Rio Art Rock Festival, Teatro da Galeria, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 10 December 1999

Published Wednesday 22 December 1999
Updated Friday 1 August 2025 (Converted to the new DPRP layout)
Previously published at: http://www.dprp.vuurwerk.nl/concrev/rio2.htm
Previously published at: http://www.dprp.net/concrev/rio2.htm

Lanzarini

The 1st day of the Rio Art Rock Festival happened on a rainy day in Rio de Janeiro. A good audience appeared at Teatro da Galeria despite all the problems.

Aether

Aether opened with a great surprise: Glauco Fernandes (violin) that only played in two compositions (Alterbourgh Suite and Whales) participated all of the gig! A really pleasent surprise.

The show was based on the CD Visions, released earlier this year. New Bright Day, Alterbough Suite and Whales were the highest moments of Aether. Camel is the strongest influence (mainly the electric guitar of Vinicius Brazil).

Some problems with the sound equipment happened in the beginning of the shows but that did not hurt the band. Great opening of the festival!

Solis

For the first time on stage, Solis, the most recent release on the Rock Symphony label, showed a lot of energy, mainly the guitarist (both electric and acoustic) Marcos Pinho (a true virtuoso). All the gig was based on the first cd called Gemini.

The vocals were at some points quite different from the sound of the band I was used to. Nice acoustic sets (L'Essence), eminence for Sete Luas de Andrion and for the suite Solis Invicts Mitra. The bass player Jonatas Luiz is to stay!

Nexus

The first international band of RARF 99 was Nexus. Their set was mostly based on the concept CD Detrás Del Umbral plus some unreleased tracks. This Argentine quintet has an exemplary control of the intruments and played a hard neo symphonic prog that was very memorable!

Note for the nice vocal of Mariela Gonzalez (Condenados, Signos en el Cielo, and on the unreleased track), that fits nicely with the band's sound. All the musicians are quite good and certainly will perform well on Baja Prog 2000 (Mexico) and on NEARFest 2000 (USA). The best gig of the night, although brief. Besides Tempus Fugit, Nexus are representing the prog rock of South America at this moment very well.

Ankh

Closing the first day, the Polish band Ankh mixed progressive, metal and Porcupine Tree pompously. The musicians are excellent and played an energic set. The quartet has a huge presence on the stage!

At the moment, I couldn't find words that could decribe the Ankh show. The audience was screaming things like "Very good!", "Marvelous!" all the time. They respected all the responsabilities that come with closinga the day and play after Nexus.