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Events and Reports - ProgPower USA V (2004) - Hashman´s Festival report
You really wouldn't think of Atlanta as being a Mecca for heavy metal, well it isn't, however an exception was made during the middle of September of this year, as it has been for many years past, and in all seriousness, the only "Atlanta" that existed that weekend was the venue, Earthlink Live.
This is a real treat for metalheads, especially the ones in the US who rarely get a chance to see these bands stateside, it's a gathering metalheads of all ages, from just about any part of the world, and I bet that when we all arrived during the early part of the week, the locals probably, thought, "oh shit, here they come."
Regardless of the long hair and black band t-shirts that were the wardrobe of choice, the weekend event turned out to be one of the most memorable of occasions, with fans being able to meet and greet the bands, get swag and autographs, and converge in a community of people that all know what music is all about.
So what did happen during the festivities, an un-fucking-believable concert, that's what! Yours truly did not attend the pre-show, I met with an old friend in Atlanta, being scrapped for time, So Steen will have to give you the full report on that one, from what I know, most bands did meet and greets throughout the night, and even if you missed that, just go to one of the nearby hotels and wait in the lobby and you will see a member from your favorite band walking around.
Opening the festival on Friday was Into Eternity, playing their own brand of aggressive "progressive death metal," hell they even thanked festival producer coordinator, Glen Harveston, for taking a chance on those guys, and I don't think there was a member of the audience who would not have done the same, shit, with a performance like that, anybody will get past the growls.
The prog metalers Dreamscape then played out their mood driven prog metal, pretty good, I enjoyed them alright, they were probably the group that leaned more into the progressive side of things (I know I am going to get comments about that, oh well, let the barrage begin). Then Tad Morose took the stage with one of the tightest sets delivering unbelievable energy, with frontman Urban Breed delivering the wild performance with his stage presence. Yeah, it was pretty epic at this point, but Urban seemed mild mannered when I met him later on the next day.
Kamelot played a longer set, having their purple and green-ish lights shine on the stage setup behind them, with the amplifiers even covered to add more to the visual factor. Frontman Khan snaked around the stage, as well as having a female singer sing some of the operatic tracks. My personal favorite, "Nights of Arabia" was performed, and as a bonus, Midnight and Ben Jackson from Crimson Glory performed (Midnight actually appeared on stage during "Nights..." but stayed for only two verses and left without singing a note prior to reappearing on stage).
Kamelot
Wrapping up Friday was the melding of Jon Oliva's Pain and Weapons of Mass Destruction, a Savatage Tribute as Oliva said, complete with Jon, Chris Caffrey and Steve Wacholz. For the first thirty minutes Oliva's Pain played new material form the forthcoming album, with Oliva spending much of that performance behind the piano, his humor in full force throughout the performance, even before the set started he was cracking jokes over the mic behind the curtain. Pain's material was fairly different from Savatage, his vocals had more of a rougher edge to them, but when WOMD came out, the pipes that helped don Savatage's sound returned with just about any classic you wanted to hear, "Gutter Ballet, "Hall of the Mountain King," and even "Edge of Thorns," where Chris Caffrey sang, while members of Pain came out from time to time to add an additional guitarist, hey, and lets not forget the bottle of Jack Daniels that was floating around on stage.
Weapons of mass destruction
With the first day all wrapped up, Saturday opened with the dark Adagio, and all kidding aside, after seeing these guys, I rushed out and bought the album, yes I know I should have owned one of their albums prior to the show. After running around doing a couple of Interviews, I only saw three of Wuthering Heights songs performed, all I can say is, I wish I would have seen more, but hey, I was glad to see what I saw. Brainstorm followed with a performance that paralleled Tad Morose's, the phrase "Edguy is going to have a lot to go up against here" came up among the fans.
Pain of Salvation took the stage, playing their normal blend of prog, metal, and just about any influence you can think of, whether it's their moody ballads or aggressive opuses, they offered just about everything from their platter, making them hard to categorize. Frontman Daniel Gildenlow played most the leads, even put down his Parker Fly axe for a song or two.
So after this, we are now waiting for the main event, Edguy.
Well remember when I said that Edguy had a lot to follow, well they fucking blew the roof off of Earthlink Live, and unbelievable tight and raw performance with Tobias Sammet's stage presence and humor being a large presence, even at the beginning when he kept signaling and screaming that his monitors were not working right he exclaimed, "I can't hear you the bass is too loud!" During the Encore, Rob Rock and none other than Timo Kotipelto came out to enhance the evening's performance. Hell, there even might be an article on Blabbermouth about the appearance with Rock, as Sammet himself said right after that performance.
We all banged our heads, held our fists into the air, and raised hell as the show went on, that was so much fucking energy, something that we all needed. Perfect setting for an excellent venue, we couldn't have asked for more, well, how about a year round festival, yeah, everyday, that would be awesome wouldn't it, well all great things do come to an end.
After the festivities, it was kind of a sad ride home back to Nashville, knowing that it will be another year before the next Prog Power, but I will be engulfed in a shitload of music, memories, and excitement to say the least. One of the other highlights of the event was the fact that I finally met Steen in person; I don't know what he thought of me when I walked in the hotel lobby completely drenched from the Hurricane Ivan that was passing through, staggering from the monsoon we were in the midst of.
It just does not get much better than this, a fucking blast, to say the least. You had to be there, and although the tickets sold out in days, I'm surprised they didn't sell out in hours.
See Ya Next Year.
| You can click most pictures for a bigger version
Into Eternity
Kamelot
Kamelot
J.O.P & W.O.M.D.
J.O.P & W.O.M.D.
Adagio
Wuthering Heights
Pain of Salvation
Edguy
Edguy
Edguy
Edguy
All pictures taken by Steen | Written by Hashman
Wednesday, October 20, 2004 |
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