Written by:	Ivor
Published:	October 10, 2024
Event:	Be Prog! My Friend... Festival 2024 (Website)
Location:	La Carpa in Poble Espanyol, Barcelona, Spain
Organizer:	Madness Live!
Galleries:	Be Prog! My Friend - La Carpa, Poble Espanyol, Barcelona, Spain, 28.09.2024 by Ivor (75) Be Prog! My Friend - La Carpa, Poble Espanyol, Barcelona, Spain, 27.09.2024 by Ivor (70)

It's been a while since I filed anything under the Progventure series proper. The origin of the title came from the admission that prog pickings are slim where I reside; to see the bands I like I usually have to do the legwork. And while I've been to many prog concerts and festivals in recent years I've often foregone the press credentials to enjoy the show. However, what better occasion to write again than the return of the Be Prog! My Friend festival in Barcelona?




If one were looking to go to a festival – any festival – there are choices aplenty. Any weekend is full across Europe. Sometimes it feels like anyone who ever wanted to run a festival of their own has done just that in the past 10-15 years. However, I've read of accounts recently that with rising costs and the more precarious financial situation it's becoming ever so difficult to make ends meet, especially for the mid-size events. Large fests hit with the masses, small ones seem to be niche enough to have a following, and midfield is, well, struggling in the hard-work limbo zone.

In this regard, the prog community is both mourning and celebrating. After nearly 20 years the fabulous Night of the Prog in Germany called it quits, although they do plan to reincarnate as a ship cruise in the near future. To put it cheekily, however: given the age demographic of the target audience, apparently it's where the money seems to be. Of the positives, it's worth mentioning that in the Netherlands, February saw the first edition of Midwinter Prog, the little sibling of the by now well-established Midsummer Prog. Backed by the GlassVille Music label and management, it looks like both festivals are here to stay. And finally, without making much noise, it took me by complete surprise that after six years of absence BP!MF in Barcelona was resurrected.




To return, BP!MF have slightly refocused. They pushed the festival from June/July to the end of September, which makes Spanish temperatures way more bearable for the festival audience. Their beginning of autumn is what we over here in Estonia usually pass for summer. They also relocated within the architectural museum of Poble Espanyol: from the main square – which, as one press official laughingly remarked, was hosting a kind of pre-Oktoberfest-in-Barcelona at the very same time – to the La Carpa open air venue. This move also forced them to cap the audience at one thousand sharp. Finally, they scaled down on the number of bands. The fairly varied line-up was to be strictly four bands on both days of the festival: Kingcrow, Obsidian Kingdom, Pure Reason Revolution, and Haken on the first day, and TodoMal, Alkaloid, Dødheimsgard, and Pain of Salvation on the second.

I thought I knew how it was going to go for me band-wise. I was aiming to cross Kingcrow off the to-see list and in that regard – with the sun shining relentlessly in their faces – the Italians delivered. Though the set was of a fairly standard festival-length, I, like anyone else, expected longer from the opener at a festival with strong focus, a single stage, and roughly seven hours to spare. I'll get to this issue in due course but for now let's say it was a bit of a bittersweet experience. Not enough Kingcrow by far.




With Obsidian Kingdom I was expecting to relive the great memories of their '16 BP!MF performance. However, their focus was to play Mantiis in its entirety and for me this doesn't speak as much as A Year With No Summer. It wasn't really their fault but with one thing and another it was personally hard to connect with their still shortish set. And as much as it pains me I have similar sentiments about PRR despite them having a special place in my heart. I really started getting into the show by the final two songs that they did from the Amor Vincit Omnia album. Even though they played for an hour, it felt much shorter than that.

Next on stage, however, were the issue of the first day: the headliner Haken. They had just played their final show of the Evening With tour and as a courtesy extended it by one date to include this festival. However, who on Earth does a three-hour set at a festival?? They got more stage time by a large margin than the other three bands combined! Apart from that and the fact that all besides the singer were glued to their spots, it was a great Haken show – technical, colourful, fairly static, and a feat of endurance for all involved, on and off stage. While the first half they dedicated to Fauna in its entirety, the second half had a varied selection that peaked with "Visions" (!) of all songs for encore. One could say it was anything but succinct.




The second day was – or at least, for some reason, felt – better distributed time-wise. TodoMal were new for me and left a pretty good impression with their heavy doom. Some of the parts reminded me, probably incorrectly, of some early The Gathering. It's a pity the set ended just about as it had started enjoyably tripping on the spacey psychedelic side. Just as I was really getting into it. On the other hand, I couldn't quite place Alkaloid with their technical extreme prog. The more they were leaning on the extreme and the technical, the less I found their music intriguing. It's the melodious parts that seemed to draw me in. Them throwing in a prog rendition of Bach – not the only time he was mentioned at the festival – was, however, quite an entertainment.

Now, when I said that I thought I knew where my allegiance lies, I was about to be proven wrong. While I found Dødheimsgard's last two albums interesting more as an intellectual listening exercise, the show was quite something else indeed. There was Vicotnik, the singer, and then there was the band. Vicotnik was manic and possessed. He alone was filling the stage side to side and back to front. He was singing, acting his part, throwing colour powder, burning incense (?), pestering photographers, climbing down to meet the crowd, and generally looking more than half-insane. The band were trying to play their parts, technical and varied, and Vicotnik was literally getting in the way of it. The intensity of this performance was just on another level. That energy alone was drawing people in and I found it entertaining beyond any expectations.




As the manager of Pain of Salvation put it, not any band without a current album can headline a festival of a thousand people. Panther is four years old and there isn't yet a new album in sight, yet people are drawn to Pain of Salvation. But that contrast after Dødheimsgard! They appeared so down-to-earth and reasonable. And also apparently so at ease and enjoying themselves. "If you don't enjoy it, I know I will!" said Daniel introducing "Icon." They also were responsible for that other nod to Bach with their – drumroll, please – Bach-drop in the back, a cheesy joke that fell totally flat in a good-natured kind of way. They also broke hearts of the cheering crowd by concluding the set with "The Passing Light of Day."

Despite it being an enjoyable event overall I found myself at odds at the festival. I've tried to tackle the question of when a band is synonymous with their music or their primary composer, and when they are an entity in their own right. Moreover, in my Battling Nostalgia article about Nightwish I surmised that our initial live experiences with the band or its members seem to pin the band down in time for us. What I didn't consider really is how changes in the line-up and our subsequent live experiences of the band also alter our perception of it in turn. I failed to understand the fluidity of this opinion: it is never final and what has changed once is prone to further revisions in due time.

If I've counted correctly, in the span of 18 years I've now seen Pain of Salvation six times, Haken five times, PRR four times including both their disbanding and reunion shows, and Obsidian Kingdom and Dødheimsgard twice. The realisation that hit me hard – and the implication goes beyond just these bands – was that I've hardly seen any of them perform in the same line-up again, especially if the shows have been more than one year apart. I found myself overwhelmed by the changes in time laid bare on stage. It's not only that each subsequent encounter with these bands brings new music but apparently also new – but sometimes old – members. On some occasions there's just that one familiar face...




Time. And change... The more events I attend over the years, and the more bands I encounter repeatedly across this ever-growing time-span, the harder I seem to find what it is that I'm there for. Is it the music? The band? Particular musicians? Or the event itself? What I understand so far is that music and a live performance happen in time. It's not a singular moment but a duration and an actively unfolding experience. It's a celebration of creativity and sound phenomena through music but also of a shared time between all in attendance. It's a celebration of changes of various natures within a small slice of time but also across extended periods and countless encounters. And I am being not just one small part of it. It strikes me that I, as anyone else, get to actively observe time itself. I am a witness to time and the change it brings.

For some reason, these profound introspective insights seem to come more often nowadays but also happen after being at events charged with much energy. Despite all these thoughts, I thoroughly enjoyed being back at BP!MF and its cosy, yet smoke-filled, atmosphere. I find it nice that they've now framed their event in a more concise fashion. Time will only tell whether it's enough to make the festival sustainable in coming years. The main takeaway for me, however, is that it's not necessarily the band one loves or expects the most that may become the highlight of the event. In addition, BP!MF underlines my conclusion from the past that as far as festivals go I prefer ones with at most a couple thousand people. I feel I need this compact form and the intimacy that comes with this size. All in all, this festival was great. Can we please have another go at it?