A quasi/inadequate review of Dreadnaught, “Gettin’ Tight with Dreadnaught” (RedFez Records, 2015).
Birzer rating: Perfect.
For quite a while, I have had the privilege of listening to the New England band, Dreadnought. An imposing name for imposing music. To paraphrase one of my favorite movies, Spinal Tap, “it could get nun more prog.” Imagine Phish after each member of the band downed seven Red Bulls. Or, King Crimson, but more intense. Or, Dream Theater, though with more fusion and jazz. Then, add them all together, hit turbo, and you might come close to the beauty that is Dreadnaught, but probably not.
I was thrilled when I opened the mail this afternoon to find a demo copy of Dreadnaught’s new EP, “Gettin’ Tight With Dreadnaught.” True to form, the packaging is quintessential Dreadnaught. A cool car in the desert, with a couple trying to sleep (camp?) on top of it. The photo comes from sometime in the early 70s, and the photo has the feel of “antique,” the fading of colors from when we wore burgundy cords with paisley shirts, complete with a rabbit’s foot hanging from a belt loop. Ah, the 70s. . . .
Approaching their 20th anniversary, Dreadnaught is a three-member band.
Bob Lord, bass
Richard Habib, drums
Justin Walton, guitar
Ah, a power trio, you might be thinking? Geddy, Alex, and Neil? Well, yes . . . if Rush played almost nothing but La Villa Strangiato!
Lord, Habib, and Walton are simply stunning. Absolute masters of their instruments as well as their music. Three individuals beautifully becoming one. Though as progressive and as rock as one can imagine, Dreadnaught’s form of the music really comes close to jazz and fusion. This is music at its best. Well, actually, it’s art at its best.
Just a quick look at their resumes reveals how versatile each member of the band is. Bob Lord, especially, has an impressive career. He’s worked with everyone from Pete Townshend to Madeline Albright.
The new EP is everything a lover of prog (and especially Dreadnaught) would expect: expertise and weirdness all beautifully knitted into a whole.
The songs: Nervous Little Dog; The Badger; This Time Next Year; Knife Hits; Barefoot Kicker.
The first two feel like a really incredible version of King Crimson, while track three—This Time Next Year—has a more relaxed (it’s all relative) feel. Knife Hits is experimental (with some killer bass work) before becoming a somewhat normal (country/southern) rock song, and Barefoot Kicker is the longest song, a journey into psychedelic truth.
Honestly, I’m not in any real way doing justice to the intensity and goodness of this music. Trust me—“Gettin’ Tight With Dreadnaught” is a must own.
A SPARK IN THE AETHER: THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE, VOLUMETWO THE TANGENT Inside Out U.S. (21 April 2015) Band: Andy Tillison: keyboards & vocals Luke Machin: guitar Jonas Reingold: bass Theo Travis: saxes & flutes Morgan Agren: drums
The rave reviews are starting to come in. And yes, there’s no real reason of worth or merit that gives me leave to review THE TANGENT’s new album (or any album for that matter). I have zero musical aptitude myself. I can’t “carry a tune,” play an instrument, or really understand rhythm, melody, or much else. I have a blog only because any albino three-toed sloth can have a blog. I post these “reviews” (air quotes, real quotes, ontological & metaphysical quotes) because they’re fun to write and my California best-friend enjoys them (or says he does).
But if I ever wanted, truly wanted, to review an album—
Lest I lose all credibility with my “out-of-the-banks” rave review of A SPARK IN THE AETHER (see prior post) I should say–I haven’t heard all that much of THE TANGENT. The only other album I’ve heard from start to finish is COMM (also brilliant). So admittedly I’m a bit new to Andy Tillison and his genius band (thanks primarily to Progarchy and Dr. B) and had not a large corpus to compare it to. I have a feeling I’m in for a real treat in the weeks ahead as my 2015 CD buying progresses.
In the meantime I was delighted to find a 3 hour podcast featuring THE TANGENT over at Wilf’s(David Elliott) cool podcast, The European Perspective (episode #200 from 4-4-15), hosted by THE DIVIDING LINE.
What a smorgasbord of supernal sounds! Check it out.
Saturday night, I had the awesome opportunity to see Haken, along with the brand new band Next to None, as well as Tiles and Imminent Sonic Destruction. It was a busy night, to be certain. While you may be familiar with Haken, you may not have yet heard of Next to None. Well, get prepared to be amazed. This band is made up of 16 and 17 year olds, with Max Portnoy as their drummer. And, yes, this is the incredibly talented son of Mike Portnoy, who is accompanying the young rockers on their very first tour. You are probably already guessing how awesome a show this must have been.
Tiles with Mike Portnoy
Taking place at the Token Lounge, a very small venue that has been around since the early 70s, in Westland, MI, the show opened with the Detroit native band, Tiles. I am not very familiar with the band, but I have heard some of their music. I must say, after hearing them live, I will definitely need to investigate them further. Their vocalist, Paul Rarick, astounded me with his range and style. All of the musicians were fantastic, and they got the show off to a fast start. The highlight of their set, however, came when they invited Mike Portnoy onto the stage to play none other than Rush’s “Spirit of Radio.” Oh. My. Gosh. Portnoy’s drums were indistinguishable from Neal Peart’s, and Rarick sounded, I kid you not, exactly like Geddy Lee. It was incredible!
Imminent Sonic Destruction
After a short break, Imminent Sonic Destruction played a set. I had never heard of this band before, but they showed impressive skill. It seemed to be a cross between straight up metal, metal core, and prog metal. The singer had a great voice, but he was also fully capable of belting out screams common in more mainstream metal. These guys were clearly enjoying themselves, and they did a great job of warming up the crowd before Next to None and Haken.
I will admit, I was really excited to see Next to None. My first exposure to Max Portnoy came from a video on Mike Portnoy’s YouTube channel of the two of them playing the drum part from Avenged Sevenfold’s song, “Nightmare.” In the video, Max keeps up with his dad perfectly, and he was only 11 at the time. Very impressive, to say the least. When I heard that Max and his friends, Thomas Cucé, Ryland Holland, and Kris Rank, formed a band and recently announced an album coming out through Inside Out Records, I was intrigued, to say the least. After viewing some of their music videos online and listening to one of their released songs, I couldn’t wait to see them live.
MP introducing Next to None
When they came onto the stage, I detected about three seconds worth of nervousness before they ripped into it. After that, all bets were off. These guys have fantastic stage presence for their age. On top of that, their musicianship is outstanding! Max Portnoy definitely inherited his father’s chops, and the rest of the band play like musicians twice their age. Vocally, Thomas Cucé ranges from regular singing to full on metal screaming, and he does both exceptionally well. Keep in mind, this was also the band’s first performance of their first official tour. Amazing. These guys will go far in rock, and I believe they are the future of the genre. Way to go guys!
After several hours of awesome music, Haken finally emerged and played a two hour set! Holy crap. Before the show, I was only familiar with The Mountain and the Restoration EP. On my way out, I bought their first two albums. They played music from all of their albums, as well as the 20 minute “Crystallized” from Restoration. Songs such as “Cockroach King,” “Atlas Stone,” “Falling Back to Earth,” “Shapeshifter,” and the 20 minute encore, “Visions,” along with several other songs I am forgetting, were huge hits with the crowd. Everyone at the show was head-banging along to the music, and the band was certainly all in to what they were playing.
Haken
The single most amazing thing about Haken’s performance was the fact that they were playing minus a member – Richard Henshall, who for some reason was not able to make it to the show. I think Ross Jennings, their vocalist, said he was ill, and he really wanted to be there. Despite his absence, their live music managed to sound just like the albums. The crowd, which, to my pleasant surprise, was made up of a large majority of young people around my age, LOVED Haken. After they finished their last song, the crowd started chanting “HAKEN! HAKEN! HAKEN!” for several minutes until the band re-emerged to play their 20 minute encore, “Visions.”
I cannot say enough good things about Haken. They were absolutely fantastic, and their fans were awesome as well. This was my first truly metal concert, and I didn’t know what to expect. But, there were no mosh pits, no shoving, no fighting, or generally obnoxious behavior. Granted, it was a very small venue with only 200 people at the most, but still. It was an awesome experience, and I definitely look forward to seeing them again.
Max Portnoy and yours truly. I promise I was not drunk even though I look like it. That is just the look I get after standing for 5+ hours. Sadly, its not all that different from my normal look.
At the end of the show, I decided to wait around a few extra minutes to buy Haken’s first two albums (I already bought a t-shirt before the show) and see if any of the performers would come out to mingle. Sure enough, a few emerged. I got the chance to briefly meet and thank Ray Hearne, the drummer, and Charlie Griffiths, the guitarist, both of Haken. Both looked completely exhausted, but it was very nice of them to come out and talk to fans. I also spotted Max Portnoy wandering around, and I got my picture taken with him. He seems like a really nice guy, and I wish him and Next to None the best of success on their album and tour. I can’t imagine what it must be like to juggle high school with recording and touring. Props to them.
The one person I really really really wanted to meet was, of course, Mike Portnoy. Unfortunately, that did not happen, but Mike seemed like he wanted to stay out of the limelight. This was Max’s night, and Mike did a great job of emphasizing that by simply being there to support his son. Maybe I’ll catch you at the next show, Mike.
If you are anywhere near any of the venues of this tour, definitely go out and see them. I only paid $18 for my ticket, which was incredibly reasonable, considering we got hours of great music.
Premiere: View charity single promo as Steve teams up with Magenta, Big Big Train and Steven Wilson band members for Parkinson’s disease.
Magenta mastermind Rob Reed has launched a video to accompany Steve Hackett’s charity release of Spectral Mornings.
It was recorded to support Parkinson’s Society UK, featuring Reed and bandmate Christina Booth alongside Big Big Train’s David Longdon and Nick D’Virgilio plus Nick Beggs of Steven Wilson’s band.
Reed decided to cover Hackett’s 1979 solo album title track because he’d always admired the piece. He recently said: “I thought it would be amazing to re-record with the addition of lyrics.
“David wrote them and we did a demo, which sounded fantastic. I had the idea of a duet, so we asked Christina. Steve kindly agreed to play guitar on the track, which was wonderful.
“I really think we have been respectful to the original piece and hopefully brought something new to it as well.”
This new version of the song is absolutely superb!!!
Last night at the Hard Rock Vancouver there was a most excellent concert by the supremely talented Bend Sinister.
If you haven’t listened to this fine prog-indie band yet, be sure to grab one of their amazing albums, like Animals (2014) or Small Fame (2012).
The top-notch show featured a terrific selection of cuts from these jaw-dropping albums, plus some super-fun covers of Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice” and Queen’s “We Are the Champions” (and the band even doodled around with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin” during sound check as they jokingly played along with the canned tunes piped in on the casino’s house music system).
As a special treat, they added an extra band member to play trumpet for the evening and to add her voice to the gratifyingly thick mix of vocal harmonies.
The band said they were currently working on new material to record. We can all look forward to their next release and the subsequent tour.
Recently they have been touring Canada, the US, and Europe in support of Animals. Check out the epic prog-length opening track from the Animals disc, “Best of You,” with which they closed last night’s show (before doing Queen as the encore).
Progarchy would like to wish a slightly belated happy birthday (April 20) to the king of cool, the god of the drums, the one, the only, MIKE PORTNOY! Mike, thank you so much for your contributions to music over the years. Your music is incredible, and we anxiously await your future releases. You truly are the best!
Says Kerzner of their first group writing session: “Almost immediately it felt like no time had passed and it was great to see everybody again… We never really had the chance to explore writing and recording together as a four-piece. It was always from either a song Simon or I brought in, or a three-piece collaboration with either Matt or Kelly on guitar and bass. To me, this album [already] has more of a true rock band feel to it.”
Sound Of Contact are on a creative roll and hope the as-yet-untitled album will be released early next year, although they’ve yet to finalise its themes.
Progarchy 