Baja Prog, Day 2, 3/7/02, Hotel Araiza

One of the cool things about the hotel venue was that it had a great restaurant. One could sleep late and still get down to the breakfast buffet prior to the bands starting around 1:00 pm.

As a southern boy who loves Mexican food but had only been exposed to the “Americanized” Mexican we get in our part of the world, I was most impressed with the “real” Mexican this restaurant served.

Fresh fruit and fresh juices abounded! The orange juice was truly freshly squeezed and one of the reasons why I had the buffet everyday. All the fresh squeezed OJ I wanted! Fresh made omelets with any filling you wanted, Mexican sausage, beans and rice, mole sauce, and then there was that Tripe soup. The broth was excellent but taking a bite of tripe (cow stomach) was like eating congealed snot. My only downside for the food.

Day 2 began with much anticipation of the music to come. Owning CD’s by all but three of the bands on the bill for this weeklong event, I felt that overall I had nothing to loose and only great tunes to gain. Based on my past expenditures one would think that musically this would be a great day. Hum, how did that turn out?????

John Young

John, as noted earlier, was the Hired Gun in the Greenslade band who was playing the missing guitar parts on keyboards and doing all the singing. John is a singer songwriter who has many notable credits to his name. He has written songs for and toured with John Wetton, and has toured playing keys with Bonnie Tyler, The Scorpions, Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, Fish and many more.

His contribution to the Greenslade set seemed too deliberate and confined, as if he was not allowed to “show his talents” as they might show up Mr. Greenslade himself. Not to rehash my comments about Greenslade from Day 1, John’s playing was the one bright spot in what to me was a lack luster performance.

Doing his own solo set (just him on keyboard with a Mini disc player as his “band”) John had no boundaries and he too was so totally ON this Thursday afternoon.

As he concentrated on his new, yet to be released CD, it was very clear that this was a man on a mission. A man who looked honestly at the world around him and was not always pleased with what he saw.

At times his music and songs would evoke extremely strong emotions from the listener, at other times he simply entertained as only a consummate performer can.

John’s performance was so very surprising. As much as I was bored to tears with Greenslade’s musical interpretation of “prog”, I was brought to tears several times by the power, sincerity, and clarity of thought in John’s solo performance.

In my mind John is the definition of the consummate artist. He is an excellent musician. He writes lyrics with a depth of feeling and clarity rarely seen even in prog circles. His songs force the listener to assess his or her own position and in doing so must decide if they are correct or not. Some of the songs performed on this day were simply heart wrenching and seriously thought provoking. Yet John came across with a humbleness rarely seen in this caliber of artist. I for one was very proud to be in the same room as this man. Being part of his performance, I too felt the need to re-evaluate specific positions in my own life.

This was one excellent set and should this gentle man ever play in your area, I highly recommend that any who can attend, do so.

Thieves Kitchen

I have both of the CD's released by this band. I had liked what I had heard but was never overly impressed with them. However, with them being tapped to be on the same bill as DFA prior to getting to Baja and the fact that Alfonso even invited them had me thinking there must be something more to this band than I was hearing in their first two CD's. All I can say after seeing this so called "band" perform is I must have been brain dead when I decided to purchase their CD’s.

Let me start off by saying this: Of the five band members and the four "musicians" who played an instrument in this band, only one I would even consider anywhere close to being a true ''artist''. That would be the guitarist and founder of the band. He could play. He had a clear command of his instrument. Too bad he did not surround himself with musicians of a similar caliber (or better).

The bass player would make an acceptable ''player'' in a start up garage band. He had the body motions down and some of the time he could actually play.

Keyboardist...... NOT! The use of a sequencer would have had more passion and energy than this bump on a log attempting to pass as a keyboard player.

The ''Singer,'' if that is what you call what he was doing, has virtually no range at all. Worse yet, he was your basic punk wanna be. Now I'm not one who is usually turned off by a person's tattoo or their personal habits, but this was, perhaps, the exception that proves the rule. Maybe it was the way that he pranced around on stage in his sleeveless Pantera t-shirt, so wanting us all to admire his borderline Satanic tattoos. Maybe it was just his constant chain smoking. Maybe it was all of these things. There was something in the "vocalist's" persona and style that just got in the way of the music the band was playing - not that this was an entirely bad thing.

But as bad as the singer and keyboardist were, they could not touch the total poseur that was supposed to be a drummer. Never have I heard such a weak drummer in a band that had reached such a level of acceptance. He could not keep time if a metronome was planted in his ear. His lack of ability was clearly masked on their two CD releases. So much so I wonder if a ""ghost'' drummer was actually used on their studio recordings.

At the risk of expressing a real opinion, this easily could have been the worst band I have ever heard in my life. I mean, when I was 12 and every kid had their own two-bit garage band, even the worst of those was better than these guys live. I'm convinced that the only way they got on the DFA bill and an invite to Baja (and I hear they have been invited to ProgDay 2K2) is that no one saw them play live and they were "picked" simply from their CD's.

I guess the best part of them being so bad and us leaving was that Phil, Jo and I were able to have a leisurely dinner at a local seafood restaurant recommended by Alfonso himself.

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