for whatever so moves us.  So, while we will appreciate, notice, and review everything from Radiant Records (yes, we think the world of you, Chris Thompson!), Neal Morse, Rush, Advent, Heliopolis, Cailyn, and Innerspace, as well as promote American radio icon, Richard Schwartz, we’ll also give all due and just consideration to Big Big Train, The Fierce and the Dead, The Reasoning, Ayreon, Gazpacho, The Flower Kings, David Elliott (that Amazing Wilf), etc.

The four founders of this blog have much in common–we’re all about the same age and we tend to have similar views about creativity and the world.  We are very intense in the things we do, and we rarely enjoy a thing unless it is done with exacting standards.  Most importantly, though, we love music.

I was born in 1967, only days after the release of the Magical Mystery Tour, and while I’ve been in love with music since the beginning (so my sainted mother can verify), I’ve been a Progarchist since about 1971.  I first became fully aware of prog, though, in 1973 with the arrival of YesSongs in my house.  I fell in love with the art first and the music second.  After a short while, though, I saw no real separation of the two.  But, it wasn’t just prog rock–I grew up in a house full of classical music as well as jazz.  As I see it (and the other three founders would agree), there’s no discontinuity in admiring Palestrina, Wagner, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Neal Peart, Mark Hollis, Henryk Gorecki, Arvo Part, Greg Spawton, Nick D’Virgilio, and Matt Stevens.

So, please become naturalized citizens in our little happy corner of the world, Progarchy.  We will do our best to pursue all that is good, true, and beautiful.

Yours, Brad

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And, a huge thanks to our many friends around the globe not already mentioned: Richard Thresh, Tobbe Janson, Thaddeus Wert, Robin Armstrong, Alison Henderson, Godfrey York, David Longdon, Captain Redbeard, Frank Urbaniak, Pablo Daniel Bujan Matas, Andy Wilson, Evert Classon, Lisa Mallen, John Deasey, Nick Efford, Craig Farham, Rob Aubrey, Phil Clemsford, Brian Watson, Paul Watson, Rob Benbow, Matt Cohen, Philip Lort, Steve Dunstan, Brian (of @progrocktweets), Julie Robison, Steve Horwitz, Aeon Skoble, Sarah Skwire, Dom D., Pete Blum, Steve Hayward, S.T. Karnick, Dan Bell, Mikael Stridh, Dan Crandall, Chuck Hicks, Brian Sullivan, and others!