A bunch of good shit happened.
A bunch of bad shit happened.
A bunch of funny shit happened.
A bunch of scary shit happened.
A bunch of weird shit happened.
A bunch of goofy shit happened.
A bunch of enigmatic shit happened.
Last, but certainly not least, a bunch of ironic shit happened.
OKAY, okay... I'll be a bit more specific.
The venue has promise, but it needs a lot of work before it becomes an ideal site for a fest like this. Perhaps Vince Kelley would take under advisement the idea of picking the building up and moving it to a better neighborhood, with closer lodging.
I felt very sorry for those people who didn't have cars; I wish I could have helped make sure everyone had a ride at all times, but it just wasn't feasible. Better ventilation would also help, as would some sort of lobby or adjoining room, where one could go to carry on a conversation without having to walk outside into the arctic wind. Those things aside, I thought the sound was decent (most of the time), and it's certainly more spacious than J.J. Kelley's, and there's not really a bad spot in the house.
The crew slays, once again. Good job all around; I'd say this fest is just as well-crewed as ProgPower.
Chris, Rob, and John did a good job organizing it overall. There were a lot of experiments this time around: some bad, but mostly good. I'll be back next year.
All of the bands were good:
1) Withering Soul just kicks ass. Although they're a very odd choice for this fest, and nobody else I know liked them, I'm officially a fan, in spite of the poor quality of their sound on Friday. They tried to mix TOO much like a traditional black metal band, which doesn't work well for them.
2) Gracepoint... I missed watching most of their set while I was blowing my wad at the merchandise booth (take your dirty minds out of the gutter), but they certainly sounded kickass.
3) Agent Steel floored me. Bruce is an amazing frontman (especially when sober), and I think he had a lot of fun playing Powerfest on his birthday. The band was tight and intense, and I got to hear some of my favorites, including "Earth Under Lucifer", "Ten Fists of Nations", and "Illuminati Is Machine".
4) Biomechanical was phenomenal as well... they seemed to play a lot from Eight Moons, which I hadn't heard but which sounded good live. Their melodic side didn't come across as well as I'd hoped, but their aggressive side more than made up for it. I got to hear a lot of faves here as well, but I was mildly bummed that they didn't play "Long Time Dead".
5) Eldritch put on an excellent set. Admittedly, I haven't listened much to their newer material, but I like it quite a bit, and it worked well live. It was also fun to hear some of the oldies from Seeds of Rage and Headquake -- in fact, I was particularly excited to hear "Change".
6) Mirror Black is an excellent mix of prog and neoclassical shred, with an extra dose of heaviness. I am confident that Matt Lee will become a major player in the future of shred guitar; in fact, I mentioned that he should start his own band, called Matt Lee's Rising Force. I'm officially a Lee fan, and, no, I'm not being paid to say that. 
7) Twelfth Gate sounded... well... like a very talented metalcore band stole their bodies and their instruments and started playing their music. They sound like a COMPLETELY different band with Brent on vocals. This is both good and bad. I liked the rather original sound they had before, mixing thrash, prog, power, and doom elements with Scott's highly melodic yet aggressive vocal approach; with Brent, after apparently rearranging the music a bit, they sound like a (very good) metalcore/melodeath band, which is still a good thing -- it's just a different "good thing" than before. I actually didn't even recognize "Innocent" (my fave TG song) until I started hearing lyrics which sounded familiar.
8) Ion Vein's new material (their entire set was comprised of new material) is killer, and H-E-A-V-Y. I can't wait to hear this stuff on disc, especially considering that Neil Kernon is involved once again. Russ does an outstanding job on the more aggressive vocal approach. I hope they're not completely abandoning their more melodic side; it would be awesome to see them mix a little bit of the Queensryche/Fates influence into their new sound.
9) I missed about half of Nocturnal Rites' set, due to being a moron. However, what I heard kicked enormous amounts of ass. I'm glad I didn't miss my favorites from Grand Illusion ("Cuts Like a Friggin' Knife, Baby" and "Still Alive"), and I was particularly pleased to see them go back to The Sacred Talisman and do "Iron Force". I didn't hear anything from Tales of Mystery and Imagination... I would have loved to hear "Ring of Steel" -- I was SOOOO in the mood for one of the best balls-out, cheeseball happy-metal anthems ever recorded.
10) I realize that no one here actually wonders whether or not I enjoyed Morgana Lefay's set, but I can't help saying that this was one of the best performances I've ever witnessed; it ranks right up there with... well... last year's Morgana Lefay performance. The set list was even better this time than last time -- they even played a BALLAD! ...well, "Victim of the Inquisition", which is probably the closest we'll ever get to seeing them do a ballad during a show. I got to hear many of my favorites; among those were, most notably, "Blind", "Master of the Masquerade", and "Red Moon". Charles had some technical (health) difficulties and couldn't make it back out for the encore, but apparently he's doing okay... the prevailing assumption was that he was dehydrated. You couldn't tell. He was energetic, and spot-on, for the entire set. The rest of the band played some fun covers for the encore, and were joined on stage by Bruce Hall (Agent Steel) and Crazy Energetic Metal Guy.
In retrospect, I think perhaps I might have changed the running order of the bands for the festival, in order to maximize attendance; the crowd thinned out a TON for both Eldritch and Morgana Lefay. Then again, I really thought the place would be packed for Morgana, considering the response they got last year -- I blame the lateness of their set (they went on at around midnight), as well as the pussy-ish nature of American metal fans for leaving early.
As for the non-performance-related comments on the weekend (hanging out with friends and such)... there's just so much to say, and so much fun was had, that I don't even want to start. Instead, I'll read and comment on other people's posts. Suffice it to say here that everyone I encountered was pleasant and a lot of fun, and I think I may have spent more quality time around "new" friends at this fest than at any fest since ProgPower USA 2.0.
A bunch of bad shit happened.
A bunch of funny shit happened.
A bunch of scary shit happened.
A bunch of weird shit happened.
A bunch of goofy shit happened.
A bunch of enigmatic shit happened.
Last, but certainly not least, a bunch of ironic shit happened.
OKAY, okay... I'll be a bit more specific.
The venue has promise, but it needs a lot of work before it becomes an ideal site for a fest like this. Perhaps Vince Kelley would take under advisement the idea of picking the building up and moving it to a better neighborhood, with closer lodging.
I felt very sorry for those people who didn't have cars; I wish I could have helped make sure everyone had a ride at all times, but it just wasn't feasible. Better ventilation would also help, as would some sort of lobby or adjoining room, where one could go to carry on a conversation without having to walk outside into the arctic wind. Those things aside, I thought the sound was decent (most of the time), and it's certainly more spacious than J.J. Kelley's, and there's not really a bad spot in the house.The crew slays, once again. Good job all around; I'd say this fest is just as well-crewed as ProgPower.
Chris, Rob, and John did a good job organizing it overall. There were a lot of experiments this time around: some bad, but mostly good. I'll be back next year.
All of the bands were good:
1) Withering Soul just kicks ass. Although they're a very odd choice for this fest, and nobody else I know liked them, I'm officially a fan, in spite of the poor quality of their sound on Friday. They tried to mix TOO much like a traditional black metal band, which doesn't work well for them.
2) Gracepoint... I missed watching most of their set while I was blowing my wad at the merchandise booth (take your dirty minds out of the gutter), but they certainly sounded kickass.
3) Agent Steel floored me. Bruce is an amazing frontman (especially when sober), and I think he had a lot of fun playing Powerfest on his birthday. The band was tight and intense, and I got to hear some of my favorites, including "Earth Under Lucifer", "Ten Fists of Nations", and "Illuminati Is Machine".
4) Biomechanical was phenomenal as well... they seemed to play a lot from Eight Moons, which I hadn't heard but which sounded good live. Their melodic side didn't come across as well as I'd hoped, but their aggressive side more than made up for it. I got to hear a lot of faves here as well, but I was mildly bummed that they didn't play "Long Time Dead".
5) Eldritch put on an excellent set. Admittedly, I haven't listened much to their newer material, but I like it quite a bit, and it worked well live. It was also fun to hear some of the oldies from Seeds of Rage and Headquake -- in fact, I was particularly excited to hear "Change".
6) Mirror Black is an excellent mix of prog and neoclassical shred, with an extra dose of heaviness. I am confident that Matt Lee will become a major player in the future of shred guitar; in fact, I mentioned that he should start his own band, called Matt Lee's Rising Force.
I'm officially a Lee fan, and, no, I'm not being paid to say that. 7) Twelfth Gate sounded... well... like a very talented metalcore band stole their bodies and their instruments and started playing their music. They sound like a COMPLETELY different band with Brent on vocals. This is both good and bad. I liked the rather original sound they had before, mixing thrash, prog, power, and doom elements with Scott's highly melodic yet aggressive vocal approach; with Brent, after apparently rearranging the music a bit, they sound like a (very good) metalcore/melodeath band, which is still a good thing -- it's just a different "good thing" than before.
I actually didn't even recognize "Innocent" (my fave TG song) until I started hearing lyrics which sounded familiar. 8) Ion Vein's new material (their entire set was comprised of new material) is killer, and H-E-A-V-Y. I can't wait to hear this stuff on disc, especially considering that Neil Kernon is involved once again. Russ does an outstanding job on the more aggressive vocal approach. I hope they're not completely abandoning their more melodic side; it would be awesome to see them mix a little bit of the Queensryche/Fates influence into their new sound.
9) I missed about half of Nocturnal Rites' set, due to being a moron. However, what I heard kicked enormous amounts of ass. I'm glad I didn't miss my favorites from Grand Illusion ("Cuts Like a Friggin' Knife, Baby" and "Still Alive"), and I was particularly pleased to see them go back to The Sacred Talisman and do "Iron Force". I didn't hear anything from Tales of Mystery and Imagination... I would have loved to hear "Ring of Steel" -- I was SOOOO in the mood for one of the best balls-out, cheeseball happy-metal anthems ever recorded.
10) I realize that no one here actually wonders whether or not I enjoyed Morgana Lefay's set, but I can't help saying that this was one of the best performances I've ever witnessed; it ranks right up there with... well... last year's Morgana Lefay performance.
The set list was even better this time than last time -- they even played a BALLAD! ...well, "Victim of the Inquisition", which is probably the closest we'll ever get to seeing them do a ballad during a show. I got to hear many of my favorites; among those were, most notably, "Blind", "Master of the Masquerade", and "Red Moon". Charles had some technical (health) difficulties and couldn't make it back out for the encore, but apparently he's doing okay... the prevailing assumption was that he was dehydrated. You couldn't tell. He was energetic, and spot-on, for the entire set. The rest of the band played some fun covers for the encore, and were joined on stage by Bruce Hall (Agent Steel) and Crazy Energetic Metal Guy.In retrospect, I think perhaps I might have changed the running order of the bands for the festival, in order to maximize attendance; the crowd thinned out a TON for both Eldritch and Morgana Lefay. Then again, I really thought the place would be packed for Morgana, considering the response they got last year -- I blame the lateness of their set (they went on at around midnight), as well as the pussy-ish nature of American metal fans for leaving early.
As for the non-performance-related comments on the weekend (hanging out with friends and such)... there's just so much to say, and so much fun was had, that I don't even want to start. Instead, I'll read and comment on other people's posts.
Suffice it to say here that everyone I encountered was pleasant and a lot of fun, and I think I may have spent more quality time around "new" friends at this fest than at any fest since ProgPower USA 2.0.
