The Return of The Flower Kings

BostonProg along with help from NewEARS is happy to announce the return of The Flower Kings to The Regent Theater in Arlington on August 27th.

For more than a decade Sweden’s now legendary progressive rock giants,The Flower Kings have dominated the new worldwide prog-revival releasing 11 studio albums in 12 years. Originally drawing from obvious influences such as The Beatles,Yes, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa & Genesis, The Flower Kings have evolved into a seasoned and mature band who’s sound is now as recognizable as that of their mentors. A sound that has come to be adored by fans and press alike.

The Flower Kings will play a short USA tour in August 2008 in support of their latest critically acclaimed CD “The Sum of No Evil”

The band will play most of the new album and most certainly some older fan favourites plus the odd jam that is now an integral part of The Flower Kings live experience.

Part one of the  tour, supporting this latest album “The Sum Of No Evil”, saw the band tour most of Europe last  November with guest  Pat Mastelotto behind the drumkit.

Pat, an American, that once had big USA and worldwide hits with Mr Mister and later on played on many pop albums including XTC, and The Rembrants has now since the early 90’s been mostly known for his pioneering work with heavy beats and drum electronica, most significantly in King Crimson.

All members of The Flower Kings have a long history in different bands and recordings, most significant are perhaps Roine Stolt’s contributions in “Transatlantic” alongside Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy and Marillion’s Pete Trewavas, a progrock “sideproject” that took flight in early 2000 and quickly gained  “supergroup” status among progressive rock fans and press .

The new incarnation of Flowerkings include :

Tomas Bodin; keyboards

Roine Stolt: guitars & vocals

Jonas Reingold: bass & vocals

Erik Hammarström: drums

Ola Heden: vocal & keyboard,guitar

Hasse Fröberg: vocals,guitar

 

Any lover of melodic rock,  experimental rock, progressive or symphonic will enjoy this band that seems to have found the secret formula of bringing every aspect of soulful and uplifting entertainment alive onstage and on record.

Once you’ve become friends with the music of The Flower Kings there is no turning back.

Our good friends from the NJ Proghouse take over NEARfest

(Reprinted from the NEARfest web site)

Passing the Torch

NEARfest is happy to announce Jim Robinson, Ray Loboda and Kevin
Feeley as the successors to the management of the festival. In
January, co-founders Chad Hutchinson and Rob LaDuca made public their
plans to retire from the festival after 10 great years at the helm.
Following the 2008 event, Jim, Ray and Kevin will take over as the new
guard. NEARfest will carry on with the same diversity that has made
it so successful over the past decade. With the changeover will also
come new ideas to help move NEARfest forward into its next phase.

Jim Robinson grew up playing various musical instruments, including
trumpet, french horn and bass - even taking lessons from Dave LaRue
(Steve Morse Band, Dixie Dregs) at one point. Jim founded the New
Jersey Proghouse in 1999 (then called the Central New Jersey Music
Showcase) after being inspired by his attendance at the very first
NEARfest that same year. Since then, Jim has teamed up with Ray and
Kevin among others, to develop the NJ Proghouse into a successful
concert series. Since 1999, Jim as been the “official” head-cracker
at NEARfest, but in recent years has assumed an important role in
transportation. Jim’s relationships with both domestical bands and
labels, as well as running the NJ Proghouse and being a member of the
ProgDay band commitee for three years, has given him a vast amount of
experience on which he can build on with his new role with NEARfest.

Ray Loboda grew up in the ’70s listening to progressive rock music and
emulating his heroes in cover bands. Ray has been a NEARfest-goer
since 1999 and never looked back. He met his good friend and cohort
Jim Robinson at the NEARfest ticket day luncheon in 2000 and the two
formed a strong bond in their common loves for prog rock, prog metal
and especially Kansas. Ray and his wife Noreen supported the NJ
Proghouse for a few years before becoming members of what Ray
eventually donned the “Staph.” Ray has forged many important
friendships over the years with the likes of The Flower Kings,
Riverside, Knight Area and echolyn, not to mention many record
executives and band managers. Ray was also a member of the NEARfest
transportation crew and the ProgDay band committee with Jim. Ray’s
business sense and PR skills will serve him well as he steps into the
NEARfest management fold.

Kevin Feeley is instantly recognized by his snowy white hair and
beard. Kevin has been the production manager for NEARfest since 2004
and can be seen pacing the stage with his headset often during the
weekend. Kevin’s professional background as both an audio engineer
and a production manager allow him to run the stage at NEARfest as a
well-oiled machine. In the past, Kevin has worked live concert and
corporate events such as Grammy-winning artists like Steel Pulse and
Spyro Gyra, the JVC Jazz Festival in Europe with Roberta Flack, the
Bush/Quayle Inaugural and the first Clinton/Gore Inaugural. On a fan
level, Kevin has been supporting progressive music since the early 70s
by attending such shows as ELP’s “Brain Salad Surgery Tour” and Yes’
“Close to the Edge” tour. Kevin is a member of the NJ Proghouse
Staph, providing audio and production services and equipment. Kevin
also met his long-time girlfriend Suzan Picard at the smolderingly hot
NEARfest 2000 preshow while watching Echolyn perform. In his four
years with NEARfest, Kevin has brought may great ideas to the show
helping it to become the smooth operation that it today. He also
found us our great video technician Matthew Walker. Kevin’s knowlege
of the inner workings of the technical side of the festival make him
an easy choice to help carry on the flame. And speaking of flames, he
also makes fantastic hot wings.

Congratulations to Jim, Ray and Kevin. Along with Rob and Chad, I’m
sure the progressive rock faithful with you the best and will show you
support in your new roles with NEARfest.

Early 2008 Prog Changes

It has been a tough early couple of weeks for the Northeast prog scene, but hopefully, as is often the case, the music will carry on.

 

As most of you have heard by now, after 10 years running NEARFest, co-founders Chad Hutchinson and Rob LaDuca will be retiring from the festival.  Their announcement says that arrangements are being made to transfer the festival and its “crucial diverse band selection” to a new organization.  Let’s hope for a successful transfer and continuation of what has become of the world’s premier prog showcases.

 

RoSfest announced this week that headliner The Flower Kings will not be able to make it this May due to their drummer situation.  This is unfortunate as NewEARS was hoping to be able to schedule another local Flower Kings performance based around their appearance at RoSfest.  We are all hopeful that we may see The Flower Kings again later on in the year around their scheduled November European tour with special guest drummer Pat Mastelotto who is best known in the prog community for his work with King Crimson.

 

Closer to home, a very promising new venue for a 2008 NewEARS Art Rock Series, the Acton Jazz Café, has just announced a “temporary” closing due to financial hardship.  We just had our first gig with them at the end of 2007 with the NewEARS Eve Tony Levin/IZZ show which was a sell-out and was expected to lead to more shows in the new year.  We wish the AJC a speedy recovery and hope that this great venue does not disappear forever.

 

Finally, after 7 years as our webmaster and designer, NewEARS’ own Keith Reedy has also announced that he will be retiring from his samaritan position.  Keith has spent countless hours supporting NewEARS over the years with not only the web site, but graphic design for flyers and link supports and all we could ever repay him with was a couple of tickets to a show.  We want to publicly thank Keith once again for all he has done for us.

 

That does leave an open position for a new NewEARS webmaster and graphic designer.  If anybody is interested, please get in touch with us either through the site, yahoo or the PO Box 1434, Littleton MA 01460-4434.

 

Somehow, Prog Will Carry On in 2008.

 

Fred T.

2007 A Great Year for Prog

What a fantastic end to 2007 local prog fans had at last night’s sold out show by Tony Levin and IZZ at the Acton Jazz Café.  All performances were outstanding and a certain prog magic was created when both parties teamed up on some classic Gabriel tracks.  I hope to read some reviews of the gig on the site soon.

 

2007 end’s another year of great shows brought to you by NewEARS.  Earlier in the year, we had The Watch from Italy recreating that classic Genesis sound, but with all original compositions of their own.  After The Fall, which is one of New England’s best progressive bands, put on a strong performance featuring many tracks from their critically acclaimed album “kNOwleDGE”.  IZZ also made their first appearance for us in support of their new album “My River Flows”.

 

And for those of you lucky enough to make it to the Murali Coryell Blues Show, you were treated to a very special opening performance by the young, but very talented Mindwalk.  These kids (16 and under) can really play well and might just become Boston’s next great band.  I can’t wait to hear their debut CD next year.

 

2007 was also a great year for progressive music CD releases.  Actually, I can’t think of another year in recent memory that had such strong releases.  A new generation of prog artists have really come into their own and now release music that’s as good if not better than what many consider classic progressive rock.  If you haven’t heard these incredible CD releases from 2007 (in no particular order), then you’re missing out on some of the best prog music ever produced:

 

Dream Theater – Systematic Chaos: a continued legacy of progressive metal at it’s best.

 

Fish – 13^th Star: a return to the man bearing his soul for the world, his strongest solo release since Sunsets on Empire.

 

The Flower Kings – The Sum of No Evil: doing their own brand of symphonic progressive rock like no other.

 

Marillion – Somewhere Else: another great offering from a band that never stays in a rut, constantly creating a new progressive sound.

 

Neal Morse – Sola Scriptura: the new king of epic progressive songs, each of his releases are simply outstanding.

 

Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet: Steve Wilson continues creating a unique progressive crossover sound that is prog / metal / psychedelic / industrial / grunge / emo…simply great.

 

Hoping 2008 brings us as much great music as this year.

NewEARS Levin/IZZ show SOLD OUT

A great thanks to all of you that bought your tickets early and SOLD OUT our first show at the Acton Jazz Cafe.   It’s always a great feeling for the bands (not to mention us at NewEARS) to know ahead of time that there’s going to be a great full capacity crowd to enjoy the evening’s entertainment.  Knowing so early how special the night is going to be has already made us start thinking about ways to make it even more special.

There are rumors of a potential “live” recording to be made that night as well as a joint collaboration between Tony and IZZ.  Regardless of what the final music mix will be, we know that we’re going to be in for a great night of progressive music.

We are looking forward to seeing all of you at the Acton Jazz Cafe on Sunday December 30th (the day before New Years Eve in case some of you got confused by our NewEARS Eve announcement).  Come early for dinner if you can.  The food at the AJC is delicious and we want to make a good first impression of patronage in order to have more shows there in the future.

Thanks again for all your support.  This is going to be a great way to end 2007.  We’re already looking forward to bringing you more in 2008.

A Message From Tony

A great thanks to all of you who have ordered your tickets for the upcoming NewEARS Eve (12/30)  Tony Levin / IZZ gig at the Acton Jazz Cafe.  Over 1/2 of the tickets are sold so please order yours early if you plan on attending.  We do expect a sold out show.  Here’s a message from Tony who’s out on the road.

“Hi all. I’m looking forward to approaching New Years with NewEARS. I have such strong connections to New England, to Prog music, and to the folks at NewEARS, this event was too tempting for me to miss. Rather than a solo ’show’, I’m thinking it’ll be an informal musical/personal appearance, with me talking a little about upcoming plans for King Crimson and Liquid Tension Experiment and more. I’ll have my Stick, will play some bits from my new CD, and I am sure you’ll have some questions! And if I can sit in with IZZ a bit, that’d be great too.

I was hoping to have December free to prepare some music, but now work is taking me to S. Africa and Moscow in Nov/Dec. The good news is that after 10 days of Russian December, New England will seem warm!

See you there.”

We’re Back, We have shows….and we’re Blogging!

Hello fellow Proggers!! It is with great enthusiasm that we announce our end of the year show and hopefully a new beginning for us at a great new venue, the Acton Jazz Café. We can’t think of a better way to kick things off at a new venue than by having a NewEARS Eve party on Sunday December 30th (day before New Years) with old NewEARS friends and alumni Tony Levin and IZZ.

Please join us for what promises to be an exciting evening of live music. NewEARS regulars IZZ will be making a 2007 return engagement after their highly reviewed Nearfest appearance. The band is as tight as ever and those beautiful angelic harmonies from Anmarie and Laura should carry you to that special “prog” zone. If you haven’t already picked-up their latest CD “My River Flows”, I strongly encourage you to order it now from their site. You won’t be disappointed.

Next, the one and only progressive bass legend Tony Levin will be making his first solo appearance for NewEARS. We have been honored in the past with Tony’s presence with the California Guitar Trio, The Tony Levin Band, and The Murali Coryell Blues Review. This time Tony is coming on his own in support of his latest CD Stick Man to demonstrate his chops on the Chapman Stick. Get ready to be blown away.

So come join us on Sunday December 30th for a NewEARS Eve party at the Acton Jazz Café.  Show starts early at 7:00 PM.  Come early for dinner. Kitchen opens at 6:00 PM and the food is very good.

Again, please order your tickets early by sending your check or money order made out to NewEARS with a return self-addressed stamped envelope to our new mailing address at:
NewEARS
PO Box 1434,
Littleton MA
01460-4434