Unfortunately this whole thing isn't going to be published in my college's newspaper, because it's to long. So I have to trim it down for them, but I wanted you guys to be able to read the whole thing even if I have to cut some of it out to get this published. Anyway here it is:
One Weekend for Die-Hard Fans
By Bobbie Dickerson
Just outside of Baltimore at 5:45 a.m. on Thursday, September 16th, Nick Saulsbury wakes up and gets dressed. He packs a three black band t-shirts, socks, boxers and an extra pair of black leather pants into an old black back-pack. He tosses in his tooth brush and deodorant.
At 6 a.m. his friend Charles, or C.T., meets Nick at his house and they load up the car and discuss a few of the final details regarding their 12-hour trip to Atlanta, GA this weekend. By 7 a.m. they are pulling out of Nicks neighborhood in Catonsville, MD and anticipating the long drive ahead of them.
They make only one stop along the way, about half way, at a Hardees in North Carolina for lunch. They pull into the gas station next door to refill the tank of C.T.s 99 Chevrolet Cavalier and then their travel resumes.
Saulsbury and C.T. arent driving 12 hours for their jobs, for their schooling, or to visit one of their families. They are driving 12 hours for music. Music that, in their minds, they may not be able to hear live ever again. They are driving 12 hours for the ProgPower V Festival, a two-day Progressive and Power Metal music festival that, as Promoter Glenn Harveston puts it, caters to the hardcore fan.
Its a once in a lifetime chance according to Saulsbury. You can drive one hour to see bands you can see anywhere or you can drive 12 hours to see a bunch of bands youll probably only have one chance to see or what may be a bands only American appearance in their career, he explains.
Bands that preformed at this years ProgPower Festival included a variety of both Progressive and Power Metal groups including: Into Eternity from Canada, Dreamscape from Denmark, Tad Morose from Sweden, Kamelot from Germany, Adagio with members from both France and Brazil, Wuthering Heights from Denmark, Brainstorm from Germany, Pain of Salvation from Sweden, and headliners Weapons of Mass Destruction (former members of Savatage) from the U.S. and Edguy from Germany.
The creative mind behind the ProgPower Festival for the past five years has been Glenn Harveston, who got the idea from the PowerMan Festival, which started on the outskirts of Baltimore. According to Harveston, after a few years PowerMan began to die out. After a night of drinking with his buddies, Harveston began thinking about the PowerMan Festival.
He was determined that he could put on the same type of festival or was at least willing to give it a shot. I started small and basically put it together from scratch, Harveston recalls in his slight, but still noticeable southern accent.
Five festivals later ProgPower is still going strong. Having sold out its 900 ticket show in less than a week, this year the festival drew fans from 38 states in the U.S. and 14 countries around the world, the farthest away being Japan.
Harveston proudly explains that the turnout of fans is a complete validation for the effort I put out. Its awesome!
The music that is played there [ProgPower] is so appreciated by its fan base that they will travel from anywhere, Saulsbury comments.
Jeremy Gordon who drove 12 hours from Detroit for ProgPower also feels that it takes a certain kind of person to come to this festival. There are those people who just take whatever the media feeds to them and dont explore. And then there are diehards like us who will travel far and wide to see those bands they cant see anywhere else.
These diehards, with their black band t-shirts and long hair, are the people who make up the fan base for progressive and power rock that support festivals such as ProgPower. What seems to be a minority among music fans is actually an overlooked community of music lovers who lack the support of media needed to create a more mainstream genre.
One member of ProgPowers online discussion forum, by the user name of Pellaz, noted that These are bands that, largely lacking radio support, need us and a healthy progressive underground scene to survive and grow.
Another member of the forum, user name MetalRose, writes. Metal music is very misunderstood. Daily we have pop, rap, hip hop and dance music covered in mainstream magazines, TV, commercials, etc. The more popular music is hyped in mass media, metal isnt. [
] In general, metalheads know a lot about pop music and other music, not the other way around.
Saulsbury thinks that the lack of support for progressive and power metal in America is more due to the consumer than the corporate media sources themselves. Most of this music has certain elements that not everybody will appreciate or not everybody will understand. The majority of Americans dont want to hear an eight minute neoclassical piece. They want a three minute drum and bass song with a catchy chorus.
Nevertheless, festivals like ProgPower are one way the genre continues to grow. For the weekend of the festival an entire section of the venue is dedicated to vendors who are selling music and music paraphernalia which is often difficult to find in your average music store.
The festival took place at Atlantas Earthlink Live, a two story venue large enough to accommodate for the over 900 attendees, bands and crew at the festival that weekend.
The average person might think that a gathering of over 900 metal-heads would equal a nasty, violent crowd like you might find in the pit shoving and pushing at such festivals like Ozzfest. Not one such mosh-pit broke out all weekend.
The people at ProgPower fests are just the coolest people there are. They are all there to have fun, enjoy the music, and enjoy talking about the music. They dont bring attitudes, and theyre just damn friendly, writes yet another user from ProgPowers forum, who goes by the alias Yippee38.
This year as soon as you walked through the door there were several greeters handing out promotional materials including a concert program, complete with band interviews, places for autographs, a schedule of the bands performance times and meet and greet times, and advertisements for music vendors who sell progressive and power metal.
Along with the festivals program you received a two-disc promotional CD including several of the bands from that weekend, and several other flyers advertising for vendors like the ones at the festival.
ProgPower is one of the ways I learn about the most bands. Every year, there are at least a handful of bands that I learn about that Ive never listened to before. Those bands may have links on websites to other bands that they like. That leads me to more music, writes Yippee38.
The people you meet at the shows talk about the music they like, and that leads me to more bands. The samplers that get passed out lead me to other bands. Reading the boards, and reading what other people are listening to [in the online forum] leads me to more bands. I buy more CDs as a direct, or indirect, result of attending ProPower shows, than due to any other influence.
Unfortunately, as Tobias Sammet, lead singer of Edguy, complains to the crowd during their performance Saturday night, Theres not so many of these festivals here in the U.S. A male voice, in reply, shouts out from the shadowed seats of the auditorium, We need more.
But fear not. If you dont have the hundred dollars to blow on a ticket to the two-day festival, or the time in you schedule to drive or fly to Atlanta once a year, there is still hope for those seeking out new music. Saulsbury cites several ways to obtain new and sometimes obscure music in the progressive and power metal genres.
Most people find music by talking with friends and sharing what they have found. Magazines such as Pitt and Metal Edge also enable people to seek out new music in this genre. Others discover new bands or songs by doing internet searches, downloading MP3s, or reading reviews on websites such as Blabbermouth.com.
With an ever-growing fan base, many bands face the challenges of being considered sell-outs as opposed to staying true to their progressive metal origins.
Its a fine line, Glenn Harveston says. You deserve to reap the rewards of your hard work. But if you change too much youre going to loose your hardcore fans and a little bit of respect.
Members of the ProgPower forum seem to agree. The part of me that loves the music wants other people to enjoy it too. On the other hand, if it becomes really popular, I am afraid the quality will drop and it will become commercialized and lose its appeal, explains Yippee38.
Pellaz validates the points made by both Harveston and Yippee giving the typical timeline for many genres, Fame is a two-edge sword. Most of us can agree that wed like our favorite bands to make it financially after all, musical talent and brilliance deserve their just rewards. But as soon as any style of music get popular, the major labels all jump on the band wagon, signing (or creating) bands that kinda sound like that surprise band who sold three million copies of whatever CD last year and then people get tired of the genre being overplayed and it dies.
The hope among ProgPower fans seems to be that this wont happen. Until corporate America decides to market this growing musical genre, fans like Nick and C.T. and their music remain safe.
On Sunday morning delay their estimated departure time from Atlanta by smacking the snooze button on the alarm in their Marriot Courtyard hotel room. They finally check out a little after 9 a.m. and begin their trek home to Baltimore.
A flat tire and slight detour lengthen their travel time and they arrive home at 11:30 p.m. They are both glad to be home, even though they have had to leave all the fun and excitement of the weekend behind them.
Saulsbury unpacks his black book-bag, the dirty laundry and toiletries have been crammed to the bottom to make room for all of the promotional materials and music memorabilia he has acquired over the two day festival which now lay sprawled over his bed waiting for assessment.
When asked if hell make the trip again next year Saulsbury has his answers ready immediately. I dont know how theyre going to beat the lineup from this year. Regardless of whos playing, theres no question as to whether or not Im going.
