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Almost all photos by Geoffrey C. DeVoe except color solo shots by Kira Smith

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The Reunion Concerts 2007

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Set

Narrow-Caster

December

2008

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3RDegree began when founder/bassist/keyboardist/vocalist Robert James Pashman met with drummer Rob Durham in December of 1990 with a common love of the progressive rock bands they had grown up with & in hopes of picking up where Pashman’s last band had left off. A six month union with a guitarist didn’t pan out until new guitarist Pat Kliesch was added in the summer of 1991 & the band played its first show that November. Kliesch’s hard driving off-kilter riffs & juxtaposed melodic acoustic writing gelled with Pashman’s soaring hooks within strange meter: all this thrown in with the most capable Durham who reveled in the challenge of holding it all together. This would be the band’s mantra to the present day: create challenging music to play but always with a memorable, singable calling card. The first chapter would be THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE-a 10 song collection which was played all over New Jersey & New York City in rock venues from 1992 through 1995 alongside the much more interesting & refined tracks that would be its epic follow-up.

But one piece of the puzzle would be imperative to getting the band more noticed than ever before: a world-class lead vocalist. George Dobbs, who would be added in the summer of ’95 would be that man.  Also a keyboardist and bassist, the band’s live shows would be a much fuller affair & the studio album a much more polished & diverse one.  HUMAN INTEREST STORY was released & well received in April of 1996, but frustration with the band’s inabilities to find its market niche & fan base in a pre-internet age would make a January 1997 CBGB’s performance its last.

In December of 2005, the three original members of the band met in a NYC bar with the idea of reforming. Demos were made of new & old songs left on the cutting room floor that the band had always thought were their strongest. Their singer would be found by July & the backing tracks for a new album recorded by October. April of 2007, would see the band playing their first live shows in over ten years at NJ Proghouse. The event & previous night’s acoustic show would be captured in high definition & later released on DVD & double CD as THE REUNION CONCERTS.  The internet would also figure largely into 3RDegree redux finding new fans & even re-connecting with the original ones so that by summer 2008 when the band were ready with its studio album NARROW-CASTER, it wouldn’t fall on deaf ears. The Dutch Progressive Rock Page would herald that “it’s not often an album as refreshing as this comes along and we should treasure it when it does”. A new plastic-less “Eco-Wallet” version would be released by year’s end mainly because of advanced sales from Europe.  In early 2009, 3RDegree got to writing new material for a hopeful 2010 release, found new drummer Aaron Nobel & were asked to play their first Progressive Rock festival-ProgDay in Chapel Hill, North Carolina that September.

3RDegree have been writing & recording new material since early 2009.

Fact Sheet

Founder Robert James Pashman arranged “prog themed” live music evenings in New Jersey and New York City in hopes of creating a progressive rock scene with like-minded bands such as You Were Spiraling (later Spiraling which features Tom Brisling of 2001 Yes Symphonic Tour fame), Braindance, Love & Death (later Emotive who opened for Fish in ‘97), Curious Works and PH101.  Whole slates of artists would be presented by Robert to club owners who were surprisingly open to the idea.  All this before the internet took hold as the place to find the Prog audience and even before any of today’s Progressive Rock festivals started up.

The band’s guitarist Pat Kliesch lives in Los Angeles while the rest of the band hold down the fort in Bergen County, NJ.  The band shared files via the internet and integrated Pat’s guitar work and backing vocals into the mix.

All albums were mixed at Panetta Studios in Elmwood Park, NJ where Robert James Pashman and Pat Kliesch had both worked while in college.

For the band’s first shows in over 10 years, a lighting and high-definition camera crew was assembled to capture the 2 consecutive nights of shows: one an acoustic affair in Robert’s living room and another at Metuchen, NJ’s NJ Proghouse playing with Frogg Cafe’.  The end result is 3RDegree’s new DVD and double CD The Reunion Concerts which will be coming out on blu-ray most likely sometime in 2009.  The boys look to play again at a Prog festival anywhere in the country-fingers crossed!

Most songs from the new studio album Narrow-Caster had a decade-long gestation period.  Ideas the band had worked on before breaking up in 1997 were found on cassettes and made into new demos in early 2006.  Some time later drum tracks were recorded and then the rest fleshed out.  Many melodies and lyrics were either totally scrapped or underwent major improvements.  Three songs are completely new and one song was written by Dobbs in the inactive years.

With the new “acceptance” into the Prog community, 3RDegree plan to stretch out like never before on their next release-which would be the first they actually write all at once with a stable lineup. 

George Dobbs was added as vocalist in 1995 when HUMAN INTEREST STORY (1996) was almost finished.  His vocals replaced Robert James Pashman’s on almost every song and he was given free reign to finagle with lyrics and melodies.  This pushed Robert into the primary backing vocalist role which he was glad to inhabit.

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