Cheers! Jeers!

[No Username]

Wow what a trip! Just got home after 600 miles of some pretty rough weather--driving at times was a total bitch.

Of course I logged on here first to see what is happening. Did not notice a cheers/jeers thread. Impressions thread is quite long but usually we have one like this just for short takes.

Anyway
Cheers:

• Mike and Kamelot for kicking our asses seriously! A fantastic set, a ton of fun!
• Oceans of Sadness delivered just as I knew they would. For all of you out wandering around during the set...you really missed something special.
• Delain...oh did I ever want to see those Nuclear Wessels...she hit every note, and gave one of the most heartfelt performances I have seen.
• The crew for trying to make sure everything ran properly. Seems like this year was tougher than others but it all got done!
• Microphone/instrument functionality--best sound overall, best mic management ever!
• The camera policy. So happy to be able to take pics again!
• The management and staff at Residence Inn--you all made it a great weekend! (Sorry about the room! Did you find all the beer bottles? Are you SURE?)
• Security for being the most diligent I have seen them.

Jeers:

• Security, for not letting non-GB'rs in until well past 2:30 on Friday.
• The long gaps between sets. Although I really shouldn't complain too much since we had an unprecedented amount of time to drink while things were getting set up.
• The smoke machine--made it hard to take decent pictures. Hopefully we don't see as much of it next year.
• Lighting. Am I going blind or was it darker than ever WHILE the bands were onstage?

Not much else to report, other than to say we had a helluva good time overall!

 

[esa]

• The smoke machine--made it hard to take decent pictures. Hopefully we don't see as much of it next year.
• Lighting. Am I going blind or was it darker than ever WHILE the bands were onstage?

Last few ProgPowers have involved a video shoot which (usually) keeps the front lighting turned up a few notches. If you saw Accept at the kick-off, you got a taste of what could have been.

Between the crazy fog and the strangely low front lighting (back lighting was nice and bright), these were the most challenging PP photo shooting conditions that I can recall.

 

[SwordLord]

CHEERS:

• SEVENTH WONDER for giving me exactly what I wanted and even playing three songs off of Mercy Falls TWICE over the course of two sets! How lucky were we!?
• KAMELOT for carrying on without Roy and giving us an unforgettable experience against great odds. Amazing job Michael & Jake & Tommy!
• The staff of the Residence Inn - this is still IMO the best hotel to be at!
• Todd, Rick, Sush and the rest of the "front-line crew" -- so great to share the weekend with you maniacs again!
• My buddies John & Mick for finally making it down to their first ProgPower! HEY YOU GUYS ... I TOLDJA SO!!!
• Everyone who attended Midweek Mayhem (see other post, heh)!
• Amanda for being my limo service for the sixth year in a row!
• Lance King of Nightmare Records for having a good supply of Seventh Wonder albums for me to purchase, yee-aah! :Spin:
• Exploding Neds for the amazing t-shirt selection - I'm wearing my Rhapsody shirt right now, yahoo!
• Glenn - I stand in awe of your greatness.
• Jake for telling the white dog to "Shut the f**k up!" I almost died laughing!
• John Finberg for buying me dinner for the first time in 8 years of doing business together. :zombie:

JEERS:

• The friggin' gremlin in the backline - if I ever find you, I will KEEEEL YEEEEEEW!
• The owner of the white dog on the patio of the Artmore on the last night of the festival - not a good idea to subject a frightened, irritated animal to 100 inebriated strangers! If that dog had bitten someone, it would have been put down and that would not have been cool!
• Boot-leggers, downloaders, wimps and posers -- leave the hall!

 

[TwizstedJesus]

Cheers to Glenn, Kamelot, Leaves Eyes for blowing me away when I've hated all 3 discs I owned, Delain, Hammerfall and DGM.
Jeers to the asshole that posted the sign on the water jugs. Yes, I believe the sign was directed at me, the guy with a 16 oz coke bottle which I filled once due to hangover issues. I apologize for stealing 16 oz of water instead of standing at the water jug and drinking 2 glasses between every set. You did good chasing me away; Vinyl got my beer business because of your assholishness... Kudos to you!!!

 

[SkiBumMSP]

Although it is getting late here and really need to hit the sack, but figure get this in while still fresh in my memory:

Cheers:

• AirTran for giving me and Dave a free "upgrade" to the exit row (which is normally $20), but hey, more leg room and getting first boarding was nice. We flown them for nearly every prog-power (we did use Delta one year) and that has actually has been a good airline thus far.
• Running into Ketil (the IllusionSuite keyboardist) again two years later after hanging out with him back when Saint Daemon played at ProgPower.
• Getting to see and meet everyone again! I can never remember half the names of all the people that I've seen, but it is so cool to meet many of you again as well as finally getting to meet some of you the first time in person.
• Yes, I got to hang with the illustrious SwordLord for a set right there up on the rail! I remember seeing you in the past, but never got to chance to find out just who you where! Finally get to meet you! I don't know how you all do it that pretty much camp on the rail the whole night.
• Getting to be a sponsor again! If you can afford it, I highly recommend it. You get to see this show from a whole new perspective.
• DGM!!!! This band gave me and Dave the royal treatment all weekend when they found out we were sponsoring them! They even gave each of us a T-shirt and a copy of their DVD! It was hard to say good bye to these guys when we left there Sunday morning. And the fact they put on an amazing set just topped it all of.
• Kamelot for hanging through and still putting on an awesome show, despite the whole shitstorm they went through with regards to Roy getting ill. Michael really did an excellent job. People nit picking on him making a mistake. Jesus Christ, he had to learn this shit in like less than a week. I am actually very impressed that he managed to pull it if off as well as he did, considering the less than ideal situation.
• Walking in on an impromptu "A cappella" "set" that broke out in the stairwell leading up to the VIP lounge consisting of Michael, some members of Seventh Wonder and just finding out that the female was our own 'Prog_Muse', amongst a few others. Damn, you guys could harmonize, despite the somewhat inebriated state. You also gotta admit that the acoustics there in the stairwell actually worked really good for that kind of thing as well. Looking forward to seeing some the YouTube postings of this! I even told Michael, "Fuck Rockapella! You guys are much better!" Hey! How awesome would it be to see some kind of A cappella set or something like that at ProgPower as a kind of "bonus", i.e., in addition to the regular show. Perhaps on the midweek mayhem?
• All of the bands put on excellent performances from what I can tell, individual taste not-with-standing. I didn't care for Blackguard much, but I still fully appreciated what they did up there and was impressed with it.
• The staff for doing an awesome job again, despite the delays and technical issues.
• The totally awesome line-up for next year!
• And of course, Glenn, in somehow managing to still pull this whole thing off despite all the bullshit that has occurred. I could only imagine that week leading up was just pure hell to deal with due to the whole Kamelot situation.

Jeers:

Really don't have much in jeers as this was an awesome time overall, but there are always a few way things could improved plus some of this is purely for humor.

• Those damn technical gremlins again! However, I did hear an explaination on the Leave's Eye delay. From what I was told and understand, Leave's Eye had some fancy-dancy wiring rig that they use. The original intent, since they were to tour with Kamelot was to spend the day or two in Orlando, which was to be the first stop of the tour, to get this all setup and programmed the way the wanted. Thus, they would've had plenty of time to work out all the technical issues. Supposedly, once they got this thing all programmed and setup the way they wanted it, on the next tour stop, all they would've needed to do was pretty much plug it all in, do a quick check to ensure it all works, and then, bam! Showtime! Unfortunately, due to the unforeseen circumstances with regards to Kamelot, they lost that luxury of having all that time to get properly setup, so they pretty much had to get it setup as best they could right there at ProgPower. As to what was causing the other delays, such as the one before Delain? I have no idea.
• To all those jackasses pretty much shitstorming Kamelot, such as over on Blabber Mouth or on their Facebook page. Yes, I can understand the frustration and such, but holy shit! If some of the talk that I heard around the venue last night was true, there apparently was some serious threats of violence as a result of this. Come on! It is not like Roy chose to get sick! I think Glenn put it nicely after Kamelot was done Friday night. To all those negative posters - FUCK YOU!!
• Artmore for only giving me and Dave a room with a single king size bed, despite us putting in a reservation for a room with two queen size beds. Cheer for at least getting us a cot, but still.
• Airtran for delaying the flight back out of Atlanta to Richmond. To be honest, I don't think I've ever flown out Atlanta for the 5 ProgPowers that I've now been to without it being delayed one way or another. How sweet it would be to be able to fly a private jet there. I could only wish.
• I-95 just plain sucks! The traffic coming back from Richmond was just bullshit. I ended up bailing and taking Rt 1 back up to Fredericksburg instead. There was hardly any traffic on that road.
• To those whining about the sound quality in that other thread. Maybe I am just not that anal, but I thought the whole thing actually sounded really good. Yes, there were some sound issues that did get straightened out over the course of the weekend, but still. Maybe I am also under the impression that I am aware this is a live setting and there are going to be sound issues and there is not always going to be that "perfect" mix. I don't expect to get the same experience at a live show as I would listening to a studio album on my home system (and even then, I still cannot expect to always get a perfect mix, as I've heard some pretty dreadful recordings over the course of the years).

Also want to make more of an observation than really being a "jeer". After the packed full Friday and a nearly packed full Saturday, is this turning into to much of a good thing? By the time HammerFall came on Saturday night, I just was completely out of it. I guess I gotta remember that I am no longer 23 years old. To be honest, I would not mind if it went back to just 5 bands per night like it used to be. Maybe with slightly longer sets. Less bands would likely mean needing less budget, less organization hassles, and so forth. It was actually kinda nice to be able to relax and go do some site-seeing around Atlanta or more chances for people to organize group lunches and and such before the show began. With the schedule as it was this weekend, there was no way to go do that. We barely managed to fit in a Symphony X fan-club lunch on Saturday. Just an thought on my part - take or leave it.

That is all I could think of for now. Would not be surprised I ended up adding to this as I always seem to think of others later on.

 

[TheLongshot]

• Artmore for only giving me and Dave a room with a single king size bed, despite us putting in a reservation for a room with two queen size beds. Cheer for at least getting us a cot, but still.

Heh, they must have gotten the wrong idea about you guys...

• I-95 just plain sucks! The traffic coming back from Richmond was just bullshit. I ended up bailing and taking Rt 1 back up to Fredericksburg instead. There was hardly any traffic on that road.

Makes me feel better about the decision of driving back on I-81, tho I probably would have hit it later than you guys.

Also want to make more of an observation than really being a "jeer". After the packed full Friday and a nearly packed full Saturday, is this turning into to much of a good thing? By the time HammerFall came on Saturday night, I just was completely out of it. I guess I gotta remember that I am no longer 23 years old. To be honest, I would not mind if it went back to just 5 bands per night like it used to be. Maybe with slightly longer sets. Less bands would likely mean needing less budget, less organization hassles, and so forth. It was actually kinda nice to be able to relax and go do some site-seeing around Atlanta or more chances for people to organize group lunches and and such before the show began. With the schedule as it was this weekend, there was no way to go do that. We barely managed to fit in a Symphony X fan-club lunch on Saturday. Just an thought on my part - take or leave it.

Yeah, I was dead on my feet when Hammerfall came on. I ended up falling asleep in my seat and went back to my room early to get some sleep.

 

[artistXposure]

Cheers:

The Festival, The Fans, The Bands, The Crew, The Venue. Sill the best run and most entertaining and economical US festival going.

Jeers: The house LD. A little off this year. I live my life shooting shows in low light but have never met someone so intent on mediocrity for the sake of "The ambience of the rock show, I hate my job, The bands hate the lights".

-A

 

[shreddy]

Cheers:
The Fest, the PP crew, the venue staff at providing an awesome time, as usual.
An updated beer selection at the Venue.
Lance, John and the rest of the fine people at Nightmare which sold our Supernova CD for us.
Everyone that purchased our CD, seriously a huge thanks to all of you!
Midtown Marriott for an awesome and affordable stay once again, I will miss that bed.
Jimmy Johns for the late night food delivery LOL

Jeers:
Humidity

 

[Tenaris]

Cheers:

Kamelot, for showing up without their regular roster and being awesome anyway. They're my favorite band, and it was my first time to get to see them. Definitely wasn't disappointed.

Oceans of Sadness. Theirs was my favorite performance of the fest, and easily one of my favorites out of the five years I've been going. It's also really cool when you get to the signing table and pretty much everyone in the band says "Hey, you're the guy who was singing along with every song!"

Delain, Leaves' Eyes, Tyr, Hammerfall, and DGM. They all did a great job.

The fans. I don't personally know anyone who goes to ProgPower, but so many attendees are really nice, affable people.

Glenn and everyone else involved with making it happen, of course.

The woman at the Kamelot merch table who gave me the festival book so I could have something for Oceans of Sadness to sign. Whoever you are, thank you so much.


Jeers:

The long wait between some of the bands. But shit happens, and the wait was worth it when they finally got on stage.

The guy in front of me on the floor blatantly recording parts of Delain's set. Not cool, dude.

 

[Purveyor Of Evil]

Cheers: Everything except my complaint in the "jeers" portion.

Jeers: Freezing my fucking balls off on Thursday and sweating my fucking balls off Friday and Saturday. There's got to be a happy medium somewhere.

 

[jaimek]

Cheers:
Glenn and crew. Duh. \m/
Jen. Man, when a southern lady gets mad, get out of the way or duck. When she gets her dander up, she's scarier than me, Alicia, and Christina (the resident Amazons) combined. (plus she's super-nice at all other times.)
The barrels of ice water, which were kept filled at all times. Best decision ever.
The Artmore. Aside from the fact that they're putting up with an entire weekend of crazy drunk people in the first place, every member of the staff that I talked to was cool, professional, and helpful.
Everyone who contributed to Shaye's appearance (and particularly the Yippees for organizing it). Wouldn't have been the same without her there, plus it shows just how much Family these folks are.
Aki! Yay Aki was there!



Jeers:
Whoever was responsible for the lighting. Less fog and less red plskthx?
People who refused to comprehend being told to GET THE FUCK OFF THE STAIRS FOR FIVE MINUTES. That photo op took way longer than it should have because people wouldn't listen. Fortunately, there appear to be plans to handle this differently next year due to the large numbers now involved. Used to be just 10-20 of us, and suddenly there's 50+...
Farting Green Death in a tight crowd. We all eat like shit over the weekend, and this is why god made Beano and Tums!
Food at the Vinyl has decreased significantly in quality. No chicken strips?!
Whoever brought a small frightened lapdog to a courtyard packed full of inebriated people, loud noises, and large flames. I'm not even a dog person and I could hear how terrified and upset that poor thing was from the barking.

 

[J-Man]

Cheers:

First to Glenn and his awesome crew for another really great show, keep it up.

My wonderful wife for putting up with my craziness and being a trooper the whole weekend.

Lance, Brent, Sherry, Todd, Judd you guys are the best, you put up with the old man all weekend, love you guys.

To Keith Lawley and the awesome support in the vendor room, you rule Bro.

World Market for great coffee

Marco, Toni and all the Tarot guys for really bringing it to ProgPower, and for the funny stories and pictures on Thursday.

Kamelot, Micheal, Seventh Wonder, enought said.

All the awesome fans that stopped by the Nightmare table all weekend, if not to buy, then just to say Hi.

Aki for just being there, it was great to see you

Jamie, the most awesome and friendliest bartender around.

Eric at Century Media enough said


Jeers:

A/C in vendor room Boooooooooo!!!!!

Zane for stealing my parking place hehehehehehehe i had to rag on you Bro.

Prices at the Thai restuarant across from Venue, holy shit is the food made of gold. $34 for and appeitizer, $8 for iced tea(we ended up at the Varsity)

My feet

Mens bathroom upstairs, it was a mess on saturday night, overflowing, backed up, water on floor very unsanaitary.

 

[Wayniac]

Cheers:
All the bands for being fun and easy to work with
Centerstage staff - Kent, Rich, security, etc.
My extended metal family that I get to see once a year
getting a private acoustic show from John Drenning and Mike til 6 am Fri morning courtesy of Frode

Jeers
Humidity
Gear gremlins...
getting a private acoustic show from John Drenning and Mike til 6 am Fri morning courtesy of Frode! lol

 

[Yippee38]

Jeers:

The guy in front of me on the floor blatantly recording parts of Delain's set. Not cool, dude.

Hate to say it, but why didn't you say something to them, or tell security or Glenn? I saw a guy next to me recording on his iPhone. I said something, and he stopped. He said, "I didn't know." BS, but he stopped.

 

[AngraRULES]

Hate to say it, but why didn't you say something to them, or tell security or Glenn? I saw a guy next to me recording on his iPhone. I said something, and he stopped. He said, "I didn't know." BS, but he stopped.

Seriously. If it really bothered you, you know it's against the rule and you did nothing about it, you're just as guilty if you ask me.

 

[freakchylde]

Cheers:

The crew, love working with you guys
My most fav boss (besides myself)
Tommy, for pulling me away before I bit through my lip or tongue
Wayne, for saving me
Akiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Tyr, for giving me a fangirl moment
Tarot for just being such awesome guys

Ultimate Cheers
The band managers and band members in charge, for working with me and making everything go so smoothly. You are all awesome and I thank you very much for helping me avoid the stress night on Saturday.

Jens, I have never laughed harder in my life when you had that "conversation" with a local in the loading dock. Major props for your sense of humour.

The fans, for not blocking the loading docks and causing me to run someone over this year.


Jeers:
The two people who blocked the loading docks with their cars and made me either sit on the sidewalk, or drive in circles till they were found.
The security guard, who decided to tell me to not block the crosswalk at the courtyard at 2.30AM, on Saturday night.

 

[Diamond45]

Wow... what a FUCKING AWESOME WEEKEND!!! Where do I start... geeze.. so much to say...

SkiBumMSP (Steve Konopa) stole some of my thunder since we both attend together. Kudos to Steve for getting me into this stuff to begin with back in the spring of 2005. A very big and special cheer for you! THANK YOU!!!

OK... before the normal Cheers and Jeers I wish to give greet to an awesome group of people who makes attending so worthwhile. The first few years Steve and I attended we didn't make it an effort to talk to people. Now we realize how special you all are. Here's a list of people that I wish to give props to cuz you're all awesome. I know I'll miss a few of you, so let me know if I forgot you!

GLENN GLENN GLENN GLENN GLEN!! JEN JEN JEN JEN!!! You two work so damn hard on this the entire year and it shows. Kudos again for such a wonderful time! The entire weekend was awesome. WE'RE NOT WORTHY!!

The PP USA crew. Rick and John in particular cuz I know you personally. GREAT JOB!!!

Greets to all those who I talked to at PP USA. Alan Schoen, Alicia Smith (Dragongrrl), Andy Selden, Bobbie Dickerson (BlackRosemetalHeart), Christina Ricciardi, Clay Cartwright, Ian Kaatz (Biffle), Jax Vh, Jennifer Lynn, Joan Johnson, John Willcoxon, John Cheek (J-Man), Julien Berthault (Myock), Kelly Elder (Kellsco), Kim O'Conor (Jbrille), Kimberly Dorris (LunaTEKKE), Lance King (Megaloud), Lara Weidenbach (Freakchylde), Nathan Block (Swordlord), Paul Cashman (Pellaz), Barb and Rick Pierpont, Shannon Bednowicz (Yardleybates), Mike Bednowicz (Yippe38), Ty Tammeus. I know I missed a few of you and only spoke to some of you for a brief second. Next year if you want, spend more time talking to me. I don't mind.

Also a shout out to Aki! Finally nice to have met you in person!

And a very special greet to Lindsay (Dave the Metal Guy's fiancee). I hope you do make it back to PP USA sometime again!

So without further delay, here I go with the cheers:

Cheers:

- DGM DGM DGM DGM DGM DGM. Words cannot describe how awesome they are, both as a band and as people in general. Once they found out Steve and I were sponsors, they treated us like ROYALTY the entire weekend. I really miss these guys already. As Steve said, they gave us a free T-shirt and their new CD/DVD combo. Oh, and they gave Steve and I free beer....

- Sponsorship and VIP access. If you can afford it and Glenn will let you sponsor, by all means do so! It's a blast! So many benefits I can't even get started here.

- Seventh Wonder for that special extra set! And for playing Alley Cat at that special set (wonder if they did it because I told them at the Artmore it was my favorite SW song.. which it is!)

- Kamelot, Leaves' Eyes and Blackguard for *NOT* pulling out even though they cancelled their North American tour due to the illness of Roy Kahn. You folks are class acts!! And Michael Eriksen for coming in at the last minute and learning all those songs IN A WEEK????? You sir are amazing!

- Speaking of Michael - that a cappella in the back stairwell with him and Seventh Wonder and a few others after the Tarot set...simply wonderful. (More to why VIP is so great - it's the impromptu stuff)


Jeers:


- Yes, those technical gremlins AGAIN! Damnnit all to hell! Major kudos to Rick and John and all the other crew members. I know you work so damn hard and I'm not blaming anybody! But delays like this really do suck espeically when they add up to over an hour per night.. UGH! Cuts into party time and sleep time.

- It isn't called HOTlanta for nothing! I know that Center Stage is an older place and is sort of a dive (but a good one) and the A/C isn't the most up to date system. But it was so effing hot especially on Saturday night. Not one cool room in the entire place.

- The (f)Artmore for effing up the reservation. I heard ours wasn't the only screwup but only one king bed when I had specifically requested TWO beds!!! NOT COOL! They did try to make it better by getting the last rollaway bed in the hotel. It sucked but better than sleeping on the floor.

- Several people I talked to actually did agree that this may be getting too much of a good thing. Too many bands perhaps? When we first started going it was 5 bands per night on Friday and Saturday. I seriously would consider going back to that in the future. I also suggested in another thread of maybe merging the Wednesday and Thursday shows into a smaller Thursday show up in The Loft. Quality over quantity IMHO.


--------------------------------


That's about it for now... I may go back and edit this post later on if I can think of anything else. Overall it was a wonderful time and can't wait to get back there next year. At least the Saturday show will be on my 42nd birthday!

 

[KristoferX]

Cheers:

Great music and a great time as always
Finally discovered the wonderfulness that is The Vortex. Elvis burger anyone? (which was better leftover oddly enough).
The staff at the Artmore for the most part.
The volunteers who must work their asses off to get this going.
Glenn who must work his ass off to get this thing going.
Glenn for taking our donation of Jack Daniels Saturday night. We generally don't drink JD and didn't want to come back to Jersey with a bottle of JD. I hope it went to good use.

Jeers:

Housekeeping at the Artmore. The sign on the door says "Privacy Please". It does not say "Call me at 9 in the morning to make sure service to the room is not wanted". No we are NOT going to come outside to sign your fucking clipboard. That's why the fucking privacy sign is on the door! Fucking douche canoes.
The heat inside the venue. I don't ever remember it being that bad.

 

[Creeps]

Seriously. If it really bothered you, you know it's against the rule and you did nothing about it, you're just as guilty if you ask me.

I wouldn't go that far. I know I would have flagged down security so Glenn would know, plus I think Glenn buys you a beer or something for the assist in keeping out the bootleggers. I'm all about a free beer.

 

[Creeps]

- DGM DGM DGM DGM DGM DGM. Words cannot describe how awesome they are, both as a band and as people in general. Once they found out Steve and I were sponsors, they treated us like ROYALTY the entire weekend. I really miss these guys already. As Steve said, they gave us a free T-shirt and their new CD/DVD combo. Oh, and they gave Steve and I free beer....

I personally think that is extremely Fn cool.