Prog is Back! You are going to hear these words that come from the lips of Toronto’s premiere band Dreamland. They want to take up the charge that long epic songs along with complicated times signatures are a part of today’s musical landscape.
This couldn’t be more apparent at the Rivoli this past weekend. I asked some of the people who they thought the best progressive rock bands are playing in and around Toronto. The top answers I was getting were Dreamland, GEOFF, and Crown Lands.
Dreamland
I recently reviewed Dreamland at the Hard Luck Bar and was going to pass on another write up. Then Dreamland hit the stage and there was something different about them. The band opened up with what felt like a 20-minute epic piece of music. It was quite the journey, and the audience was locked in and ready for heady trips.
The second song was another epic long journey. So, in two songs the band almost used up their entire set time. It was very clear that people were here to witness something special. You couldn’t help but notice that lead guitarist Daniel Walton was breaking out of his chrysalis and emerging into a higher version of himself. His drive and passion were dispersed throughout the packed house telling everyone that this is the kind of music you should be getting excited about.
For a pretty young audience they got the memo. They seemed to understand that you can really create strong art rock with a sense of adventure and imagination. In today’s pop world, it always seems to be about egocentric emotions, where prog rock is about the exploration of your entire self and the universe around it. It is usually about how to become a larger version of yourself on both an intellectual as well as an emotional scale.
That is what Dreamland is trying to wake you up to. The final piece was an instrumental loosely based on life after death. This was the time to let your imagination fly and to dig deeper into yourself on who you can emerge into and become. Daniel Walton’s performance this evening was a shining example of that.
Dreamland Band in Action:
Brass Camel
When it comes to Canadian bands flying the progressive rock flag, Brass Camel is holding there end up very high. I don’t think I have seen a more dedicated band to the craft of playing too many notes. If that is your thing, then Brass Camel should be on your to watch list.
The opening was dramatic themed organ the eventually flew into pure math rock. Supersonic speed mixed with intense time signatures were thrown into our face was like an intrusive wake up call. These guys shook their brass balls right in our face and the crowd soaked in all in.
This was a great crowd. It was a healthy mix of young and old fans. This is where young people are discovering a new kind of exciting music and old fans who still crave that sound that dominated the 1970’s like Yes, Kansas and Rush. It was also a healthy mix of both men and women. Prog Rock is usually dominated by a male audience, but women are now grabbing on to this sound, and I think the boys like it that way. The old joke was how many women did you see a Rush concert. Back in my day in a crowd of about 15,000, you could count on one hand how many women attended.
This band will get all your synapses firing on all cylinders. You simply cannot turn your mind off for one second. Brass camel is like watching a machine of highly tuned musicians having fun laying out mental pictures with sound. The second song had a dirty progressive funk to it. Throughout the evening the band let us visualize cartoon like moments that bounced us along. There were machine gun moments of pure rapid fire playing. They could ride with us on their roller coaster and even take us on the starship for a little travelling around space.
This band of caravan wizards is made up of Abrey Ellefson on Keyboards, Wyatt Gilson on drums, Curtis Arsenault on Bass, Dylan Lammie and Daniel Sveinson on guitars. In fact, Daniel Watson lent Daniel Sveinson his guitar to play this evening. This is how you create peace in our world. Let others play with your toys.
In the past, both these bands threw in a great cover songs. Dreamland would add the ending to Starship Trooper which Yes fans would love. Brass camel has added Rush’s “La Villa Strangiato” to the set list with much approval. This time around Brass camel just teased the audience with 3 second snippets of Rush songs. This was a night to shed the cover songs and prove how great their own material was.
Near the end of their set, Daniel told us the story of being an independent band crossing the country back and forth is a hard life. This is especially hard when your van tire blows just outside of Winnipeg. There is an awful lot of space between towns when you are on a cross Canada tour. When you tour Italy and you tell the people your next stop is two hours away, they feel horrified that you have to do all that travelling for a gig. So, appreciate and support any band that is on a cross Canada tour in a van with bald tires.
Brass Camel in Action:
If you want to support them, they have a merch store on their website Home | Brass Camel
Progressive Rock is coming back, because I am seeing more and more of them emerging around the GTA. So, stay tuned to Blast Toronto as we share the diverse and developing bands rise to the surface.
Check out their Instagram pages: www.instagram.com/thedreamlandband/
For those Prog Rockers who love to see stories like this, we urge you to “Buy us a Coffee” on our website. The donations go to fund more stories like this one. We are dedicated to bringing you the best music Toronto has to offer!
0 Comments