Conduit books the progressive metal-fusion trio McGill, Manring and Stevens for its Pre-NEARfest show in Trenton.
By: Daniel Shearer
There can be little doubt "progressive" music is carving its own niche, quietly picking up momentum far under mainstream radar. Three years ago, the founders of the North East Art Rock Festival booked the 428-seat concert hall at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., then watched in amazement as the show sold out in less than two months.
The following year, the group selected a larger venue for NEARfest 2000, this time, a 1,002-seat hall at Lehigh University in Allentown, Pa., unloading 619 tickets on the first day of sales. The show eventually sold out, as did NEARfest 2001, also held at Lehigh.
Relocated this year to the expansive War Memorial in Trenton, NEARfest 2002 sold 1,802 seats in a mere 45 minutes, fueled by an international lineup of talent including former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, the English band Caravan, even the Japanese prog rock band Gerard. Although tickets for the two-day show June 29-30 are long gone, a smaller Trenton venue, Conduit, is hosting a NEARfest pre-show June 28 featuring two acts, the metal-fusion trio McGill, Manring and Stevens, and the totally unclassifiable brass-powered progressive rock band Doctor Nerve. The Philadelphia-based band Dysrhythmia also will perform.
While styles vary greatly between progressive bands, they share one thing in common: experimentation. Jazz is a major influence for Medford-based guitarist Scott McGill, who earned a bachelor’s in jazz composition from Temple University and studied for 10 years with Dennis Sandole famed mentor of John Coltrane, Pat Martino and James Moody, among others.
"My definition of progressive rock is being able to stretch the whole concept of writing a song, whereas the pop field tends to be pretty formulaic," says Mr. McGill, an active Philadelphia-area performer for about 20 years. "Pop tunes have to be a certain length, usually short, with a verse, chorus and bridge. To me, what I like about progressive music is you start out and just see where a piece evolves. It’s more like classical composition, in a way."
The term "progressive" covers a lot of musical territory. English producer Alan Parsons, best known for his work with Pink Floyd, set the bar for progressive rock during the ’70s with albums like Tales of Mystery and Imagination, which painted a sonic portrait of works by Edgar Allen Poe.
Progressive metal surfaced in the ’80s, prominently represented by Queensryche. The band scored a pop hit with "Silent Lucidity" before slipping from the mainstream. Toward the end of the decade, four musicians from Berklee College of Music formed an outfit called Dream Theater, which today maintains a devoted underground following. In fact, Mr. McGill recorded his last album, Addition by Subtraction (Free Electric Sound), with Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess. Mr. McGill and drummer Vic Stevens, an Absecon resident, also recruited bassist Michael Manring for the project, who flew in from his home in Oakland, Calif.
"I’m always trying to find new chords and scales, new rhythms and textures," says Mr. McGill. "That’s why I like progressive music, that label, because anything goes there. It’s a blank canvas."
In the case of Mr. McGill’s last album, that canvas took form as a 70-minute, 14-track collection of thoroughly mind-bending material. The group’s sound is highly unusual, strange melodies set against odd- metered rhythms and crunchy distortion, cemented by Mr. Manring’s impressive work on fretless bass. But despite the obvious metal influence, the sound isn’t always in-your-face, which is a very good thing considering Mr. McGill seems completely capable of sustaining a blizzard of notes. Bottom line: The trio demonstrates virtuoso skills, compositionally and in performance.
"I’ve been starting to get some new equipment and toy around with more retro sounds," Mr. McGill says. "Almost like ’70s kinds of sounds, phase shifters and ring modulators, things that you would find on Mahavishnu Orchestra records from 1973.
"I’m a big fan of new music. I really like Rage Against the Machine I’m a big Tom Morello fan. I loved that band. I’m pretty sorry they broke up. Morello uses this whammy pedal, which is a neat device, and I use that a lot, too. I’m a huge Tool fan, I’m into Pantera, so it’s not just a nostalgia thing for old records. To me, we’re kind of a combination of the old and the new."
At Conduit, the trio will perform music from its latest album, Controlled by Radar, a two-CD set, one electric disc, one acoustic.
"We’re digging into the band sound," Mr. McGill says. "It’s very improvisational, but at the same time it’s very structured. Only a few of the ideas had been pre-planned when we went in the studio, whereas on ‘Addition by Subtraction,’ most of the material was written out.
"In fact, the challenge to do a record like that is to get the structure happening. Anybody can sit in the studio and improvise, but to make it sound cohesive, that’s the real deal. There’s fretless acoustic and electric music on the album, all that sort of fun stuff."
Of course, progressive music can sound pretty strange. Perhaps that’s part of the draw for an underground crowd it’s not something everyone understands or enjoys.
"Some people are really drawn to it," Mr. McGill says. "Either they love the energy and are drawn to the whole complexity of it, or people just really don’t like it at all or think it’s noise. I think that applies to any kind of music. I guess it’s the same way with modern art. Either you like it or you don’t."
On a weekend likely to draw a sizeable crowd of progressive rock fans, there’s an excellent chance the trio will find a receptive audience at Conduit.
"I’m looking forward to it," Mr. McGill says. "It should be really, really nutty."
McGill, Manring and Stevens perform at Conduit, 439 S. Broad St., Trenton, June 28, 7:30 p.m., with Doctor Nerve and Dysrhythmia. Tickets cost $12. For information, call (609) 656-1199. On the Web: www.conduitmusic.com. Scott McGill on the Web: www.scottmcgill.com. NEARfest on the Web: www.nearfest.com