Some of you may see this guest blog as a shameless plug for our upcoming tour. But really, I'm just rambling about s--t that I always love to talk about -- kick-ass, good quality music.
Once upon a time, progressive music (or PROG) was a genre that was all about the best (or worst) excesses of music -- virtuoso musicianship, long, daring arrangements, over-the-top theatrics, etc. But within five or six years, the artsy-fartsy approach had blown up to Spinal Tap proportions, and soon PROG became a very dirty word in the industry (maybe Peter Gabriel dressing up as a giant sunflower on stage was a sign that things had been taken too far).
After its introduction in the late '60s and its heyday in the early '70s with bands like Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes and Genesis, PROG was soon crushed by the commerce of disco and the attitude of punk, which took over music in the late '70s. Sure, bands like Rush, Jethro Tull and Kansas continued to get occasional airplay from AOR American radio, but most of the fathers of prog needed to change their colors and sounds and created radio hits in order to survive into the '80s. Pink Floyd, Genesis (and even Yes for a few minutes) all becoming multi-platinum stadium acts throughout this weeding process but only by writing "pop" hits.
Then, as the crap radio music of the early '80s started to wear thin (perhaps the worst period in music history), along came metal to take over the mainstream. It started with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple in the early 70's and later evolved with Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica in the early to mid '80's. Although MTV and Headbanger's Ball in the mid-'80s were mostly concentrating on the glam side of "metal" (Motley Crue, Ratt, Cinderella, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot, etc.) there was a thrash scene on the horizon that this young lad from New York (yours truly) was becoming totally immersed in. Every weekend I was going to clubs like L'Amour in Brooklyn and Sundanec on Long Island to see bands like Anthrax, Slayer, Exodus, Overkill, Flotsam and Jetsam and Nuclear Assault.
So what happens when you have a teenage kid that loves the musicianship of bands like Rush and Yes, but also loves the power and aggression of Slayer and SOD? You get me! (and so the nucleus and blueprint for the sound of Dream Theater is born).
For just a little while there, in the early '90s, Dream Theater seemed to be the posterboys for a whole new wave of PROG. But shhh... I'll let you in on a little secret: we weren't the first post-metal band to perform this hybrid of styles!! As much as I love taking the credit for combining prog and metal (like the man who first decided to put peanut butter and jelly together), if you look closely at metal circa 1985, Iron Maiden were playing 13 minute epic songs like "Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" and covering Jethro Tull, Metallica were playing long songs with odd time signatures and abrupt meter changes -- and so were bands like Helloween, Mercyful Fate, Kind Diamond and Fates Warning. Then, there were bands like Queensryche, which was combining the power of Judas Priest with the theatrics of Queen.
But for some reason, Dream Theater got the attention (and the deadly PROG label) and kind of opened the doors for a whole new wave of progressive acceptance (or maybe just awareness) in the mainstream. But as time goes on, people began to notice that there seems to be many musicians and bands that grew up with this hybrid of styles.
Nowadays, bands as diverse as The Mars Volta, Mastodon, Tool, Radiohead, Muse and Coheed & Cambria all get the progressive tag thrown at them on a regular basis in the media. Some of these bands deny it and some of these bands embrace it.
Which brings us to the self-serving, shameless-plug part of our blog...
With all the U.S. touring festivals out there each summer (from Ozzfest to Gigantour to Sounds Of The Underground), I felt it was time for us metalheads that still appreciated some "real musicianship" to unite and bring an annual tour to all of the like-minded fans. Dream Theater has done summer tours with both Megadeth and Yes in the past, and the fact that we can fit in with both of those bands and crowds shows that WE ARE NOT ALONE!!!
This innaugural run of the Progressive Nation tour will feature three other bands whose "PROG tendencies" are all very different from each other and show just how diverse progressive music can be.
On the bill directly below DT are one of my favorite metal bands of the past 10 years: Opeth.
Opeth are progressive in that they can be as dark and evil as any death or black metal band out there, with riffs so brutal and death growls that can send a shiver up your spine. Then, a minute later they can play something as beautiful, moody and melodic as anything Pink Floyd ever wrote. That kind of diversity is TRULY PROGRESSIVE. Not to mention they are one of the few metal band out there that can challenge DT with their song lengths as most of the songs in their catalog are all in excess of 10 minutes.
Second on the bill are a band whose latest album was one of my favorites 2007, Between The Buried And Me. Their latest CD, Colors, is a post-modern, progressive, metalcore masterpiece. Essentially, it's one long 60-minute song (now THAT's f---ing prog!!!) with some of the most insane musicianship I've heard this side of Headbanger's Ball. BTBAM are part of a whole new wave of bands that I am totally digging that incorporate insane, extreme, avant-garde, over the top musicianship and composition. Some other bands that, in my book, are leading the pack of this genre are Protest The Hero (whose latest CD, Fortress, is currently blowing me away on a daily basis), Unexpect (kind of Mr. Bungle meets Bjork!) and of course one of the pioneers of the genre: The Dillinger Escape Plan.
Finally, opening the show each night on the Progressive Nation tour is the band Three. These guys bring a different style of Prog to the bill. They are less metal and more funk and pop, but with amazing musicianship and a great live energy that will really help round off the bill nicely.
So there ya have it...
And myself, as the music fan I've always been and always will be, gets to play ringmaster and dream bill matchmaker each and every year with Prog Nation, bringing the best in quality, kick-ass bands together to buck the system and do s--t our way.
Progressive Nation is musicians and music lovers with open minds and ears playing music for other musicians and music lovers with open minds and ears. One Nation, Under Prog!
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