Cheers and Jeers

[miel]

Thank you to everyone for their overwhelmingly kind words! They mean so very much to G. and I and it's nice to know our labor of love is appreciated so much. It's the positive feedback that keeps us going..

I wanted to take the time to comment on a few posts:

Keith Lawley for making PPUSA 'look' even more professional this year with the idea of the vinyl banners. Nothing short of AWESOME!

Absolutely! Keith took this initiative and surprised Glenn and I with the end result at the fest. We were blown away and thanked him immensely.

Jen - Loved the interaction of the social media stuff, even if I didn't post much myself, it was fun to read.

Thank you! It's nice to know our tweeting efforts weren't disappearing into a black hole, unnoticed.

The Video Announcement - How fucking cool is that? What other festival even attempts that? C'mon.

Exactly! It's one of what I'd like to believe, many "extras" that help make PPUSA not just a bunch of concerts, but truly an event. Not to mention the 800+ hours Wayne Joyner put into creating the video.

Also cheers on Vespucci's and Sousolitos actually staying open both Friday and Saturday evening. Also, the food in Vinyl's was actually quite good and timely this year.

Good to know! Glenn made a point to call many of the local eateries prior to the festival to give them a heads up.

The bands, the crew, and especially to Glenn and Jen for making the magic happen, year after year. I organized a free community event last year that involved booking three doctors to speak – and I was seriously ready to slit my wrists before the whole thing was over. I am in awe of how you can pull off an event of this magnitude and complexity…and your ability to handle unexpected issues from technical issues to band cancellations without missing a beat. So many of us look forward to this fest all year, and I truly hope that the energy you get from seeing your efforts come to fruition equals the energy you put in.

If I had to choose, this was my fav cheer!!

The #ppusa hash tag. There was plenty of fun stuff throughout the weekend and it worked wonders in using it to figure out when bands I didn't watch were finishing up.

Nice. Several folks' tweets made both G. and I totally LOL! WKRP Cincinatti and Hi, we're Therion. We're here to make all of the other bands look like crap and Forbidden's about seeing Therion at the airport and mistakening them for a small village.

Glenn, Jen, cast & crew for running such a well-oiled machine and responding to unexpected challenges with the utmost efficiency. Don't let the occasional spoiled brats get you down!

Thank you for the reminder. When you're still in a fog of mental and physical exhaustion, it's easy to become defensive or take things personally.

Glenn and Jen of course for taking the time to take care of every email, inquiry, and seemingly remembering the name of each and every one of us. I mean, I know they're busy and yet still take the time to answer my simple, likely insignificant inquiries via FB or email is simply super human. Saints and Angels take on many different forms!!

Thank you. We realize how important our attendees truly are to the success of the festival.

Going into this year's festival, I thought it had the weakest overall lineup of the years I've been going. However, I enjoyed this festival more than the previous years. The whole experience just ran a lot more smoothly and was of higher quality. It definitely goes to show that there's more to an amazing festival than which bands are booked and which bands aren't.

Thank you for taking the time to post this!

Earplugs provided when you walked in. This is possibly the best thing I've ever seen at any show usually you have to go to the bar and buy them, many younger folk dont know this. I had my etymotics but my buds forgot their plugs and this saved them.

While the free earplugs may have been at the t-shirt table, we cannot take credit for them. Please thank Justin R.

Glenn and Jen for making such an amazing festival possible. I am developing a tradition of building my calendar around this weekend.

Fantastic. Thank you for your support!

From all the complaints I'm hearing from people about the lack of paper towels and soap, I'm thinking that next year, Prog Power could make a killing on $.99 Prog Power labeled sanitary gel dispensers.

Did anyone notice the pumps of hand sanitizer on the bars?

Jen for finding my gold badge.

Twitter saves the day!

Jen - For handling twitter and other social media. When I got off work at midnight Friday night, I immediately got on the road to drive to Atlanta. I purposely stopped at the Alabama Welcome Center so I could check my phone for twitter to see if you had posted the lineup for next year yet.

Nice to know my real-time tweets were appreciated! Thanks. (I would have much rather concentrated on the video and the subsequent crowd reaction. After all, I'm a fan too!)



~Jen

 

[DuchessOfDork]

Did anyone notice the pumps of hand sanitizer on the bars?

Maybe you could print a giant neon "WASH YO' HANDS!" sign next to them? Along with this picture:

 

[AngraRULES]

Maybe you could print a giant neon "WASH YO' HANDS!" sign next to them? Along with this picture:

picture

Nah, they spent too much time making ProgPower USA look more professional than ever. Why ruin it?

 

[DuchessOfDork]

Nah, they spent too much time making ProgPower USA look more professional than ever. Why ruin it?

But what's more professional than printed signs using the Comic Sans font?

(Speaking of fonts, where's my "I'm joking!" font?)

 

[AngraRULES]

But what's more professional than printed signs using the Comic Sans font?

LOL I've actually seen plenty of professional advertising sent to my the company I used to work for 3, 4 years ago using Comic Sans. It was the bomb.

Plus, let's be fair... how do we ever know you're joking?

 

[sh0kr0k]

Nice to know my real-time tweets were appreciated! Thanks. (I would have much rather concentrated on the video and the subsequent crowd reaction. After all, I'm a fan too!)

The #ppusa hashtag was hella awesome! I'm glad no one minded that I spammed the sh!t out of it all weekend Jen, you could probably get away with not doing the announcement tweets, just cuz you know there's going to be people like me, Bobbie, Patrick, etc.. who are more than happy to be buried in our phones tweeting it anyway Though honestly, I didn't catch a couple names (too busy tweeting imagine that!) and had to look at your tweets to see who it was or check spelling hahaha! Well and that one who's logo I couldn't read.

Anyway, thanks for keeping #ppusa active throughout the weekend. It was a lot more fun for us fans to use it knowing that you and Glenn were too! Not sure why, but yeah it made me want to tweet even more about #ppusa! haha Made it feel even more like a family <3

 

[nailz]

LOL! I agree. I was tweeting fucking constantly all the time to the point I actually brought an extra battery for my iphone. The fact that @Progpowerusa was interacting back was just kind of super-cool. It's nice to have a quick conversation with anyone from across the venue (or sitting next to you!) about whatever's happening.

Also, me and Manda checking in Drew on facebook made us epically LOL since he wasn't there.

 

[DarkOne]

More observations, some new, some repeated:

I JEER IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION

SICK AGAIN!!! - Every year I increase my level of preparedness to not get sick, and this year it included vitamins, Emergen-C daily, taking naps in the day time, an already germ-o-phobic approach to hand washing and hand-sanitizer, and not drinking all that much. Doesn't matter. Once again, I'm sick. From the 'flu' thread, I'm not alone.

THE ARTMORE GYM - Broken and in need of an update.

ZOD - Not making it after sponsoring Sanctuary. I really felt for him.

MRS. ZOD - For not being able to keep up her end of the bargain, as our group decided to always answer "He was JUST here a minute ago . . . " whenever anyone asked where Zod/Greg was." She is far too nice to pull that one off. You'd think being married to Zod would make her meaner. Heh.


A LITTLE OF BOTH

MOSHING - Already mentioned a few times. I've been to thrash concerts. I get it. I've moshed a bit in my youth (many, many, years ago). PP has always been against that, but Warrell wanted it and Glenn allowed it, so fine. However, don't be so damn drunk that you're hurting people not moshing!
During Sanctuary, I was with my group, 4 people deep away from that pit, when some of the more uninhibited people in the pit start swinging each other around and bowling over people on the floor. I get mad when I'm nowhere near the pit and my friends are still getting knocked down.

JEERS - Out of control moshing
CHEERS - Bear for breaking up the pit when it was out of control
JEERS - Security for taking about 15 mins to get there
CHEERS - Security for removing the biggest (and drunkest) instigator
JEERS - For bringing him back 1 min later
CHEERS - Apparently Glenn threatened him, because he was good after that.​

THE BATHROOM

CHEERS - No restroom attendant offering me bathroom mints (ewww) and handing me towels and soap that I can easily grab for myself.
JEERS - In the "you can't please me so don't try" category, jeers for the bathroom never being refilled or cleaned. A happy medium would be a few times per day refilling soap and paper towel, and emptying the trash.​

THE ARTMORE -

JEERS - Even with the remodel, the hotel shows its age.
CHEERS - Love being able to leave the venue and be back in my room in under 3 minutes. Having a fridge makes it easy to take a break from the bands, grab some food, and return refreshed.
JEERS -Having the price go up every year. They know they have a captive audience.
CHEERS - Being able to book the hotel in advance
JEERS - Getting up for a 10 am booking on Sat, after the video ended at 2:30 am.
** interlude – I woke up early on my own, so I wandered down around 9:20 am, figuring I’d at least be first in line, and I could stare dumbly at the wall waiting for a booking as easily as I could do it in my room. I figured at that time, I’d at least be first in line. Nope. I was something like #18. Oh, and I won’t name names (because I wouldn’t want to single out AMBR like that), but someone was there at seven-freaking-thirty in the morning. Wow, what a trooper!​

THE 2012 VIDEO

CHEERS - Awesome video.
JEERS - Technical difficulty. At 2:25 am, having to rewatch 6 mins of a video sounded like torture.
CHEERS - The crew found the fast fwd button!
CHEERS - Having at least heard of most of the bands!
JEERS - Seeing "Tues" show in bold letters at the end of video. Yes, I know it's arbitrary and I don't HAVE to attend, but Tues would be a really, really long week.
CHEERS - to Jen for setting the record straight that the pre-shows are still Wed/Thurs. Hard to complain about more music, but I'm not sure my stamina, wallet, or marriage could have handled another day.
CHEERS- Winning the Guess the Band contest for the second year in a row. Very cool!​

CHEERS, AND NOTHING BUT CHEERS

TWITTER - Loved the tweets during the fest. Jen has done a great job of bringing up the social media aspect of this fest. Those were awesome!

THE VORTEX - Awesome place, great burgers, and just far enough away to offer some exercise walking there.

WINNING THE VIP CONTEST - Although I wasn't back there much because it was more fun to hang with friends, it was pretty cool of Glenn to offer a VIP badge for the contest. Thanks!

The PEOPLE - The reason PP has become a community rather than just a concert. I won't bother calling out by name everyone with which I spent time, but it was a blast. They know who they are. Also, I hate when people throw in little private jokes that no one else gets, so I won't mention the Glory Hole.

The 2011 BANDS - Lots of good bands, but some major highlights:
Labyrinth - What a voice, and a band that was happy to be there.
Sanctuary - I've never seen Nevermore live. I now know why Warrell has such a reputation as a front man.
Mob Rules - Been waiting for them for a while. Solid band
Voyager - Won the 'Edguy Third Band' award. Amazingly FUN performance.
Ihsahn - Music and energy was amazing. I wasn’t an Emperor fan and I still didn't like the growls, but a pretty cool performance.
Therion - Just a great performance. For a second time, it was a fascinating show.

IN SEARCH OF TRUTH - Special mention for the astounding Thurs night Evergrey show. The band was dead on, and we in the crowd were eating it up.

The 2012 LINEUP - Wow. Just, wow. What a solid lineup throughout. Here's hoping SymX does something a little special, rather than making this just one more stop on a tour. Personally, I'm hoping for a 'New Mythology' in its entirety performance. Hey, I can hope.

As usual, a great, well-run, organized, and top quality fest. Thanks again!

Steve in Philly

 

[zekeyou]

All cheers here-- hands down my favorite of those I've attended (3-7, 9-12)-- the performances by Ihsahn, Forbidden, While Heaven Wept, Sanctuary, Voyager, Therion and Evergrey ruled. Extremely hard.

 

[TheLongshot]

I won't lie, there were several times throughout the fest I said out loud "man the lighting is great, I can't wait to see what Allen comes away with.

The lighting was great despite the fact that the light board was having issues for much of the weekend. (During one of the bands, the board kept shutting down and they had to fool with it to get it back on. They also brought in a couple of replacements, one of which also didn't work right.)

 

[freakchylde]

LOL! I agree. I was tweeting fucking constantly all the time to the point I actually brought an extra battery for my iphone.

This is where I failed and ended up needing to curb my twitter activity....that, and I ended up with my head going in 50 directions at once, so "tweet this" was not at the forefront of my attention. Next year, I'm hoping to have something cool, if I can remember to set it up ahead of time and not do something last minute. One of these days, my life will slow down to the point I can start thinking ahead instead of thinking right now.

 

[nomisofsiman]

I'll just get this out of the way and give a huge Cheers to Wayne for being a total pro on saving the recording of Forbidden's set from disaster. You're a god-damned hero, dude.

I'm not much for cheers and jeers otherwise but I wanted to say something positive here before commenting on the vitriol that's going around right now. Matt R's tone is shit here and I can't even seriously read this as a legitimate criticism...and I've sure gone out on a limb with my own in the past even...

The crew runs an astoundingly tight ship and the delays are not a result of inattentiveness or inexperience at all. Such a suggestion is ridiculous.

That said, on a deeper level, the complaints that were at the heart of his statements were absolutely things that were being echoed by other people all weekend and have been a consistent issue from previous years as well. I think with as many bands as there are in a day, we're really at or past the limits of what's reasonable to expect from the bands, the fans, the crew, the venue, the hotels and atlanta itself...given how many hours there are in a day and the need for rest and recuperation (and variety in a day).

I feel like the fest at 6 bands in a night is like a steamship running at 120% efficiency. Only the experience of everyone involved and the dedication of the vast majority of the people there are what manage to keep all of the little problems that pop up (like people having to go to the hospital or gear not working, etc) from blowing up and ruining everything. Any fest under the same conditions without the experience of the crew and the same things happening would be disaster (i've been to local fests with 3 hour delays before...or bands having their entire set cut and being told to go home without getting paid after driving 2000 miles to play).

Anyway, I feel like there is a noticeable difference since we've made the jump from 5 bands in a night and I heard a lot of people wishing for that again over this weekend and in previous years. There was quite a bit of talk about people not getting to do anything during the day because the fest starts so early now. Next year with 14 bands sounds incredibly daunting to me and honestly a bit tiresome. The hours of operation of (and lack of...) local area businesses & signing schedules make finding alternatives a bit frustrating (though Jen did a fantastic job with posts about this sort of stuff pre-fest).

The 14-band, two-night, single-stage indoor fest format means that these kinds of complaints are inevitable and I absolutely wish it were 14-15 bands over three nights instead of 14 in two...or a second stage...or outdoors (with all the concessions/vendor support that entails). That doesn't seem to be on the table though (I can imagine all of the cost, logistics and labor increases that this would need to happen), so I wouldn't even try to raise it as a "criticism" but more like a concern and minor annoyance. At 12 festivals now, you pretty much know what you're in for.

Sigh. As Glenn has said before in the past, in and out privileges are your friend. Also, let's realize people that this is peanuts compared to what people experience at Wacken.

 

[nomisofsiman]

This is not at all at you and more at people I actually heard COMPLAINING about the rumor of the possibility of a Tuesday extension in line at the Artmore on Saturday morning, and your comment kind of plays into that (in a round about way.. this kind of has nothing to do with the crew): No one is fucking forcing people to be here for this or see every single band. Come in when you can, see who you want, and go catch a nap when you need to.

Some of the PP Fans are the bitchiest, ficklest fucks I have ever met, hell bent on complaining about more shit being added, like it's some kind of god damn personal inconvenience. It infuriates me people look at an extra day and treat it like an obligation that imposed on them.

Made me rage a little is all.

14 bands is an epic undertaking and daunting to think about as an older (to the fest) fan. The only logical annoyance is if a band you REALLY want to see is on super early, or those super early bands playing to a house that's nearly empty because fans are still sleeping off the night before. The latter is actually a concern I'm sure has been taken into account and a gamble deemed necessary.

I'm tired. I hope I articulated this well. Good night.

Amen to that!

 

[LetTheWookieWin]

Cheers : The sound was the best ever , The weather was great , A week off from work and Metal Rose for Her help with Doug !! Jeers : Spending 13 hours in the ER and missing the 1st. 4 bands on Friday !!

 

[AMBR]

More observations, some new, some repeated:

I JEER IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION


THE ARTMORE GYM - Broken and in need of an update.

I add my JEER to that. I've been trying to make a little gym time every PP since, I think, PP6 and the equipment was fair. It is now years later, the same equipment and it receives NO maintenance. The weight machine binds so badly you can't use it and the bike seat doesn't lock in position so it too, is unusable. That just leaves the tread mill which is groaning frighteningly. This jeer really has nothing to do with the fest, but don't advertise a workout room if it's non-functioning. Just saying.

JEERS - Getting up for a 10 am booking on Sat, after the video ended at 2:30 am.
** interlude – I woke up early on my own, so I wandered down around 9:20 am, figuring I’d at least be first in line, and I could stare dumbly at the wall waiting for a booking as easily as I could do it in my room. I figured at that time, I’d at least be first in line. Nope. I was something like #18. Oh, and I won’t name names (because I wouldn’t want to single out AMBR like that), but someone was there at seven-freaking-thirty in the morning. Wow, what a trooper! ​

Ha, ha, ha! If I want something bad enough, I don't mess around. Actually, I had breakfast (alone - completely alone) at 7:30 and got in line with a cup of coffee and a paperback at 8:10. No one else showed up until at least 8:30. Should have brought a pillow.
​

 

[Diamond45]

JEERS - Getting up for a 10 am booking on Sat, after the video ended at 2:30 am.
** interlude – I woke up early on my own, so I wandered down around 9:20 am, figuring I’d at least be first in line, and I could stare dumbly at the wall waiting for a booking as easily as I could do it in my room. I figured at that time, I’d at least be first in line. Nope. I was something like #18. Oh, and I won’t name names (because I wouldn’t want to single out AMBR like that), but someone was there at seven-freaking-thirty in the morning. Wow, what a trooper!

I got down there around 8:45 or so thinking the time they started reservations was 9 AM, not 10 AM. So I was *second* in line. Then Ann Marie went back to her room to get her credit card. Yes, I was a good person and saved her place in line.

But I agree.. way too damn early!

 

[miel]

I sincerely would like constructive feedback on how the Artmore early reservation process could be improved. Glenn and I certainly can't make any promises for a process change, but I'm open to hearing your ideas.

Here are my thoughts.. hopefully, gold bagde holders and sponsors view the opportunity to book rooms for next year prior to the general public as a perk. This of course, is done in conjunction with the hotel. It's a lot of us to ask them to refuse reservations, but they go above and beyond and comply with our request each year. Undoubtedley, the dates for next year are "leaked" to folks not in attendance, and that's to be expected in today's digital age. Management at the hotel has repeatedly told us they have had crazy phone calls in which folks request to reserve rooms for every weekend in September until the dates are announced. We honestly thought 10am was a resonable time (please don't throw anything at me!), and opening up reservations at noon to the general public was a good plan. And, it was a happy medium with the management at the Artmore.


~Jen

 

[nomisofsiman]

LOL! I agree. I was tweeting fucking constantly all the time to the point I actually brought an extra battery for my iphone.

Jealous. I should really think about doing that prior to next year's as I had to use my phone sparingly and even at that, my phone was dead before the end of every night.

 

[Andir]

I sincerely would like constructive feedback on how the Artmore early reservation process could be improved. Glenn and I certainly can't make any promises for a process change, but I'm open to hearing your ideas.

Here are my thoughts.. hopefully, gold bagde holders and sponsors view the opportunity to book rooms for next year prior to the general public as a perk....
~Jen

I love the perk - no complaints here.

Even though I went to bed at 5:30 AM, I still need food to get through Saturday - so with breakfast closing at 10:30 AM, the 10 AM works for me (dodges lettuce thrown my way). I ate breakfast at 9:30 - got in the way too long line already - but it moves fast. The only alternative I could suggest would be to push both times back 1 hour. Perhaps 11 Sponsor/GB, 1 PM general public....but then that could impair people wanting to see the opening act Saturday. Maybe we just grin and bear it

One point of clarification - I cannot find a definitive post on this: I reserved for Tuesday. Is this needed or was it just a rumor?

 

[ToddS]

Cheers! Glenn, Jen, crew, bands, venue... huge props, and mega thanks! Glenn you rule brother!

Jeers - The time just blows by too fast. That is about all I've got.

Todd