I make a point to watch the crowd and gauge how well a band is going over, whether I personally like them or not. I didn't watch enough of FK to comment, though I'm sure they went over big. Over the entire weekend here's how it thought all the bands did.
Theocracy- Medium response. I guess most people, like myself, weren't familiar with them.
Circus Maximus- Standing Ovation. Not a band I really care for, but they had everyone on their feet at the end of their set.
Leatherwolf- Strong response. Sustained enthusiastic applause.
Circle II Circle- Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of a standing ovation. Would have probably gotten more with more 'Tage songs, or at least a different closer.
Pyramaze- Very strong. Wasn't expecting a lot, but I like them more after their set than before. It seemed they grabbed the audience attention with the opening violin intro and never let it go. The guy next to me said "That'll be a hard act to follow."
Savage Circus- Strong sustained applause. The lyric sheets probably cost them some points, but the whole encore/curtain episode probably lost them their momentum at the finish.
Freak Kitchen- I'm definately not "An extreme fanboy." However, I'd certainly have to concede the Friday WOW factor to FK. Go figure...
Mercenary- Strong sustained applause. I was expecting Mercenary to blow everyone away, and they were my most anticipated band of the night. The reaction didn't bear that out. Maybe the mix wasn't quite right, but I expected a bigger response. The stage dive had the audience going wild though.
Evergrey- Probably a 3/4 house ovation. I think all the extra stuff went over very well. I expected more of the string quartet, and I thought there was a group feeling of "That's it?" when they left the stage.
Zero Hour- Medium to strong response. I didn't know a thing about this band prior to their set. No one was "sleeping"
Vision Divine- WOW factor for the crowd on Saturday. Not a huge fan, though I like them okay, but I thought their live show floored the audience. My friends bought VD CD's during the intermission.
Thunderstone- Strong sustained applause. Better reaction than I thought they'd get because:
A) They were the most "generic" europower band of the fest. Which is not a bad thing to me, as I like that style.
B) They followed Vision Divine. I expected somewhat of a repeat of the post Pagan's Mind slump that Secret Sphere suffered.
They held their own though.
Epica- Blew the crowd away then blew their own applause. The audience was poised to give them a standing ovation. about 1/4 of the house was standing. Another 1/4 were on the edge or partially out of their seats. The other 1/2 I expect would have followed. The outro caused enough confusion that the second group relaxed back into their chairs expecting an encore and all the momentum was lost. Heh.
Jorn- Up and down. Started strong and lost a lot of momentum in the middle of his set. There was a pretty steady stream of people heading for the exits at the midway point. To be fair, that usually happens to the last band on Sat. Also it should be noted that less people left than during Statovarius last year. Whether that's because of Jorn or the expected all-star cast at the end... who can say? I suspect the latter. Although it was painful for me to sit through, Jorn did get some momentum back with the retro set near the end, which the audience as a whole seemed to like.
. my parents, however, were sitting just off to the right (looking from the stage view) towards the top. they said the biggest support seemed to be for EPICA, as well as Vision Divine and Thunderstone. they also said that pyramaze got a good amount of the stands cheering, but not standing ad EPICA and VD did.
