Well, before I get into my review, I just wanted to extend public thanks to Chris, John & Rob for having some major testiculaturage between them to put on yet another amazing festival! This is not an easy business to make money in and not every festival has the ProgPower golden touch. I am very happy to have attended and will definitely be back next year!
Okay, so for my twenty-five cent review, here goes!
Friday night
So all that stuff about the best laid plans of mice and SwordLords ... well, I had intended to leave early on Friday, but didn't actually get on the road until about 11:50am. I was seriously cruising ... did about 80mph all the way through Wisconsin (yes, yes, I know that's seriously stupid but ... I wanted to ROCK!
) and was crossing the border to Illinois around 4:30pm or so. By 5:00pm I was in the Chicago city limits and I was thinking to myself, "Hah hah hah, I rule, I'm going to easily make it to the venue by 7:00pm!"
WHO THE HELL PUT ALL THIS ROAD CONSTRUCTION IN MY WAY, DAMMIT! :zombie:
I saw in traffic for about 2 hours and by the time 6:30pm rolled around and I had listened to "Empire of the New Worlds" CD by BIOMECHANICAL at least 2 times over, I was seriously ready to commit murder! I finally reached the hotel at around 7:15pm, got checked in and put on my leather as fast as I could. So I'm out of the woods now, right?
WRONG!
Mapquest had the wrong directions to the venue and it SAID RIGHT where I should have gone LEFT, so I ended up getting lost on the way to the venue! ARGH!
Finally get to the venue minutes before GRACEPOINT was supposed to go on... Can I get my metal groove on now, please???
IMHO, the band to beat on Friday night was AGENT STEEL. I've only seen them one other time (Minneapolis Mayhem in 2004), but they were just on fire Friday night! I felt Bruce was in top form (after all, it was his birthday...) and the band was spot on for all songs. I can't remember the last time I was so blown away by a set that by anyone's guess would have just been enjoyable rather than a mind-bending experience.
Now don't get me wrong, BIOMECHANICAL was completely awesome, but honestly, for a minute I thought I had purchased the wrong CD. Am I nuts or where did the low vocals go?! :zombie: The dude was singing super high and swingin' like nobody's business! Although I immensely enjoyed the set, it sounded different to me than the actual recordings.
ELDRITCH was good, but I think they probably are a band that is better enjoyed on CD than live, once again, IMHO.
Saturday Night (Live)
Definitely not wanting to repeat my experience from Friday, I MADE SURE I left the hotel in plenty of time to get to the venue at a decent hour. Traveling in the Sword-mobile were TammyZ and her very cool friends Brian and Roger. Being that I do not drink, I was playin' the dezi, but I don't mind ... metal brothers should look out for one another.
Arriving at the venue, I was almost immediately approached by Shawn (sp?) and Chris in which I was informed that Shawn's voice was not up for handling emcee duties and they wondered if I could fill in. What an honor! : I gratefully accepted and Chris handed me a beautifully laminated back-stage pass (which now sits atop a shelf on my "metal shrine" in my home).
In my other life, I definitely would have been a rock star so having an opportunity to be the emcee for a show gives me just a tiny taste of what my life would have been like had I been blessed with musical talent like Chris Lotesto or Lance King or the guys from Mirror Black or ... well you get the idea. I had a total blast being the emcee and thank you to everyone who said kind words about my spectacle at the show.
Saturday was just one continuous knock-out punch after another. I thought MIRROR BLACK had come a loooooong way from the raw sound of their first demo -- they seriously impressed me. Likewise, I had never heard of TWELFTH GATE, but they sounded outstanding and had crackling on-stage energy. I've only seen ION VEIN twice and they do not disappoint ... why does that lead singer remind me so much of Sammy Hagar?
Now don't pelt me with eggs, but I had never heard of Nocturnal Rites before Saturday night and wow ... wow ... WOW!!! Halfway through the set, I couldn't take it anymore and I went to the merch booth and bought every single one of the CD's they had for sale and took them out to my car. I've been listening to a lot of NR since Saturday night!
MORGANA LEFAY -- I am very glad I had the opportunity to see these guys a second time after I saw them last year and had never heard of them before last year either! I have purchased four of their albums since last year and I was totally ready for their set! Backstage before they came on, I asked Charles point-blank if they were going to play Red Moon (my favorite song) and he gave me a sly grin and said, "We'll see!"
THEY PLAYED IT!!! AND CHARLES LET ME SING PART OF IT!!! I CAN DIE A HAPPY MAN!!!
That Morgana Lefay set was just amazing ... and how cool was it that the band came out even when Charles couldn't to do a couple of numbers that Bruce from Agent Steel ended up joining them for?! You don't get any cooler than that! You just don't!
Wonderful to have met Boob, TammyZ (again, ), Dolamite, Amber and all of you whose names I headbanged out of my brain during Red Moon! All of you made the weekend just that much more enjoyable!
If you missed this festival ... you missed out BIG TIME! Don't miss next year's!
Chris, John and Rob -- thank you. It was an amazing festival and I was proud not only to attend but to have contributed to it in what little way I could.
All about the music,
Nathan "The SwordLord" Block
Okay, so for my twenty-five cent review, here goes!
Friday night
So all that stuff about the best laid plans of mice and SwordLords ... well, I had intended to leave early on Friday, but didn't actually get on the road until about 11:50am. I was seriously cruising ... did about 80mph all the way through Wisconsin (yes, yes, I know that's seriously stupid but ... I wanted to ROCK!
) and was crossing the border to Illinois around 4:30pm or so. By 5:00pm I was in the Chicago city limits and I was thinking to myself, "Hah hah hah, I rule, I'm going to easily make it to the venue by 7:00pm!"WHO THE HELL PUT ALL THIS ROAD CONSTRUCTION IN MY WAY, DAMMIT! :zombie:
I saw in traffic for about 2 hours and by the time 6:30pm rolled around and I had listened to "Empire of the New Worlds" CD by BIOMECHANICAL at least 2 times over, I was seriously ready to commit murder! I finally reached the hotel at around 7:15pm, got checked in and put on my leather as fast as I could. So I'm out of the woods now, right?
WRONG!
Mapquest had the wrong directions to the venue and it SAID RIGHT where I should have gone LEFT, so I ended up getting lost on the way to the venue! ARGH!
Finally get to the venue minutes before GRACEPOINT was supposed to go on... Can I get my metal groove on now, please???
IMHO, the band to beat on Friday night was AGENT STEEL. I've only seen them one other time (Minneapolis Mayhem in 2004), but they were just on fire Friday night! I felt Bruce was in top form (after all, it was his birthday...) and the band was spot on for all songs. I can't remember the last time I was so blown away by a set that by anyone's guess would have just been enjoyable rather than a mind-bending experience.
Now don't get me wrong, BIOMECHANICAL was completely awesome, but honestly, for a minute I thought I had purchased the wrong CD. Am I nuts or where did the low vocals go?! :zombie: The dude was singing super high and swingin' like nobody's business! Although I immensely enjoyed the set, it sounded different to me than the actual recordings.
ELDRITCH was good, but I think they probably are a band that is better enjoyed on CD than live, once again, IMHO.
Saturday Night (Live)
Definitely not wanting to repeat my experience from Friday, I MADE SURE I left the hotel in plenty of time to get to the venue at a decent hour. Traveling in the Sword-mobile were TammyZ and her very cool friends Brian and Roger. Being that I do not drink, I was playin' the dezi, but I don't mind ... metal brothers should look out for one another.
Arriving at the venue, I was almost immediately approached by Shawn (sp?) and Chris in which I was informed that Shawn's voice was not up for handling emcee duties and they wondered if I could fill in. What an honor!
: I gratefully accepted and Chris handed me a beautifully laminated back-stage pass (which now sits atop a shelf on my "metal shrine" in my home). In my other life, I definitely would have been a rock star so having an opportunity to be the emcee for a show gives me just a tiny taste of what my life would have been like had I been blessed with musical talent like Chris Lotesto or Lance King or the guys from Mirror Black or ... well you get the idea. I had a total blast being the emcee and thank you to everyone who said kind words about my spectacle at the show.
Saturday was just one continuous knock-out punch after another. I thought MIRROR BLACK had come a loooooong way from the raw sound of their first demo -- they seriously impressed me. Likewise, I had never heard of TWELFTH GATE, but they sounded outstanding and had crackling on-stage energy. I've only seen ION VEIN twice and they do not disappoint ... why does that lead singer remind me so much of Sammy Hagar?
Now don't pelt me with eggs, but I had never heard of Nocturnal Rites before Saturday night and wow ... wow ... WOW!!! Halfway through the set, I couldn't take it anymore and I went to the merch booth and bought every single one of the CD's they had for sale and took them out to my car. I've been listening to a lot of NR since Saturday night!
MORGANA LEFAY -- I am very glad I had the opportunity to see these guys a second time after I saw them last year and had never heard of them before last year either! I have purchased four of their albums since last year and I was totally ready for their set! Backstage before they came on, I asked Charles point-blank if they were going to play Red Moon (my favorite song) and he gave me a sly grin and said, "We'll see!"
THEY PLAYED IT!!! AND CHARLES LET ME SING PART OF IT!!! I CAN DIE A HAPPY MAN!!!
That Morgana Lefay set was just amazing ... and how cool was it that the band came out even when Charles couldn't to do a couple of numbers that Bruce from Agent Steel ended up joining them for?! You don't get any cooler than that! You just don't!
Wonderful to have met Boob, TammyZ (again,
), Dolamite, Amber and all of you whose names I headbanged out of my brain during Red Moon! All of you made the weekend just that much more enjoyable!If you missed this festival ... you missed out BIG TIME! Don't miss next year's!
Chris, John and Rob -- thank you. It was an amazing festival and I was proud not only to attend but to have contributed to it in what little way I could.
All about the music,
Nathan "The SwordLord" Block
