Lance’s Nightmare Metal Fest re-cap,
SIMPLY PUT….it was KILLER!
A grand adventure, I started out by arriving several days early, taking a few days vacation with my wife and kids. We hit Clearwater beach and stayed with a friend for the first night, Thank you Tony! Tony shared his beachfront condo, and we spent our first day enjoying sun and surf and finding shells and drinking a few margaritas on the beach. Brilliant way to start vacation or festival.
At the end of the day, we headed over to Orlando, got our rooms, and relaxed a bit more, my
Wife prepped for taking the kids to Disney. Tuesday we hit what used to be called MGM now HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS and had a long fun walk through there with 38,000 other people! That is what they had in that ONE park, that day, it wasn’t as bad as you might think. Disney has people hearding to a finite science. It was a lot of fun, we did however split up at one point and communication wasn’t what it should have been, (meaning I didn’t listen close enough to what Mary had said) and we ended up waiting for her and my 5 year old daughter at the gate (where I got the head count from security as I waited and chatted with them to meet up again with the girls).
Next Day we hit Disney’s ANIMAL KINGDOM, and much the same, had a blast, the kid’s loved it, and we and a lot of other folks walked all day, and enjoyed being outside in perfect weather. (I listened better, and we didn’t get separated for long on this day ; )
Thursday it was time to head back to the Tampa area. We arrived at our hotel early and saw many fest goers in the parking lot already at the Ramada Inn Bay Side arriving for the event to come. I wasn’t quite ready to shift into “go mode” so I got to my room and chilled and kept a low profile until the next morning.
Friday arrived, I sent the family on a trek with the GPS and a beach destination in mind, and I took my electronics too the pool to study songs, check email, and be seen to connect with the arriving bands as they rolled into town for their shows that day.
Met up with the ORDER OF NINE and SACRED DAWN guys there, gave them their passes and chatted a bit. All the while sitting in the shade, thinking, no worries I’m in the shade, I don’t need sunscreen. Yeah Right…I got fried that day, and I have no idea how, obviously the suns rays are not stopped by foliage or even having your back turned as I misconceived. White Nordic boy gets fried in Shade lol.
Yan was running late coming up from Ft. Lauderdale where he was visiting family, he came by way of Clearwater picking up Alberto (Warmachine Bassist) that was filling in for us
Because we don’t have a permanent bassist yet since David Ellefson. I invitedAlberto on about 2 weeks before the show when the second bassist that Yan and Bill had set up, seemed to fall through for some reason. Yan and Alberto arrived at the Pool area of the Ramada about 3:20 so we were ready to head off to the Rehearsal studio I had set up with help from the local X-Thirtien guys. I call the rehearsal studio and ask for directions and find…another miscommunication, the place is an hour away from our location. I was told it was nearby! The band talks about it a bit and realizes this isn’t going to work, with drive time, set up and tear down time and my needing to be back at 6:30 to get to the venue before doors at 7pm.
So we opt for an acoustic jam in a hotel room….this is an interesting concept for a metal band. I hadn’t ever tried this before but I figured it was something that needed to be tried so that everyone would be comfortable with playing together since I had only been able to rehearse once with Jerry (drums) and Yan on guitar, Yan and Jerry had gotten together with Bill Hudson, and now we had a 5th guy that hadn’t played with any of us. So we plugged Alberto’s bass into a little practice guitar thing and that we plugged into the TV set, so we had a low volume bass rig. Then Jerry played drums on his thighs, and put a Bass Case on the floor for his kick drums. I sang naturally and the guitarists were acoustic, (hard to hear
Electric guitars over the air conditioning that Bill seemed to desire more than hearing…but
We made it though the set in time for me to get my stuff to BOURBON STREET by 6:45.
Alberto had obviously done his homework he sounded amazing on the songs, he was the root of the rehearsal and he slammed, Thanks bro! I would do this again, we actually got some vocal harmony practice in, and I was able to hear that I had several people in the band with vocal abilities that I didn’t know existed!!!
Got to the club and commenced setting up the Nightmare tables, before I was finished, SHADES OF TWILIGHT started their set, thankfully, I had a great view and listen
From the vendor area and enjoyed watching their energetic set, this young band is quite promising.
Next up was SACRED DAWN, these guys brought it, big time, I really enjoyed their set,
They seemed to connect amazingly well with the audience. FANTASTIC SET, sounded just like their album!
ORDER OF NINE, then hit the stage and were everything I imagined they would be, fast furious and very tight, great show guys also just like their recording.
DESASTERPEACE came next playing several more obscure Crimson Glory and King Diamond tunes and Wade and Pete were in rare form. Lot’s of wailing high notes on this set, was the heaviest set so far of the evening again a great show.
CAGE finished it up, and slammed out a solid power metal assault of fast paced songs and wailing vocals. This guys were very on their game, I expected nothing less, Cage did no disappoint!
Leaving the club I realized that I was WAY behind Yan and Bill that had been working on more than just a buzz, I headed back to my room at 2:30AM to get some sleep before I had to get up early to get things prepped for the ‘EAT & GREET” happening the next morning. I’m told the other guys from Avian partied on long after and are lucky not to have gotten bitch slapped by the night staff at the hotel for their exploits, well actually they may have been, and just not remembered it, they were already far gone when I saw them off at 2:30.
Saturday I awoke at 9am, got a cup of coffee and started setting up the EAT & GREET with the bands. We had a full room in the private dining room and this event couldn’t have gone better, it was a great breakfast with a lot of exceptionally interesting people to chat with. Unfortunately the DIMENSION guys showed up just as breakfast was winding down, they had van troubles on their way and broke down, having to rent a new vehicle , leaving one of their guys and stage gear behind…After all this they missed breakfast! I believe they we’re too tired to eat anyway, and went to their rooms to catch some sleep before their show.
Because of the Eat and Greet I actually missed Chaos Arcade, I’m sorry to say, I’ll have to check these guys out more.
I arrived in time to see Seventh Burning, an exceptional young screamo metal band and Decepcion both rather angry sounding bands, on stage, and both of their front men were very smiley and friendly in person, I believe they must vent all issues through their music, they both ripped it up.
FAST TAKER from P.R. killed it, freaking amazing drummer and guitarist in that young band, they rawked with a more progressive groove that reminded me at times of Rage against the Machine.
SIX MINUTE CENTURY, hit the stage next, for some reason everything was way ahead of schedule from what I thought originally was the plan, these guys were on at 4:45 I think, originally I thought they were going to be playing at 6pm, but Jrock was our time keeper for this and had it all arranged.
S.M.C. Killed, they were spot on, and Chucks voice was pure and amazing, he gave me chills at one point in their show. Fantastic set guys.
Next up POWND, pounded the audience over the head with their big riffs. These guy’s were air tight, they clearly play a lot of shows and have been together for so long, they really laid it down. A Slamming set guys really, really great.
DIMENSION hit the stage next, and wow, what an amazing progressive set, these guys really brought something unique to the show, they piped the keyboards and played the set as a three piece, I was surprised, I thought they were a four piece, never did find out if the guy they left with the gear was the keyboardist…. but regardless these guys were tighter than tight and so uniquely melodic and technical, they played their set flawlessly and had a lot of people saying wow….. very cool band!
Next Up WARMACHINE, all I can say is, FREAKING KILLER SET GUYS!
Sounded amazing, all vocals, and songs were done flawlessly.
Next we had an anomaly in DIRTY BLACK HALO, a band that came from Rich at Maximum bands, they were very interesting, a hard rock, band that seemed to have a look more like Tears for fears, bringing up some rather bondage looking go go girls, I would say these guys were the wild card on the show, that while not metal brought something different and broke up the night. Good set of Hard rockin’.
My set with AVIAN followed this, and we were all very ready to play having been enjoying so many great bands, we were excited to get out there and make some noise. We hit the stage playing half a set of new material from our upcoming album, trying it out on the audience, they seemed to enjoy it quite a lot! While not getting a lot of time to rehearse together, we found the zone together and blazed through our set, it was over far before we were done playing. During the show, I brought up Wade Black to sing a DIO cover “Last in Line” because my buddy Rob Rock was unable to make it due to an extremely tight recording schedule for his new project. Wade ripped it up and we have a very unique version of that song now recorded, that I look forward to hearing soon. At the end of our set we invited Zak Stevens up to sing HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING with us, Zak hit the stage strong and delivered the song flawlessly.
Last up was X-thirtien and the Chris Caffery and Zak jam….great set guys.
A truly momentous beginning for Nightmare Metal Fest, I heard nothing but positive comments from everyone, it seemed there was not one unhappy person with this event, from band, fan, or club employee, including Greg the owner of Bourbon Street.
I would like to thank Greg and his staff for a very professional job on security and service, and a fantastic venue for the fest, I would like to thank Jrock for all his promotional and logistical contributions to this festival, (too many to list). I would like to thank Dave Fletcher and company for their great efforts and talents with mixing and change overs and all the technical aspects of getting the show broadcasted via internet with great sound and video. I would like to thank Robert for making the broadcast happen via his servers at KWTF, and all of the other stations that simalcast this around the world. I would like to thank Tom Wylde for his sponsorship, and also Tim Henderson and Mark Gromen
From Brave words, Tracy Barns Hard rock radio, Connie from Skulleez and NO FEAR energy drinks. I would like to thank Sherry Grandy for the amazing website work, Brent and Christian for their help with last minute details and all the street team that help spread the word. I would like to thank all the fans that made it out, especially those that traveled long distances for the fest.
Most of all I would like to thank all the bands that came to play Nightmare Metal Fest, from all over the Country and Canada to make this fest something special. You guys are what made this event something special, you guys did an outstanding job, even through adversity (Pownd and Dimension’s vehicles breaking down on the way to Florida).
You and the fans are of course why I put in the tireless hours on this!
This is only the beginning….I’ll have some announcements coming so stay tuned!
SIMPLY PUT….it was KILLER!
A grand adventure, I started out by arriving several days early, taking a few days vacation with my wife and kids. We hit Clearwater beach and stayed with a friend for the first night, Thank you Tony! Tony shared his beachfront condo, and we spent our first day enjoying sun and surf and finding shells and drinking a few margaritas on the beach. Brilliant way to start vacation or festival.
At the end of the day, we headed over to Orlando, got our rooms, and relaxed a bit more, my
Wife prepped for taking the kids to Disney. Tuesday we hit what used to be called MGM now HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS and had a long fun walk through there with 38,000 other people! That is what they had in that ONE park, that day, it wasn’t as bad as you might think. Disney has people hearding to a finite science. It was a lot of fun, we did however split up at one point and communication wasn’t what it should have been, (meaning I didn’t listen close enough to what Mary had said) and we ended up waiting for her and my 5 year old daughter at the gate (where I got the head count from security as I waited and chatted with them to meet up again with the girls).
Next Day we hit Disney’s ANIMAL KINGDOM, and much the same, had a blast, the kid’s loved it, and we and a lot of other folks walked all day, and enjoyed being outside in perfect weather. (I listened better, and we didn’t get separated for long on this day ; )
Thursday it was time to head back to the Tampa area. We arrived at our hotel early and saw many fest goers in the parking lot already at the Ramada Inn Bay Side arriving for the event to come. I wasn’t quite ready to shift into “go mode” so I got to my room and chilled and kept a low profile until the next morning.
Friday arrived, I sent the family on a trek with the GPS and a beach destination in mind, and I took my electronics too the pool to study songs, check email, and be seen to connect with the arriving bands as they rolled into town for their shows that day.
Met up with the ORDER OF NINE and SACRED DAWN guys there, gave them their passes and chatted a bit. All the while sitting in the shade, thinking, no worries I’m in the shade, I don’t need sunscreen. Yeah Right…I got fried that day, and I have no idea how, obviously the suns rays are not stopped by foliage or even having your back turned as I misconceived. White Nordic boy gets fried in Shade lol.
Yan was running late coming up from Ft. Lauderdale where he was visiting family, he came by way of Clearwater picking up Alberto (Warmachine Bassist) that was filling in for us
Because we don’t have a permanent bassist yet since David Ellefson. I invitedAlberto on about 2 weeks before the show when the second bassist that Yan and Bill had set up, seemed to fall through for some reason. Yan and Alberto arrived at the Pool area of the Ramada about 3:20 so we were ready to head off to the Rehearsal studio I had set up with help from the local X-Thirtien guys. I call the rehearsal studio and ask for directions and find…another miscommunication, the place is an hour away from our location. I was told it was nearby! The band talks about it a bit and realizes this isn’t going to work, with drive time, set up and tear down time and my needing to be back at 6:30 to get to the venue before doors at 7pm.
So we opt for an acoustic jam in a hotel room….this is an interesting concept for a metal band. I hadn’t ever tried this before but I figured it was something that needed to be tried so that everyone would be comfortable with playing together since I had only been able to rehearse once with Jerry (drums) and Yan on guitar, Yan and Jerry had gotten together with Bill Hudson, and now we had a 5th guy that hadn’t played with any of us. So we plugged Alberto’s bass into a little practice guitar thing and that we plugged into the TV set, so we had a low volume bass rig. Then Jerry played drums on his thighs, and put a Bass Case on the floor for his kick drums. I sang naturally and the guitarists were acoustic, (hard to hear
Electric guitars over the air conditioning that Bill seemed to desire more than hearing…but
We made it though the set in time for me to get my stuff to BOURBON STREET by 6:45.
Alberto had obviously done his homework he sounded amazing on the songs, he was the root of the rehearsal and he slammed, Thanks bro! I would do this again, we actually got some vocal harmony practice in, and I was able to hear that I had several people in the band with vocal abilities that I didn’t know existed!!!
Got to the club and commenced setting up the Nightmare tables, before I was finished, SHADES OF TWILIGHT started their set, thankfully, I had a great view and listen
From the vendor area and enjoyed watching their energetic set, this young band is quite promising.
Next up was SACRED DAWN, these guys brought it, big time, I really enjoyed their set,
They seemed to connect amazingly well with the audience. FANTASTIC SET, sounded just like their album!
ORDER OF NINE, then hit the stage and were everything I imagined they would be, fast furious and very tight, great show guys also just like their recording.
DESASTERPEACE came next playing several more obscure Crimson Glory and King Diamond tunes and Wade and Pete were in rare form. Lot’s of wailing high notes on this set, was the heaviest set so far of the evening again a great show.
CAGE finished it up, and slammed out a solid power metal assault of fast paced songs and wailing vocals. This guys were very on their game, I expected nothing less, Cage did no disappoint!
Leaving the club I realized that I was WAY behind Yan and Bill that had been working on more than just a buzz, I headed back to my room at 2:30AM to get some sleep before I had to get up early to get things prepped for the ‘EAT & GREET” happening the next morning. I’m told the other guys from Avian partied on long after and are lucky not to have gotten bitch slapped by the night staff at the hotel for their exploits, well actually they may have been, and just not remembered it, they were already far gone when I saw them off at 2:30.
Saturday I awoke at 9am, got a cup of coffee and started setting up the EAT & GREET with the bands. We had a full room in the private dining room and this event couldn’t have gone better, it was a great breakfast with a lot of exceptionally interesting people to chat with. Unfortunately the DIMENSION guys showed up just as breakfast was winding down, they had van troubles on their way and broke down, having to rent a new vehicle , leaving one of their guys and stage gear behind…After all this they missed breakfast! I believe they we’re too tired to eat anyway, and went to their rooms to catch some sleep before their show.
Because of the Eat and Greet I actually missed Chaos Arcade, I’m sorry to say, I’ll have to check these guys out more.
I arrived in time to see Seventh Burning, an exceptional young screamo metal band and Decepcion both rather angry sounding bands, on stage, and both of their front men were very smiley and friendly in person, I believe they must vent all issues through their music, they both ripped it up.
FAST TAKER from P.R. killed it, freaking amazing drummer and guitarist in that young band, they rawked with a more progressive groove that reminded me at times of Rage against the Machine.
SIX MINUTE CENTURY, hit the stage next, for some reason everything was way ahead of schedule from what I thought originally was the plan, these guys were on at 4:45 I think, originally I thought they were going to be playing at 6pm, but Jrock was our time keeper for this and had it all arranged.
S.M.C. Killed, they were spot on, and Chucks voice was pure and amazing, he gave me chills at one point in their show. Fantastic set guys.
Next up POWND, pounded the audience over the head with their big riffs. These guy’s were air tight, they clearly play a lot of shows and have been together for so long, they really laid it down. A Slamming set guys really, really great.
DIMENSION hit the stage next, and wow, what an amazing progressive set, these guys really brought something unique to the show, they piped the keyboards and played the set as a three piece, I was surprised, I thought they were a four piece, never did find out if the guy they left with the gear was the keyboardist…. but regardless these guys were tighter than tight and so uniquely melodic and technical, they played their set flawlessly and had a lot of people saying wow….. very cool band!
Next Up WARMACHINE, all I can say is, FREAKING KILLER SET GUYS!
Sounded amazing, all vocals, and songs were done flawlessly.
Next we had an anomaly in DIRTY BLACK HALO, a band that came from Rich at Maximum bands, they were very interesting, a hard rock, band that seemed to have a look more like Tears for fears, bringing up some rather bondage looking go go girls, I would say these guys were the wild card on the show, that while not metal brought something different and broke up the night. Good set of Hard rockin’.
My set with AVIAN followed this, and we were all very ready to play having been enjoying so many great bands, we were excited to get out there and make some noise. We hit the stage playing half a set of new material from our upcoming album, trying it out on the audience, they seemed to enjoy it quite a lot! While not getting a lot of time to rehearse together, we found the zone together and blazed through our set, it was over far before we were done playing. During the show, I brought up Wade Black to sing a DIO cover “Last in Line” because my buddy Rob Rock was unable to make it due to an extremely tight recording schedule for his new project. Wade ripped it up and we have a very unique version of that song now recorded, that I look forward to hearing soon. At the end of our set we invited Zak Stevens up to sing HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING with us, Zak hit the stage strong and delivered the song flawlessly.
Last up was X-thirtien and the Chris Caffery and Zak jam….great set guys.
A truly momentous beginning for Nightmare Metal Fest, I heard nothing but positive comments from everyone, it seemed there was not one unhappy person with this event, from band, fan, or club employee, including Greg the owner of Bourbon Street.
I would like to thank Greg and his staff for a very professional job on security and service, and a fantastic venue for the fest, I would like to thank Jrock for all his promotional and logistical contributions to this festival, (too many to list). I would like to thank Dave Fletcher and company for their great efforts and talents with mixing and change overs and all the technical aspects of getting the show broadcasted via internet with great sound and video. I would like to thank Robert for making the broadcast happen via his servers at KWTF, and all of the other stations that simalcast this around the world. I would like to thank Tom Wylde for his sponsorship, and also Tim Henderson and Mark Gromen
From Brave words, Tracy Barns Hard rock radio, Connie from Skulleez and NO FEAR energy drinks. I would like to thank Sherry Grandy for the amazing website work, Brent and Christian for their help with last minute details and all the street team that help spread the word. I would like to thank all the fans that made it out, especially those that traveled long distances for the fest.
Most of all I would like to thank all the bands that came to play Nightmare Metal Fest, from all over the Country and Canada to make this fest something special. You guys are what made this event something special, you guys did an outstanding job, even through adversity (Pownd and Dimension’s vehicles breaking down on the way to Florida).
You and the fans are of course why I put in the tireless hours on this!
This is only the beginning….I’ll have some announcements coming so stay tuned!
