Want to read how Mattias from Freak Kitchen violated me sexually? Read further to find out...
Most posts I'm reading are about individual bands or specific things about the fest. I figured I'd do a recap of my thoughts for all to read
. Included are opinions on hotels and other accomodations. You won't read much "X BAND ROX!!!" in this thread.
I came with Matt (DTJesus) and Dan (Nigel Tufnel) on Thursday and stayed at Best Western at Peachtree (w/ the free shuttle, cocktail hour, breakfast etc.). I gave my Wednesday night ticket to a fellow poster on this board and missed the Jon Oliva experience. I met Shreddy on the plane and hung with him for lunch, beer drinking, and other festivities.
The free cocktail hour at Peachtree was pretty nice. They had cheap hard liquor, soda, and juice. We got a bunch of cups of straight whiskey and ice and stored them in our room. Worked brilliantly! The free shuttle service could have been more accomodating. Cab rides are 12 dollars to venue (4 bucks a person) and the shuttle service was only running on the hour to the venue unless you pressed them on it. I think we used the shuttle once or twice out of three days. The neighborhood is pretty nasty though. Matt and Dan had to walk home Saturday night and felt a bit uncomfortable heading south (seeing the prositutes and pimps on the streets). Walking back from Walgreens to have some pictures developed on Friday at 11am, I walked right through the heart of Atlanta's crack den. At first I thought cigarettes... then thought marijuana as I walked closer, then I saw the plastic tubes. Yes, people in Atlanta smoke crack at 11am outside the homeless shelters. I casually walked by with two bags of food and other pawnable for crack items in my bag. All I got was a "sup dude."... indeed
Thursday night's music experience, sadly, was not as good as PP VII's. For starters, the sound wasn't nearly as clear for Krucible and Cellador as it was for openers Theocracy and Circus Maximus last year. Vanden Plas's screw up (I'm blaming this on them, feel free to disagree and explain why) was aggrivating. Freak Kitchen was hella cool. My buddy DTJesus was drunkenly singing Freak Kitchen and Pain of Salvation songs during the setup and pissed off some old dude in the front row. Then Matt left the front rail as he totally killed the buzz he had goin with the crowd and took the spot that probably should have gone to me (clearly his good friend behind him). Freak Kitchen played a great set, including the Mattias guitar/vibrator shenanigans. Mattias tossed the batteries for the vibrators into the crowd. One went down the back of my shirt (was one of the only men in a collared button shirit) and into my ass crack. I pulled out a rechargable energizer battery. I never felt so violated before in my life (expect for by Matt Crooks).
On to Friday. There were about 20-30 people at Front Page News. Urban Breed and his lovely wife Shaye were there, as well as all my close Prog Power friends. I did meet the lovely JBrille there; the rest were mostly traditional Front Page News luncheon faces. Many beers later, we head to the show!
Raintime put on an excellent performance (sound mix was much more clear compared to Thursday). Their new studio album was a tad boring for my tastes, but they really nailed things live. Most songs were from the new album, but they didn't play my favorite "Finally Me" that I recall.
Stars: ***
Communic was one of those bands I decided to check vendor tables and socialize during. I did come out for a little while and decided their music needed a little latin flavor w/ the Shakira dance from "My Hips Don't Lie." (yes, I danced Shakira to Communic) Tess and Annie approved... even though they were too chicken shit (read laughinig at me instead of with) to follow my lead.
Stars: **
Virgin Steele was one of my favorite performances (and I'm much more of a prog guy), as I expected it to be. I love their music and stage presense. Justin(Mosquito) and Spacedog were flailing their plastic swords, desperately attemping David Defeis to take one of them on stage. Then David showed those posers who was truly tru and brought out a real sword... on fire! They also had the best bassist of the festival, far and away... he put that dude from Ark at PP II to shame. The sound quality was very muddy (bass drums overpowering everything). Piped in keyboards for a band who's music is written on piano is lame too. Other than that, Michael approves!
Stars: ***
Redemption kicked ass as well. The sound mix was much improved over Virgin Steele's and the songs selection was spot on. Nick, THANK YOU for playing Saphire. You rule man! I was rocking out with my good buddy Brett, Raiderblack, for the whole set. No flaming swords or kick ass backdrops though... Virgin Steele had me all wet for more of it. Nick and crew did not deliver! They did deliver the proggiest performance of the evening. This Prog Power had the most 4/4 time signature music (more on this later) out of any to date; thank you Redemption for laying down a different beat for your songs!
Stars: ***
Pagan's Mind was my favorite performance of the entire festival. Two things helped. First, the mix was absolutely perfect (just as it was for PP IV). Secondly, the song selection was dead on! Opening with my favorite PP Tune "New World Order" was not expected at all... and they just picked all the right tracks going forward. They were the second most progressive band of the festival. Even, then most of their music is pronounced 4/4 (obviously there are the parts that aren't) and perfect for dancing. So I danced with all the girls (men weren't into dancing with me as much for some gay reason) on the floor to a lot of their set. Usually I hate dancing at clubs because the music sucks. I took my one chance to dance to some killer music and ran with it. Try playing some Pagan's Mind, very dancable tunes. There was a lot of movement on the left side of the floor for that reason.
Stars: ****
Sonata Arctica had great song and a great set -- an exact repeat of the performance any of us got seeing them on tour before the show (probably something Glenn is afraid of when he books). Still, the performance was incredible.
Stars:****
I'll add my Saturday thoughts to this thread tomorrow. Feel free to post your thoughts on the entire experience in here.
Whorebottely Yours,
The Michael
Most posts I'm reading are about individual bands or specific things about the fest. I figured I'd do a recap of my thoughts for all to read
. Included are opinions on hotels and other accomodations. You won't read much "X BAND ROX!!!" in this thread.I came with Matt (DTJesus) and Dan (Nigel Tufnel) on Thursday and stayed at Best Western at Peachtree (w/ the free shuttle, cocktail hour, breakfast etc.). I gave my Wednesday night ticket to a fellow poster on this board and missed the Jon Oliva experience. I met Shreddy on the plane and hung with him for lunch, beer drinking, and other festivities.
The free cocktail hour at Peachtree was pretty nice. They had cheap hard liquor, soda, and juice. We got a bunch of cups of straight whiskey and ice and stored them in our room. Worked brilliantly! The free shuttle service could have been more accomodating. Cab rides are 12 dollars to venue (4 bucks a person) and the shuttle service was only running on the hour to the venue unless you pressed them on it. I think we used the shuttle once or twice out of three days. The neighborhood is pretty nasty though. Matt and Dan had to walk home Saturday night and felt a bit uncomfortable heading south (seeing the prositutes and pimps on the streets). Walking back from Walgreens to have some pictures developed on Friday at 11am, I walked right through the heart of Atlanta's crack den. At first I thought cigarettes... then thought marijuana as I walked closer, then I saw the plastic tubes. Yes, people in Atlanta smoke crack at 11am outside the homeless shelters. I casually walked by with two bags of food and other pawnable for crack items in my bag. All I got was a "sup dude."... indeed
Thursday night's music experience, sadly, was not as good as PP VII's. For starters, the sound wasn't nearly as clear for Krucible and Cellador as it was for openers Theocracy and Circus Maximus last year. Vanden Plas's screw up (I'm blaming this on them, feel free to disagree and explain why) was aggrivating. Freak Kitchen was hella cool. My buddy DTJesus was drunkenly singing Freak Kitchen and Pain of Salvation songs during the setup and pissed off some old dude in the front row. Then Matt left the front rail as he totally killed the buzz he had goin with the crowd and took the spot that probably should have gone to me (clearly his good friend behind him). Freak Kitchen played a great set, including the Mattias guitar/vibrator shenanigans. Mattias tossed the batteries for the vibrators into the crowd. One went down the back of my shirt (was one of the only men in a collared button shirit) and into my ass crack. I pulled out a rechargable energizer battery. I never felt so violated before in my life (expect for by Matt Crooks).
On to Friday. There were about 20-30 people at Front Page News. Urban Breed and his lovely wife Shaye were there, as well as all my close Prog Power friends. I did meet the lovely JBrille there; the rest were mostly traditional Front Page News luncheon faces. Many beers later, we head to the show!
Raintime put on an excellent performance (sound mix was much more clear compared to Thursday). Their new studio album was a tad boring for my tastes, but they really nailed things live. Most songs were from the new album, but they didn't play my favorite "Finally Me" that I recall.
Stars: ***
Communic was one of those bands I decided to check vendor tables and socialize during. I did come out for a little while and decided their music needed a little latin flavor w/ the Shakira dance from "My Hips Don't Lie." (yes, I danced Shakira to Communic) Tess and Annie approved... even though they were too chicken shit (read laughinig at me instead of with) to follow my lead.
Stars: **
Virgin Steele was one of my favorite performances (and I'm much more of a prog guy), as I expected it to be. I love their music and stage presense. Justin(Mosquito) and Spacedog were flailing their plastic swords, desperately attemping David Defeis to take one of them on stage. Then David showed those posers who was truly tru and brought out a real sword... on fire! They also had the best bassist of the festival, far and away... he put that dude from Ark at PP II to shame. The sound quality was very muddy (bass drums overpowering everything). Piped in keyboards for a band who's music is written on piano is lame too. Other than that, Michael approves!
Stars: ***
Redemption kicked ass as well. The sound mix was much improved over Virgin Steele's and the songs selection was spot on. Nick, THANK YOU for playing Saphire. You rule man! I was rocking out with my good buddy Brett, Raiderblack, for the whole set. No flaming swords or kick ass backdrops though... Virgin Steele had me all wet for more of it. Nick and crew did not deliver! They did deliver the proggiest performance of the evening. This Prog Power had the most 4/4 time signature music (more on this later) out of any to date; thank you Redemption for laying down a different beat for your songs!
Stars: ***
Pagan's Mind was my favorite performance of the entire festival. Two things helped. First, the mix was absolutely perfect (just as it was for PP IV). Secondly, the song selection was dead on! Opening with my favorite PP Tune "New World Order" was not expected at all... and they just picked all the right tracks going forward. They were the second most progressive band of the festival. Even, then most of their music is pronounced 4/4 (obviously there are the parts that aren't) and perfect for dancing. So I danced with all the girls (men weren't into dancing with me as much for some gay reason) on the floor to a lot of their set. Usually I hate dancing at clubs because the music sucks. I took my one chance to dance to some killer music and ran with it. Try playing some Pagan's Mind, very dancable tunes. There was a lot of movement on the left side of the floor for that reason.
Stars: ****
Sonata Arctica had great song and a great set -- an exact repeat of the performance any of us got seeing them on tour before the show (probably something Glenn is afraid of when he books). Still, the performance was incredible.
Stars:****
I'll add my Saturday thoughts to this thread tomorrow. Feel free to post your thoughts on the entire experience in here.
Whorebottely Yours,
The Michael
