OT: Chicago Powerfest Quick Review!!!!
- Thread starter Diabolik
- Start date
Jasonic
Doom On!
Hey all.
I was there on Saturday only.
From the people I spoke with, it sounds like Biomechanical stole the show on Friday, and Agent Steel were not too far behind.
Mirror Black seem to have the right idea. My only problem with them was the structure of the songs. They were unnecessarily long and did not contain any sort of catchy choruses to remember. Should be interesting to see what the future will hold for them.
Next was Twelfth Gate. I don't know what more can be said about Scott's replacement. I will leave it at this. He was entertaining to watch and was very energetic. I don't think it was a good fit for the Twelfth Gate sound. Also, they just had a new album out. Not sure it was the best idea to have a fill in at a high profile show, esp when the vocal style is a complete 360° change. I like Twelfth Gate, but after the set I did find myself questioning whether or not they would have been better off not playing.
Next up was Ion Vein. These guys impress me more and more every time I see them. The new material rocks. More memorable vocal melodies than Ion Vein of past which is extremely critical, esp when you are performing songs that aren't on disc yet. Would have been nice if they at least played one or two songs from their 2 discs, though I know they are in recording mode so they want to play the new stuff live. I remembered most of the tracks from when they opened for Sonata Arctica (as Ken had previously stated). I look forward to their new album (whenever it comes out!) The cover of Painkiller may honestly have been the best live cover I have ever heard.
Next was Nocturnal Rites. Best band of the evening by far (and that is not meant to be a dis to any of the other bands). This was the main band I wanted to see and I did not leave dissapointed. Their performance reminded me of the first time I ever saw HammerFall live. The best quality of their performance was a very simple thing............ They actually have fun playing live!!! Many bands fail this easy thing, and almost look like they are in pain when playing live, like it is a chore. NR were extremely energetic and tight as hell. My only complaint would be that they only played the title track off of Shadowland (which is my fav NR disc). I really hope they come back soon!
Finally was Morgana Lefay. I admit to not being extremely familiar with this band. I only have one disc, the Seventh Seal. They did play The End of Living off that one. I stayed for only about 6 or 7 songs. These guys just don't do it for me. I was dissapointed when I finally heard them , considering the amount of hype online around them. Maybe if it wasn't after 1AM and they weren't having all the technical issues I would have stayed to see their full set. I was already 100% satisfied after the NR set that I had considered my evening done already.
Kudos to Chris, Rob, and the 3rd promoter (sorry, Can't recall his name) for putting together such a successful show. It was run VERY well. All sets were on time as scheduled. The sound was great. The venue was very impressive. I love large rooms like that with high cielings. Ken was dead on though about it being hard to talk to people once a band was playing (since it was essentially one large room with no escaping the sound).
I was there on Saturday only.
From the people I spoke with, it sounds like Biomechanical stole the show on Friday, and Agent Steel were not too far behind.
Mirror Black seem to have the right idea. My only problem with them was the structure of the songs. They were unnecessarily long and did not contain any sort of catchy choruses to remember. Should be interesting to see what the future will hold for them.
Next was Twelfth Gate. I don't know what more can be said about Scott's replacement. I will leave it at this. He was entertaining to watch and was very energetic. I don't think it was a good fit for the Twelfth Gate sound. Also, they just had a new album out. Not sure it was the best idea to have a fill in at a high profile show, esp when the vocal style is a complete 360° change. I like Twelfth Gate, but after the set I did find myself questioning whether or not they would have been better off not playing.
Next up was Ion Vein. These guys impress me more and more every time I see them. The new material rocks. More memorable vocal melodies than Ion Vein of past which is extremely critical, esp when you are performing songs that aren't on disc yet. Would have been nice if they at least played one or two songs from their 2 discs, though I know they are in recording mode so they want to play the new stuff live. I remembered most of the tracks from when they opened for Sonata Arctica (as Ken had previously stated). I look forward to their new album (whenever it comes out!) The cover of Painkiller may honestly have been the best live cover I have ever heard.
Next was Nocturnal Rites. Best band of the evening by far (and that is not meant to be a dis to any of the other bands). This was the main band I wanted to see and I did not leave dissapointed. Their performance reminded me of the first time I ever saw HammerFall live. The best quality of their performance was a very simple thing............ They actually have fun playing live!!! Many bands fail this easy thing, and almost look like they are in pain when playing live, like it is a chore. NR were extremely energetic and tight as hell. My only complaint would be that they only played the title track off of Shadowland (which is my fav NR disc). I really hope they come back soon!
Finally was Morgana Lefay. I admit to not being extremely familiar with this band. I only have one disc, the Seventh Seal. They did play The End of Living off that one. I stayed for only about 6 or 7 songs. These guys just don't do it for me. I was dissapointed when I finally heard them , considering the amount of hype online around them. Maybe if it wasn't after 1AM and they weren't having all the technical issues I would have stayed to see their full set. I was already 100% satisfied after the NR set that I had considered my evening done already.
Kudos to Chris, Rob, and the 3rd promoter (sorry, Can't recall his name) for putting together such a successful show. It was run VERY well. All sets were on time as scheduled. The sound was great. The venue was very impressive. I love large rooms like that with high cielings. Ken was dead on though about it being hard to talk to people once a band was playing (since it was essentially one large room with no escaping the sound).
Mosquito
oh noes!!
AMBR
Metal Grandma
Mosquito
oh noes!!
woosta said:
Call the Waaaaaahhhmbulance. You going to PPVII? You probably shouldn't stick around on Friday at all then because you'll have to wait til after Mercenary is done so you don't have to sit through something heavy.
The Fiddler
Just Do It.
3 things I can't figure:
1. Everyone is posting their Chicago Powerfest reviews on the UM ProgPower forum instead of the UM Chicago Powerfest forum. There isn't a single paragraph review on the Powerfest forum while at least 10 exist above (although Jasonic does mention in the Powerfest forum that his Powerfest review can be found in the ProgPower forum). :Smug:
2. People going to a festival and leaving early because they are tired. Get in shape.
3. People juding a band they've never heard before based upon a few songs from a single performance in a live setting (vs. a studio recording) in which anything can happen (band members are ill, get jet-lag, suffer technical problems out of their control, etc.,). :Smug:
If you're going to slam a band's festival performance, don't do it on another festival's website. There's enough slamming of the PP bands on the PP website without having to slam Powerfest bands on the PP website too. :Smug: That said, I think most of the reviews in this thread were objective and well thought-out. That doesn't happen here a whole lot the month after PP is over.
While I'm ranting, there's nothing I hate more than people slamming a band who flew 14 hours across the ocean to make a one-time appearance at a festival in the USA. Those non-objective kind of reviews that are all too prevalent on this forum don't do anything to enhance the festival's appeal to bands who read this forum. I think we're really lucky to have festivals like PP and CP and think the zealous negativity in many of the reviews only tarnish the reputation of these festivals abroad. It's not like we're living in Germany or Sweeden and have a boatload of festivals every year. I'm thankful for what we have here which is very little. I'd really love to turn the tables and let the musicians have the opportunity to slam an audience or particular members of it, but they don't have the freedom to make annonymous comments on forums like this without everyone knowing who they are.
1. Everyone is posting their Chicago Powerfest reviews on the UM ProgPower forum instead of the UM Chicago Powerfest forum. There isn't a single paragraph review on the Powerfest forum while at least 10 exist above (although Jasonic does mention in the Powerfest forum that his Powerfest review can be found in the ProgPower forum). :Smug:
2. People going to a festival and leaving early because they are tired. Get in shape.
3. People juding a band they've never heard before based upon a few songs from a single performance in a live setting (vs. a studio recording) in which anything can happen (band members are ill, get jet-lag, suffer technical problems out of their control, etc.,). :Smug:
If you're going to slam a band's festival performance, don't do it on another festival's website. There's enough slamming of the PP bands on the PP website without having to slam Powerfest bands on the PP website too. :Smug: That said, I think most of the reviews in this thread were objective and well thought-out. That doesn't happen here a whole lot the month after PP is over.
While I'm ranting, there's nothing I hate more than people slamming a band who flew 14 hours across the ocean to make a one-time appearance at a festival in the USA. Those non-objective kind of reviews that are all too prevalent on this forum don't do anything to enhance the festival's appeal to bands who read this forum. I think we're really lucky to have festivals like PP and CP and think the zealous negativity in many of the reviews only tarnish the reputation of these festivals abroad. It's not like we're living in Germany or Sweeden and have a boatload of festivals every year. I'm thankful for what we have here which is very little. I'd really love to turn the tables and let the musicians have the opportunity to slam an audience or particular members of it, but they don't have the freedom to make annonymous comments on forums like this without everyone knowing who they are.
booB
Señor Member
My review, cross-posted:
--
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 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.
booB
Señor Member
The Fiddler said:2. People going to a festival and leaving early because they are tired. Get in shape.
THANK YOU!!!!!!
Mosquito said:
THANK YOU!!!!!!
woosta
Member
Regor said:
I got your "grain of salt" right fucking here, bro. I've spent last weekend in DC, this weekend in Chicago, next weekend in Pittsburgh and then back to DC again for Gamma Ray in a couple. I'm burnt out on opening bands in this genre to be totally honest. I haven't "discovered" a band in about 5 years now over countless shows. It's draining. I've seen so many quality shows killed by 5,6, 7 opening acts that I quit counting. I find that it's actually hurting my enjoyment of the shows (and last year's Powerfest was the same situation as I showed up when the doors opened).
So take that grain of salt and shove it in your ass, my man.
Tess
Member
Bryan316
METAL... nuff said!
woosta said:
BIG FAT PUSSY.
Biomechanical did a helluva show, and the audience's reaction to them proves you wrong.
eaeolian
Division Guitarist
KingsGene
God of Thunder
sh0kr0k
Active Member
The Fiddler said:3 things I can't figure:
1. Everyone is posting their Chicago Powerfest reviews on the UM ProgPower forum instead of the UM Chicago Powerfest forum.
2. People going to a festival and leaving early because they are tired. Get in shape.
3. People juding a band they've never heard before based upon a few songs
HERE! HERE!
With that being said, I'll go post my review on the CPF forum as well!
eaeolian said:Hmm. I guess you'll be skipping us, then.
ROTFLOL!!! You're just another talentless crappy opener. Who cares about those bands anyway?! Psshh....
Bryan316
METAL... nuff said!
[InigoMontoya]
Lemme esplain. No, there is no time. Lemme sum up.
[/InigoMontoya]
Biomechanical are devastatingly powerful on stage! Extremely complex riffs, the singer can go from Phil Anselmo to Geoff Tate in one breath, and they KILLED the audience with Painkiller and Raining Blood. I did NOT expect to hear a band, ANY band, ever do a worthy cover of a Slayer song, and I'M THAT SLAYER GUY!!!
Nocturnal Rites were exactly what I hoped I'd see coming to this festival. ANYONE IN A BAND MUST SEE THESE GUYS, AND BRING A PAD OF PAPER TO TAKE NOTES!! That's how you perform in front of an audience! Those guys coulda got Terry Shaivo to throw the horns up! I equate this performance with Edguy at PP3. Easily. It was that damn good. Thoroughly inspiring to see these guys on stage. Their frontman can and will give anyone a run for their money. I honestly cannot tell you who would kick more ass... Edguy or Nocturnal Rites! These are the two bands that I would say set the standard for power metal live performances.
They oughta do an instructional video, How To Rock: Stage Presence and Live Performances. Lesson 1 - See Nocturnal Rites live.
About the venue:
I dug it. Beer tub at the door, with a hottie. Nice long bar, with hotties. Big wide open floor. Tall tables with stools on the sides. Damn fine stage. First stage I've seen with a hardwood floor, great big drum riser, good sized monitors that could take a beating, and good height for the stage so the audience could see. Complaints? The main speakers and their placement. I hope someone can communicate this to Vince Kelley, cuz I mean this in a completely positive way and want him to improve this one aspect. The sound quality was great when I stood back from the stage, but once I was up close, say within 15 feet of the stage, I had a very hard time hearing the vocals. The guitar amps were quite overpowering and made it difficult to hear the other guitarist, especially if you weren't dead center to the stage. What I'd like to see, is one speaker cab pointed inward at a sharper angle, on each side of the stage. As I looked up at how they were configured, they pointed straight to the back of the venue. So there's terrible dead spots in the front up close to the stage. Maybe if he put one speaker in the very center directly above the audience pointed down, it would fix the problem. Aside from the dead spots, the sound was great. Yeah, The first bands of each night had a few problems, like only one bass drum microphone coming through, or band levels between guitars, but they were quickly taken care of. That's what I would consider standard, really, as each band didn't get much time for a full blown sound check. But they were fast at tweaking each band, so Kudos to the sound guy. Last thing to mention, would be the addition of a simple curtain for the stage to conceal things during soundcheck, and allow the bands a more majestic introduction. There's a local bar near me that has a wickedawesome and simple curtain system. I'd gladly get details of how they made their rig work, if Kelley woul be interested. And I cannot complain about not having a second room for vendors or talking. Most places I go to for smaller shows don't have that kind of space, and considering this venue is in a strip mall, I'm completely suprised at the size of the place anyways! Super tall, plenty of stage room, and no stupid support columns in the way of everything! So I can't complain about the structure of the venue. They found a reasonable building to do it, and they did a far superior job than I'm used to around Detroit. Speaker placement to fix the dead spots, a low-cost curtain for the stage, and I'd hang out there every weekend!
Minus the five-hour drive. Heh heh.
I'll attend next year, that's for certain! Congratulations to the crazy fools who put this shindig together, it was definitely
Lemme esplain. No, there is no time. Lemme sum up.
[/InigoMontoya]
Biomechanical are devastatingly powerful on stage! Extremely complex riffs, the singer can go from Phil Anselmo to Geoff Tate in one breath, and they KILLED the audience with Painkiller and Raining Blood. I did NOT expect to hear a band, ANY band, ever do a worthy cover of a Slayer song, and I'M THAT SLAYER GUY!!!
Nocturnal Rites were exactly what I hoped I'd see coming to this festival. ANYONE IN A BAND MUST SEE THESE GUYS, AND BRING A PAD OF PAPER TO TAKE NOTES!! That's how you perform in front of an audience! Those guys coulda got Terry Shaivo to throw the horns up! I equate this performance with Edguy at PP3. Easily. It was that damn good. Thoroughly inspiring to see these guys on stage. Their frontman can and will give anyone a run for their money. I honestly cannot tell you who would kick more ass... Edguy or Nocturnal Rites! These are the two bands that I would say set the standard for power metal live performances.
They oughta do an instructional video, How To Rock: Stage Presence and Live Performances. Lesson 1 - See Nocturnal Rites live.
About the venue:
I dug it. Beer tub at the door, with a hottie. Nice long bar, with hotties. Big wide open floor. Tall tables with stools on the sides. Damn fine stage. First stage I've seen with a hardwood floor, great big drum riser, good sized monitors that could take a beating, and good height for the stage so the audience could see. Complaints? The main speakers and their placement. I hope someone can communicate this to Vince Kelley, cuz I mean this in a completely positive way and want him to improve this one aspect. The sound quality was great when I stood back from the stage, but once I was up close, say within 15 feet of the stage, I had a very hard time hearing the vocals. The guitar amps were quite overpowering and made it difficult to hear the other guitarist, especially if you weren't dead center to the stage. What I'd like to see, is one speaker cab pointed inward at a sharper angle, on each side of the stage. As I looked up at how they were configured, they pointed straight to the back of the venue. So there's terrible dead spots in the front up close to the stage. Maybe if he put one speaker in the very center directly above the audience pointed down, it would fix the problem. Aside from the dead spots, the sound was great. Yeah, The first bands of each night had a few problems, like only one bass drum microphone coming through, or band levels between guitars, but they were quickly taken care of. That's what I would consider standard, really, as each band didn't get much time for a full blown sound check. But they were fast at tweaking each band, so Kudos to the sound guy. Last thing to mention, would be the addition of a simple curtain for the stage to conceal things during soundcheck, and allow the bands a more majestic introduction. There's a local bar near me that has a wickedawesome and simple curtain system. I'd gladly get details of how they made their rig work, if Kelley woul be interested. And I cannot complain about not having a second room for vendors or talking. Most places I go to for smaller shows don't have that kind of space, and considering this venue is in a strip mall, I'm completely suprised at the size of the place anyways! Super tall, plenty of stage room, and no stupid support columns in the way of everything! So I can't complain about the structure of the venue. They found a reasonable building to do it, and they did a far superior job than I'm used to around Detroit. Speaker placement to fix the dead spots, a low-cost curtain for the stage, and I'd hang out there every weekend!
Minus the five-hour drive. Heh heh.
I'll attend next year, that's for certain! Congratulations to the crazy fools who put this shindig together, it was definitely
Bryan316
METAL... nuff said!
sh0kr0k said:
Division - American Power Metal that sucks. Much.
Thank god they never play in Michigan... I don't want to have to come late to a show and skip the boring acts!!!
Oooh this thread is now DRIPPING with sarcasm! I hope they make a pill to fix this....
eaeolian
Division Guitarist
Bryan316 said:Division - American Power Metal that sucks. Much.
Hey, he's entitled to his opinion, even if I don't agree with it. I was just commenting on his general attitude.
However, at least give us the chance to suck.
Bryan316
METAL... nuff said!
eaeolian said:However, at least give us the chance to suck.
I CAN'T BREATHE RIGHT NOW! FUCKER!! Oh man, I've got tears in my eyes, that was so well played. Like watching the Michael Jordan of comedy!!! By the way, hellawickedawesome to meet you this weekend, and now that we've got your album, it's far more satisfying to listen to it than the MP3's. Far better sound quality!!!
Now git to Detroit.
eaeolian
Division Guitarist
Bryan316 said:
I just ran with the setup.
Bryan316 said:By the way, hellawickedawesome to meet you this weekend, and now that we've got your album, it's far more satisfying to listen to it than the MP3's. Far better sound quality!!!
Thanks, and it was a pleasure to hang with you guys when I finally got there.
The owner of Metal Haven thought it was hilarious that I got two people to buy my CD while I was in there...Bryan316 said:
We're working on that. If Tammy had been anything resembling sober, I'd have talked to her about that, but...
eaeolian
Division Guitarist
metalprof said:
He said the same thing to me, and I almost passed out laughing. That boy seriously ain't right...
A pleasure having our semi-annual ten minute conversation. Meet for another ten in Atlanta?
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