FMPM 2006 REVIEW

Around 9:35 PM, the festival officially began. I introduced Signs of One as the very first artist to grace the stage of FMPM, the first in what we hope, will become a long list of performers at our annual event, in the same tradition as NEARfest, ProgDay or RoSFest. Signs of One is a group from Quebec city, composed of Steeve Tremblay on guitars and vocals, Phil Prince on drums and percussion, Yannick Lapointe on keyboards and vocals, Dan Gagnon on bass and vocals and Dave Schram on lead vocals. Their material is a great mix of symphonic, melodic prog with more straightforward pop rock, inspired by groups as varied as Rush, Marillion, Arena, Radiohead and Jethro Tull. Their setlist was composed of Innerlight, Frantic Memories, Confusion, Innerland, Remember, Farewell Master, Ice Cream Silence and I, from their various studio efforts. Dave is a very energetic singer, very expressive and exuberant, Steeve is an amazing, talented guitarist. I would have loved to hear a bit more of the keyboards in the mix. The group was tight and really had fun onstage, setting the tone for the evening.

All the while, a bit of drama when the band members of Hatfield and the North arrived very late from their long trip from France and from England. Phil Miller and Alex Maguire had to endure a hellish trip; Their plane, scheduled to land at 4 PM, was delayed over an hour, they were held at customs for quite a while, and then got stuck in traffic on their way to the hotel for a solid two hours, poor Phil Miller was very tired and utterly uncomfortable, but around 8 PM, I got the news that everyone had arrived safely and my partner Stephen had treated them to a lovely meal at a fine steak house. I only started breathing again after that moment.

The atmosphere was at its peak at La Place à Côté as Hamadryad prepared to go onstage. Second group presented at the preshow, they really needed no introduction (but I gave them one anyway) as they are one of our most celebrated Montreal-based contemporary progressive bands. They didn't dissapoint, as they gave a triumphant performance, worthy of their immense talent. Hamadryad is composed of Denis Jalbert on guitars and vocals, Yves Jalbert on drums, Jean-François Désilets on bass and vocals and Sébastien Cloutier on keyboards and vocals. Their set was composed of tracks from their two highly popular studio albums, and consisted of Spark of Benign Magic, Self-Made Men, Anatomy of a Dream, Amora Demonis, Watercourse Hymn, 24, Nameless, Omnipresent Umbra, Sunburnt, One Voice, Polaroid Vendetta, Alien Spheres, Still they Laugh - parts 1 & 2 and Action. Reworking some of the tracks as instrumental compositions, the set was fantastic, the guys were full of energy and gave an all-out performance, much to the pleasure of their fans. Quickly back home to catch a few hours of sleep, we all needed the energy for the day after!

Day one
And so it begins... arriving early at the Gesu to drop equipment as well as one of our volunteers, Allison, and after going quickly to the airport ot Pick-up Leonardo, Hatfield and the North's agent, I finally made my way to the auditorium in the early afternoon to help in the setup, which was already well in its way. I caught a brief glimpse of the Hatfield and the North sound check, and even though they were unrehearsed, tired of their long plane trip and still heavy-hearted at the loss of their old friend, Pip Pyle a few days earlier, they were simply sublime. Mr. Sinclair had a bit of trouble with the bass amp head, so I quickly went to the Boîte à Musique for a substitute bass amp. By then the band members of Echolyn had arrived at the hotel from their long road trip from Pennsylvania, so I quickly greeted them and helped them setup their merchandise in the vendors area back at the venue. Poor Ray Weston realized much to his dismay that one of his tires was flat while waiting at the canadian border crossing, so he had to drive all the way to Montreal on his spare tire. More on that later.

As people started arriving in the late afternoon, it was time for Jérôme Langlois' sound check and setup. Again, it was a great, intimate musical moment, just watching these great musicians perform a few passages of the set they would present later in the evening. Sadly it was all that I would see of Jérôme Langlois' magical performance, as I had so many things to take care, including setting-up the after-hours party, so I had to miss the entire Molignak show with a heavy heart. Thankfully, John Kelman, of the All About Jazz website, saw the show and had this to say about the Jérôme Langlois set:

"The festival opened up with a performance by Jérôme Langlois, co-founder of Maneige, one of Quebec’s most beloved progressive groups from the 1970s. With his new Molignak project, clarinettist/pianist Langlois was accompanied by bassist Mario Légaré, drummer/percussionist Gilles Schetagne, violinist Bernard Cormier, flautist/pianist François Richard and clarinettist Romie de Guise-Langlois. Atmospheric lighting created a warm backdrop for Langlois’ classically influenced music. But the introduction of electric instruments and, on occasion, more propulsive rhythms make a case for this kind of music being classical music for the 21st Century.

Relying more on polyphony than counterpoint, Langlois’ music was approachable; complex in its episodic and extended nature, but not so in its more straightforward rhythms. While solos were kept to a minimum and always within context of the material’s structure, Cormier and Richard stood out—as did, of course, Langlois, who was often seen cuing the sextet from his place at the piano.

The appreciative audience was clearly familiar with the material and it was a lyrical way to start the festival, proving that two terms so often associated with progressive music—bombast and inaccessibility—need not be applicable at all." - John Kelman, Senior Editor - All About Jazz website (www.allaboutjazz.com) Read the complete review at: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=23106 .

At 7:00 PM on day one of the festival, Jérôme Langlois played with the Molignak ensemble, composed of Mario Légaré on bass, Bernard Cormier on violin, François Richard on flute and keyboards, Gilles Schetagne on drums and percussion, Paul Picard on percussion, Romie De Guise-Langlois on clarinet and of course, Jérôme Langlois, on piano, clarinet and guitar. Their set consisted of Le Cri, Arrivée, Huard 2, Le Rafiot, Chanson des Îles, La Balloune, L'Envol du Papillon, Mars 97, Tango 2000 and for the encore, Rhapsodie Molinienne and La Molinie (from Jérôme's setlist). The magnificent performance was most appreciated by the audience, who left for the dinner break with smiles on their faces, as I was coming back from setting-up the after-hours party...

Then on to the next performance, the long-awaited first-ever performance of Hatfield and the North in Montreal. It was nearly never to be, when in the last days of August, Pip Pyle, Hatfield and the North's drummer for the past 34 years, died suddenly in Paris, just days after a gig in Holland. But the group decided to honor their fans, and found a replacement drummer that was quite familiar with the Hatfield material (Mark Fletcher is in Phil Miller's band In Cahoots, and substituted for Pip Pyle occasionnally on a few Hatfield gigs), so the Montreal show was on. And what a show they put on!

Hatfield and the North is composed of Richard Sinclair on vocals and on bass, Phil Miller on guitars, Alex Maguire on keyboards (substituting for Dave Stewart, who decided not to reunite with the band) and Mark Fletcher on drums (substituting for Pip Pyle). After a quick intro by our colleague Sean McFee, the guys put on a majestic show. When you think that Mark Fletcher pretty much had to "wing it", since he had very little time to re-familiarize himself with the Hatfield material, and all four musicians still reeling from the death of their beloved old friend Pip, it was an extremely emotional experience. Alex and Richard's banter lightened up the mood, and their contagious humour made the audience laugh out loud often. Their performance was subtle and melodic at times, with blistering jams and heavenly improvisations at others. A jaw-dropping set from these legends of the Canterbury scene. I felt privileged to witness this perfect embodiment of classy british prog at its best. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Their beautiful set consisted of Licks for the Ladies, Part Of The Dance, Rifferama, Calyx/Underdub/God Song/Lything and Gracing, Share it, Didn’t Matter Anyway, Halfway Between Heaven and Earth, the Miller/Wyatt classic Nan's True Hole, What's Rattlin' (from Richard's RSVP CD...lyrics by Pip), Gigantic Landcrabs in Earth Takeover Bid (titled 'Amsterdamage 11/19' on Hatwise Choice), Fitter Stoke Has a Bath, Psychic Warrior (an Alex MaGuire tune), Seven Sisters (from Pip's 7 Year Itch album). I do not recall the specific order and I may have forgotten a few numbers, but the setlist above is close to reality. The group was treated to a long standing ovation from the audience... nothing less was to be expected after such a sublime performance.

Day one went without a hitch, the sound was wonderful, and all the shows began in time. The technical crew of the Gesù, under the guidance of our great technical director, Michel St-Père, and the auditorium's Mario Lachance, was simply impeccable, and ensured the smooth flow of all the shows all day long. People came out of the auditorium happy and ready to take on day two the morning after.

The after-hours VIP artist's party was a great attempt at emulating the cool fun events accompanying the celebrations of great festivals like RoSFest and NEARfest, but unlike the aforementioned, our attempt never really took off the ground. With much fewer people than we had expected, tired attendees and musicians, the jam session took a bit of time to warm up, and ended prematurely. Next year, this formula will be reworked from scratch, probably moved to another day, and definitely another location.

Day Two
With a near-perfect day one under our wing, we felt confident that the second day of the festival would be equally succesful, and aside from a few delays due to our rather tight schedule, we were extremely happy how things went. It all started quite early with the Echolyn crew ready to setup and rehearse at 8:45 sharp! Their setup and reharsal went on impeccably. Soon after, Ray Weston, asked me where he could have his deflated tire repaired, and I directed him to the closest Canadian Tire store where we spent a few minutes discussing about Echolyn's trip to Canada and their various upcoming projects.

At 2:15 PM, we were finally ready for the first performance of the day with Karcius. It was for me a pleasure to introduce them onstage because i'm proud of these kids and how wonderfully they evolved over the years. Karcius is composed of Dominique Blouin on bass, Thomas Brodeur on drums, Mingan Sauriol on keyboards and Simon L'Espérance on guitars. Their unique brand of powerful, proggy jazz fusion really shook everyone awake! Their set consisted of a great mix of tracks from their two brilliant studio releases, and a few surpises! They played Destination, Tunnel, Highway to the Moon, Back to Earth, Epilogue, a Led Zeppelin medley featuring cool excerpts of Black Dog, The Ocean and Kashmir among others and to conclude their set, they played the Hypothèse A, B and C suite. Simon awed the audience with his virtuosity, and his contagious enthusiasm, great showmanship and intensity from this guy. The stoic Dominique really let loose during the show and offered some stunning jammy bass riffs throughout the set. Thomas is a powerful and precise drummer with soul and an impeccable technique. Mingan just wowed the audience with his great improvisations, he was simply brilliant on the keys. Standing ovation for this young band of prodigious musicians from Montreal. That was a perfect way to start the day, and the guys were literally assaulted by the crowd at the signing table after their set! One final note, you might have noticed the drumkit used for most of the bands with the FMPM logo on it... that was Thomas Brodeur's kit, who courteously offered it to us for the duration of the festival. Dominique Blouin also kindly offered his bass amp to the other invited artists! Thanks Thomas and Dom!

A great article in the Journal de Montreal was published on that Saturday, which was posted in the lobby of the Gesù. It featured a great interview with the Guys from Karcius and a cool overview of the entire festival. Thanks to the Journal's Philippe Renault for the great thumbs-up!

Due to the church service mid-afternoon, there was this very long break from 3:30 to 6:45 we had to live with, so it was the ideal time for the FMPM sympozium on Quebec's progressive pionners, hosted by Sean McFee and Stephen Takacsy, featuring Yves Laferrière, André Duchesne, Alain Bergeron, Tom Rivest and Gary Green. The format was a panel with a Q & A session, a truly fascinating journey through the history of progressive music in Quebec in the early 70's. Gary had the pleasure of playing with many of the artists sitting on this panel during his time with Gentle Giant, as many of them opened for the legendary british group.

The very tight changeover period between Kaos Moon and Miriodor would have made it nearly impossible to respect the schedule, but thanks to the highly competent Gesù crew, and the fact that we organized for Miriodor to partially set-up their gear while the Kaos Moon crew were setting-up and rehearsing, we were actually able to make it work. Both bands have an insanely complex setup (the two most elaborate setups at FMPM this year), so we were lucky that we had so little delays. The Kaos Moon performance was 10 minutes late, the Miriodor set was 20 minutes late and the Echolyn set was 40 minutes late... We'll make sure to shuffle the bands next year in a way that this time period accomodates groups with a relatively simple setup. But as I mentioned, if not for the amazing efficiency of the bandmembers of Kaos Moon, Miriodor and the Gesù crew, it could have been much worse.

Close to 7:00 PM, the Kaos Moon set began. The group is composed of Denis Mailloux on drums, Norman Lachapelle on bass, Jean-François Bélanger on violin, nykelharpa, sitar and bouzouki, Sylvain Provost on guitars, Denis Boulanger on keyboards and of course, Bernard Ouellette on vocals, keyboards, guitars and percussion. Their musical style is a wonderful mix of symphonic prog with elements of fusion, celtic/Middle-East, Arena rock, a bit reminiscent of Jadis, RPWL and the likes, even hints of Echolyn at times. Their set consisted mostly of tracks from their latest album, Circle of Madness and included Presidency, S.O.A.B., Crawl, The Cold Fish, Groove in G minor, Say to Me, The Wall of Silence, The Waves and Eternal Light Avenue. The guys just performed a wonderful, elegant set, their performance marked by great musicianship and emotion. The key of their set was variety, from the most delicate ballads to the most enthusiastic jams! It was also sort of a reunion for Kaos Moon and Echolyn, since they performed together several years ago. Jean-François was responsible for the exotic sounds of the group, with his selection of unusual instruments like the complex nykelharpa, the sitar and the bouzouki, a brilliant multi-instrumentalist. Sylvain really blew away the crowd with his chops on guitar, with captivating solos and caustic riffs! Denis Boulanger really gave an awe-inspiring performance on the keys, putting the ol' B3/Leslie to good use! Bernard was magnificent and sang admirably well, considering that pollen allergies had bothered him much of the weekend, just a dazzling performance.

A bit before 8:30, it was Miriodor's turn. The group is composed of Pascal Globensky on keyboards, Rémi Leclerc on drum and percussion, Chantal Bergeron on violin, Nicolas Masino on bass and keyboards, Marie-Chantal Leclair on saxophone and Bernard Falaise on guitars. Their setlist consisted of tracks from Mekano and Parade, plus a few new things, and included Écart-type (a new track), Scarabée, Mille-pattes, Toutes proportions gardées, Tartine, Boîte à surprises, Polar, Avanti (another new never-played number), Contrées liquides, Pas à ce que je sache, Sacha, Cruciverbiste, Uppsala, and for the encore, Le règne des termites. The group was treated to a long and well-deserved standing ovation. Many times during their set, people stood up and cheered loudly, their performance was one of the highlights of the festival, a true killer set from one of the world's most renowned ambassadors of what is known as Rock In Opposition. The only thing I can say about Rémi Leclerc is that he has an atomic clock in his body! The level of precision and the insane time signatures of his work on drums is beyond anything you've ever seen! It is pure delight. Marie-Chantal was amazing on the clarinet, delivering a blaze of blistering passages throughout the show, Nicolas was brilliant during the splendid bass duo on Cruciverbiste, the audience laughing at his humorous banter between tracks, Bernard simply rewrote the book on guitar playing, what a splendid, imaginative guitarist, with such a remarkable tone and a fine technique. Chantal shredded our souls with her sharp violin tones and her exquisite virtuosity. And what can I say about Pascal, the gracious leader of this joyful orchestra, just perfect on keyboards ans synths. The group is very inventive and offers brilliant, captivating music on CD, but seeing them live is something even more amazing... the precision, the grace, the world-class virtuosity, the intensity, it's just a whole new level! I truly believe that Miriodor is responsible for making the whole RIO genre more accessible to the general population, blending the unusual rhythms and melodies of RIO with their own brand of alternative, truly unclassifiable harmonies and beats, resulting in stimulating, enthusiastic, exuberant, clever music. A live DVD of this group would be simply incredible. Pascal is hinting at the release of a new album, but nothing before 2008. We will be waiting in anticipation!

Time flew by so fast, that it was already time for the final performance of FMPM, featuring one of the most beloved american progressive bands, Echolyn. Again, a race against time to set-up the equipment and gear of the group, while Miriodor were breaking-down their setup. At one point, Paul Ramsey was a bit stressed out as the drumkit he had carefully set-up earlier in the day was nowhere to be found... pulling on a cord revealed his drumkit intact, behind the curtains, as well as the entire keyboard setup, thanks to the Gesù's very deep stage area! A humorous moment backstage before the show with all the members of the band singing, and Ray performing some sort of rain dance... precious, intimate moments of a group getting psyched for their upcoming set. An efficient changeover permitted us to be just 40 minutes late in our schedule, not bad for such an elaborate setup. The Echolyn crew quickly made a final line-check and all was ready for the show. At 10:40 PM, Yves Dubé introduced the group onstage. Echolyn is composed of Ray Weston on lead vocals, bass and guitar, Tom Hyatt on bass, Chris Buzby on keyboards and vocals, Paul Ramsey on drums and percussion and Brett Kull on guitars and vocals. They performed a highly dynamic, energetic set that included tracks from most of their albums, with Georgia Pine, The Cheese Stands Alone, Arc of Descent, The End is Beautiful, Mei, One Voice, Those that Want To Buy, Suffocating The Bloom, So Ready, Brittany, As The World and for the encore, Human Lottery. What can I say, a sublime performance with all the intensity and majesty for which they are renowned for, just perfection! Ray's voice was fantastic, going from the softest whisper to the most powerful death-metal growl effortlessly. All of the musicians were equally perfect, one of the tightest bands to see live, just plain fun! Paul's drumming rattled the auditorium walls, what power and precision! Probably the most amazing live performance I've seen in decades! As Echolyn were taking their final bow, our team stepped onstage to thank everyone, and we finished with these words: "See you next year!"

The list of people to thank is long, to the kind people who volunteered their time, their resources and so much more to make of the first edition of FMPM such a resounding success. Many thanks and our deepest gratitude to our photographers, Claude Labrecque and Claude Dufresne, Allison Rich and Nadine Benny, Béatrice and Martin Maheux for their help at the boxoffice and vendor areas, Gérald Laurion for his work at security and hall coordination, Thomas Brodeur and Dominique Blouin of Karcius for lending us their gear during the festival, Pascal Globensky for his invaluable input in the organization of the festival, Mario Lachance, Technical Director of the Gesù and the whole Gesù technical staff for their competence and efficiency, making our festival such a success, Martin Siberok of Hour, Philippe Renault of Journal de Montréal and Réjean Beaucage of Voir for their interest and support of the prog music scene, and ttheir great newspaper articles, Alain Lalancette of CKIA FM in Québec, Tom Gagliardi of the Gagliarchives, Michel Parent of QuébecPop, Jean Doyon and Réjean Charbonneau of La Filière Progressive for their unwavering support, Rob LaDuca and Chad Hutchinson of NEARFest for their kind help and support, Stéphane Desbiens of Sense for being our guest, Michel Bilodeau of Ipso Facto and Terra Incognita for his support and friendship, Guy Leblanc and Daniel Lacasse and Nathan Mahl for being our guests, George Roldan and Tom Smith of RoSFest for their support, CD Mélomane from Québec city for their great selection of prog CDs in our vendor area, Yves and Denis Jalbert, Jean-François Désilets and Sébastien Cloutier of Hamadryad for their help and technical assistance, as well as being among our guests, the incomparable Gary Green for being our guest of honor and star panelist, Yves Laferrière, André Duchesne, Alain Bergeron, Tom Rivest for the great afternoon of musical history 101 at the symposium. A big thanks to Groupe Geloso for the great sponsorship and providing to our festival attendees, musicians and staff the great new Gros Cochon beer! We wish to thank all of our sponsors, including Cannacord, Belair Direct, Seagrams Coolers, CG3 Communication, Pharmacies Jean Coutu, and of course, Unicorn Digital for their commitment to the FMPM team and their financial support, and finally, thanks to everyone who bought tickets and made this festival a reality.

Dont forget to visit our FMPM 2006 Picture Book!