October 13, 2025 – ProgStock Adventures!

I know today’s Monday, but given that my flight home is delayed over 2 hours at present, I think there’s no better time to write about the weekend I had than right now, in the waiting area, surrounded by other grumpy travelers. I’m existing on barely 2 hours of sleep at the moment, but I’ve got lots to cover, so let’s get right into it.

So, Saturday I flew out to Newark, New Jersey and took a Lyft to the little borough of East Rutherford to attend the final day of the annual ProgStock festival. This micro trip worked perfectly into my schedule, but I wasn’t going out of my way to fly 1330 miles for just any reason. This year’s festival saw Steve Hogarth (known by us Marillion fans as ‘h’) bringing his solo H Natural show to the States for the very first time. Having spent years wishing I could fly across the pond to bear witness to one of these intimate-looking shows myself, I took full advantage of my now closer proximity to the East coast and decided to make a special trip out!

By complete chance, I stayed at the same hotel as a good number of some great friends I’ve made over the years through our shared love of prog. Sometimes I forget how much potential there is for me to run into familiar faces at music events, because from the moment we set foot in the venue, I was running into and receiving friendly greetings from a whole host of faces I’ve seen through the years, some at shows, and some just on Facebook. The bulk of the day was spent with them, as ventured in and out of the main auditorium, catching glimpses of some daytime performers, like Irish duo Dave Bainbridge and Sally Minnear, and then Chicago proggers The Cyberium. I can only judge what I saw the one day, but I was struck by the variety of prog styles represented. Some acts were softer and more folk-driven, and some were closer to traditional, heavier prog rock.

The atmosphere of being in that small auditorium with people from various nationalities coming and going as they pleased or rushing off to check out other elements of the festival reminded me of being on Cruise to the Edge. I mean that in the best way, of course

There was one particular con that I learned is a regular thing at ProgStock, and it’s delayed start times. I noticed this most at the end of the night, when hordes of people were waiting outside the auditorium to watch h, while soundcheck and technical issues were being addressed. H’s show ended up starting 2 hours late, but we’ll get more into that in a bit.

I wandered up the stairs of the venue some time in the afternoon to run into some good friends of mine: Rachel, Jeanie, and Victoria Flowers. As we chatted, I was shocked to realize that I hadn’t been since before the pandemic that we had seen each other in-person. They were visibly tired from the last 4 days, but I was very happy to get to catch up with them for a bit. Victoria is an uber talented drawer and avid horror fan, the latter of which I am as well. This year, she came along to the festival to showcase and sell some of her work, some of which I gladly bought.

Now about H’s show. Well, it certainly lives up to its name, H Natural. This isn’t your typical intimate-style show, where everything is memorized down to a t and a setlist is meticulously crafted. We get a show from h that manages to be both true to his signature expressive performance style while also leaving room for improv and, in my view, vulnerability. A few songs he would challenge himself to play, only to stop midway, unsure of how to play to play or sing the rest, adding to the spontaneous nature of the show, something I found original and, honestly, admirable. I loved how he committed himself to trying certain songs even if he knew he may not know how to play all of it. I feel like many people wouldn’t even bother trying unless they knew the song 100%. It gave the show a very human feel to it. You don’t often see a respected public figure willing to show their imperfections while in action. H played wrong chords and forgot words here and there, just like how Julia Child wouldn’t edit out when she would drop something or burn something on her cooking shows. The show is him, a keyboard, and a backing track that he operates via a laptop. He began his set with a series of cover songs, many of which I actually didn’t recognize. I had to look up the setlist after the fact, but we got covers of David Bowie, Joe Jackson, Bob Dylan, and even Talking Heads. Not surprisingly, h played these songs with the same amount of passion that he would Marillion songs, which he played plenty of, by the way.

Anyway, it was a wonderful 2 hours of music and joy as only H could provide it. Even after getting done well after 12:30 AM, he still stuck around to meet and greet fans outside the merch stand. It was the perfect way to cap off my first time at ProgStock!