Cheers/Jeers

[Formerly known as Chris F5]

1 self jeer
I missed out on the truly great cupcakes this year because I got my order in too late

The publix chocolate filled twists gave me my chocolate buttercream frosting fix....but I can get these at home,and they are not the epic awesomeness of the metal cupcakes

 

[TribunalRecords]

People jeering bands for not bringing merch or not enough merch. If they are international band you do realize they only have so much space to bring stuff right? Not all bands have deals with US companies and shipping merch from Europe would probably eat up any profit from the possible sale of merch they printed. If bands are not touring it's hard to justify merch printing.

 

[Prog_Muse]

One other jeer - people complaining about Devin Townsend's signing session being 45 minutes and limited to one item.

I said my piece on the ProgPower page when it was announced,, but I'll quickly point out here as a reminder to those self-entitled festival-goers that none of these bands owe anyone shit, and if they want to cut their table time short, that's their business - they aren't obligated to provide the attendees any explanation whatsoever.

 

[Bear]

I dont think I have done one of these in awhile, so why not....

Cheers to:
J&G, Milt & Nate and the Crew, outstanding job as always.
Vanishing Point for being who we knew they were and then some, great guys, class acts.
Circus Maximus - Top 5 performance all time.
Pyramaze - Just kicked ass!!
Tom & Henrik for doing what they do!
Savage Messiah - for a bunch of younging, they really kicked the holy hell out of the place.
Anneke for being awesome, funny and courageous and putting on some great shows!
All my friends from years gone by from PPUSA 1.0 until now, still and always friends.
To all the new friends I have met over the last few years and this year...
To my condo owner, she rules and to Atlantic Station for being close enough to walk to and from the fest without much issues.
The BBQ was awesome, keep that up, much better than Pizza every day!
To Wayne J for putting out awesome artwork and videos!

Jeers:
To douchebags holding seats, I almost lost my patience a few times while trying to find a spot and people kept saying these were saved for their friends...Who didn't show up, that deserves a big fuck off.
Crowd surfing is lame
To myself for missing the Evergrey listening party, but I partied with Aussies all night, kind of off set
To all drama people whom have nothing better to do than complain all the time, it gets old. Get over it.

Bear

 

[jaimek]

Cheers to Green Carnation. Although I've owned LoD,DoD since 2002, it's never blown me away. However, it turned out to be the best 60 minutes of live music I've ever witnessed.

Same here. I basically spent most of this past year trying to get into the album - I didn't DISlike it, but it just wasn't doing a whole lot for me - but I was one of their sponsors and I was gonna be up front no matter what. Under different circumstances, I probably would have skipped their set, and that would have been a huge, huge mistake, because it was clear from the opening notes that this was a completely different experience live. I can't tell you how many people I heard say pretty much the same thing - that it was not only so much better than expected, but one of the best sets of the entire festival. Cheers to them!

Other cheers - the courtyard parties were MUCH better behaved than in past years. People didn't make too much of a mess, they cleaned up, nobody got *too* out of control. It's so much more enjoyable when you don't have to shove past hordes of shambling drunks to get to your friends, your feet don't stick to the pavement, and you're not afraid to sit on any of the couches after midnight.

Ralf - for taking care of the VIP noobs.

Whitney - that woman works as hard as any of the crew at the bar. TIP HER WELL.

 

[OrbWeaver]

Whitney - that woman works as hard as any of the crew at the bar. TIP HER WELL.

Whitney is the best! Trust me you guys, you want Whitney to make your drinks for you.

 

[Oblivion Ocean]

I will keep mine simple.

Cheers. This was one of the strongest set of performances I have ever seen at a prog power. Arguably other years have had more bands I would consider my favorites, but I would be hard-pressed to think of a year where the performances were this consistently good from top to bottom. When your #1 slots gave performances like Ascendia and Savage Messiah did, it is an indicator of quality throughout. As I mentioned in another thread, even a band like Freedom Call whose music I don't particularly like put on a fun enjoyable performance. It is great when the bands I expected to knock it out of the park (BG, CM, DTP) all do, but so do many other bands on the roster that I was not expecting it from do as well.

Was not really going to put any jeers. Again there were annoyances of seat saving. Even when people were not using bags, you would have one person saving an entire row of 8 seats during the entire set of a band. But honestly, not much Glenn or the crew can do about this, so just a small price to pay for a great festival. Oh, and the same drunk dude everyone else jeered. I don't care if people get into the show and are "enthusiastic", but grabbing other people and getting into people's space affects their enjoyment of the show.

 

[CrimsonEmotions]

I forgot to include this with my previous cheers, but it's significant enough to warrant its own message:

Cheers to everyone for keeping the lineup stable this time around. A big cheer for straightening out the visa problems that had hindered many bands from coming to Atlanta. Out of the 20 announced bands, we only had one replacement and that is pretty darned good given the complexity of the festival. I would have hate to have missed any of the bands I did so, so thanks.

 

[NorseBlood]

You don't get the CD until the REGULAR Fest starts on FRIDAY. This has ALWAYS been the case. Same with the T-shirts.

Ahh well now I know. Only my second time to attend, and first time was a couple years ago for JOP and Stratovatius where I got the shirt & CD. I take that jeer back then.

 

[Felixrox]

Cheers to Glenn & his staff for doing what they do every year, thank you ! Also tremendous thanks to everyone working at the venue to enhance our enjoyment of this festival. I also noticed this year how especially nice, polite, and relaxed the security staff seemed to be in comparison to the prior two years. All in all this felt very smooth even though we all know it's an enormous task.

 

[HoneyBadger68]

Cheers
Glenn, Jen, Milton, Nathan and the entire crew
Chef Jo for always checking to see if the crew has eaten
Whitney for being Whitney!
Every band this year, got to see everyone except Green Carnation (I had a scheduled interview with Vanishing Point so i missed them)
Fates Warning and John Arch (of course Glenn for booking them!) for making a lifelong dream come true
all the new friends made this year!
Dustin Hardman from AFM Records for setting up the interviews with SB and Vanishing Point
the people in the Courtyard who kept the place clean
The Artmore staff
my roomies <3

Jeers
The Artmore for being really greedy with towels thus year..practically had to beg to get more
The certain drunk individuals that made spectacles of themselves, Mike being the main perpetrator but also a girl who was so shitfaced during Stream of Passion she almost knocked over a monitor on the side where the camera was filming..I mean it was the 2nd band on the first day of the fest! Slow down!! I pointed her out to security and they were right on it....speaking of which
Security was really great this year..friendly and right on top of things
Jeers to me for not getting drunk at all..not being serious obviously, I did drink but for some reason I wasn't interested in drinking that much this year..my roomies made up for it though lol

 

[DADRocks]

Cheers to Glenn/Jen, Milton, Nathan, and the whole crew and venue staff. All the bands. Just a fantastic year....they all make it run so smooth now I can't believe it. Loved it all. Green Carnation???? Crazy how great that performance was. I had so much fun again...looking forward to next year. My Jeers are so short....f'k them. Thanks again PP!!!!!!!

 

[freakchylde]

Cheers:
Milton and Nathan for bringing my friends from Denmark back.
Claus, for showing up and hanging out.
New friends (from the Netherlands)
Turkey!!!!
Folks who got out of the way of the van, thank you thank you thank you.
Down time
Spouze for bringing meds and being awesome
Jo for the most awesome food ever!!!!! Even at the last minute
DT for allowing me to witness his greatness, without my anam cara.
Last, but should be first - Bossman and wife for putting together this awesome shindig

Jeers:
Asshole who speeded up as I pulled into the dock and ran in front of the van. Then yelled at me.
Whoever kept putting that damned barrel in my way and not putting it back.
Migraines.

 

[Andir]

Cheers:
What a nice lineup - praises to Glenn, Milton, and Nathan!
Was excited to see 18 of the 20 bands and almost all performances were between very good to excellent
Got to see one of my top 8 performances in 13 years of attending - Green Carnation. Like many commented before, enjoyed but did not necessary worship the album when I got it a decade ago - but what an amazing live rendition. One for the ages.
Seeing my extended metal family
My wife, Louis and Keehn as always for making the festival that much more of a positive experience

Jeers:
Nothing festival related - just getting older issues....

 

[Pellaz]

Cheers....

• To Glenn and Jen, Milton and Nathan, and the entire crew. As always, they've done an extraordinary job and I'm proud to support the fest as a sponsor year after year.
• To the venue security people. Seriously awesome folks who helped my disabled friend Clay enjoy his favorite performance (Fates). (But see below.)
• To the bands. All the performances I saw were great and some -- like Green Carnation, Devy, Anneke solo and Blind Guardian -- were truly superb.
• To Green Carnation for taking an already legendary album and -- dare I say it? -- making it even more amazing as a live experience. I'm still in awe. Truly unforgettable. Cheers also to them for arranging a photo with them after their autographing when they nearly became Yellow Carnation.
• To DaVinci's Pizza for their awesome lunch specials, and to Tom Dick and Hank's for their barbecue service within the venue.
• To Ernesto at Sausalito West Coast Grill -- the closest eatery to the venue -- for his great attitude and staying open late for us. --Until he ran out of food.
• To the Artmore courtyard crowd for being a bit more respectful of the property this year.
• And finally, cheers to all my friends and extended family who coalesce at ProgPower USA every year. We really are one big (mostly) happy family and it's great to be even a small part of it.

And jeers (not too many)....

• To people who don't (or don't care to) control themselves in public, drunk or sober. You know who you are. When I'm taking a piss in the gentlemen's loo, I'd prefer to do it without someone yelling some obscene bullshit in my ear.
• To Center Stage for not having more handicapped-accessible seating. While they DO have provisions for wheelchairs at the extreme edges of the "bowl," there is no provision for those who have to use a cane and who have problems with stairs....particularly irregular stairs with no handrail. Some sort of accomodation at the level of the lobby entrances would be nice.
• To the Artmore bar staff for not knowing how to handle the LoafDeals certificate I tried to use on Saturday. They ended up charging me the amount I'd already paid, rendering the certificate worthless. (If anyone else had problems with this, contact LoafDeals via their website and they will rectify it for you.)
• To crowdsurfers at ProgPower. There's a time and a place for everything, and I even think a good old-school circle-pit is appropriate for some ProgPower bands, but crowdsurfing? Please. Just. Stop.
• To the people who were smoking weed on the 3rd floor of the Artmore. Seriously? Please go somewhere else.
• To me, for catching the Artmore Ague this year. I should probably be thankful I didn't get sick right after DragonCon (and so, during ProgPower) with "ConCrud." That would have really sucked.

And that's it. Overall, a great year!

 

[obelix5150]

Cheers to all the bands for absolutely knocking it out of the park. I have my personal favorites (Devin Townsend Project w/ Anneke was a bucket list item for me, Anneke in general was a bucket list item [that acoustic set was divine] and the rest of the Gentle Storm was absolutely god-tier as well, Haken was unbelievable, Green Carnation was surreal, Scar Symmetry slayed it, Vanishing Point was superb, etc etc) but really everything that I saw was super great.

Jeers to Spirit airlines for making me take an 8am flight after a night of Courtyard partying.. or maybe that should be jeers to me for daring to book with Spirit?

Probably my favorite PPUSA since I started coming in 2014 all in all (despite my undying love for Pain of Salvation and Anathema haha), and will definitely be back next year!

 

[KingsGene]

Cheers:

• Glenn, Jen, Nathan, Milton and all of the PPUSA staff and crew - the best!
• No real major changeover delays, maybe 15 minutes late was the worst...?
• While not the best pizza, having hot slices available right in the venue is a lifesaver.
• No airline delays to/from.
• Anneke's acoustic set - amazing.
• White tape on the stairs....thanks to whomever does that

Jeers

• Myself for not getting a Savage Messiah PPUSA shirt.... dammit.
• Myself (again) for not making it to Vespucci's.
• Bands that don't consider a live keyboardist/bassist to be as important as other players in a live setting, so a computer or backing tracks are used
• Lighting for Circus Maximus was pretty much all from the back, could barely see the players' faces during their whole set.
• The tall people who walk up just as the band starts and stand right in front of you like you aren't even there, or weren't standing in the spot for the past 45 minutes, that's just frickin' rude.
• Moshers/crowd surfers who don't give a crap about anyone else but themselves.
• People on the floor who don't pick up after themselves. It's really not that hard to throw out your cup/can when the set is over.
• Bright phones.
• Pyramaze live sound.

 

[engmtlhd]

CHEERS to the entire PP crew and staff for making this an outstanding event (even though I could only attend the first two days)

CHEERS for getting Ghost Ship Octavius at the last minute. I thought they were very good and immediately bought the CD when I got home.

CHEERS to all the other Day 1 and Day 2 bands....very solid top to bottom

CHEERS to next years lineup...I won't miss this one (have already purchased Lords of Black and Katatonia)

CHEERS to the food vendors


JEERS to me for missing out on Day 3 and 4. Hearing Green Carnation was so damn good made me go out and buy that one too.

JEERS to the guy who sat next me that squeezed me out of my seat due to his excessive weight and cigarette smell.

JEERS to the crown surfers during the Blind Guardian set. You MORONS nearly dropped someone and that could have been disastrous.

And lastly, JEERS to everyone on their phones during the live sets. Here's a news flash for you...there's something on your phone called "Display and Brightness"....USE IT!!!

 

[ManipulatorGeneral404]

Cheers:

• No real major changeover delays, maybe 15 minutes late was the worst...?

Spock's Beard started 45 minutes late due to the sheer volume of Ryo's keyboards and the amount of work it took to make them play correctly.

 

[miel]

One other jeer - people complaining about Devin Townsend's signing session being 45 minutes and limited to one item.

I said my piece on the ProgPower page when it was announced,, but I'll quickly point out here as a reminder to those self-entitled festival-goers that none of these bands owe anyone shit, and if they want to cut their table time short, that's their business - they aren't obligated to provide the attendees any explanation whatsoever.

Yes. Also, Devin had a severe ankle sprain. Details: