- Oct 4, 2007
- 179
- 10
- 18
Now that Ive had a little bit of rest, and because I dont feel like doing anything resembling actual work, let me go ahead & give everyone an overview of my weekend at ProgPower.
After a 3 hour + drive from Knoxville, I made it into town on Friday night shortly before 4. However, I didnt pay that much attention to Raintime or Communmics sets, as I was more interested in getting something to eat, getting merchandise & Sonata Articas autographs. Unfortunately, after spending a half hour at one table, they told us that the authograph was on the other side of the building, and so I wound up waiting for quite a while.
This cut into Virgin Steeles set, which upset me a little as VS was one of the main reasons I went. I still didnt miss much, and was able to get a good seat in the center, most of the way up. This was an incredibly blistering set, and while the over-the-top nature of the music or lyrics may put some people off, I thought it worked very well. Given only an hour, they really killed, focusing mostly on their fairly recent material (Marriage of Heaven & Hell 2 forward). Given that restriction, I thought they had a very good setlist, and I was amazed they did Veni Vidi Vici, the 9 minute closer to Invictus, my favorite album of theirs today. Altogether a great performance that essentially justified the lengthy drive on its own.
Then it was more time killing, as I didnt care much for Redemption and I wanted to get Virgin Steeles autograph. The guys were very nice throughout the session. The guy in front of me had some old school 80s material, and they laughed at how they looked back in the day. As for me, I found out the secret to Davids killer voice (tight pants).
Pagans Mind was the next band that I caught in its entirety and they sounded pretty good with a very positive reception from the crowd. However, I didnt know anything by them going to the show and I dont have that much of an impression of their set after the fact.
Then it was the headliners of the eveningSonata Artica, a band that I had grown to love in the last year or so. Although I dont have any of their studio albums, I have both of their live albums and a couple of boot. Seeing them live was absolutely amazingthey did not disappoint (except for not playing their best song Last Drop Falls). The band clearly fed off the energy from the fans, and responded in kind. I didnt know all of the songs, but the material seemed to be a mix of the standards plus a few new songs to give fans a flavor of the new album. No matter, the fans ran wild throughout.
After a 3 hour + drive from Knoxville, I made it into town on Friday night shortly before 4. However, I didnt pay that much attention to Raintime or Communmics sets, as I was more interested in getting something to eat, getting merchandise & Sonata Articas autographs. Unfortunately, after spending a half hour at one table, they told us that the authograph was on the other side of the building, and so I wound up waiting for quite a while.
This cut into Virgin Steeles set, which upset me a little as VS was one of the main reasons I went. I still didnt miss much, and was able to get a good seat in the center, most of the way up. This was an incredibly blistering set, and while the over-the-top nature of the music or lyrics may put some people off, I thought it worked very well. Given only an hour, they really killed, focusing mostly on their fairly recent material (Marriage of Heaven & Hell 2 forward). Given that restriction, I thought they had a very good setlist, and I was amazed they did Veni Vidi Vici, the 9 minute closer to Invictus, my favorite album of theirs today. Altogether a great performance that essentially justified the lengthy drive on its own.
Then it was more time killing, as I didnt care much for Redemption and I wanted to get Virgin Steeles autograph. The guys were very nice throughout the session. The guy in front of me had some old school 80s material, and they laughed at how they looked back in the day. As for me, I found out the secret to Davids killer voice (tight pants).
Pagans Mind was the next band that I caught in its entirety and they sounded pretty good with a very positive reception from the crowd. However, I didnt know anything by them going to the show and I dont have that much of an impression of their set after the fact.
Then it was the headliners of the eveningSonata Artica, a band that I had grown to love in the last year or so. Although I dont have any of their studio albums, I have both of their live albums and a couple of boot. Seeing them live was absolutely amazingthey did not disappoint (except for not playing their best song Last Drop Falls). The band clearly fed off the energy from the fans, and responded in kind. I didnt know all of the songs, but the material seemed to be a mix of the standards plus a few new songs to give fans a flavor of the new album. No matter, the fans ran wild throughout.