Band Links: Attila and Dave Project Puppet Show
Concert Reviews and Commentary: REVIEW BY PETER THELEN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, EXPOSÉ MAGAZINE
For too many years, the South Bay has been void of a venue willing to promote live progressive music, despite the fact that this area has long been a stronghold of interest. Enter Club Kaos, a medium sized club in Fremont CA, which has agreed to put on a series of four concerts as a trial for what could become an ongoing monthly event on the second Friday of each month.

The first date was November 11, and featured local bands Attila & Dave Project, Nightcrawlers, and Puppet Show. Turnout was respectable, about average for a Friday night according to the club owner - around 110-120 at peak attendance; however those of us involved in lining up the bands had hoped for an even more impressive showing. The crowd size was no doubt held down somewhat by the fact that the new reconstituted Episode were giving a free concert a few miles up the road in Oakland.

The show was scheduled to begin at 9:00pm, but sound checks and technical issues delayed things by over half an hour. Attila & Dave came on and played a solid set of original material, much of it from their soon-to-be released CD. The lineup is a three-piece featuring acoustic and electric guitars, bass, a battery of old analog synthesizers, a dedicated drummer, and vocal harmonies aplenty. They began in a more acoustic mode, and closed with a long number that could be compared to Saucerful-era Floyd.

Nightcrawlers are an ambient duo of synthesizers and heavily treated guitars. Their set consisted of two lengthy pieces; their style could be compared to Fripp and Eno, Heldon, or even Tangerine Dream circa their first album. Their set was ambient in the truest sense; folks continued mingling and socializing while they droned away in the background, providing a dark and brooding atmosphere within the club. Due to the late start, Nightcrawlers' set was cut down to only about forty minutes. My only complaint is that they weren't loud enough.

Puppet Show took the stage at midnight. This Bay Area five-piece plays in an energized progressive rock style, melding facets of new-progressive, prog-metal, heavier keyboard-driven forms and enough originality to keep their material interesting. Like Attila & Dave Project, Puppet Show has a CD recorded and in the final stages of mixing and most of their set drew from that well of original material. By a quarter of one, the crowd started thinning out, yet the band played on until almost 1:30am with about forty diehards remaining. Those who left early missed their amazingly accurate cover or UK's "In The Dead Of Night," and their final original that closed the show, arguably their best performance of the night. My only complaint with Puppet Show is that they were too loud.

In all, a solid start to what we hope will be a regular and ongoing event.