ProgStock 2021
Has it truly been over a year since my last post? Yes, yes it has.
Wasn’t the pandemic supposed to be over by now? I seem to remember around this time last year, everyone was saying that if we could just muddle through until we had a vaccine, everything would get better then. What I don’t remember is any prediction or speculation that millions of Americans would refuse to take the vaccine, and that we’d have a summer surge in 2021 that equalled or exceeded the one from 2020. Maybe this surge will do the trick? Then again, the way people have been acting lately, I’d not be surprised to see another winter surge, and another spring surge, and lots of Covid around well into 2022.
But this post is not about that. No, not even if this pandemic forced me to wear my mask pretty much constantly all of this past weekend. And why was that? Well, because this past weekend saw the in-person return of the Northeast’s pre-eminent progressive rock festival, ProgStock!
Not that ProgStock was cancelled last year entirely. But, like many other events in 2020, it was held virtually, with a mere three bands each on Saturday and Sunday, and two of those six being cover bands. And while that was a certain amount of fun, there’s nothing like gathering with your fellow prog enthusiasts to experience the music-making in person. Which is not to say that there still weren’t restrictions and limitations in place for this year’s festival. For one thing, with international travel being what it is, there were no acts from outside the U.S. anywhere in sight. And, knowing this, the promotors designed the festival accordingly, to be held in the 188-seat Hamilton Stage theater rather than the usual 1,300-seat UCPAC, in anticipation of a much smaller turnout.
At least, that was the plan. Then came Ida - the hurricane “remnants” that dropped more water on NJ than we’d seen since Floyd in the late 90s, and totally flooded out the Hamilton Stage, causing damage requiring months to properly repair. So, we were back in the UCPAC after all, after a hasty scramble to keep the festival from crashing and burning. But that wasn’t the only hitch in this year’s logistics; there were also multiple cancellations and rejiggerings of the performance schedule, starting a few weeks out from the event when the scheduled Saturday night headliners McStine & Minnemann pulled out. Well, no worries there; we’ll just bump the afternoon band Brand X up to the headliner, and replace their afternoon slot with Mile Marker Zero, since they’re local and available. But then, a week before the festival, Brand X also had to cancel due to serious health issues, leaving a gaping gap in the schedule. So, Joe Deninzon’s Stratospheerius, originally penciled in for a late-night slot, was promoted to Saturday headliner, along with Rachel Flowers. Another cancellation that didn’t affect me directly was the Yes tribute band Total Mass Retain, another late-night act I sadly wouldn’t have been able to stick around for anyway; would really love to see them one of these days. Fortunately, the main Friday and Sunday acts suffered no such tumult or upheaval, with all the scheduled artists playing right when they were supposed to.
I will admit, I was on the fence about going, right up to the final week; between the pandemic protocols - proof of vaccination required, masks required in the lobby and galleries and during the meet-and-greets, and strongly encouraged in the main auditorium as well - and the hassle of getting down there and back by train each day since no one else I knew wanted to go, and then the unfolding debacle of the storm damage and the multiple cancellations on top of it all, the whole thing seemed like it might be snake-bit. But, oddly enough, it was the cancellation of Brand X that made me say, “This festival needs all the help it can get, so screw it, I’m going.” Or at least springing for tickets, which I did online the Saturday before ProgStock; whether I’d actually use them remained to be seen. I’d arranged to have that Friday off months in advance, figuring that even if I didn’t go, I could always use that day off for other things. But I did go … and I’ll tell you all about it starting in my next post!