PROGRESSIVE NATION 2009 North American Tour Dates - NYC show added!!

For Immediate Release
June 22nd, 2009
 
 
It is with the utmost disappointment that I am forced to share the unfortunate news of both Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish having to pull out of this summer's Progressive Nation tour....
 
Their label Inside Out just recently lost the financial funding for the tour as a result of their distributor SPV recently claiming bankruptcy...which effectively meant that both Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish lost the tour support that was essential to their ability to come to North America for Progressive Nation.
 
All parties involved (myself, both bands, Inside Out, etc) are beyond devastated at this turn of events and are truly sorry to all of the fans that were looking forward to this lineup. We tried everything we could do to salvage the situation, but in the end it was not possible...
 
Well as the album title says, every Black Cloud does indeed have a Silver Lining....so with this unfortunate news, I bring to you the good news of 2 incredible bands that will jumping on board Progressive Nation to join Dream Theater and Zappa Plays Zappa this summer: Bigelf and Scale The Summit.
 
Los Angeles' Bigelf are my personal favorite new band to come along in many years...their latest CD "Cheat The Gallows" is my favorite album of the year and I already had positioned them onto the European run of Progressive Nation in the Fall....with them now joining us on PN09 in North America as well, it looks like world domination is now not that far out of reach for them!
Pretty soon, everyone will hopefully be falling for their retro, psychedelic, progressive, hard rock, doom metal as hard as I have!
 
Houston instrumental band Scale The Summit are a recent discovery for me and their top notch musicianship will be a perfect fit to this Progressive Nation lineup stylistically falling very nicely between the musicality of Dream Theater and Zappa Plays Zappa. They bring the instrumental elements of prog rock and fusion into today's contemporary hard rock/metal sounds and are one of the most talented group of young musicians I've seen assembled in many years.
 
Once again, apologies to anybody disappointed in this unexpected and unavoidable lineup change...but the circumstances were beyond our control...
In any event, PN09 will carry on and still deliver the most musical bang for its buck this summer throughout North America and we look forward to sharing the evening with you!
 
Sincerely,
Your Progressive Rock Ambassador,
Mike Portnoy
 
 
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PROGRESSIVE NATION 2009 - NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
Dream Theater, Zappa Plays Zappa, Bigelf & Scale The Summit 
 
Fri July 24th - Fillmore @ Jackie Gleason Theater - Miami, FL
Sat July 25th - Hard Rock Live - Orlando, FL
Sun July 26th - Ruth Eckard Hall - Tampa, FL 
Tues July 28th - The Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA
Wed July 29th - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium - Ashville, NC
Fri July 31st - Tower Theater - Philadelphia, PA 
Sat Aug 1st - Merriweather Post - Washington DC *
Sun Aug 2nd - Bank Of America Pavillion - Boston, MA
Tues Aug 4th - The Palace Theater - Albany, NY
Wed Aug 5th - Chevrolet Theater - Wallingford, CT 
Fri Aug 7th - Convention Hall - Asbury Park, NJ
Sat Aug 8th - Brookhaven Amphitheater - Brookhaven, NY
Sun Aug 9th - Beacon Theater - New York City  NEW
Tues Aug 11th - The Agora - Quebec City, QUE
Wed Aug 12th - Bell Center - Montreal, QUE
Fri Aug 14th - Molson Amphitheater - Toronto, ONT
Sun Aug 16th - The Burton Cummings Theater - Winnipeg, MAN
Tues Aug 18th - MacEwan Hall - Calgary, AB
Wed Aug 19th - Shaw Conference Center - Edmonton, AB
Fri Aug 21st - The Orpheum Theater - Minneapolis, MN
Sat Aug 22nd - Riverside Theater - Milwaukee, WI
Sun Aug 23rd - Chicago Theater - Chicago, IL
Tues Aug 25th - Temple Hoyne Buell Theater - Denver, CO
Thur Aug 27th - San Jose Civic Auditorium - San Jose, CA
Fri Aug 28th - The Joint - Las Vegas, NV
Sat Aug 29th - The Greek Theater - Los Angeles, CA

 
* - Additional Special Guests on the 8/1 Washington DC show will be Queensryche (a special one-off 5 band Progressive Nation bill for 1 night only!) 





 

...

Wow.  My day couldn't get any worse.

Ouch. Sorry, Mike.

That said, I've been following Scale the Summit for a couple of years now, AMAZING band.

WOW that was unexpected... I didn't really care about PoS or Beardfish anyway, so now I have more bands to check out.

Bummer for those who will be uber disappointed and cool for the Houston band and whose who won't be disappointed!!


Thanks for the update MP!

The truth is the truth...so all you can do is live with it.

^ True

But shit man, I was really looking forward to PoS.

Waaaaaaaaa...... time for me to cry like a baby.
I was really looking forward to seeing Pain Of Salvation.
Will have to check out the 2 new bands, although I would have loved to see
Kings X, Planet X or Redemption to get the nod as last minute replacements

My question is.. what about Neal Morse? and WHY did he assemble a US band to play 2 shows last year? They must have practiced for hours and hours to get down his complex music and they play 1 show in Pittsburgh, and one in California...very odd.

Bummer indeed! I was all pumped up for PoS! Hope Mike can bring them on for PN'10. Big Elf is a great band though, so I'll enjoy them for sure!

Wow Inside Out and SPV are dead? Those were like my favorite labels.

true, Planet X would have been just awesome

I thought DT was paying for the bands their bringing along?

Is this going to effect the releases of Inside out...?
New Pain of Salvation, DVD from Pagan's Mind, new Redemption....
Mike do you know about this????

InsideOut is not dead, I think...

n1n3th1rt33n


I thought DT was paying for the bands their bringing along?

Hey,  I think DT pays the ban itself just to preform.  I think the label pays for support and gear and stuff.

Sucks but there's nothing that can be done. Still Scale The Summit is amazing and I will now definitely check out Bigelf!

Holy crap, horrible.  I've been fortunate to see PoS twice at ProgPower, so not a big deal there for me, but I know many people will be disappointed.  The bummer for me will be not seeing Beardfish.  The great thing will be getting to see Bigelf who I absolutely love.  I've not heard of Scale the Summitt so I'll have to check them out.

Wow! Didn't see that one coming! Bad news for the PoS and BF fans, but good news for Big Elf and Scale The Summit fans and the bands themselves. I haven't heard of Scale The Summit, but from the description they sound like a pretty interesting band. I would still be excited to see this year's PN lineup, if only I could go see it. Damn stupid economy and long travelling distance :(

Aw balls! I was just getting into PoS and Beardfish. I'm trying now to get into Bigelf and Scale the Summit. I trust Mike with his decisions, so I'm sure the show's gonna be nuts anyway! Still looking forward to it!

That is such bad news.  Had this been announced earlier I would have gone to Sundays Nearfest show of Beardfish.
 
Was really looking forward to seeing PoS and Beardfish.
 
Let's hope they can continue to release albums.

Mike & fellow DT fans, sorry for the dissappointment. I though, am damn happy to see Bigelf added to PN09. Would've been thrilled to see POS & Beardfish, but Bigelf...

I would definitely go to see Big Elf.  ZPZ a certainty, but Big Elf is MAJOR goodness.

don't worry y'all.  U'LL LOAF TEH BIG ELF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aw sorry guys, that truly sucks...
At least you still have Zappa! :)

Feels fortunate to have seen POS at ProgPower. Still, was looking forward to seeing them again. sigh. Off to search for Scale The Summit cd's online.

I was getting my ears ready to get raped by PoS awesomeness.


Today sucks.

Just in case you still haven't heard the pure awesomeness that is Bigelf: 

http://www.myspace.com/bigelf

You should look for Bigelf stuff though it's tough to find.  Amazing band.

Thanks for bringing the most up to date news, Mike.  Well, as disappointed as I am to not get to see Pain of Salvation (AGAIN), I'm thrilled to get to see Bigelf and Scale the Summit.  It's kinda funny - I just, in the past 6 months or so, discovered both of these great bands and have their most recent works in heavy iPod rotation.  Can't wait to catch this tour in Columbia, MD - IN THE THIRD ROW...


Later - Mike

I have a better idea........
 
Zappa Plays Zappa plays first for an hour
DT Closes the show with 2 90 Minute sets  =)

A little disappointed to not get to see Beardfish.  As for POS, I was planning to use their set time to prowl the merchandise tables--not my cup of tea.  Never heard these other two.  Time to do some homework.     

Badass. I have talked to Scale The Summit on myspace. Great band.
Sucks POS couldn't make it.

holy shit!

Scale The Summit?!

i was added by them when i was on myspace a couple of months before they started recording their first album
how times change

these guys are awesome.

Too bad.. I was really looking forward to seeing Beardfish.

And midway through reading the announcement, I thought to myself "they should extend DT and ZPZ's sets!!" That would have been killer. Oh well. I'll guess I'll check out these new bands.

This is good news for me.  I didn't care about PoS one bit.  I love Bigelf though.

That sucks.

Beardfish was great on Sunday, and when i mentioned the tour to the guys, they were so excited about it...but also said I'd enjoy their NF set more as they'd have more time on stage.  I am super glad I got to see them, because they were flipping fantastic.

SPV did file for bankruptcy, and I have no idea what that means for future I/O releases...all I know is my contact with them is no longer with the label and moved to a different PR firm...

Wow,it is big news,but not.  Sign of these economic times i suppose.  Was looking forward to checking out PoS and see what all the fuss is about.  I have 'Be' but it just ain't hitting me tho.
I do trust MP and his quest to bring the brightest and best to us all and that I am grateful for as always!

Hey tube-amped,I'll be 2 rows behing you bud! can't wait!!

Wow, congrats to Scale the Summit, those guys are awesome players - my band's drummer hung out with them a month ago after he saw them open for Protest the Hero here...  I know they're huge DT fans so this has gotta be crazy for them!

Ah, that sucks. Oh well, unpredictable circumstances...

But still, Scale The Summit? Never heard of them (well not for long :P)

Must be amazing for them, being enlisted into the PN tour with the great Dream Theater at the last minute.