PPVI Cheers and Jeers

[prog2112]

Cheers:

For an awesome time the whole weekend and all of the great people at ProgPower. I am always amazed at how cool everyone is- it totally makes the show.

For Felipe giving me one his "Felipe Andreoli" shirts when I told him I tried to order it online and couldn't. Angra playing such a kick-ass show.

Stride for being so awesome and my surprise ultimate favorite for the weekend because I wasn't expecting it.

Jeers:

The asshole who stole my friend Mark's wallet. (Cheers to the person who turned it in!!)

No lights on the stairs yet again.

Having to come home and having to go "back to reality" and wait for ProgPower to roll around again next year

-Sheri

 

[The Fiddler]

jeer:
*The blinding bright lights on the crowd during Angra's set.

It's really unpleasant to have giant white lights shining directly our eyes while in dark surroundings. I couldn't look up at the stage for the first 3 songs. I got so frustrated that I had to leave because my eyes were actually starting to water.

I tried to move around as best I could, hoping that I was just in a bad spot but it was everywhere I went. I tried to see if there were any seats available further back where it was dark but my eyes were watering and hurting so bad I had to leave. Once I finally got the tears to stop whelling up and I could see again, I had no desire to go in and do it all over again. I was really looking forward to seeing Angra again, but instead I can't even recall getting a good look at them the whole night.

Those lights are fun for big "HEY" moments, but I couldn't figure out purpose it served to have them on for so long. None of the other bands had such bright lights on the crowd, so again, maybe Angra requires that they see their audience better... how ironic, they see me, but not I can't see them. haha!
Tammy

I couldn't agree with you more. The bright lights should have been in front of the band shining down on them and not vice-versa. It was next to impossible to photograph the musicians when those lights were on - it was like shooting into 24 suns.

I noticed a lot of fans holding their hands up over their eyes to shade them. And when those bright stage lights were down, the musicians were bathed mostly in red, pink, or baby blue. The Conception set was the worst lit set of the entire fest.

To my knowledge, only Stratovarious and Angra had their own lighting tech.

 

[Bryan316]

AND BRYAN AND ROGER! I didn't get to say goodbye to you guys either! >_<

FUCK! Well, I'll have to make another trip out to Detroit soon and just get hammered on Cabo with you guys!

I HAD THE BOTTLE OF CABO IN MY TRUCK AND NO ONE WANTED ANY! Those fuckers from Manticora were scared shitless to try it! "Tequila? Oh no! I don't want to die in America!" That and we were always too damned exhausted to try any of the afterparties. We're such wimps.

All goodbyes were thrown out the window once I had to go track down Kevin. LOL!

We'll bring the Cabo to our October 1st show. Heh heh heh.

 

[MetalRose]

Oh: One Jeer to me: Not remembering some of the people I met on passing last year and not making a point to talk with those who came up and introduced themselves to me this year. Obviously I was a little preoccupied, so please forgive me... It wasn't intentional.

Cheers to Circus Maximus for signing the CD for my son with his name on it. Although he didn't get a drum stick this year, when I brought the CD home, he saw his name on it his jaw dropped. A couple of the guys told me, "Tell Joey Sky that we hope he likes it... send him wishes... etc." So I told him and he started to cry. He felt like he was the luckiest kid in the world... he slept with the CD last night.

THE BIGGEST CHEERS TO: Wisconson Wicked Chick (Tracey) and Scott for actually taking this LOOOONNNNNNGGG ass road trip with me and not only putting up with my shennagains, but joining in them as well.

-Metal

 

[Coldfire Mouse]

Ya know….ProgPower should be a week long event. And for some it has ‘progressed’ into damn near that However the longer the event..the harder it is to come back to the real world and deal with mortals. I’m having SUCH withdrawals and really do NOT want to be here at work. But next year I think we are coming in even one more day early. The drive down was awesome!

I was a bit too jangled in my thoughts to attempt to capture anything coherently yesterday and so I’ll make a stab at it today.

Highpoints:

Glenn Harveston is the man. To have been so lucky as to be able to get our gold badges each year to support his hard efforts in this…and to be rewarded with 2 of the most fantastic things I have been lucky enough to witness:
Conception playing live.
Watching Glenn watch Conception Play live. Watching Glenn do the ‘throw your hands up in the air and wave them around like ya just don’t care’ dance was equally is breathtaking as witnessing the Conception…er show!

You know Glenn throws a good show when I lose my voice… the faster I lose my voice…the better the weekend. Mine was gone about 10 minutes into the pre-party!

Glenn’s CREW are the MEN and Woman! They rock! I know Glenn can’t do this without you and I know he’s truly grateful you bust ass like you do for him and us fans. We can’t begin to thank you enough…but Hugs from me to ya’ll! If I see ya in my neck of the woods…..home cooked meal at our place!

Shane….thank you for throwing one HELL of a pre-party! I love the Loft…even if it IS loud…but that back room for sitting and hollering is perfect! Thank you also for bringing Dreamscape back….you made Scott’s weekend with that one. Well that and Scott told me he saw the oh so dignified and refined Larry D completely lose it and do the dance of the Sugar Plum Spaz during their set! So thanks you both for making Scott’s night!

Special props and thanks to Shanteria at the Residence Inn. This lady is a riot, loads of fun and a total class act!

As Weebo termed us…the Breakfast club. The Residence does an amazing breakfast while we are there. Hot breakfasts on the weekends..none of this cereal and bagel only crud! GO down early enough…keep pulling tables together and just hang till after breakfast is over and you end up having the most amazing convos! If I try to name ya’ll….damn I’ll forget someone like Kyle did and then ya’ll will get mad and I’ll be sad. I’m sad enough already as it is since I came back to work. What a way to ‘quietly’ reconnect with long time dear friends (who now it seems I only get to catch up with once a year) and make new ones!

Doc Metal! You are family bro! We love ya man! Ya need it..let us know we’ll move a mountain for you! You are without a doubt one of the coolest and classiest people we have the privilege of calling ‘family’ Ya know the drill…if yer even in our neck of the woods….

Ya know Ben….yer such a good boy Welcome to the family. Nice to meet ya…and actually get to know you. Of course we’ll have to have more long conversations or discourses on music, and damn near everything else right?

To all the folks who gave me hugs and smiles of welcome back…thanks! Thank you for understanding that I got a life now and as such am not always living on my computer 24/7. Thank you for letting me catch up!

Kez…who is one of the best t-shirt models I have seen yet! *pokes you in your belly button* giggle*

So great big hugs to ya’ll: Sarah (I’m making you that cup for next year), Jeremy (We bought a car from your twin ) Everonn (NO MAS! But come for chorizo & eggs), The one True Matt, Kyle, Teri, Jim, Rob & Tricia, Alicia, Kim (Club Sandwich!), Harvester, Dweeb, Lotesto (you can smack my ass when I get my nail back!), Beth & Matt (what happened to shotgun shopping?), Shae (glad to finally meet you. Scott had already been talking with you…you are as sweet as he said) Hough, Brendan, Dub, Jeffro, Kez (next time get excited at Conception ) Ben(yer so cute!), Christina, Patrick & Karin (yes we have witnessed cloning!) Alex (Sorry about your food man ), The Shrike, Ralf (I still love ya bro!), Troy and Todd and LMJH who made it there, Guy, Lara (DSO!), Aki, Justin, Bear, Chris Roy (Congrats my friend she’s beautiful), Don Capps, Zilla (short hair or long you are a stud!), Nick Van Dyk (you sir are a beautiful man who makes killer music) Ken & Lauren Golden (Thanks for my bi-annual hugs while you take my money!), Deron, Bob er Boob, WFU, Wayniac the Maniac (Still gots them hot eyes!), Krusty (Respectable?! ), Pellaz, Pat (Gabbo) & Irene, TJ, BraveApollo, and my Scottbird for loving the music I do so we can do this together every year. Thanks for buying me my corset so I could participate Sheesh did I forget anyone?

What sucked….missing faces…Blevins you were missed…Scooter and Mandy you were missed, Dee and Kerri (SIS!) you and your love and smiles were SOOO missed! Happy Mike….you need to get your ass to one of these things okay? Altho there were more people this year (THANKS THIEVES!) the regulars were missed and it was to them I raised a glass in their honor!

More suckage…..bootleggers and badge thieves. Man…ya’ll should be lucky your identities have not been revealed…thanks to you…your party fouls are putting dampers on Glenn and his yearly party! It really is Glenn’s party and we are lucky to be invited back year after year. Drama sucks…but is inevitable. High gas prices suck too. Going back to work after having the party of the year and missing all my friends…sucks the suck out of suck (thankyou Zilla) I still wish we lived in a large Prog Power Commune….how fun would that be?


I’ll post more later on the performances and the review of the 10 cd’s I bought from Ken “Soul Collector” Golden. But for now…back to work eh?


Coldfire.....is it next year yet?

 

[yardleybates]

Oh: One Jeer to me: Not remembering some of the people I met on passing last year and not making a point to talk with those who came up and introduced themselves to me this year. Obviously I was a little preoccupied, so please forgive me... It wasn't intentional.

-Metal

Metal, it's kind of funny, I mentioned to yippee38 that I thought you seemed preoccupied or something this year, not quite your normal super bubbly self. Sorry to hear your son is not feeling well and hope he is better soon. Hope we can hang with you at a show before next year's PP

 

[sh0kr0k]

I HAD THE BOTTLE OF CABO IN MY TRUCK AND NO ONE WANTED ANY! Those fuckers from Manticora were scared shitless to try it! "Tequila? Oh no! I don't want to die in America!" That and we were always too damned exhausted to try any of the afterparties. We're such wimps.

All goodbyes were thrown out the window once I had to go track down Kevin. LOL!

We'll bring the Cabo to our October 1st show. Heh heh heh.

Manticora was too afraid to try the Cabo?! D'OH!! Edu turned down a Killians, hand-delivered by your's truly because the guys were too chicken to do it (yeah not because I beat them to a pulp insisting that I do it) .... I was denied..
HOWEVER I'll definately take you up on some of that Cabo! October 1st you say? Hmm... I'm supposed to be in Detroit the following weekend for a Fillmore Slim show at Paychecks. I'll have to think about which weekend I can make it out but either way WE ARE PARTYING WITH THAT CABO!

Tammy

 

[DRFS Rich]

Cheers:
- Getting together with a bunch of good friends from across the country to party it up.
- The dude wearing the Danger Danger shirt on Saturday to rile up the crowd.

Jeers:
- The same dude for ripping off my idea, ya bastard!!!
- The Fairfield, for closing down and thus denying us room 219 for the fourth year in a row. Grr!

- R

 

[pollution]

Cheers go to everyone I had the chance to talk to and spend time with, you all were too nice again and I am way thankful for everyone involved helping me getting over to have the best time. Also big cheers to Alicia, Lara and Kim for the place to crash on Wed and Rich all the other nights. And Paul too of course for offering me the space to crash at.

I was in heaven when finally seeing Conception so a lot of respect to Glenn for getting them over and the guys for playing such a great show. Other bands who totally impressed me with their live performances: Circus Maximus, Orphaned Land and Therion.

On a post-PP side note, my flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki after a long 8 hour layover was actually cool because Nightwish was on the same plane and I got talk to Marco and Tuomas before the flight Off to get shitloads of sleep now.

 

[longshot9]

Cheers:

-Glenn of course for not only the show but for dealing with all the shit you have to with these bootlegging idiots with the iron metal fist. \m/
-Manticora, CM, Conception, Angra, Stride, Symphorce, PC69 & Strato for all kicking ass. Not 1 band I wanted to see sucked, some were a little less enthusiastic than others but still played and sounded great.
-The "Other" hot bartender chick
-All the vendors for bringing such awesome stuff and gladly taking our money
-The Residence for handling all of us party animals
-CM for signing the drum head I got!
-All the great fans, friends, and new people I met for just making this festival one of the greatest things that happens in my life every year.
-Doomford/Rich for catching a bootlegger and getting his VIP pass.
-Jax, Glenn F, & Houlihans for putting on the TEoF lunch again.
-The cute waitress at Houlihans that burned her arm on my fajitas.
-The Crew for putting all the pieces together!
-The stricter no smoking policy in the lobby of EL, I smoke and it was nice to not have to breathe it in all night.

Jeers:

-The Fucktard bootleggers
-No Stair lights again
-Soundman for not turning up CM's guitars
-The vendors for not anticpating some of the higher selling items and bringing enough of them (ie Pagan's Mind)
-EL for the weak selection of beer
-Angra for NOT finishing "Temple Of Hate"
-Strato for NOT playing "Abyss.."
-Symphorce for NOT playing "Holy Sin"
-Myself for being on West Coast time and not being able to go to bed before 4am and thus missing the free breakfast everyday... again.

 

[Yippee38]

Cheers to Angra for actually playing cowbells on stage. Did they do that specifically for Glenn?

 

[Dragongrrrl]

*whew* finally made it home...what a kickass week that was! Unfortunately, I brought Lara's cold home with me. Not quite the souvenir anyone likes to take home...lol

Cheers: ~Glenn and crew - you all are THE BEST EVER. Just amazing. You guys work so damn hard all weekend long while the rest of us drink and get stupid. Thank you
~OPP - much love to my girls!
~Hanging with old friends and meeting new ones. You know who you are...if I tried to make a list I'd forget people and then feel like an ass.
~Corset night appeared to be rather successful, and the photo shoot was pretty damn cool (especially after Glenn joined us)

Jeers: ~Drama. Somehow it's always present in some form. Two comments on this: 1) if it's not your business, leave it alone, and 2) it's my life, not yours...get over it.
~Not enough time to hang out/chat/party with everyone I wanted to see. Part of that was due to the fact that by Friday my feet had stopped speaking to me. Saturday was a little better so I hobbled to a few parties but never made it to the Grenada. Next year I'll just bring a spare set of feet
~Flying home with a headcold is The Suck. We landed and I thought my head was going to implode. At least I don't have to work tonight.

All in all a kickass weekend and I can't wait to do it all again next year!!

Alicia

 

[Cardinal Sin]

Cheers to Angra for actually playing cowbells on stage. Did they do that specifically for Glenn?

i dont think so, they've always had different rhythms and instruments including cowbells, since they're Brazilian, showing their roots etc.

 

[Yippee38]

i dont think so, they've always had different rhythms and instruments including cowbells, since they're Brazilian, showing their roots etc.

Never take me seriously.

 

[sccaldwell]

and finally Jeers to WAAAAAYYYY too much prog on night one. It was like watching paint dry for me. All bands are incredibly talented and gracious, it's just agonizing to sit through the same style for an entire evening and then 1/5 of the next day. I'm in the minority here, but that's a jeer for me.

I'll counter that with "WAAAAYYYYY too much power on night two." I actually fell asleep during Stratovarius' set. Brilliantly talented band, but all their songs sounded exactly the same to me....great musicianship, but the songs bore me to tears. Many of you obviously love the stuff, and think they're God's gift, which is great...just not for me.

I guess my point is that you do make a slightly good point...the two nights were very clearly Prog on Friday, Power on Saturday, except for the openers. Swap Manticora and Stride, and it's clear-cut (OK, I suppose you could argue that Therion is somewhat prog, though).

Anyway, I don't know if that was intentional on Glenn's part, but to me if you're going to split the two genre's that much between the two days, I'd go ahead and do it completely.

I'd agree with woosta, though, that it's better to mix 'em up a bit more...granted, band's preferences and schedules may not allow it. Granted, since Glenn *IS* 'da man, I'm sure he did what made sense and worked.

 

[Barking Pumpkin]

Therion are very much heavy metal oriented.

 

[Pellaz]

Therion are....hard to pigeonhole, which is a Good Thing. I filed them simply under "Awesome diverse metal band that I'll never get to see live without flying to Europe" years ago.

Happily, things change.

 

[wisconsin wicked chick]

I'm usually just a lurker on this site and only put my two cents in when I feel compelled to do so. With that being said:

This was my first PP and I will say that it most definately won't be my last. I was told some great things about it and I was not let down. My friend, MetalRose, is the one who introduced me to it. Although I had put high expectations on the festival, I wasn't let down. The music (not something I listen to all the time) was great. The stage performances were pretty good. I liked that it was a smaller venue, but it wasn't too small for everything that was going on. The staff were friendly and professional (yes, I had heard about the Gold Badge and Boot-legging). The people and vibe were nice. I got to meet up with some of the friends that I had made in Powerfest and had finally had met some of those on the board in person.

I like this festival for the fact that it's introducing me to music that I generally don't listen to and opens my ears to sounds that are new to me. I also appreciate that the people that I have met were receptive to that and cut me some slack. In fact, I am starting to become a fan of the music being presented to me. I know that I'm not the only one who be returning. My other friend, Scott, also attended this PP and he was impressed by eveything. He liked the fact that the vibe was very laid back and the musicians were willing to talk to him.

Although not many people saw me in the auditorium, I did pop in and out. I liked what I saw. I thought that over-all the sound was pretty good. I also liked the fact that pretty much no matter where you sat, you could see everything. The heat got to me a little so I left and came back. I ended up cracking my knee on the cement while attempting to walk down the stairs and would appreciate some way to tell where the steps are a little clearer.

I really enjoyed the fact that I sat and watched some of the performances and looked into the crowd and saw that everyone was getting into it. It gave me a feeling of serenity and I can't wait to experience it again.

I want to thank the vendors for knowing their stuff. Like I stated before, I'm not a big fan, but I was glad that they took the time to be professional and helped me in making some purchase decisions.

I want to thank Glenn for putting this together. You are a hard working man and your hard work is paying off. I'm glad that I got to meet you.

I want to thank the bands and fans. I was impressed by what I saw from both sides.

I want to give a big thanks (and hugs) to the girls in the Pussy Posse. You gals are some of the best in the world! Can't wait to see you again.

To those who were offended by the bubble wrap and other shenanigins(sp?). I want to thank you for letting us have our fun. It's not often that we get to let loose and do crazy/goofy/stupid stuff. I find it great that some can find it amusing and laugh along with (or at) us. I personally think that I might actually make a difference in someone's life by putting a smile on their face. I'm sorry that you didn't see it for that. Too often I see that people are too serious about everything and I'm glad that I was part of the "stupid" stuff that go on in it.

As a friend of mine says: Hi, I'm life. Live me.

And I would like to give a big "Fuck You" to the stalker at the show. You made me very uncomfortable and I had to constantly watch my back. I had to make sure that there was someone that I knew by my side for the majority of the concert instead of doing my own thing. You and your friends need to get a life, dude.

I want to thank my friends for watching of said back. You people are great and I'm sorry if you felt compelled to "baby-sit" me. I do appreciate it. I'm buying a round for you guys and gals when I see you again.

Over all a great time.

 

[guardian26]

Cheers: Shane for a great preparty that only gets better every year

 

[pollution]

Jeers:

-EL for the weak selection of beer

Oh yeah, they had no Newcastle this year, now that was SAD! Oh well, at least they did have Stella Artois which became the PP drink for me this year. At least the Vinyl had Newcastle so I was able to get at least some of that.