Okay, now that it seems that the madness at the homefront is starting to subside, I am going to attempt to tell my happy little tale of the gig in Atlanta. I know I've done this "gig/tour diary" before, but they always seem to be too long winded because i'm a real jabber jaw, so I'll do my best to keep it to the point... but i'm making no promises.
THE ARRIVAL
To start things off, we arrived on Wedsnday and luckly so did our equipment... in one piece as well! Outside of my bass guitar case having a nice chip on the corner, The gorillas in the airports did a great job on NOT destoying our luggage!
Our entire crew consisted of the band, my wife, our british freind and moderator to the offical Iron Maiden forum, Ruind Luna, Dan and Kip from the band Davidian and our good freind Mr. Toast.
We ended up drinking it up at happy hour at the Granada and seeing a few freinds such as Shelly, Big D and Lady V, and the main progpower promoter man himself, Glenn.
A majority of us just relaxed while some of the band got ripped out of thier minds. I must remind you that in Utah, we have 3.2% alcahol by volume, so it's not hard for some of us to get blitzed when out of town.
SWEATING BULLETS AGAIN
On Thursday, everyone in the band was on edge, especially Curtis. Both him and Trevor spent the Afternoon going over the material, while Matt and Lynn cat-napped (or at least attempted to) through the afternoon in their room. I instead meandered about the hotel and hung out front greeting people as they came in. While outside I meet up with the pre-party promoter, Shane as well as the ENTIRE houston crew in tow!
After talking to Shane and getting the logistics of what was going on, I gathered up the troops and we loaded up Mr. Toasts truck and headed to the venue. We were pretty early but it worked out well because we got to hear both Stride and Prymary go over there sound checks first. I can tell you this much, after hearing just their sound checks, we knew they were going to blow everyone away! I was totally pupmed to see both bands live!
As our turn came up, we quickly loaded our gear onstage and started getting ready to get our soundcheck over and done with. The first thing I noticed when I had everything plugged in was that my damn tuner took a complete shit on me... so I obviously went into a mild panic! (I later found out it was just a bad plug when we got home.) Fortuantly I had a small hand tuner with me that I was able to bypass on my rig, the downside was that I couldn't mute my tuning live and I had to stand over my amp to read the diaodes. The upside was that I wouldn't have punish the audiance with relentless augments notes on accident!
THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS
We finished out soundcheck with only muintes to spare and only a few minor problems before they opened the door. We still had two hours before we played so Lynn retired to the hotel real quick while the rest of us in the band hung out at the Club, and Mr. Toast headed outside to get some film footage. I took this oportunity to change my cloths in the VIP room before people started pilling in, and while getting into my leather pants, the button came shooting off my pants and eneded up landing directly in the toilet... the same damn one I had just moments ago pissed in, and hadn't flushed yet.
DAMMIT!!!
I had no choice but to dive in after it, so I took a deep breath and made the plunge. uke: Now those of you who shook my hand that night ...DON'T PANIC!!!! I shake with the right, and I dived in with my left.
But it gets better...there was NO soap to wash my hands in the VIP restroom, so I was running from restroom to restoom in the club with a pissed-soaked hand looking for SOAP!!! I finally found some (in the ladies room) and literally scrubbed my skin off my left hand. Next I grabbed some duct tape (never leave home without it!) and straped my button back onto my pants as a tempororay fix. BTW... I haven't told a soul of this incendent outside of the fact that I nearly lost my button in the bathroom.. so... suprise!!!!
BRUCE ALMIGHTY MY ASS!
It's an hour until we hit the stage and the club is begining to fill up very quickly. I meet up with my better half and our freinds and try my best to relax, but at this point it's near impossible. While waiting, I also chatted up with some of the freinds and fans and forced a Pabst blue ribbon beer down the hatch at the same time. During all of this, I had been waiting for our lable to show up with our merhcandise... and with 20 minutes left to showtime, he was just walking in the door. I grabbed whoever in the band I could and we all strarted lugging in the boxes of CD's and shirts. Once we got him settled in, it was time to go on...
This was the first time we actually used our intro from the new album live and we were a bit nervous as to how well it would work. It was all riding on Matt's shoulders to come in on time and we would follow... and we did just that. But as we started romping along the first few bars of "Sands of Time" something was terribly wrong... I couldn't hear my bass!!!! I could hear the slight reverberations from the front-of-house speakers of my bass, but I had nothing on stage! This seems to happen more often than I would like, and the strange thing is that I could hear myself perfectly at sound check... and now I am not even in the monitors!
I made a few attempts after the second song to communicate my problem in sign language to the stage soundman, but he semed uninterested in my delima as he stared down at the board... never looking up. I again made the same attempt during a small break in the 3rd song, and again... not even looking up at us. So I walked over and turned up my bass head up a few notches to give me something to work with on stage. This helped only a little and I was not even the least bit concerned if the sound guys were mad about it... they should be wathcing our band as well as the sound board.
I am quite sure I laid a few eggs on the first four songs, and if I did, I was oblivious to it because I couldn't hear my bass at all until then!
As we wrapped up the fourth song and I was slapping some hands on the front of the stage, our good freind MR. Luna nearly yanks me off the platform and yells into my ear, "Your fly is down mate!" what!? I jump back by my amp, spin around and begin fumbling for my zipper, no sooner did I begin to try and fix the barn door, Matt counts off "Chrono-Logic". SHIT!!! I wasn't even ready, and had to jump right into the song and do my best to keep my bass in front of my family jewles so they didn't come spiling out onto the front row! The embassament was overwhelming, and I toughed it out the best I could. Once the song ended, we had about 30 seconds before we would go into "The Forsaken" Again, I spun around, ran to my amp and began working with my zipper... and as I gave it a good tug, it snaps right off. NNNOOOOoooo!!!! !!
Smite me O god! Smite ME!!!!!
IN ITALY THAY SAY: "AT THE END OF THE DAY, EVERYTHING IS OKAY"
We ended up finishing up our set with "One Second Warning" with only a minute to spare.. and for the first time in my life, it seemed like we were on stage for an eternity! The crowd response was amazing, and outside of my own personal issues, I t went rather well in fact! I grabbed my towel off my amp as I started unplugging and tucked it into my pants likea loin cloth so that I had somthing covering my exposed crotch, and I proceded off the stage with my my gear.
As I dropped my stuff to the side of the stage I was bombarded with congrats and praise by my wife, my band mates, Shane, the guys in Stride and Prymary as well as a few familair faces of good freinds I hadn't seen for quite some time, Troy from Zero Hour, Henry from Imagika and Pooch.. my bay area brothers had just arrived! I made the rounds with everyone and made a b-line for the VIP room... I had to get out of those pants!!!
Once Changed back to my street cloths, I was able to grab another Pabst Blue Ribbon from the room (hey... it was FREE beer!) and start hanging out. I have no idea who it was, but I even signed a copy of our first album... that blew my mind, I thought most everyone was using that thing as a beer coaster these days! I was also pulled aside by a nice lass who I've seen at the past festivals for an autograph, she had our shirt in one hand and a pen in the other... how cool is that! I later was told that during my Zipper-breaking episode, Lynn gave the shirt to her while we were on stage for being on the front row holding her horns up and banging her head, that made it even cooler!!!
These things always seem like a family reunion to me... seeing all our freinds we've made at past shows or online, and having a few surprises like what I just mentioned pop up. I ended up helping out Deron at the CD table off an on through the night, talking with our label mates Dave in Power of Omens, who was very pleased with the free publicity I provided on stage for his band by sporting their shirt (hell, they rule! why shouldn't I!), as well as Michael Blevins from Division. It was a blast to sit behind the lable table and peddle CD's... as a big pro/power emtal fan myself, I had MANY recomendations for people browsing!
Towards the end of the night, I ended up mulling around meeting and hanging what I like to call the "ol' crew"... good freinds from the perpetual motion board, Seismic radio and such. And then ended up trucking back to the hotel and kickiung back with a few freinds and some beers.... thank god I could finally relax!
I would name off every single person individualy that I talked to there, but that would be virtually impossible... you see, I was trying to jsut now and everytime I got ready to post this story, I thought of another person... and then another... and the last thing I want to do is leave someone out!!!!
It was great meeting everyone at the pre-party... you know who you are!!!! Thank you so much fo rthe support! Hopefully you enjoyed my version of how the event unfolded that evening.
\m/
Dustin
The set-list for the ProgPower pre-party
Sands of Time
Peacful Act of Terrorism
I live On
No Response
Chrono-Logic
Forsaken
Evil Princess
Turn To Grey
In Dark Night
Your Dreams
One Second Warning
THE ARRIVAL
To start things off, we arrived on Wedsnday and luckly so did our equipment... in one piece as well! Outside of my bass guitar case having a nice chip on the corner, The gorillas in the airports did a great job on NOT destoying our luggage!
Our entire crew consisted of the band, my wife, our british freind and moderator to the offical Iron Maiden forum, Ruind Luna, Dan and Kip from the band Davidian and our good freind Mr. Toast.
We ended up drinking it up at happy hour at the Granada and seeing a few freinds such as Shelly, Big D and Lady V, and the main progpower promoter man himself, Glenn.
A majority of us just relaxed while some of the band got ripped out of thier minds. I must remind you that in Utah, we have 3.2% alcahol by volume, so it's not hard for some of us to get blitzed when out of town.
SWEATING BULLETS AGAIN
On Thursday, everyone in the band was on edge, especially Curtis. Both him and Trevor spent the Afternoon going over the material, while Matt and Lynn cat-napped (or at least attempted to) through the afternoon in their room. I instead meandered about the hotel and hung out front greeting people as they came in. While outside I meet up with the pre-party promoter, Shane as well as the ENTIRE houston crew in tow!
After talking to Shane and getting the logistics of what was going on, I gathered up the troops and we loaded up Mr. Toasts truck and headed to the venue. We were pretty early but it worked out well because we got to hear both Stride and Prymary go over there sound checks first. I can tell you this much, after hearing just their sound checks, we knew they were going to blow everyone away! I was totally pupmed to see both bands live!
As our turn came up, we quickly loaded our gear onstage and started getting ready to get our soundcheck over and done with. The first thing I noticed when I had everything plugged in was that my damn tuner took a complete shit on me... so I obviously went into a mild panic! (I later found out it was just a bad plug when we got home.) Fortuantly I had a small hand tuner with me that I was able to bypass on my rig, the downside was that I couldn't mute my tuning live and I had to stand over my amp to read the diaodes. The upside was that I wouldn't have punish the audiance with relentless augments notes on accident!
THE SHOW THAT NEVER ENDS
We finished out soundcheck with only muintes to spare and only a few minor problems before they opened the door. We still had two hours before we played so Lynn retired to the hotel real quick while the rest of us in the band hung out at the Club, and Mr. Toast headed outside to get some film footage. I took this oportunity to change my cloths in the VIP room before people started pilling in, and while getting into my leather pants, the button came shooting off my pants and eneded up landing directly in the toilet... the same damn one I had just moments ago pissed in, and hadn't flushed yet.
DAMMIT!!!
I had no choice but to dive in after it, so I took a deep breath and made the plunge. uke: Now those of you who shook my hand that night ...DON'T PANIC!!!! I shake with the right, and I dived in with my left. But it gets better...there was NO soap to wash my hands in the VIP restroom, so I was running from restroom to restoom in the club with a pissed-soaked hand looking for SOAP!!! I finally found some (in the ladies room) and literally scrubbed my skin off my left hand. Next I grabbed some duct tape (never leave home without it!) and straped my button back onto my pants as a tempororay fix. BTW... I haven't told a soul of this incendent outside of the fact that I nearly lost my button in the bathroom.. so... suprise!!!!
BRUCE ALMIGHTY MY ASS!
It's an hour until we hit the stage and the club is begining to fill up very quickly. I meet up with my better half and our freinds and try my best to relax, but at this point it's near impossible. While waiting, I also chatted up with some of the freinds and fans and forced a Pabst blue ribbon beer down the hatch at the same time. During all of this, I had been waiting for our lable to show up with our merhcandise... and with 20 minutes left to showtime, he was just walking in the door. I grabbed whoever in the band I could and we all strarted lugging in the boxes of CD's and shirts. Once we got him settled in, it was time to go on...
This was the first time we actually used our intro from the new album live and we were a bit nervous as to how well it would work. It was all riding on Matt's shoulders to come in on time and we would follow... and we did just that. But as we started romping along the first few bars of "Sands of Time" something was terribly wrong... I couldn't hear my bass!!!! I could hear the slight reverberations from the front-of-house speakers of my bass, but I had nothing on stage! This seems to happen more often than I would like, and the strange thing is that I could hear myself perfectly at sound check... and now I am not even in the monitors!
I made a few attempts after the second song to communicate my problem in sign language to the stage soundman, but he semed uninterested in my delima as he stared down at the board... never looking up. I again made the same attempt during a small break in the 3rd song, and again... not even looking up at us. So I walked over and turned up my bass head up a few notches to give me something to work with on stage. This helped only a little and I was not even the least bit concerned if the sound guys were mad about it... they should be wathcing our band as well as the sound board.
I am quite sure I laid a few eggs on the first four songs, and if I did, I was oblivious to it because I couldn't hear my bass at all until then!
As we wrapped up the fourth song and I was slapping some hands on the front of the stage, our good freind MR. Luna nearly yanks me off the platform and yells into my ear, "Your fly is down mate!" what!? I jump back by my amp, spin around and begin fumbling for my zipper, no sooner did I begin to try and fix the barn door, Matt counts off "Chrono-Logic". SHIT!!! I wasn't even ready, and had to jump right into the song and do my best to keep my bass in front of my family jewles so they didn't come spiling out onto the front row! The embassament was overwhelming, and I toughed it out the best I could. Once the song ended, we had about 30 seconds before we would go into "The Forsaken" Again, I spun around, ran to my amp and began working with my zipper... and as I gave it a good tug, it snaps right off. NNNOOOOoooo!!!! !!
Smite me O god! Smite ME!!!!!
IN ITALY THAY SAY: "AT THE END OF THE DAY, EVERYTHING IS OKAY"
We ended up finishing up our set with "One Second Warning" with only a minute to spare.. and for the first time in my life, it seemed like we were on stage for an eternity! The crowd response was amazing, and outside of my own personal issues, I t went rather well in fact! I grabbed my towel off my amp as I started unplugging and tucked it into my pants likea loin cloth so that I had somthing covering my exposed crotch, and I proceded off the stage with my my gear.
As I dropped my stuff to the side of the stage I was bombarded with congrats and praise by my wife, my band mates, Shane, the guys in Stride and Prymary as well as a few familair faces of good freinds I hadn't seen for quite some time, Troy from Zero Hour, Henry from Imagika and Pooch.. my bay area brothers had just arrived! I made the rounds with everyone and made a b-line for the VIP room... I had to get out of those pants!!!
Once Changed back to my street cloths, I was able to grab another Pabst Blue Ribbon from the room (hey... it was FREE beer!) and start hanging out. I have no idea who it was, but I even signed a copy of our first album... that blew my mind, I thought most everyone was using that thing as a beer coaster these days! I was also pulled aside by a nice lass who I've seen at the past festivals for an autograph, she had our shirt in one hand and a pen in the other... how cool is that! I later was told that during my Zipper-breaking episode, Lynn gave the shirt to her while we were on stage for being on the front row holding her horns up and banging her head, that made it even cooler!!!
These things always seem like a family reunion to me... seeing all our freinds we've made at past shows or online, and having a few surprises like what I just mentioned pop up. I ended up helping out Deron at the CD table off an on through the night, talking with our label mates Dave in Power of Omens, who was very pleased with the free publicity I provided on stage for his band by sporting their shirt (hell, they rule! why shouldn't I!), as well as Michael Blevins from Division. It was a blast to sit behind the lable table and peddle CD's... as a big pro/power emtal fan myself, I had MANY recomendations for people browsing!
Towards the end of the night, I ended up mulling around meeting and hanging what I like to call the "ol' crew"... good freinds from the perpetual motion board, Seismic radio and such. And then ended up trucking back to the hotel and kickiung back with a few freinds and some beers.... thank god I could finally relax!
I would name off every single person individualy that I talked to there, but that would be virtually impossible... you see, I was trying to jsut now and everytime I got ready to post this story, I thought of another person... and then another... and the last thing I want to do is leave someone out!!!!
It was great meeting everyone at the pre-party... you know who you are!!!! Thank you so much fo rthe support! Hopefully you enjoyed my version of how the event unfolded that evening.
\m/
Dustin
The set-list for the ProgPower pre-party
Sands of Time
Peacful Act of Terrorism
I live On
No Response
Chrono-Logic
Forsaken
Evil Princess
Turn To Grey
In Dark Night
Your Dreams
One Second Warning
