DANIEL AND JON

[SavaVIDude]

I saw a markedly different level of professionalism from these two front men in back-to-back sets. I'm not talking about the bands' music or the frontmen's stage presence; I'm talking about being a pro.

Daniel -When you can't hear something in your monitor, you point to it and put your finger in the air, which means, "turn it up". Knowing the show was an hour behind and he was NOT the headliner (maybe he didn't know this ), he not only bitches about the technical difficulty and walks off the stage, but has the audacity to demand the curtain be closed. I could not tell any difference between the first and second re-incarnation of the damn song. Has a way-overinflated opinion of his own importance. He is a self-entitled, egotisistical, pompous diva. I wish he had upheld his promise never to return to the U.S. He couldn't even keep that promise.

Jon - Having the same monitor problem, Jon merely changes some of the lyrics to, "I can't hear a fucking word I'm saying" and continues the song. Problem solved in a few seconds. He had technical difficulties throughout the show, but handled all of them gracefully and with an enormous sense of humor. Let's not forget Jon was also battling cracked ribs. It's hard just to breathe with that, little on sing for 2+ hours.

THAT, my friends is the difference between a buffoon front man with no self-confidence and an experienced, seasoned pro like Jon Oliva.

Chris

 

[Mardoch]

Obviously it's trendy to hate Daniel this year, because of reasons.

Let's pretend you were only doing something once, ever (ostensibly). You want it to be perfect, do you not? Is a 5-6 minute delay the end of the world to get that opening shot the way you want it?

 

[freakchylde]

One was filming a video. Just FYI. And has a totally different personality on stage.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Literally nothing you described fits anything remotely "pompous" or "egotistical". If he walked off because the lighting wasn't perfect, maybe you'd have a point. Bands have a right to make sure they can hear themselves so as not to screw up a performance they spent months practicing, let alone spending months ALSO fighting a crippling and dangerous infection in a hospital just to make sure he can play the show without killing himself.

Grow up.

 

[templeofmax]

His POS ser was awesome as well! Who the fuck cares about 5 mins more?

 

[LunaTEKKE]

I saw a markedly different level of professionalism from these two front men in back-to-back sets. I'm not talking about the bands' music or the frontmen's stage presence; I'm talking about being a pro.

Totally agree!

Obviously it's trendy to hate Daniel this year, because of reasons.

Let's pretend you were only doing something once, ever (ostensibly).

Like "Streets"?

 

[broegaard]

I saw a markedly different level of professionalism from these two front men in back-to-back sets. I'm not talking about the bands' music or the frontmen's stage presence; I'm talking about being a pro.

Daniel -When you can't hear something in your monitor, you point to it and put your finger in the air, which means, "turn it up". Knowing the show was an hour behind and he was NOT the headliner (maybe he didn't know this ), he not only bitches about the technical difficulty and walks off the stage, but has the audacity to demand the curtain be closed. I could not tell any difference between the first and second re-incarnation of the damn song. Has a way-overinflated opinion of his own importance. He is a self-entitled, egotisistical, pompous diva. I wish he had upheld his promise never to return to the U.S. He couldn't even keep that promise.

Jon - Having the same monitor problem, Jon merely changes some of the lyrics to, "I can't hear a fucking word I'm saying" and continues the song. Problem solved in a few seconds. He had technical difficulties throughout the show, but handled all of them gracefully and with an enormous sense of humor. Let's not forget Jon was also battling cracked ribs. It's hard just to breathe with that, little on sing for 2+ hours.

THAT, my friends is the difference between a buffoon front man with no self-confidence and an experienced, seasoned pro like Jon Oliva.

Chris

Didnt j.oliva say something about bands being too serious nowadays? That people should lighten up a bit?

 

[Mardoch]

Like "Streets"?

I would say yes, but Jon is the classic comedian and was not filming his set.

 

[sccaldwell]

THAT, my friends is the difference between a buffoon front man with no self-confidence and an experienced, seasoned pro like Jon Oliva.

1) Really? Daniel has toured the world in PoS, with the Flower Kings, Transatlantic, etc, etc, etc….I think he qualifies as experienced and self-confident. I can understand if you call walking off stage to re-start the show a bit "diva," but as others have said…they were FILMING it for DVD release.

2) It was 5 more minutes. Granted, it was 5 on top of 60, but why not walk off, close the curtain, giving time to fix the monitor problem (which is huge) then simply start over since they'd literally just started the show, anyway.

3) Your SavaVIDude screen name and "Savatage Fanatic" motto *does* imply just the tiniest bit of bias in favor of Mr. Oliva.

4) Daniel seems to have a great but odd sense of humor….it's entirely possible that he felt that since the monitor wasn't right anyway, it was completely appropriate to start the set over since the first track performed was, after all, entitled "Of Two Beginnings."

Whatever happened before they really started, PoS put on one of the best performances I've ever seen, by anyone. Even my fiancee, who is "Craig's +1" by her own statement, and not a big metal fan in general, at the end of their set, said something to the effect of "You were right…that was absolutely worth the wait" (she'd almost left the floor to go sit down about 10 minutes before they started, and I told her it'd be worth it).

My only regret is that I'm pretty sure their set got (understandably) cut short due to the delays.

Craig

 

[lady_space]

Obviously it's trendy to hate Daniel this year, because of reasons.

Just this year?

I'm sorry for any problems that were caused by this for the crew, etc... but personally I got a fucking awesome set and am thus happy. There are some people whom he'll never please.

Shaye

 

[Yippee38]

I would say yes, but Jon is the classic comedian and was not filming his set.

Really? Why were the cameramen all making the motions of filming then?

 

[LunaTEKKE]

Didnt j.oliva say something about bands being too serious nowadays? That people should lighten up a bit?

Pretty sure that was specifically directed at POS. As was JO's comment that "the bullshit is over".

Of course, he then cracked everyone up after the "lighten up" comment by saying, "I've lightened up - I've lost at least 3 pounds"!

 

[Mardoch]

Really? Why were the cameramen all making the motions of filming then?

Unless my mind is properly shanked and I flipped my recollection of JoP and PoS set filming, I don't recall there being the film crews out for Streets. I'm not saying it's impossible.

Did we ever have a list of all the shows that got filmed this year? Cause I wanted to reference it earlier.

 

[jem777az]

I saw a markedly different level of professionalism from these two front men in back-to-back sets. I'm not talking about the bands' music or the frontmen's stage presence; I'm talking about being a pro.

Daniel -When you can't hear something in your monitor, you point to it and put your finger in the air, which means, "turn it up". Knowing the show was an hour behind and he was NOT the headliner (maybe he didn't know this ), he not only bitches about the technical difficulty and walks off the stage, but has the audacity to demand the curtain be closed. I could not tell any difference between the first and second re-incarnation of the damn song. Has a way-overinflated opinion of his own importance. He is a self-entitled, egotisistical, pompous diva. I wish he had upheld his promise never to return to the U.S. He couldn't even keep that promise.

Jon - Having the same monitor problem, Jon merely changes some of the lyrics to, "I can't hear a fucking word I'm saying" and continues the song. Problem solved in a few seconds. He had technical difficulties throughout the show, but handled all of them gracefully and with an enormous sense of humor. Let's not forget Jon was also battling cracked ribs. It's hard just to breathe with that, little on sing for 2+ hours.

THAT, my friends is the difference between a buffoon front man with no self-confidence and an experienced, seasoned pro like Jon Oliva.

Chris

I have to ask.....did you go to the Wednesday POS show? If you didn't let me fill you in. One of the bands pieces of luggage was lost and subsequently located in Kenya. The luggage contained a bunch of Daniel's guitar pedals, wah, delay and a lot of other stuff. He's playing through a Mesa Boogie rectifier amp which he doesn't normally play through. So basically he's playing through a rig that's nothing like he was expecting or had prepared and rehearsed with. Yes I know shit happens and it's a festival situation, blah, blah, blah. He was basically like "fuck it" let's do this and have fun with it. Telling the audience to imagine a big church like delay sound or a really funky clean sound when there was none. He rolled with the punches and had a blast and put on a great performance.

Saturday I could see being a little more stressful as they were recording, he had never played a lot of those songs live ever, and it's a very emotional and intense piece of work to have to play. And before you say anything I'm well aware that JOP faced many of the same scenarios Saturday too.

In short cut the guy some fucking slack. He's a different person than Jon is and we all handle things differently be it right or wrong. Just because you are a Savatage fan and maybe not so much a POS fan doesn't give you the right to criticize and compare one person to another.

Like someone else already said, "grow up".

 

[Yippee38]

Unless my mind is properly shanked and I flipped my recollection of JoP and PoS set filming, I don't recall there being the film crews out for Streets. I'm not saying it's impossible.

Did we ever have a list of all the shows that got filmed this year? Cause I wanted to reference it earlier.

There were definitely film crews. In fact, I remember thinking that the cameraman in the pit was having a bitch of a time getting Jon past the keyboard surround.

I also had the thought, "I hope this is being recorded." I looked over to the boom operator on the left and saw that he was on the job.

 

[PureXul]

Literally nothing you described fits anything remotely "pompous" or "egotistical". If he walked off because the lighting wasn't perfect, maybe you'd have a point. Bands have a right to make sure they can hear themselves so as not to screw up a performance they spent months practicing, let alone spending months ALSO fighting a crippling and dangerous infection in a hospital just to make sure he can play the show without killing himself.

Grow up.

There's a bit more context, in that Daniel also talked about the intro not being quite what he was looking for. I don't remember verbatim, but he said something about no fog, curtain being open too early, whatever...had he just had a monitor issue and stopped to resolve that, then started over, I think a lot of people would've reacted differently (I certainly would've). It was the whole closing the curtain and re-doing the intro that made it come off as diva-ish.

 

[jem777az]

Unless my mind is properly shanked and I flipped my recollection of JoP and PoS set filming, I don't recall there being the film crews out for Streets. I'm not saying it's impossible.

Did we ever have a list of all the shows that got filmed this year? Cause I wanted to reference it earlier.

See this thread

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/progpower-usa/955214-will-there-dvd.html

 

[Mardoch]

See this thread

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/progpower-usa/955214-will-there-dvd.html

You're a peach. So both were filming and exhaustion has shanked my brain.

 

[Everonn]

The idea of a comparison here is fundamentally flawed. A performance by Jon Oliva and a performance by Pain of Salvation... or pretty much any other band... are very different experiences at their core. The context and tone is completely different, and that's not a bad thing for either performer. When Oliva replaces lyrics with complaints about the monitors, that's at home with the character of a Jon Oliva show and almost everyone understands that. If Pain of Salvation were to do the same thing, Daniel would be viewed very unfavorably by the audience screwing with a performance of material that a huge number of people were looking forward to, and be invariably tagged with being a diva and slighting the sound crew at the same time... because Jon's kind of actions don't fit and aren't expected in a Pain of Salvation show.

One of the great things about this fest is that there's a lot of room for a huge variety of colors and flavors of musical experiences and tones. A thread like this... comparing apples to llamas as a chance to rag on a performer you don't like is a big stretch and does a disservice to the idea of diversity of the fest. There should be room for Jon Oliva at the fest, as he offers a uniquely colorful experience. There should also be room for bands who couldn't possibly get away with his schtick, and artists with different tones and sensibilities. As a fan, I don't want a Shadow Gallery set to resemble the tone of a Freak Kitchen set, but I want to be able to enjoy both for what they are. Forcing any two distinctly different elements into the same context so you can knock one down is lame.


- Chris

 

[dtfanatic]

You know there's already a cheers and jeers thread?

I knew two seconds after the whole thing that people who already don't like Daniel were going to pile on.

No confidence? Yeah okay.

I once saw the Flower Kings at Jaxx with DG. They were traveling in a van from show to show and he was breaking down his own gear after the show while the other guys were gone. He was pleasant to talk to even though he was busy and took time to sign autographs. If that's not humble I don't know what is.

As the saying goes haters gonna hate...