Cheers and Jeers

Once one band is off the rest of the show is off therefore getting to bands signing sessions makes people who paid good money to travel to have to choose between meeting their favorite band and seeing another of their favorite bands perform. It sucks to have to choose when if all things were going smoothly no choices would have to be made.
To provide a counterpoint - for a lot of these bands, it's likely they won't be playing in the US again anytime soon, if ever in some cases. I'd much rather have the schedule fall behind and have technical problems dealt with between sets, than have performances start on time but be a mess because they were rushed to stay on schedule. I didn't watch the entirety of every set on Saturday, but I don't recall any serious technical problems occurring DURING a set throughout the weekend, and I think the crew deserves a ton of credit for that.

I'll grant - I don't go to the signing sessions so it's easier for me to say this when there's no choice involved, but ultimately the reason for the festival is the musical performances and I'd rather fall behind schedule than potentially have a band I've been waiting years to see struggle through a set just to stay on time.
 


You may have "experience" on a small scale, but I would bet every single dollar I have made over the last 10 years that you could never, ever come close to pulling off what we do. I have no problem with grounded critiques as we always strive to improve. However, the tone of your post is condescending and that is laughable. You have posted five times today in various thread and every single one had a negative remark.

Let me break it down for you....

There is one stage. We are running a full blown dvd recording in HD with a 42 track pro-audio system in the back. Do you think we just hit the red record button in the studio and all is well? Do you think a band like Forbidden just plugs in and plays without caring about the patches? That mixing a band like Therion is the same as any 3-riff death metal band in a bar? No problem for you right?

Furthermore, we have requests for up to 10 in-ear monitors to be mixed within 30 mins. No problem for you though right? You have done it with your digital boards right? I'm sure bands requesting 30+ input lines is no big deal for you as well.

No problem for you having to deal with band that bring their own engineers and reset the board, etc for every band right?

I assume troubleshooting on the spot isn't a big deal for you as well right? You can handle replacing tubes, fixing defective equipment brought by the bands, while continuing to work patch issues at the same time. Five keyboards set up in 15 mins? Hell, you are on it!

Large bands are used to having hours to soundcheck or their own stage to work on while bands are playing on another at other festivals. They cannot do that here. That makes for some very demanding and intense moments on stage before the curtain. No problem for you though right? Just plug and play..no worries.

We ran 45 minutes behind this year at the most thanks to my amazing crew that works their ass off. I'm guessing your crew would have been 20 minutes ahead because Therion's technical requirements are elementary for your experience.

Furthemore....

Hell, the signing sessions are something that every festival pulls off here in the States right?. I mean you can travel anywhere in the States and have mega lines for sessions right? Everyone can do this right? I'm sure you have had fests where bands are signing stuff for 1 hr 20 minutes and taking up your crew resources. No worries for you though.

My priority is the stage while trying to offer the most I can as well. I'm sure you have been able to offer the same type of "experience" though.

You said your piece. I said mine. I will delete any responses you make to this or anything else for that matter. Do not waste your time as I have just done.
 
Cheers-

-Therion doing two encores, one of them obviously unplanned. Way to show appreciation to your fans, guys. :D
-Voyager, for sounding so awesome and having a good time doing it
-Haken, for the same reasons. They also gave me the best souvenir of the weekend; two members of the band doodled mustaches, devil horns etc. onto each other on the photo they signed for me :lol:
-Finding out that I'm not the only one who plays Angry Birds to pass time between/before bands
-Glenn and Jen, for all of your work over the weekend. I've never actually talked to either of you, but I've been going to ProgPower enough to know who you are, and I saw you here, there and everywhere all weekend. Thanks for staying on top of things...and that includes the rest of the ProgPower crew as well.
-The Artmore, for having a very nice and helpful staff (also, the view you get out of a room in the back of the building)
-Fireworks!
-Next year's roster. Epica is what made me come to ProgPower the first time in 2006, and I'm already excited about seeing them again in a year
-DaVinci's Pizzeria

Jeers-

-My feet last night. Ouch.
-The damned sidewalks
-My allergies all weekend
 
Plenty of Cheers that many have already been mentioned. Sanctuary! Forbidden! Ihsahn!

JEER
- i have one major jeer and that is keeping the show running on time. I understand the complexity of this issue having done several smaller festivals of my own over the years, but this fest like any other is built upon a foundation and that is its schedule, from set ending times to starting of signing sessions to not ending at 3am. Once one band is off the rest of the show is off therefore getting to bands signing sessions makes people who paid good money to travel to have to choose between meeting their favorite band and seeing another of their favorite bands perform. It sucks to have to choose when if all things were going smoothly no choices would have to be made. Again, near death experiences aside just something that happened consecutive years i thought would be under better control by now with preventative measures. I am sure notes have been taken from this year to apply to next because with 14 bands on the bill it's going to be even more crucial. :)

- severely drunk dude in the pit during Forbidden who kept falling down and tripped me up allowing me to re-injure my wrist.


Hey - Capt Obvious - we understand the importance of schedule. How many LOCAL shows have you been to where there were at least 20-30 minute delays between bands, or they started late or something. And with way less bands than we have. Must be nice to have a perfect record with your experience and track record. Good for you

We also undertand what it takes to deal with technical issues, and issues that we shouldn't even HAVE to deal while still maintaining the stage changes, studio feeds, patch changes, etc. I'm just glad all the bands were cool and low maintenance.. made it a great time onstage and backstage for all involved. I can imagine how much the entire fest would have sucked if they were as anal and perfect as you. :fu:

Yes - I take delays seriously and they piss me off - but they addressed as fast as possible. Trust me - with the hours we are there, do you think any of the house guys, PP crew (on stage, back stage, transport, support) , bands, or band crews want it to run late?

And again, oh great sage one - thanks for opening my eyes to something we NEVER would have thought of. Yeah - we took notes starting at Powermad (yes - read history of why this fest was founded) on what could improve and have done so every year since. How do you think you now are able to see more than 5 bands each night, you ungrateful little bitch?
We changed the in ear situtaion which had been a bane for the last 2 years and that worked fine and will continue to next year. There will also be some other changes in how we interact with bands prior to the fest that you do not need to be privy to.
So - I agree you are entitled to your opinion. But I also a agree that since you do not know the stage and backstage layout, nor have you seen our crew at work unloading, setting up, changing over, or managing to keep a backstage area clean... I think I can feel free to tell you to put up or shut. Feel free to keep attending and deal with it, or don't. And - if you can do better - have at fella. To quote my boss... "I don't give two tugs on a dead dog's c**k" either way. Good luck if you think you can do better!
 
Cheers:
Glenn - For the best four days of my year for the last 6 years.. Every year I think 'it's not going to top last year' and it does... And for not giving up on getting Vanden Plas back - because you didn't, I got to cross the last MUST SEE band off my list. Of course the festival has cleared my must see list completely :)

Jen - for all you put into this!!
Vanden Plas - for a dream set list (for me) on Thursday night and the acoustic set on Saturday. I never thought I'd ever get to see Gethsemane live... THANK YOU for bringing the Abydos & Ludus Danielis DVDs!!! And for being some of the kewlest guys
Simon of Darkwater - SIMON!!! SIMON!!! SIMON!!!
Piedmont Hospital - for getting me in and out of the ER Friday morning in under 3 hours with an antibotic that could kill any bacteria within a 2 mile radius of me
My ProgPower pals - for always checking up with me on Friday night to make sure I was doing ok and for all the new GOOD memories I'm taking away :D
My bartender - for feeding me drinks when I could have alcohol and for not letting me drink anything but water Friday.
Coldie - thank you for going to the hospital with me!!!
Greg - thanks for ribbing me until I got the nerve to go talk to the VP guys!!

Jeers:
- Having to go to the ER
- Having to miss out on some of the fest Friday night and the Artmore afterwards
- to the absolutely smashed girl on Thursday night who pushed her way to the front during Vanden Plas' set then tried to talk to me for the 15 mins she stood there before leaving (thank you for that part)
- inconsiderate attendees.. its the first year I ever had to deal with them and they were in RARE form
- realizing my DVD player isn't PAL compatible so I will be going out to buy a new one tomorrow... I am not waiting another day to watch these DVDs dammit!!!
 
I'll just get this out of the way and give a huge Cheers to Wayne for being a total pro on saving the recording of Forbidden's set from disaster. You're a god-damned hero, dude.

I'm not much for cheers and jeers otherwise but I wanted to say something positive here before commenting on the vitriol that's going around right now. Matt R's tone is shit here and I can't even seriously read this as a legitimate criticism...and I've sure gone out on a limb with my own in the past even...

The crew runs an astoundingly tight ship and the delays are not a result of inattentiveness or inexperience at all. Such a suggestion is ridiculous.

That said, on a deeper level, the complaints that were at the heart of his statements were absolutely things that were being echoed by other people all weekend and have been a consistent issue from previous years as well. I think with as many bands as there are in a day, we're really at or past the limits of what's reasonable to expect from the bands, the fans, the crew, the venue, the hotels and atlanta itself...given how many hours there are in a day and the need for rest and recuperation (and variety in a day).

I feel like the fest at 6 bands in a night is like a steamship running at 120% efficiency. Only the experience of everyone involved and the dedication of the vast majority of the people there are what manage to keep all of the little problems that pop up (like people having to go to the hospital or gear not working, etc) from blowing up and ruining everything. Any fest under the same conditions without the experience of the crew and the same things happening would be disaster (i've been to local fests with 3 hour delays before...or bands having their entire set cut and being told to go home without getting paid after driving 2000 miles to play).

Anyway, I feel like there is a noticeable difference since we've made the jump from 5 bands in a night and I heard a lot of people wishing for that again over this weekend and in previous years. There was quite a bit of talk about people not getting to do anything during the day because the fest starts so early now. Next year with 14 bands sounds incredibly daunting to me and honestly a bit tiresome. The hours of operation of (and lack of...) local area businesses & signing schedules make finding alternatives a bit frustrating (though Jen did a fantastic job with posts about this sort of stuff pre-fest).

The 14-band, two-night, single-stage indoor fest format means that these kinds of complaints are inevitable and I absolutely wish it were 14-15 bands over three nights instead of 14 in two...or a second stage...or outdoors (with all the concessions/vendor support that entails). That doesn't seem to be on the table though (I can imagine all of the cost, logistics and labor increases that this would need to happen), so I wouldn't even try to raise it as a "criticism" but more like a concern and minor annoyance. At 12 festivals now, you pretty much know what you're in for.
 
There is one stage. We are running a full blown dvd recording in HD with a 42 track pro-audio system in the back.

Any idea if there is a possibility of a be a High Def DVD/Blu-Ray becoming available of this? I hear that blu-ray licensing is ridiculously expensive, though, but damn, that would be sweet to get this in full high-def!

Five keyboards set up in 15 mins? Hell, you are on it!

I was talking to the keyboard tech and he was saying that this fest was probably the most keyboards that he has ever had to setup. Now that I think of it, there were a lot of keyboards present at this ProgPower!

Furthemore....

Hell, the signing sessions are something that every festival pulls off here in the States right?. I mean you can travel anywhere in the States and have mega lines for sessions right? Everyone can do this right? I'm sure you have had fests where bands are signing stuff for 1 hr 20 minutes and taking up your crew resources. No worries for you though.

My priority is the stage while trying to offer the most I can as well. I'm sure you have been able to offer the same type of "experience" though.

You said your piece. I said mine. I will delete any responses you make to this or anything else for that matter. Do not waste your time as I have just done.

You are indeed correct and I agree with you. Those signing sessions are really cool. Yeah, it sucked on my part to miss part of Mob Rules since I wanted to go through the Voyager and Eldritch signing sessions, but still! Just the fact that I got to see Voyager perform was awesome enough, but then getting to hang out with them was just puts it over the top. No friggan wonder I am so stoked at being a sponsor for this thing!

All I can say is keep up the good work. I've had my critiques in the past, but I try come up with constructive criticism instead of just bitching for bitching's sake. However, this year, I honestly cannot think of anything as, delays or not, this one pretty much went off flawlessly. I guess the only thing is that in light of what happened with Christian Vidal, we may need to put greater emphasis on safety.
 
Thanks for understanding, and the support of our crew.. it is exactly that... a balance between the number of bands and time.
I didnt know how many people caught that during forbiddens set (good eyes from wherever you were) - i was trying to be as innocuous as possible, but when I saw that, I nearly had a heart attack.. I had my hands full with guitar changes and restrings.. so I jumped on it as fast as I could...but yeah - you are right - that's have been a BAD dropout
 
Cheers:
well shit, what else hasn't been said already? LOL I guess I have to say that all the band members were super cool and it was also nice to talk to forum members for the first time. This is my 3rd festival but 1st time after being active on the forum. Everybody being nice and what not. I dunno

jeers:
- the annoying tall drunk in the crowd towards the back of the crowd. I mean towards the end of the festival you can tell he means well but damn he's an annoying drunk him and his little "fan club"
- Crimson Glory boxset @ $100 and that was it
- PPUSA Tshirt being cash only (more :( though of course lol); probably better for my wallet to anyhow lol

One huge jeer for me: Not being able to Mercyful Fate's - Into The Coven for karaoke after this talk of being able to use Youtube and stuff even if they didn't have it in the catalogue (spell) or the cds. Huge disappointment for me as I was looking forward to this the most and have been practicing this all year. I would not of done it if I didn't think I could pull it off.

Edit: - Another jeer just thought of - my exit to my friend's house (32a/b) where I was staying being closed due to roadwork and the GPS didn't understand that I didn't want to go back to the highway or something therefore I didn't get in until 3:30am after getting dinner after not having anything but the Waffle house all star special at noon.
 
I actually saw a guy wearing an Angry Birds t-shirt on one of the evenings (Thursday?). I thought that was kinda cool.

Yeah, he was sitting in front of me! Cool dude. He was under the impression that all metal was serious, so when Powerglove played, he LOVED them and bought a shirt. :)
 
Thanks for understanding, and the support of our crew.. it is exactly that... a balance between the number of bands and time.
I didnt know how many people caught that during forbiddens set (good eyes from wherever you were) - i was trying to be as innocuous as possible, but when I saw that, I nearly had a heart attack.. I had my hands full with guitar changes and restrings.. so I jumped on it as fast as I could...but yeah - you are right - that's have been a BAD dropout

Dude the gap between this fest and the average local fest crew-wise is wider than the Grand Canyon. You guys deserve all the support you can get the fact that you're even there at all is unusual to me. There's only really that kind of crew available for big shows and tours.

Smaller metal fests i've seen are usually just an overworked, pissed-off soundguy and assistant and whatever help they can get from the few bandmembers that happen to have a clue and are there at the time.
 
Very reasonable post and comment from Kaosaur.

I, along with every single member of my crew, would love to return to the 10 band format of the old days. I just need 100% assurance that the show is going to sell-out in advance before I do. Can I get that? Otherwise, I have to do everything in my power to market and continue to draw newcomers (as the old folks continue to fade into the sunset). Adaher is right in that I can now book 10 PP core type bands and expand the pool of potential attendees by adding a more diverse lineup that appeals to a younger audience that is the lifeblood of continuing the show.

I have not announced my intentions yet, but there will be some changes made based on the upcoming announcement in January that will make sense to everyone. Trust me when I say that I know certain things will have to be sacrificed to have 14 bands. It's a risk I'm willing to take and will simply listen to the second guessing until then.

One thing that I will note is that a lot of the fatigue issue is self-inflicted for a lot of folks. It's a personal choice to get hammered and be unable to enjoy the show all weekend. No problem there as the choice is theirs. There are always empty seats to be found to relax for a set or two. There are in and out privs to go back and rest or eat. Should I have asked Therion to only play 90 mins because people are tired? Fans are going to get what they want out of the festival and should plan accordingly so expectations are set. If you think about it for next year, we are talking about adding 30 minutes time total on Friday and then simply matching the schedule on Saturday.

I bet there are some Wacken attendees reading this and just sniggering.....
 
This is the first year I felt completely wiped by Saturday. Possibly because I was spazzing out all day on my birthday. I don't really drink, to speak of (I had two drinks all weekend, thanks to Mattbrod, and a friend. Cheers, guys! :D) but I think part of my fatigue was part of the PP Plague starting to manifest itself. Otherwise I'd have watched all of Therion's set and fangasm'd all over the place. So my jeer about fatigue was directed at myself, not you, Glenn.

Just thought I'd clear that up.
 
Now that I think of it, there were a lot of keyboards present at this ProgPower!
Along with that, it seems like there was a higher ratio of bands with 6+ members this year as well - more lines to check, more monitor mixes to dial in, more little shit to crop up. And is it just me, or were there more left handed drummers than usual? I know every drummer is going to want their own reconfigurations to the kit, but having to fully reverse the setup back and forth, re-mic the drums after they've been moved...

I'm sure that for every detail I noticed, there are a dozen that completely escape me, but the finished product that we got each time the curtain opened was a real testament to the crew and the bands.
 
I wouldn't exactly say I was second guessing at all as it really does make perfect sense. I'm basically just wishing the things necessary to make those changes back to the old format would happen. I'll be interesting to hear what happens in January.

Quite a few people did seem to cut back on their drinking substantially (at least by Friday when I'd gotten there) compared to previous years. I'm really glad there were some performances this year that absolutely justified the ticket price (Ihsahn!) despite my changes in music taste. I really am hoping for more of that kind of thing in futures years too. :)
 
Along with that, it seems like there was a higher ratio of bands with 6+ members this year as well - more lines to check, more monitor mixes to dial in, more little shit to crop up. And is it just me, or were there more left handed drummers than usual? I know every drummer is going to want their own reconfigurations to the kit, but having to fully reverse the setup back and forth, re-mic the drums after they've been moved...

I'm sure that for every detail I noticed, there are a dozen that completely escape me, but the finished product that we got each time the curtain opened was a real testament to the crew and the bands.

yep...lots of big lineups, lots of keys and lots of lefties.
Thanks - but shooting in high def, the stage layout was a big portion of it, so that is why almost all bands got a new layout, and we trie dto staye on top of whater bottles/debris on the stage.
The cool thing for us- we also had several stageplots line up (Vanden Plas and Evergrey, and I think one changeover on Sat, and one on Sat)

Yep - lots of behind the scenes stuff as well that we deal with.. ;o)
 
Cheers:
- BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.


Jeers:
- lack of stamina by Saturday
- This year's ProgPower Plague? Strep Throat. Thanks a lot, whoever gave it to me. :mad:

Did get to say Happy Birthday to you. It was also Dave's birthday as well.

As for the ProgPower Plague. At least I did not it this year (however, I was sicker than an old dog the previous week, so hopefully I was pretty much over it by the time PP rolled around).

However, we may need to add a new on - Post-ProgPower Depression. I ended up getting it severely this year. Man it sucked ass to have to leave it all behind after such an incredible weekend. I really do already miss it. I guess seeing the pictures and this thread helps to bring it all back.