this was one AMAZING show.
2 great observations;
1) seeing band members wander around Downtown Disney was cool, sigining and getting pictures taken.
2) At PPIII I asked Jon (IE) why he never plays in Florida anymore and his reply was "there's no market there". Coming from the same area IE got started in (Tampa) I was taken aback by this, and ticked thinking I'd never see them live unless Glenn booked them. I'm glad he got that shoved back in his face as he played in front of a packed house in Orlando. He stated on stage "I guess we have a lot of fans here, we'll have to play here more often". That's funny since there's "no market here". I'd really love to know how they come up with these assumptions.
Evergrey was great.. they played a lot of energetic songs (no doubt to the bill) but were VERY well received to a packed house for an opening band that most people look at me funny when I mention their name. Don't ask me for song titles cause I don't know many.. I bought all their CDs, made 1 MP3 disc of them and drive around listening to it.
COB blew the roof off... they have a huge following in Florida. The highlights I thought were; Angels Don't Kill, Needled 24/7 and Six Pounder. But the whole show was great.. Warmen is PHENOMENAL. I loved the flying Vs and old school metal poses and guitar over-the-shoulder-flinging.. last time I saw that it was in a Cinderalla video.
IE was incredible. Anyone who says they don't want to see them because Barlow isn't in the band anymore.. good, that's one more ticket that won't be sold for whenever I want to go. I say to those people - "You're missing out on something special, stop being so thick-headed". Ripper sang with ease and looked like he was having more fun on stage than when I saw him with Priest on the last tour. He took his vocal performance not only to the next level (comparing to Priest show) but to levels beyond.
There were no low-points to the IE set, but my favorites were; Declaration Day, Green Face, Red Baron Blue Max, the entire Gettysburg trilogy, Dracula, Burning Times and Iced Earth. Granted that's most of the set, but you get my point.
If you have a chance to catch this tour - do so.
A Friend And I Drove 5 Hrs To Go See The Show In St. Louis And It Kicked Ass!!!! 'ripper' Pulled Off Singing All The Old Songs Perfectly.
