Cheers and Jeers IX

[dcowboys311]

Cheers:
Motherfucking Amorphis. Greatest set in the history of this festival.
Mustasch! I wasn't really that into them going in, but they completely won me over. I'll definitely be giving them another chance.
Finally getting to see one of the bands that got me into metal in the first place -- Iced Earth. Their setlist could have been better but for what they played, they were fantastic.
Seeing some people who I don't see too often.
Bringing some friends who enjoy metal but aren't that into it...I think they'll both end up getting more into the scene as a result of this past weekend.
Meeting some cool new people at the festival.

Jeers:
The crowd during Amorphis
Riverside
Missing a few people at the festival. I guess I'll just have to wait another year.
Not having money at all. So many albums I wanted to pick up that I just couldn't afford (Hellhammer box set, I'm looking at you!)

 

[MetalRose]

Thanks to you and the crew for treating them with such respect, Patrick. Jesse brought them to our room on Saturday for a party. She kept trying to convince me to go everywhere with her and them, so it's not like she was being disrespectful to them or anyone else at all, so it's really a shame that Edu_ had the wrong impression.

She was around them a bit, but I only know that because I was too. And if Edu saw the "drum stick" incident with Elvenking and I, they would've gotten the same impression of me.

From what she presented and what I saw of her, she was cool shit.

-Metal

 

[Cheiron]

Man I saw a hotel door open at the R.I. with a nice laptop opened on the 3rd floor. I was hoping nobody would steal it. I hope that wasn't the room. I always hide my laptop at hotels if I'm allowing cleaning service as they'll just leave the doors open and its easy for somebody to come in and nab it.

But that blows to lose a laptop =/

 

[Wayniac]

Jesse was a sweetheart, and about as far from a groupie as you could get.

Sux about the lost laptop, but that wasn't the only thing stolen...

 

[LunaTEKKE]

Jeers: To the restaurants that all closed early and didn't provide hungry metal goers with nourishment!

No kidding...you'd think they would be prepared for us after all these years. I actually heard that Subway ran out of bread one day!

I got around the food issue Fri/Sat by packing food from home (cereal, dried fruit, nuts, snack bars, tuna packets, crackers) and walking to Kroger on Thursday for some extra stuff. I also brought some plastic silverware, large plastic cups, and disposable plastic containers from home.

Then I was able to run over to the Residence after the first couple of bands on Fri/Sat, grab food, put it in a disposable container, and bring it into the venue.

It’s cheaper, healthier, and I didn’t miss a single song from a single band all weekend. That’s a big reason why I’ve been reluctant to stay at one of the hotels that are more reasonably priced, but located farther away from the venue.

 

[dcowboys311]

- Amorphis for not hanging out on Saturday- that was a bummer. (Disclaimer: I know it’s not required, but it’s always appreciated and enjoyed and it won’t skew my image of them at all. And it’s not a huge jeer.)

Eh, I know you said it's not a huge jeer. But they had a show in Charlotte on Saturday night so I'm sure they just hauled ass over there.

 

[nailz]

I forgot a fest jeer:

To the stage right (sometimes he stood in the middle of the press pit) security guy that kept offering to allow me to stay up front for the entire set of each band if I would "put a little something in his pocket".

I know who're your talking about. He offered that to me too on Saturday. I just told him this fest was too important to disrespect the people who put it together like that. He did let me stand at the side of the stage though after shooing everyone else away, and I did offer to buy him a beer.

I tried to be respectful of the security and the photo-pit this year, and I hope i didn't step on anyone's toes or ruin anyone's fun by trying to get pictures.

 

[Rick Pierpont]

Wow! It forever amazes me on how quick the festival goes by, this year being no exception. I got home WAY to late last night (2:10a) to post so here goes...

Cheers:
- Glenn, Chris, Shane, Wayne, and the rest of the crew for such a warm welcome & treating me so well, being such professionals, and doing this year after year! Being able to witness the behind the scenes action gave me such a bigger appreciation for how good this crew really is. And after working along with other band's crews, it further solidified that thought. You guys (and gal) are the best!
- the honor of being involved with such an amazing festival as a crew member. I truly am proud to be part of such a pro organization!
- being able to hang out with JayDub and other crew members all weekend.
- Lara for being so gratious and prompt with getting me to the venue on time! You rock!!!
- Riverside for such an AMAZING set and being nice guys!
- Pathosray for such an amazing set, signing my CD, and your genuine excitement over playing PP.
- hanging out until too late with couple of guys from Andromeda, Steve (that was my brother Mark) and having them teach me some Swedish!
- all the guitarists I worked with this year for your awesome attitude and gratitude.
- my girlfriend, Barb, for being so supportive and helpful during the weekend!
- everyone I got to see and chat with -- even if it were for a very short time.
- All of the bands for such solid performances.
- Rich for his awesome monitor mixes and fast response. Also, a special thanks to you for giving me my own mix so I could enjoy Riverside even more!
- Mosquito and Palabra de Dios for your enthusiam up front! I had a great time seeing you guys enjoy yourselves as much as you did.
- The PP crew and IE crew working together to COMPLETELY strip and rebuild the stage in only one hour!! IE's stage setup was WAY involved and it could easily take way more time than it did. Only 15 minutes longer than the alotted changeover time.
- 46 MPG - thus only costing ~$100 roundtrip for 3 people to travel 730+ miles each way! Ever with the higher cost of gas in the south (when you could find it).

Jeers:
- the weekend being over
- not being able to say hi to everyone that I wanted to
- Marriott Courtyard being so far away (but it was nice)
- the 14th Street bridge being out further complicating the previous jeer
- Taking over 14 hours to get home (with stops) due to heavier traffic, some showers, and longer stops. We didn't pull into my garage until 2:10 this morning.

As far as Jon's guitar, I did not witness the electronics, but I can confirm that it is EXTREMELY rare for a guitar to actually fry. I have never personally had a guitar do it like that. However, we did actually experience a dead bass for Rob Rock's band during their set. The output jack on his Warwick had worked loose and allowed it too move too much thus breaking both connections to it. Luckily, I had a soldering iron already heated up (from an earlier keyboard pedal repair) and was able to repair it before he needed to use it again. I guess those years as an electronic technician paid off. ;-)

Thanks again to Glenn & the rest of crew! This year was a completely different experience and even more special than the rest! I look forward to doing it again. Truly a class act organization!

 

[Rick Pierpont]

Eh, I know you said it's not a huge jeer. But they had a show in Charlotte on Saturday night so I'm sure they just hauled ass over there.

Yes, we immediately loaded out their equipment to their tour bus after the show (which was parked way far away for that).

 

[Yippee38]

Short list from me.

Cheers:
*To getting to see and talk to all the people I'm already friends with like Bryant, Harumi (grats guys BTW), Steph, Shaye, Urban, Zod, Paula, Linda, Britt, Brent, Tammy, The Michael, J-man, J-Dubya, Bear, TheDelicateFlower, KingLek, Shreddy, Tess, etc., etc.
*To getting to talk to people that I know, but never really talked to that much in previous years such as Pellaz, Dragongrrl, ChickenKiller, Norm, etc.
*To meeting people for the first time such as SkiBum, Diamond45, LunaTek, Ruthven (pronounced correctly), Minoc and his fiancee, IcedStitch, Biffle, MetalOperaChick, KingsGene, Claus, Am_Ash, Hoyt, Gregg (with 2 "G"s), Eric from BARFest, etc. I know there were more, but main brain is overloaded.
*To all of the bands put on solid performances just like last year.
*To the people who got Tammy to PP this year!
*To moderation on Friday and Saturday night. It allowed us to party afterward for a change.
*To the sound at the fest. There were glitches of course, but I think in general, it was a better balanced sound than in past years. Now if they would only moderate the volume. Loud is cool, but there is a limit.
*The weather was great this year. It seemed hotter than normal on the main floor though.

Jeers:
*To too many people not being able to make it this year: Colleen and Todd, Sean, The Whisper, KittyBeast, Aki, Lucinda and Greg, etc.. You were missed.
*To not getting to talk to some people enough.
*To standing for so damn long. I liked 5 acts per night better to be honest. I also noticed that the crowd, though into the music was much less enthusiastic at the end of the night. People were getting into Amorphis and IE, but when the songs ended, there was a short, intense cheering, but it fell off almost immediately. I think it was because so many people were completely worn out.
*To missing Pathosray. I heard it was a great set.
*To the schedule being off by 15 minutes on Friday night. I heard several theories about what happened. Whatever the reason, it made lots of people miss 1/3 to 1/2 of performances. If ever the fest gets ahead of schedule again (which is odd in itself), the next band should be delayed to get things back on schedule.
*To the city of Atlanta for tearing up that bridge which kept us from The Silver Skillet. Fortunately, we found that Goldberg's Bagels which had great breakfast all day long.
*Like everybody else, to the food places in the area for closing so early on Saturday.
*To having to use more than one hotel for all PP attendees, thus splitting the post-parties between the various locations.
*It's not really a jeer, but I preferred the much more casual pre-party in The Loft. It allowed people to catch up and therefore we needed less time to do so on Friday and Saturday.

This year the fest was much more about socializing for me than the bands. Because money's tight right now, I wasn't able to pick up CDs from a ton of the bands before hand, so I didn't know their music. We checked out a couple of songs from almost all of the bands and all sets were solid. More often than not though, we were more compelled to go talk to friends than listen to a band we didn't know. In that regard, this was one of the most fun PPs yet.

Huge cheer to Glenn for giving us all a reason to get together every year, and to the crew who make it all work!

 

[JenniferLynn]

First n' foremost, this was my 3 PPUSA and by far THE BEST....

Cheers:
- how can I not start with Glenn; thank you thank you thank you for bringing Pathosray to the greatest metal festival out there... I could fill a million books with thanks and it still wouldn't be enough
- to THE CREW - props to you guys all you do so that we all enjoy the show
- To Coldie and Scott - thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOO much for letting me room with you, for driving my ass down to Atlanta and all the great memories we shared...
- To Scott and Dennis - for providing transportation for Pathosray so we could get them all to Guitar Center; minus the "getting lost" part, it was such a treat to get to do that for them...
- To Jax - girl, MONDO thanks for the Gold Badge this year and the offer for next year's...
- To Jill - for great conversation, the cooler full of drinks, buying pizza Friday night and all the great laughs...
- Riverside - I didn't like what I heard on CD at all, but with each song played, I enjoyed them more n' more and by the end I was saying 'these guys are f'n awesome!!' and I'm buying the CDs...
- Rick Pierpoint - for being as entertaining during Riverside's set on the side of the stage as Riverside themselves
- Friday night PPX announcement - I LOVED that it was on this night; we all had an additional day to shop for CDs and get totally stoked and energized and completely freak out for it - CIRCUS MAXIMUS AND PAGAN'S MIND!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!
- Inn at the Peachtrees - what a f'n awesome hotel... That courtyard was my favorite place to be...
- Gerard the free shuttle driver - he did SOOOOO much for all of us and when he said 'I'll be there in 5 minutes', he was there in 5 minutes...
- Ken at Laser's Edge - for letting me borrow a Pathosray shirt to wear for their autograph session!! and for the CD recommends - I have lots of stuff to listen to...
- Madison Grille - for not telling us to quiet down on Saturday night when we were having a laughing fit for a good solid 10 minutes... yeah, they were short staffed but the food was good and we filled wait time with fun...

... and last but certainly NOT least...

- Pathosray - 10 minutes after Coldie, Scott n' I arrived at the hotel we all were pretty inseparable until Saturday night and good byes have NEVER been so hard... For all the chats, the laughs - Marco kept us ALL entertained!!!; the song , the memories.... There are no words... just simply - you guys are AMAZING!!! and we will be coming to Italy!!!

Jeers:
- Saturday night goodbyes...
- the gas shortage (but feeling blessed that we aren't going thru the same thing in VA)
- Hardees in SC; I'm not even sure that was real food... but got a great line - 'she want american cheese on it, not swish'
- the eggs at the Inn at the Peachtrees - no, those were NOT eggs...
- seeing a very dear friend fading very fast and not being able to do a damn thing about it

 

[RockShears]

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way.

Barlow....Was he sick or something? It sounded like bad IE karaoke. I waited years for him to return and was so damn disappointed. I didn't stay for the rest of the set. This is coming from a guy who saw Megadeth just to see Iced Earth, and left before Megadeth came on.

Can we find out who the mixer for Fates will be, and put him on the terrorist watch list so he's stuck at the airport? Seriously, the headliners need to stop sending their own crew. Glen's people do a fantastic job. Louder does not equal better. For both Amorphis and IE I kept getting a WVA-WVA-WVA sound in my ear and couldn't hear shit.

Spheric Universe Experience. I can't hate you, but I can't like you. Toss your singer and I think you'll go far. You have nothing to lose except those those hands molesting you as you play.

Elvin King. Please tune your fiddle.

Earth Link Live. Holy shit, you sink what, zero dollars in this place? Nice to see that the patch covering your old name is now flaking off.

Atlanta: Do I need to mention this town literally smells? You make Pittsburgh look like an easy town to navigate.

Cheers:
Riverside. You don't need gimmicks or the tiresome double bass to be a good band. Not only were they a refreshing change but they were outstanding. Please, more bands like this.

Andromeda. I broke my seat during this set.

Rob Rock. How can an act with such a lame name kick so much ass? Some fundamental law of science has just been broken. At least my seat held up this time.

Savatage. Yeah, we call it JOP now but who are we kidding? Can they take up two slots next time?

Mustasch. You were nervous but you pulled it off. I'll bring you everyone (hurt who you like) if you come back again. Your work here isn't done.

Silver Skillet. Dirty hole with good food. Beats paying 11 bones for the Courtyard breakfast.

No Devin Townsend. I know it's like saying "Hey, the roof didn't fall on my head" but I'm still trying to erase his last "performance" out of my brain.

I daresay even with the disappointing headliners, this was the best lineup I've seen.

 

[FriendOfEntropy]

This was my second year and it was a wonderful time. We drove down from Nashville.

I'll save my thoughts on bands performances for the myriad of "rank em" threads that will abound.

Cheers

- NO SMOKING policy *actually* being enforced this time (thought I was gonna die last year).
- Finally getting to meet a few more of you in person. I believe I was the only bald guy in the building with a Captain America shield-logo t-shirt on Friday night so some of you may have seen me even if we didn't actually meet. (also see my first jeer below)
- Actually finally meeting the easily-recognizable Ruler of Australia in person and shaking his hand.
- Chinese Buddha on 10th across from the Checkers (pickup the takeout and eat it back at the breakfast area in the lobby of the hotel).
- My decision to just skip the alchohol and t-shirts this year and use that money to buy more CDs from the vendors.
- Sentinel Steel for an awesome selection and massive knowledge of all things metal (he's better than Google)....next year, I hope to order ahead of time and just have em ready to pick up there.
- Nightmare Records for the Rob Rock, Avian and such (when will you get the new Driver CD? lol
- Sabaton and Brainstorm next year.



Jeers

- My lazy slug friends for sleeping so late that we didn't get to make it by Front Page News where I could have met more of you all. Maybe next year I'll come to a luncheon anyway and tell my sloth-like buddies that I'll just meet them in line at the venue.
- Gasoline shortages.
- Atlanta downtown construction.
- Vendors for not having copies of Sabaton The Art Of War (none even on Friday as soon as the doors opened to us common folk)
- Techwood Mariott Courtyard for not cleaning our room. Even though my friends were late sleepers, I've never stayed at a hotel where housekeeping didn't keep track of rooms they had not cleaned yet and come back again to catch the rooms they missed earlier due to late risers. We had to get clean linens from the desk ourself both nights (one friend was already there in the room for the Thursday night show so the room *should* have been cleaned on both Friday and Saturday).

 

[Wayniac]

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way.

Barlow....Was he sick or something? It sounded like bad IE karaoke. I waited years for him to return and was so damn disappointed. I didn't stay for the rest of the set. This is coming from a guy who saw Megadeth just to see Iced Earth, and left before Megadeth came on.

Actually - yes. I believe he is battling a sinus infection,.. if you ever had one, you know how much they suck.
I can't talk when I have one, much less try to sing...

 

[Kaosaur]

Hahaha, no it wasn't you. It was the same person that some people here now feel a need to defend after another post further up, although everyone who was backstage saw her behaviour being totally out of control and acting like a stupid idiot. Oh well ...

Ouch! Zing! Heh.

I guess what I said is true. We don't always know everything that's going on, eh?

 

[TribunalRecords]

"Cheers"

HELLOWEEN & GAMMA RAY:
For starting the weekend out right. Never had seen Helloween live before and was worried about Deris carrying the old stuff, but from opener "Halloween" he had me convinced.

The jam at the end of their set hopefully reminded people why these two bands help create the genre that fest is currently built upon.

AMORPHIS:
For showing everyone what it is like at progpower to be a REAL band. Other that a few fucks up in their performance they were a powerful and commanding live act unmatched by anyone that day (RIVERSIDE was very close), and it was sad to watch people leave once he started roaring like a bear. Seems fans forget the origins for bands like Elvenking, etc. "Elegy" is a perfect album and released 10 years before Elvenking was even born.

ROB ROCK:
Proved to me why he is the living legend. their set was flawless and wildly entertaining.

MUSTASCH:
The most anticipated set for me, since they were the "what the fuck is this band doing at this fest." i heard some of their stuff online, but figured with all the swedish grammy awards that they would come packing. by far the BEST SET of the entire weekend. their light show (something the light crew from PPUSA could learn a thing or two from) was beyond impressive and helped actuate the power of the bands songs. plus watching them perform and to see their excitement of just playing for us was great! kudos to them.

we ran into the singer heading out after the show and he tried climbing into our car to come with us as we told him how great we thought their set was. he was wasted beyond belief but his joy made me love them even more. one single event made my weekend.


"Jeers"

They always say if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all so i will hold my jeers since there were far too many so i will just say this one and be done.

MANTICORA
God-awful. Their singer and most of the crowd cheering must have been tone deaf.

 

[nailz]

- Vendors for not having copies of Sabaton The Art Of War (none even on Friday as soon as the doors opened to us common folk)

I got my copy of the Special Edition of Art of War from what I can only assume was Lance's table as they finished setting up. I looked for it everywhere else, no one else had it. I only accidentally found it too. It went FAST when I pointed it out. :<

 

[Claus / Intromental]

"Jeers"
MANTICORA
God-awful. Their singer and most of the crowd cheering must have been tone deaf.

Lars has been sick for the last 3 weeks, having gone to one doctor after the other back in Denmark and finally was told that his voice should be fine for the upcoming tour (which starts today in St Louis). I do hope that his voice will hold up for it. Lars is a trooper though, even if his voice gave up on him at the show Thursday he gave it a 110% in energy and in my opinion (I've probably said this a hundred times before) he is the best damn show-man/front-man in metal these days - besides perhaps Bruce Dickinson.

 

[RockShears]

Actually - yes. I believe he is battling a sinus infection,.. if you ever had one, you know how much they suck.
I can't talk when I have one, much less try to sing...

That makes me feel better. I was worried that his voice had been blown out for good, like certain singers that don't take care of themselves.

Hetfield, I'm looking at you!

 

[Yippee38]

FriendOfEntropy reminded me of another jeer:

To Grenada housekeeping staff. All weekend long our room had a "Do Not Disturb" sign on it. In spite of this, each morning at 9:30am - which is damn early for PP - we got a call from housekeeping if we needed any sheets or towels or anything. On Saturday, they called us a second time. Do you not get "Do Not Disturb"?

Lars has been sick for the last 3 weeks, having gone to one doctor after the other back in Denmark and finally was told that his voice should be fine for the upcoming tour (which starts today in St Louis).

Man, I hope it gets better during the tour. We'll be there in Chicago regardless. (Yes Hoyt. I do know about the tour.)