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Jen and Jeff from the US

 

John Wesley from Porcupine Tree

 

Finnish friends

 

Bagon the Italian policeman 

Riverside in the buffet

Day 5 Saturday, February 22, 2014

 

Woke up just before 6 because of noise outside the balcony, we were docked at an active port. Not yet light, but lots to do. So, I got up and went for breakfast. I had a hearty meal including an omelette, as it has to last me the day. No free meal now until I get home. Met Bagon (the Italian policeman) in the buffet, really nice guy. Back to the room to shower and get organized. I packed up and headed out and off the ship. Meet the American couple I first met at Comfort Suites, Jeff and Jen. Started talking to a man from Baltimore who was waiting for the same shuttle van. We talked about the cruise and all things prog. He told me about all the projects that Mike Portnoy is involved in, sounds like another Steven Wilson. I'll have to check his website. Now I am at the airport five hours before my flight. Nothing to do except type this up, read and listen to more music!

Final thoughts:

I know that there were 39 countries represented. I would love to know how many people actually attended (counting all the band members), what percentage of full that represented and how many more they could have hosted. Originally there were 20 bands featured, then they had a contest and selected 3 more bands to attend, but there were another 10 bands or so who were added at the last minute (possibly because they had extra rooms on board and they filled them with musicians!). Did they make money? Was it successful enough to do it again? I’d love to know how much money the various bands made? Would the bands do it again? Did the lesser known bands that were added on get paid, or did they have to pay their own way to get the exposure? Lots of questions about logistics.

It was also really different from most concerts because we were allowed to watch the sound checks for all the bands and the bands were all on board and couldn’t leave. Therefore we could see them around the ship eating, talking, mingling, going to the beach, watching other bands. We could meet and talk to them and pose for photos. We were also allowed to take as many pictures as we wanted at all the shows.

I grew up with progressive rock and fell in love with bands like: Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis, and in particular Gentle Giant.

The cruise was billed as ProgressiveNationAtSea and was purported to be a cruise all about Progressive Rock, but from my experience and in my opinion not many of the bands had much to do with that genre. Transatlantic, Spock’s Beard, Riverside, Haken and Beardfish fit into what I think of as progressive rock, which is defined by Wikipedia as:

Bands abandoned the short pop single in favor of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz or classical music in an effort to give rock music the same level of musical sophistication and critical respect.

Songs were replaced by musical suites that often stretched to 20 or 40 minutes in length and contained symphonic influences, extended musical themes, philosophical lyrics and complex orchestrations.

Many of the bands on board had more to do with metal, or were shredder bands (playing as many notes as possible as fast as possible) or just hard rock bands. Not to say I didn’t enjoy them, I actually found a couple of new bands that I quite like. Maybe the genre has grown in different directions or morphed into something else, however, it wasn’t quite what I expected.

However, I really enjoyed the whole experience. It was very different from anything I have ever experienced before. It felt like a Woodstock at sea, everyone was there for the same reason, everyone got along and there was an atmosphere of togetherness that was quite unique. I got to see Riverside, Spock’s Beard, Flower Kings, Haken and Beardfish all who have either not played in Toronto or I have missed them. And that is why I went in the first place and who I wanted to see. Everything else was a bonus.

After all where else could you hear a band yell out to the audience: “Hello Atlantic Ocean!”

So thank you Mike Portnoy, if you do it again I would very much like to attend!

Countries represented and number of attendees:

Argentina  20

Australia  10

Austria  9

Belgium  3

Brazil  76

Canada  95

Chile  28

Columbia  5

Costa Rica  11

Czech Republic  2

Denmark  5

Dominican Republic  1

Ecuador  2

Finland  6

France  37

Germany  65

Hungary  2

Iceland  3

India  1

Ireland  1

Israel  5

Italy  5

Japan  2

South Korea  1

Mexico  35

Netherlands  22

Norway  17

Panama  5

Peru  3

Portugal  2

Puerto Rico  4

Slovakia  17

South Africa  7

Spain  6

Sweden  15

Switzerland  10

United Kingdom  63

United States  716

Venezuela  17

Grand Total: 1334 (over half of which were Americans)