Hello readers, readers beware...

We have just come back from our hexed trip to Festival Crescendo - a
fantastic event, but an even greater wonderful group of people.

I say "hexed" because the getting and going was unfathomably difficult
and then we performed in what might verily be described as a proto-monsoon.

But let me bring you up to date. After our rushed Virginia show, we
spent two days rehearsing and hashing out the rough edges for our
intended French show. Those two days were quite revitalizing and
inspiring. We calculated that we had 1 hour and 45 minutes of music to
play and it seemed like more than anyone would ever want to hear.
Our setlist:
Microdeath Softstar - a song which opens with lone Johnald Hibiscus
Unicorn on stage playing his eerie organ introduction.
Tempest Of Mutiny (*** as of yet unreleased song, intended for "Pirate
Tales" project)
Kiteman
Chupacabras
Rainboy
Out Of The Angry Planet (*** new unrecorded song)
Suite: Micro Softdeathstar
The Doctrine Of Eternal Ice (Part One)
Candybrain
Crumble (vocal version)
Abducted
You And Me Against A World Of Pain
Titan
Wake Up

On Wednesday afternoon (August 15) we embarked on our trip to Paris and
then Bordeaux to our ultimate destination Saint Palais sur Mer. The
minivans showed up on time (except for the fourth which was a bit
late). Getting to the airport was not a problem and once there we had a
fairly painless check-in (aside from a $450 surcharge for bringing a
heavy keyboard that was one kg above the preferred weight).

After the extortion was paid we proceeded to our overnight flight
(delayed one hour) and all was well. That is, until we struggled
through the beauracratic hell that is CDG airport to make a connecting
flight. Naturally we missed the 7 am flight but were quickly booked on
the 11 am for Bordeaux. We were a bit worried that we had no contact
information for our hosts, but trusted they'd somehow figure out we'd
missed the flight. A surreal moment for me was when we hit the baggage
area and saw our Crescendo comrades awaiting our very late arrival. How
strange to see Sébastien Monteaud and Francis Reix in their crescendo
shirts waving at us. How did they even know who we were? It's odd to
think that the publicity pictures really work!

And so began the journey to Crescendo where we stopped briefly at the
festival site a couple hours before the metaphorical doors opened. The
location was as perfect as one could imagine. Saint Palais sur Mer sits
overlooking the Atlantic ocean, the beaches at the site protected from
the water with frightening and beautiful lava rocks. Shortly after this
visit, Estelle became the designated driver to ferry our wee band to
accomodations at the local tennis club in Royan. Many thanks to the
tennis club and I hope we didn't make too much noise after 2200 hours...

The Crescendo crew were nice and accomodating. Naturally, most of us
could barely communicate with our French friends, but we shared a common
love of music. And so, we hung around for the next three days, enjoying
the stick improvisations of Oxygene 8 and Lazuli, a dramatic band who
mixed excellent songwriting with world beat loops on the first night.
Second day saw a morning breakfast where we met the festival sponsors
and got to see a quite wonderful house (I believe it was Sébastien's
sister's home).

Day two featured Octopus a heavy metalic band who seemed to be
channelling King Crimson "Red" era. Trettioariga Kriget headlined that
night and played a classic sounding brew of progressive rock, with
emphasis on rock. They are from Sweden and their name means Thirty Year
War. On this day we ventured into town to sample some local cuisine and
shops.

As for day three, there were three terrific bands. First up was Motis a
theatrical trio playing an accomplished blend of French folk and
acoustic music not unlike Jethro Tull. Recommended to check out. Next
up, our North American comrades Karcius - from Canada. They put on a
playful show of jazzrockfusion. Excellent players and capital guys -
they lent Mathew Kennedy their bass guitar (his was destroyed by the US
Airline security forces in their searches. Apparently 9 volt batteries
are extremely suspect).

The weather for all three days was perfect. Absolutely wonderful and
sunny. After Karcius, we went up onstage for our setup and were told by
Sébastien to try and get started as quickly as possible. He was worried
for the weather, and it turns out he was right. After our first song
the rain started and didn't really let up until the close of our show.
So bad was the wind that half way through the set we had to stop so the
gigantic hanging speakers could be moved down from their tethers and
placed on the stage. Oddly enough, the rain was worse when we played
Tempest Of Mutiny (which we did twice because we didn't have enough
material for the two encores). Additionally, there are lyrics galore
about the rain in our set. Nutty indeed.

And so the show was quite fun and the music went over well, except there
were places where I completely forgot the words and certain sound issues
made me unable to hear my guitar in Abducted (which made it impossible
to know what notes to sing -- i had to fake it). All things considered
the show was well recieved and I hope we will be able to play in some
more controlled circumstances in the future (ideally without moisture).
I claim distraction from the elements! How terrible to mess up my own
beloved "Candybrain" in which I have rarely made an error. In listening
to a reference recording from the audience I'd say we did all right.
I'm dying to do it again, so if you've got favourite festivals nearby,
perhaps a word in their direction might bring Phideaux to your homeland.

I must say, however, that our trip home was equally crazy as our trip
out. We made it to the airport with 15 minutes remaining to check in on
our Bordeaux flight. Upon arrival in Bordeaux we were told our JFK
flight was cancelled and we were all placed on an earlier flight from
Paris to NYC. Arriving in NYC at 9 pm we were met with the news that
our luggage was not on the flight and as of Wednesday I'm still waiting
for my guitar and Nord keyboard. Air France seems to be excellent once
you are on the plane, but all the logistical stuff seems disorganized.
And so our journey is not quite over. We are still awaiting our
equipment and gear. Hopefully our instruments will make it back home,
otherwise how will we make more music?

As an aside, Doomsday Afternoon is getting some great reviews and we are
selling more copies of this album than previous ones. I am hopeful that
we will bring our music to a wider audience in this year. We are (as of
today) number 11 favourite 2007 album at Progarchives. We are also the
"most popular album" (last 7 days)! Wow. If you wish to support us go
to progarchives.com and search for Phideaux. You will be able to "rate"
our albums from 1 to 5 stars. Please feel free to visit and we thank you.

That's it for now. I'm back in L.A. and strategizing our next move.
The first thing we are going to do is prepare a single for release with
"Tempest Of Mutiny" and a few other unreleased goodies. I'll keep you
posted.

Cheers
Phideaux Xavier I Festival Crescendo - request to rate us at
progarchives.com