Okay, now I've got that out of the way.
There are many platitudes and superlatives I could drag out, but I'll be brief. That was the best damn Katagory V show (that I've been witness to) since the ProgPower IV pre-party all the way back in 2003 before A New Breed of Rebellion was even out. I certainly haven't seen Dustin and Curtis having so much fun on stage since then. Matt, well, Matt always looks like he's having the time of his life! (My Metal Brutha'!)
But what of the new guys? Mike complements Curtis on the six-string beautifully, with an easy back-and-forth that, no word of a lie, reminded me of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. No battling egos, just two great players in sync.
And then there's Al. Met-Al, as we might know him here. Chatted with him a lot pre-show, and he's the nicest guy you could hope to meet, and surprisingly humble too. The audition clip proved he can sing, but the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, so they say... well, Al did a spectacular job, covering damn near every inch of that stage that I saw, and holy fuck can the man sing!
I realised later I'd been talking to him a lot and never actually introduced myself, so: hi Al, I'm Marcus, the British guy who was wearing the New Model Army t-shirt.
And from one fan to another, you did a fantastic job, man, and I'm looking forward to seeing you again. 
I even managed to get some semi-decent pictures out of my antiquated Razr (silly me, I forgot my real camera):
Al, after removing his shirt and in a rare moment of not running around:
An extremely blurry Matt, taken from stage left:
Mike and Dustin:
Curtis:
Katagory motherfuckin' V, 2008 edition:
Awesome show, guys. Legendary. There may not have been many people there, but I'm pretty sure they're all gonna remember it. I sure as hell will.
