The Civic Center area of Los Angeles, California on weekends is like a ghost town. Anybody, who can escape to the beach or mountains, does so with all speed, especially on a holiday weekend like Memorial Day Weekend, May 1997. For those in the musical know however, this was the destination, having traveled hundreds, or thousands of miles to get there.

The Variety Arts Center in Los Angeles, which had been the scene for previous Progfests, was once again the venue where international fans and bands, mingled, talked, traded, sold, listened to, and celebrated Progressive Music.

There were two nights of music. The Saturday show, was the show of interest for Flower King fans because they headlined a stellar cast of players. Big Elf, Spock's Beard, and the John Wetton Band, preceded them, had entertained an excited, packed house.

At about 9:00pm Shawn Ahearn host and MC, introduced The Flower Kings. The band approached their positions and instruments on stage, and slowly, gently started the musical ascension with a segment from the very recently released two disc CD, "Stardust We Are." Vocalist and guitarist Hans Froberg filled the theater with a beautiful, strong voice, and drew the crowd into the world of Flower King adventures. The band then picked up the tempo with, "The Magic Circus of Zeb," one of four songs played that night from the 1994 "Flower King" album. This song provided a nice swinging groove, a good choice! Next, from the CD, "Back In The World of Adventures", the "Big Puzzle," last song from that release continued the intensity, and musical vitality of the set. The band then set up Roine Stolt for a blistering malevolent solo during,"Sound of Violence." Perhaps not so "violent" per se, but quite powerful!

Hans Froberg who had just joined the band as a permanent member, once again sang lead vocals, this time for "Go West Judas," with Michael Stolt, and Roine, contributing backing vocals."Train to Nowhere' was a mid show change of pace, with Hans singing to an acoustic piano provided by "Mr.Hope," Tomas Bodin. Not enough can be said as to Tomas's contribution to The Flower Kings. He is certainly one of the top keyboardists in the world today!

"Judas Kiss" from the wonderful CD "Retropolis" features Tomas creating a great cathedral organ on his Korg M1, and the faithful prog "parishioners" were blessed with another solid musical sermon! Continuing with, "Retropolis by Night" this explosive "over the top" piece includes and revisits the "Rhythm of Life" riff to bring the song to a solid conclusion. Highlight indeed! A brief moderate instrumental followed, and then as the rhythm of ping-pong began over the PA, we knew that "The Rhythm of Life" was the musical "game" to follow. I believe band and audience, won that game!

The set closer was the third and most popular song from Roine Stolt / Flower King, and that is the anthemic Flower King! Several people sang the chorus, and waved back and forth in meter with the happy regal tune.

An encore was a most necessary part of this night. The Flower Kings returned to play "Humanizzimo", and at the end thanked the ecstatic crowd for a wonderful lengthy show!

In retrospect, I recall such a positive vibe from The Flower Kings show, which is also ever present on their albums. Roine once said he felt it a responsibility to engender positive feelings through what they play.

In a previous Progression magazine article, he referred to the Swedish term, "ringar pa vattnet", which means "ripple effect" of positive energy shared through music. I would travel thousands of miles again to feel the "ringar pa vattnet" of The Flower Kings, any day!