Fozzy, the Atlanta-based band made up of Stuck Mojo alumni and Chris Jericho, played in my hometown of Chattanooga Saturday night. I am not a huge Fozzy fan, but since they are a melodic metal band and I heard that they put on a fun live show, I wanted to show some support.
I don't know anything about wrestling, but do know that Chris Jericho has excellent taste in metal. So, I wore my Edguy shirt, hoping that I would meet other fans of power metal. And I did - namely, the band members themselves! I saw one Chattanooga metal fan that I knew of, but most of the shirts people had on were either wrestling oriented or for bands like Godsmack. So it turns out that the big power and prog metal fans were the bands.
The opening act was an Atlanta area band named American Devils. They weren't bad. Their sound was a little too modern American hard rock for my personal tastes, but they were good and it was obvious that they were metal fans. Between sets, one of the band members yelled "EDGUY!" and came over to talk to me. We started talking about ProgPower and the upcoming Nightwish/Sonata Arctica tour. Cool guy.
So Fozzy came on, and during the show Chris Jericho pointed at my shirt and gave me a "thumbs up." After the show, I met Rich Ward (finally - I've admired his guitarwork for years) and he asked me if I had seen Edguy at ProgPower earlier this year. I told him yeah, and that I was surprised that he was a fan of that style. He then waxed eloquent about Symphony X and how he loved the festival. Later on, Jericho was talking to some fans on the side of the stage, and he looked up and said, "Hey man, have you seen Edguy play live yet?" I told him that I did at ProgPower, and he agreed that it was a cool festival.
I have to say it was one of the more unusual shows I have been to. The crowd was kind of small, but dedicated. Not surprisingly, many of them seemed to be there because of the wrestling aspect more than the metal. There was this one overzealous guy who kept waving some wrestling magazine in the air and asking Jericho for an autograph...during the show itself. No, he wasn't drunk. In fact he didn't look like a drinker. But he was odd. At one point, Jericho jumped off stage to interact with the crow, and the guy followed him around, saying, "Get your autograph, Chris?" while the man was singing. It was truly one of the weirdest things I have ever seen at a show.
I don't know anything about wrestling, but do know that Chris Jericho has excellent taste in metal. So, I wore my Edguy shirt, hoping that I would meet other fans of power metal. And I did - namely, the band members themselves! I saw one Chattanooga metal fan that I knew of, but most of the shirts people had on were either wrestling oriented or for bands like Godsmack. So it turns out that the big power and prog metal fans were the bands.
The opening act was an Atlanta area band named American Devils. They weren't bad. Their sound was a little too modern American hard rock for my personal tastes, but they were good and it was obvious that they were metal fans. Between sets, one of the band members yelled "EDGUY!" and came over to talk to me. We started talking about ProgPower and the upcoming Nightwish/Sonata Arctica tour. Cool guy.
So Fozzy came on, and during the show Chris Jericho pointed at my shirt and gave me a "thumbs up." After the show, I met Rich Ward (finally - I've admired his guitarwork for years) and he asked me if I had seen Edguy at ProgPower earlier this year. I told him yeah, and that I was surprised that he was a fan of that style. He then waxed eloquent about Symphony X and how he loved the festival. Later on, Jericho was talking to some fans on the side of the stage, and he looked up and said, "Hey man, have you seen Edguy play live yet?" I told him that I did at ProgPower, and he agreed that it was a cool festival.
I have to say it was one of the more unusual shows I have been to. The crowd was kind of small, but dedicated. Not surprisingly, many of them seemed to be there because of the wrestling aspect more than the metal. There was this one overzealous guy who kept waving some wrestling magazine in the air and asking Jericho for an autograph...during the show itself. No, he wasn't drunk. In fact he didn't look like a drinker. But he was odd. At one point, Jericho jumped off stage to interact with the crow, and the guy followed him around, saying, "Get your autograph, Chris?" while the man was singing. It was truly one of the weirdest things I have ever seen at a show.
