{"id":68782,"date":"2017-07-20T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=68782"},"modified":"2017-07-20T11:00:41","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:00:41","slug":"a-spanerd-goes-to-be-prog-my-friend-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/a-spanerd-goes-to-be-prog-my-friend-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"A Spa\u00f1erd Goes to Be Prog! My Friend 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A few weeks ago I unleashed my inner nerd (or innerd) a bit more than usual while attending an intimate-ish Prog Rock and Metal festival in Barcelona. How long did it take me to achieve my Honorary Dad Sandals? Find out below!<\/p>\n

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Ever since I was a young boy, I’ve played the silver ball<\/del>\u00a0been exposed to classic Prog. My dad is a huge fan of bands like Yes<\/strong>, ELP<\/strong> and Genesis<\/strong>, so naturally I gravitated towards Rush<\/strong>, Dream Theater<\/strong> and Opeth<\/strong> when I started traversing\u00a0down the metal hole. I like self-indulgent progressive music and I like metal festivals, so when I first heard of Be Prog! My Friend<\/strong> festival two years ago, I knew I had to go. So of course, I didn’t. And didn’t again the following year. But I finally managed to convince two other poor souls (my mom and brother) to journey with me on this most uncool quest, so it was ON. In weird time signatures, obviously.<\/p>\n

DAY ONE<\/h2>\n

A sunny, but not blisteringly hot day in Barcelona’s picturesque Poble Espanyol<\/a> seemed the perfect backdrop for a few days of music, which proved to be true once Caligula’s Horse<\/strong> took the stage. The Australians played quite a few songs I was familiar with from 2015’s Bloom<\/em> as well as some older material, and were as tight as the skin around a bite wound from one of those millions of poisonous beings from their homeland. They have a new album coming out soon, check them out for some great Prog Metal in the more traditional vein.<\/p>\n

“Are you being Prog? And are you being friends?”, asked\u00a0Tosin Abasi<\/strong>\u00a0while taking a break from shredding right through my frontal lobe. Animals as Leaders<\/strong> turned up the midrange as the sun was hitting them square in the face, and still managed to plow through their set with grace and technical wizardry, leaving the crowed equal parts puzzled and satisfied. The set ranged from newer songs off The Madness of Many<\/em> to classics like “CAFO” and my personal favorite, “Wave of Babies”. At one point Abasi even pulled out a classical guitar and ripped it up (figuratively) like I’ve never seen anyone do. Even if you think you don’t like AAL, they get the crowd moving live.<\/p>\n

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Next up was a moment I was cautiously optimistic about: Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress<\/strong>. For the non-initiated: Mike Portnoy was Dream Theater’s drummer since he co-founded the band in the 80s until his departure in 2010, after which he’s expressed his regret over not being able to perform his “Twelve-Step Suite” (a string of five songs dealing with his alcoholism written over almost 8 years) live in its entirety with the band. Fast-forward to his 50th birthday, and Portnoy has recruited the prog studs in\u00a0Haken<\/strong> and master shredder Eric Gillette<\/strong> to serve as his band to do just that: perform the Suite and a selection of other Dream Theater songs to his fans’ delight. And boy, a delight it was.<\/p>\n

The band opened with the first few movements of Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory<\/em>, and from the get-go it was evident that Portnoy has chosen the right musicians for the job. Despite me singing every song at the top of my lungs, I could hear Portnoy’s signature fills,\u00a0Ross Jennings<\/strong> not singing a single note off key, Diego Tejeda<\/strong> deliver ripping keyboard solos, Gillette replicating each of John Petrucci<\/strong>‘s complex solos note for note with the exact amount of emotion (and singing lead on a few tracks!), and the rest of the rhythm section playing the riffs like they wrote them themselves. It was pretty cathartic getting to finally hear these songs that have been a very important part of my life in a live setting, and I know it isn’t a competition but if it were… I saw Dream Theater this year and it\u00a0wouldn’t\u00a0even be a close race (sorry). Amazing set for any major DT dork.<\/p>\n