Connecticut’s favorite local prog-rock act, Crucible, returned to Waterbury Friday night to rock Zoogie’s Café (formerly known as Amici’s). The band is back to performing live after a brief vacation to get some well-deserved rest and to work on some new material.

The size of the Zoogie’s crowd made it evident that Crucible is a band on the rise, they played to only about half as many people here just a couple months ago. The band has gotten some national attention from the prog world recently, most notably rave reviews of a high profile show in Baltimore and a slot on the Prog Day ’98 show which will be held in South Carolina over the Labor Day weekend. Their debut CD, "Tall Tales", is selling briskly and they’ll be making their third Toad’s Place appearance later this month, opening for The Tubes.

This review isn’t as detail-oriented as most because I’ve already written 3 reviews of the band so there’s almost nothing that I can say that hasn’t already been put to words. My previous reviews are all just a click away so I hope you’ll read them.

I can add that the band sounded even better on this night then they have in the past. I know that’s hard to believe but it’s apparent that their performance experiences are starting to build a greater level of confidence within the band. This may be due to the positive reviews and the national exposure that they’ve begun to receive, or it may just be the number of shows that they’ve done, whatever the reason, it’s working.

Dan Esposito’s lead guitar work had more fire tonight and, even though he was still stuck in the back corner due to the size of the stage, he seems to have benefited the most from the increased confidence level. It’s hard to explain the stage layout at Zoogie’s but Dan’s playing was attracting people to the side of the stage to get a closer look.

I know I’ve already said this several times but if you want to experience a band on the way up you still have time to catch Crucible, live, and local. You don’t have quite as much time anymore, but you do still have some time. Don’t let it slip away, it is going fast. Information on ordering the band’s CD "Tall Tales" can be found by using the link to their homepage.

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