I attended Moogfest on Saturday night, Sept. 22, at B.B. King’s in New York, and it was quite a show. The performances were excellent all around. Because of the number of performers, the sets were all relatively short, but there was tons of great synth playing all evening long.

Xenovibes, who won a contest to be the opening act, started the show, and featured Shueh-li Ong on a Moog Theremin as well as keyboards, and John Anthony Martinez on electronic drums. Spiraling followed with a pop-rock set that spotlighted lead singer/keyboardist Tom Brislin’s vocals and keyboard work (on a Moog Little Phatty). Don Preston did a cool, ethereal, improvised solo-synth piece on a Minimoog.

Adam Holzman brought a full band (which was killer) and did some cool, mostly uptempo jazz fusion material, using a Minimoog Voyager among other synths. T Lavitz (of Dixie Dregs fame) performed his set with Holzman and band and was both tasteful and flashy. Lavitz and Holzman both dedicated their sets to the late Joe Zawinul.

Neil Alexander showed very impressive jazz-rock keyboard chops during his set with his stellar band Nail. Alexander played a Roland AX-7 handheld, wireless MIDI keyboard that was controlling a large assortment of synths including a Voyager. His band later backed synth pioneer and music educator Herb Deutsch, who played through a vintage Minimoog that was one of the first 100 ever made.

Erik Norlander did a set (playing with backing tracks) where he was jumping back and forth between a Voyager, a Little Phatty, and an Alesis Andromeda (a synth he helped develop sounds for)–his solid playing really captured the prog-rock vibe.

Jordan Rudess performed along with Richard Lainhart, who played a Buchla synth to accompany him. Rudess played mostly ethereal material, but still was able to show off his amazing keyboard abilities, using a Little Phatty and a bunch of Moog effects boxes.

Thomas Dolby ended the show, and despite some technical glitches, did a spirted set. He was playing a Voyager as well as a bunch of software synths from Logic. He sang through his signature headset mic, and finished the show with “She Blinded Me with Science,” on which he was firing off vocal samples from an M-Audio Trigger Finger.

Two “Bob Awards” were given, one to Herb Deutsch and another to Gershon Kingsley, another legend from the early years of synthesis (he composed the novelty hit “Popcorn”). Both Deutsch and Kingsley gave acceptance speeches.

Both Moog’s Mike Adams, and Bob Moog’s daughter, Michelle Moog-Koussa, spoke about the Moog Foundation’s quest to raise money to save Bob Moog’s archives.

I videoed extensively at the show, and am putting together a feature for emusician.com that will include both interviews with the performers and clips from the performances. Look for it to be posted soon.