ProgDay News

Thank You from ProgDay 2023!

(September 5, 2023)

ProgDay would like to express heartfelt thanks to our wonderful audience and incredible bands for making ProgDay 2023 the kind of experience that we look forward to having every year. Seeing familiar faces and hanging with old friends, seeing new faces and making new friends, and sitting in the open air listening to great live music all combines to create the one-of-a-kind weekend that is ProgDay.

Particular credit goes to the ProgDay attendees for crafting the experience of the weekend. There are few festivals where the audience is so directly responsible for the physical environment and vibe of the event. From the city of tents and decorated shelters to gatherings like the “ProgDay Beer Snobs” and uncounted other little flourishes, a ProgDay culture has emerged and developed over the years as attendees have made the festival their own.

The musicians on stage were consistently blown away by the open ears and musical consideration of the audience. ProgDay is a rare event where the listeners are not only open to hearing new and unknown music, but have come to expect it and embrace it. If problems crop up, our go-with-the-flow attendees just roll with the day.

The result of all of this is the transformation of the field at Storybook Farm into a temporary haven of great music, festival fellowship and good times.

Thank you to our regular attendees for continuing to be part of ProgDay. It couldn’t happen without you.

To those who were first-timers at the event, we hope you had fun, liked some of the music, made new friends, and enjoyed the overall ambiance of ProgDay. If you did, we hope the experience was good enough that you will hang with us again next year.

As always, huge thanks to those who generously donated their time as volunteers to make sure that the festival ran smoothly. You are a big part of ProgDay. Whether you were helping with parking, taking out the trash, working the ticket booth, or any of the many other things that have to be addressed over the weekend, your effort and time is invaluable and appreciated.

We need to acknowledge and thank those who made monetary donations to the festival. Our operating expenses have greatly increased since covid. Being a modest event with a modest budget, there is no way to overstate the significance of the donations we receive. Every year we are blown away by the generosity of the ProgDay audience.

Thanks also to everyone who contributed items to this year’s ProgDay guitar raffle which raised over $1000 for the festival. Starting with one prize, the raffle ultimately expanded to six prizes. A particular shout out to Ray Loboda who donated the guitar that was this year’s top prize. If you bought a raffle ticket, thank you for your donation.

Thanks to everyone for their presence and participation. We hope to see you all again next year for the 29th edition of ProgDay.


Last Two Bands For ProgDay 2023!

(August 12, 2023)

Moon Letters photo

Moon Letters

"...recommended for all Prog lovers, both for purists and for those who love the most modern sounds, in my opinion a masterpiece of the genre and one of the best albums listened to in recent years."
- Jacopo Vigezzi, Progressive Rock Journal

MOON LETTERS dances between complexity and immediacy, navigating odd time signatures, multi-part harmonies, and moving from the jarring and angular to the sweet and sublime. Formed in Seattle in 2016, the band builds on the traditions of classic 70s progressive rock, while moving into new, more modern directions and complex territory. The music blends progressive song structures with memorable melodies, technical complexity, and theatrical stage performances.


Red Fiction photo

Red Fiction

“Powerfully imaginative instrumental music by an all-star ensemble of masters at the top of their game.” - John Zorn

Led by composer, band leader and multi-instrumentalist Jason Schimmel (Estradasphere, Secret Chiefs 3, Don Salsa), RED FICTION grew out of the ashes of Atomic Ape. Honing its predecessor's adventurous sound into something equally unpredictable and dauntless, RED FICTION creates an insane yet cohesive mashup of genres, traditions and inspirations. Whether cavorting between jazz, metal, fusion, klezmer, avant-garde or surf-rock, the band creates a precise, streamlined and exciting musical experience.


Two More Bands For ProgDay 2023!

(August 1, 2023)

Karmic Juggernaut photo

Karmic Juggernaut

Founded in 2004, KARMIC JUGGERNAUT has been pursuing the idea of creating music that exists without boundaries, that organically develops based on what a particular tune requires. This has led the band to evolve from an instrumental four piece outfit to a vocal 6 piece, with a further extended ensemble when required. The result is a collection of eclectic music that combines elements of psychedelic rock, symphonic rock, funk, jazz, blues, jamband, world music, and whatever other genres might be appropriate at the time. The band will be featuring music from the latest release Phantasmagloria.

Perfect photo

Perfect

An art/progressive rock band hailing from northeastern Ohio, PERFECT came together with a goal to write constantly engaging and relentless music, drawing from the trio’s wide musical taste encompassing avant-prog, jazz fusion, and everything in between. PERFECT's sound covers a lot of ground, from tightly composed sections, to full avant-garde freakouts. The influences are not limited to traditional progressive rock, instead attempting to pursue a sound that is truly and literally “progressive.” In addition to music from the band's successful 2022 self-titled debut (Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta publicly noted his admiration for the record), PERFECT will be performing new material slated for its next release.


Advance Ticket Sales Available!

(July 10, 2023)

Tickets for ProgDay 2023 are now available for sale. To purchase tickets in advance, please visit the Tickets Page.


We Used To Cut The Grass Plays ProgDay 2023!

(July 10, 2023)

WE USED TO CUT THE GRASS is a large experimental ensemble from Asbury Park, New Jersey. Containing members of both Thank You Scientist and Karmic Juggernaut, the band's music is a mix of original jazz fusion and eclectic arrangements of everything from Bach to Britney Spears.

While obviously influenced by the ethos of Frank Zappa (the band has done multiple tours with Zappa vocalist/guitarist Ike Willis) as well as composers like John Zorn and Sun Ra, WE USED TO CUT THE GRASS creates its own voice with music uniquely orchestrated for horns, violin, two percussionists, bass and guitar. The band will be featuring compositions from its acclalimed first release, as well as a surprise or two.


Band drawing

A Light Sleeper at ProgDay 2023!

(July 2, 2023)

Chicago’s a Light Sleeper is an ever-evolving quartet exploring collaborative composition from the bottom up, featuring breezy intertwining melodies from saxophonist Maria Elena Hernandez and violist Traci Huff, Dheeru Pennepalli’s idiosyncratic guitar lines, and drummer Matthew Jung’s graceful clockwork core.

The band is currently celebrating the release of their first album on the Cuneiform label, Equaeverpoise, which documents the nimble quartet’s razor-sharp, spring-loaded compositions alongside their signature slow-burn, brooding improvisations. In a shift from their previous release, their new music is focused on creating what they define as “instrumental abstract-expressionist funk-pop.”


tu:NER Plays ProgDay 2023!

(June 11, 2023)

tu:NER is a musical trio comprised of TREY GUNN, MARKUS REUTER, and PAT MASTELOTTO, that celebrates the music of King Crimson’s Double Duo era (1998 to 2003), and the bands TU (Mastelotto and Gunn), KTU (Mastelotto, Gunn, and accordionist Kimmo Pohjonnen), TUNER (Mastelotto and Reuter), TUNISIA (Mastelotto and thereminist Pamelia Stickney), The ProjeKcts (featuring Gunn and Mastelotto as well as other KC members) and Stick Men (Mastelotto, Reuter and Tony Levin).

All the different influences coming together through these three artists are notable for their endlessly creative approach to music, and for the highly skilled musicianship of the players involved. Of course, the creative impulse of these three musos would never be fully satisfied by simply revisiting their back catalogues. Audiences will be treated to new pieces, as well as their characteristic improvisations or "instant compositions" where the three musicians listen to each other with their ears and souls, creating magic musical concoctions on the spot, away from the traditional rules of rock or jazz improvisation.

Twenty years since the disbanding of the Double Duo, the spirit of the ProjeKcts is finally back on the road with Gunn, Reuter and Mastelotto.


You Bred Raptors?  photo

You Bred Raptors? at ProgDay 2023!

(June 5, 2023)

Comprised of cello, eight string bass and drums, YOU BRED RAPTORS? is an orchestral post-rock ensemble with the Music Under New York Program. From their first busking show in 2010, the trio has built its history and repertoire on live performance. Their ethos is to perform, improvise and create in front of crowds, crafting and evolving the songs through audience engagement in real time.

YOU BRED RAPTORS? has provided scoring work for independent film and television and has toured over 100 cities and 5 countries. They have held residencies across the NYC boroughs, spoken and performed at an official TED Talk, and have been the house band for Sleep No More Off-Broadway, Adult Swim at Comic Con, and The NYC Toy Fair.

Collectively and individually, members of YOU BRED RAPTORS? have been featured in/on: Good Day New York, WNYC Radio, The Economist, The Atlantic Magazine, Strings Magazine, Bass Guitar Magazine, and various podcasts. The band also has an array of endorsements ranging from custom instruments and strings to pedal companies and clothing lines.

Plans Are Being Made For 2023!

(April 19, 2023)

Hello to everyone.

This is just a quick post to say that ProgDay will again be happening this year at Storybook Farm on Labor Day weekend, Saturday and Sunday, September 2nd and 3rd.

As usual, our website will keep the bands up from ProgDay 2022 until our first band announcements for 2023 are ready.

See you on the field!

TOP


All art on this website © Michael Bennett (www.michaelbennett.com), All rights reserved.

BANDS FOR 2023


NOTE: It may be necessary to dump your cache or reload pages to see new content.


Check VENUE for info about being at Storybook Farm.


Check LOCAL INFO
for hotel, airport and restaurant info.


Check SUPPORT
for info about:
• Vendors
• Advertising
• Patron Program
• Merchandise


Check MUSIC to
hear songs from all this year's bands.