Concert: Circa, Odin's Court and Kinetic Element
Circa concert pictures -- http://pix01.com/5P@36nN
Circa probably doesn't ring any bells, but their members might. The band is composed of current and former members of Yes. The current member is drummer Alan White. The rest of the band is composed of keyboardist Tony Kaye, who was the original keyboardist and played in the 80s version of the band, Guitarist Jimmy Haun, who played on the Union album, and bassist and singer Billy Sherwood, who played many roles on the "Union", "Open Your Eyes" and "The Ladder" albums.
This was kinda a warmup gig for them, since they would be headlining the Rites Of Spring festival the next day. Probably partially because of that, the show was rather lightly attended, with maybe 50 people at the show.
As usual, we waited well past the entry time to get in and the show started a half hour late. Speaking to Odins Court's guitarist, Rick Pierpont, it sounded like they were going to have a rough go of it, since Circa took up most of the stage space and most of the soundboard space. They wanted six mics, but were only able to get three. Also, they couldn't really do a proper soundcheck and one of Circa's keyboards was blocking one side of the stage.
Up first was Kinetic Element. They were basically a three piece of keyboard based prog. I met keyboardist Michael Visaggio before the show, and he was grateful that people showed up for the show. He let me know that his wife was selling merchandise.
Overall, they were pretty good, even tho Mike isn't much of a vocalist.
Odin's Court is a mainstay of the local scene and is a common opener for a lot of progressive/power metal bands that come to Jaxx. This is I think the first time out where they played stuff from their forthcoming album, Deathanity. For the occasion, they brought a backup singer with them and considered bringing a sax player. Considering the situation, it probably was best that they didn't. Their sound was pretty muddy and Matt had problems when he strapped on the acoustic. Still, it was a decent outing for those guys, especially with Rick's blazing guitar solos. They ended things off with a cover of Pink Floyd's Time.
As I said, I didn't know what to expect from Circa. What I did get wasn't exactly surprising, but overall it was pretty good. It is definitely Yes influenced, but not so much to tie them down to that sound. Course, it helps that Billy Sherwood sounds nothing like Jon Anderson. The foursome was backed up by Billy's brother, Michael, who provided more keyboards.
I would assume that they went through the entire album, since the main part of the concert took about 75 minutes. After that, they went through a 45 minute melody of instrumental Yes. It goes to remind me that my knowledge of Yes is still somewhat limited even with all that I own, because I only recognize half of it.
For an encore, they performed what probably is Sherwood's biggest contribution to Yes: The More We Live - Let Go.
Overall, it was a pretty good night.
Circa probably doesn't ring any bells, but their members might. The band is composed of current and former members of Yes. The current member is drummer Alan White. The rest of the band is composed of keyboardist Tony Kaye, who was the original keyboardist and played in the 80s version of the band, Guitarist Jimmy Haun, who played on the Union album, and bassist and singer Billy Sherwood, who played many roles on the "Union", "Open Your Eyes" and "The Ladder" albums.
This was kinda a warmup gig for them, since they would be headlining the Rites Of Spring festival the next day. Probably partially because of that, the show was rather lightly attended, with maybe 50 people at the show.
As usual, we waited well past the entry time to get in and the show started a half hour late. Speaking to Odins Court's guitarist, Rick Pierpont, it sounded like they were going to have a rough go of it, since Circa took up most of the stage space and most of the soundboard space. They wanted six mics, but were only able to get three. Also, they couldn't really do a proper soundcheck and one of Circa's keyboards was blocking one side of the stage.
Up first was Kinetic Element. They were basically a three piece of keyboard based prog. I met keyboardist Michael Visaggio before the show, and he was grateful that people showed up for the show. He let me know that his wife was selling merchandise.
Overall, they were pretty good, even tho Mike isn't much of a vocalist.
Odin's Court is a mainstay of the local scene and is a common opener for a lot of progressive/power metal bands that come to Jaxx. This is I think the first time out where they played stuff from their forthcoming album, Deathanity. For the occasion, they brought a backup singer with them and considered bringing a sax player. Considering the situation, it probably was best that they didn't. Their sound was pretty muddy and Matt had problems when he strapped on the acoustic. Still, it was a decent outing for those guys, especially with Rick's blazing guitar solos. They ended things off with a cover of Pink Floyd's Time.
As I said, I didn't know what to expect from Circa. What I did get wasn't exactly surprising, but overall it was pretty good. It is definitely Yes influenced, but not so much to tie them down to that sound. Course, it helps that Billy Sherwood sounds nothing like Jon Anderson. The foursome was backed up by Billy's brother, Michael, who provided more keyboards.
I would assume that they went through the entire album, since the main part of the concert took about 75 minutes. After that, they went through a 45 minute melody of instrumental Yes. It goes to remind me that my knowledge of Yes is still somewhat limited even with all that I own, because I only recognize half of it.
For an encore, they performed what probably is Sherwood's biggest contribution to Yes: The More We Live - Let Go.
Overall, it was a pretty good night.