"EER ya go folks."

Installment FOUR: “A chat with Mr. SYNERGY, more fusion, and prog please.”

After a deli-sub/garf-it-down fast late lunch among the prog vendors, shoppers, and new-found friends I readied my ears for the mighty synthwork of Larry Fast. He came on stage and blew us all away with samplings of SYNERGY pieces and new crescendos of digital mayhem -- NOT!!!! “Hey, what gives? No tunes, what is this? A lecture and a slide show? Oh no, I paid to go back to college again?" Oh man, I thought Fast was gonna jam but -- I sat there feeling a bit stupid for not realizing this was not to be. Somewhere down the line I never got the news Fast was only lecturing on the roots of synth, prog, and all his work with Peter Gabriel, Nektar, Yes, and others. Hmmm.

As I sit here typing and listening to Tonto’s Expanding Head Band Zero Time my mind goes back to all the marvelous synth music Larry Fast created from 1975 through 1987. Every time I saw his name on a band’s album credits I knew some very cool sounds would be happening. I was never let down. Well, here was Larry standing a mere 15 feet in front of me, elucidating all “the little secrets” of SYNERGY and Fast. It was more than, better than Progressive Rock 101 cuz here was “da man” himself not any old second-handed speaker. Well, I was getting interested.

Larry told us of Nektar and Gabriel and Wakeman and Collins and Genesis and the Beatles and the MOOG and the mellotron and W. Carlos. He played us audio snippets and flashed up slides of all his tweakings and knob diddlings with Yes, Nektar, and Peter Gabriel. I was enjoying Fast’s “insider view” he shared. For example, Fast built and designed many of his own sound processing modules to save himself tons of money -- my kinda guy! My brain was near full of Gabrielisms as I wondered why Fast never discussed his work with Canada’s space- rock kings -- FM. Maybe next time. Good job Mr. SYNERGY. Thanks for the tidbits of knowledge. Does anyone know how many Synergy live-gig shows Fast ever did?? (Somebody clue me in sometime. I’m curious.)

MASTERMIND: AMAZING FUSION and (neo-shred “biker prog” with vixen vox)

About 7:30 pm, only a trifling 90 minutes late, Mastermind exploded onstage and kicked some of the hardest, rockinest, and most blazing fusion I could have hoped for -- being a legato-based, heavy-styled, fusionhead. Bill Berends and brother Rich have been at the prog thing since 1986 but recently they decided to return to “their first love” -- the improv-rich halls of in-your-face fusion. Thanks guys!!

They opened with several tracks from their excellent Excelsior! release. I know they unloaded a bunch after the show. They were awesome to behold and to hear. Recent additon, bandmiss, the petite vixen, Lisa Bouchelle sang vocals to Excelsior!’s nonvocal “Tokyo Rain”. I really enjoyed

this live version as well. They need to re-record that tune with Lisa on a future release. Strumming an acoustic guitar and singing out her soul, she caused a “stage rush” by photographers and flashes illuminated Foy Hall as the crowd got shutter-happy and film-poor. She is definitely the looker and has a strong voice to augment her obvious stage presence. Last time I saw this sort of crowd reaction was at ProgDay 98 when Sweden’s Magdalena Hagberg of PLP stepped stage front. I love it!

Mickey Simmonds stood in on live keys for Jens Johansson who did studio keys on Excelsior!. and Bob Eckman added live bass. Anyone who has heard Jens jam with axemen Holdsworth, Lane, Stern, and Malmsteen knows Simmonds had quite the Mastermind-live-show, Johansson shoes to fill. He did well. Lisa Bouchelle’s vocals on the shreddish/fusion rock tunes reminded me of Leather Leone’s fine work with Chastain. Watchin’ Lisa boogie around with a tambourine to near-Dregs riffin’ and progmetal vox was quite the mix. Bill Berends did bizarro lead breaks with Midi screeches, pick percussives, and staccato growlings. Best moment for me was the cover of “Sudden Impulse” after Lisa took a break backstage. Great stuff, in fine Mahavishnu Orchestra style, was offered in much heat.

Everytime Lisa Bouchelle took the stage a definite change came over Mastermind’s overall sound towards shreddish-boogie-progmetal, rock-me-baby angst. The fusion elements waned and a Shania Twain sexiness waxed. I mean if you turned down the tunes and took in the visual element alone -- you’d see Nashville “biker”

rock. What is weird, is that it all this diversity works -- somehow -- prog, fusion, metal, leather, sweat, and a blonde. Mastermind’s outro, again from their new album, was huge and a powerhouse choice to slap us all around real good as they made the walls fall!

Ah, but that was not all! Mastermind was the first band hailed back onstage for a massive encore. Rich Berends slaughtered the drums later on, in a killer solo that was accentuated with gong -- power, more power, and grace. Classical favorites such as Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and flashes of Beethoven were reinterpreted by the crazy fingers of Mastermind. What an incredible show! That was enuff for me for DAY ONE and I split! Sorry IQ -- had to go.

And so the fine ears and eyes of Mr. Noah Samuel Lesgold witnessed IQ for E.E.R. . . .

IQ: (by NSL himself per e-mail to me)

I'll freely admit to being fanboyish where this band is concerned -- I won't say they can do no wrong, but there's an incredible feeling to their work, where the whole is much more than the sum of the parts, that really carries me away. That was more true live than their studio work can possibly represent; the intensity of the performance drew me into every song. "Awake and Nervous" opened the show incredibly well, and I finally got to see what people were talking about with regards to the dramatics of Peter Nicholls. For me, at least, it never felt like a descent into melodrama -- he was very passionate and intense about both his vocals and his acting. Where seeing Dream Theater and Yes live gave me some doubts about the value of a frontman who only sings, I really felt that Peter was just way too busy to have room to play, too.

Overall, this was almost a religious experience for me. The power, passion, and skill of this bandjust blew me away. A phenomenal closer to the first day of NEARfest99. They took about 40 minutes of material from their recent Subterranea album, and starting with that section, the rest of the show was backed by interesting projections that ranged from fractal patterns, to, for the initial Subterranea songs, running through traffic and cityscapes. Very interesting material which complimented the music well. On one song ("Failsafe", I think), Nicholls went backstage and a video camera projected him (playing the part of [i think] a villain from the Subterranea album) on the screen. Interesting stuff. Aside from that, they also played 3 songs from Ever, one or two from The Wake, and "War Heroes", from Are You Sitting Comfortably? -- that last was the only song they played from the Paul Menel years. I was hoping for "Human Nature" or "No Love Lost", but I'm not about to complain.

The highlight was their last pre-encore song -- a full version of "The Last Human Gateway". I gather that having this performed in its entirety is a bit of a rarity these days -- I certainly consider myself privileged to have been around for it. I can understand why they've been thinking about re-recording Tales from the Lush Attic, given how good the versions of this and "Awake and Nervous" they're doing these days. Encores were "The Wake"and "Headlong", both from The Wake album, which again were much better than the album versions.

Next Installment: AND THE DAY TWO BANDS ATTACK . . . (careful with that "axe"organ Ryo "Eugene" Okumoto )

Next installment:

E.E.R.

will again feature,

Noah Samuel Lesgold,

voluntEERing his aural insights on NEARfest 99's

ICE AGE, CRUCIBLE, and SPOCK'S BEARD

(DAY TWO) performances. Thanx Noah!