The people that brought you CalProg and the 2003 Neal Morse "Testimony Tour", are proud to announce the first entry in what will hopefully become a regular series of SoCal progressive rock shows, as Steamers Cafe in Fullerton hosts "Steamers ProgNight" on Wednesday, September 29, 2004. The music starts at 8:00pm, but the cafe is open all day. So come early and enjoy a great meal and some pre-show prog-talk with other local music lovers. This is an all-age venue, but alcohol is served as well. Reservations are recommended, especially if you intend to have dinner. If you've never been to Steamers, it's been a Jazz landmark in Orange County for over 10 years, and it's warm and friendly atmosphere and staff make it a favorite hang out for the OC late-night set. There will be a nominal cover charge.
Opening the show is the Bay Area based electro-prog band Fractal. The featured artists are Mark McCrite and Don Schiff, of Rocket Scientists fame. A full bio follows.
We hope that you will mark your calendars and come out to show your support of prog music for this first outing. That will enable us to bring you many more shows like this in the future, and provide a reliable stop for national progressive-rock tours throughout the year.
Mark McCrite and Don Schiff, have covered an eclectic variety of musical ground, whether as half of the California progressive rock powerhouse Rocket Scientists, as sidemen to symphonic diva Lana Lane or as solo artists. They will be performing as a duo at Streamers in Fullerton, CA on September 29, 2004. The show will feature material from Rocket Scientists releases, Mark & Don’s solo releases, Lana Lane, a few select covers and some new unreleased original music as well.
Mark McCrite has made a career of melding pop melodic sensibility with progressive rock song structures, both as the singer/guitarist for Rocket Scientists and as a solo artist. He has composed numerous musical numbers for Rocket Scientists and Lana Lane, including the title tracks to her Queen of the Ocean and Project Shangri-La releases. Mark has played and/or sang with such luminaries as Steve Vai, Nick D’Virgilio and Ayreon. He will be playing through a cutting edge digital acoustic guitar rig from Line 6 that makes it easy to instantly access a variety of acoustic guitar sounds and alternate tunings.
Don Schiff plays the NS/Stick – a unique instrument co-designed by Emmett Chapman of Stick Enterprises and Ned Steinberger of Steinberger guitars. Discovering that he could "Tap" the instrument just like the Chapman Stick, Don took the instrument further and developed and worked on more techniques that can be reached with this instrument including plucking and tapping bass and guitar lines at the same time. Don has worked with talents as diverse as Elvis, Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, Eddie Money, Ann Margaret and Sammy Davis Jr.
Jim Mallonee - Bass Guitar, Synthesizers, Pedals, MIDI Bass Guitar, moog Nic Roozeboom - Guitars, Synthesizers, Guitar-driven Synthesizers, Looping Paul Strong - Drums, Percussion, Noises & Treatments Josh Friedman - Guitars and Vocals
The music of Fractal is electric - sometimes heavily riffing, sometimes lyrical and delicate. Occasionally complex but, above all, filled with emotional intensity. Fractal revels in the art of creating richly textured, layered sounds (on the album as well as on stage), making extensive use of challenging musical structures. Fractal's expressive sound is propelled by Jim's talents in sonic sculpture (creating a swirling wall of sound while playing bass guitar). Nic's virtuous electric guitar coupled with guitar-driven synthesis and looping affords rich accumulations of texture. Paul's energetic drumming is combined with a mastery of the medium of V-drumming (with its wide palette of percussive and other sounds).
Fractal first convened in November of 2000 (thanks to a friend, Adrian Cockcroft, who posted an invite on Paul's behalf on King Crimson enthusiast site Elephant Talk) in San Jose, California. Nic and Jim were the first two to reply, and strangely enough the three have been together since then. It was more than a little fortuitous that such an unlikely grouping (Paul having just moved from the UK, Jim from Baltimore, and Nic from the Netherlands) has resulted in such a well-balanced complement of talents and musical personalities.
For the special occasion of our upcoming Southern California appearance, Fractal is offering its CD "Continuum" temporarily at a deeply slashed price of
$9 only
on CDBaby (was: $12.97). With this special promotion offer we hope to make it a little easier for prospective concertgoers to get immersed in the album experience in advance :-)
any chance of getting a regular venue here in the Bay Area for these prog shows? IMusiCast is okay for stuff, have no idea on their pricing or whatnot; but there is a *serious* lack of good music up here.... for us adults (did I just say that?)
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