Cheers 'N' Jeers VII

[Magius]

Cheers:
1. Glenn Harveston.
2. All the bands from the Pre-Party to the end. I thought that each and every one delivered their best possible performance, regardless of how big a fan I was/am of their material.
3. Stair tapers. Never had a problem with the stairs personally, but the effort is still appreciated.
4. Proposals, Hawiian shirt clad stage diving, and "Stars." No doubt I wasn't the only one who was 80% sure that the last surprise would be the Hear 'N' Aid cover, but it was really cool to see and hear anyway.
5. Orchestral accompaniment. I would have liked to have seen more of the set done that way.
6. The sound. Way better than last year. Perfect on Thursday. Some brief but quickly corrected dampened lead vocal mics on Friday, and one ear splitting screech on Saturday. Otherwise it was excellent. Kudos to all the sound guys!
7. All the crew who worked so hard all week, and who may still be working hard to pack everything up as I get ready to hit the sack.
8. Glenn Harveston.

Jeers:
1. The drum platform spotlights. They have been addressed and responded to. Please don't use this thread to launch into an anti-spotlight tirade.
2. The lack of official band tour T-shirts. Nothing Glenn had to do with obviously, but a little dissapointing.

Great fest! Oh, and just out of curiosity... where the Hell would one find a Balls Of Steel plaque anyway?

 

[High Speed Kurt]

Cheers-8 or so people in the pit during cowboys from hell. That was nice to move a little.

 

[Wayniac]

The balls of steel was a thought by the crew to show what we thought of Glenn preservering through all the setbacks with this years lineup changes, etc. Just wanted to show our appreciation for him...
Not saying where the pieces came from though ...

And - the best part - he didn't even see it coming...

 

[MaxDuo]

Cheers:
1) Glenn
2) Balls of Steel reward
3) Freak Kitchen's awesome show, that was the most entertaining...
4) Sound guy. Last year I was really unhappy the first night due to drums being really loud... was kinda hard to hear solos IMO... This year everything was done much better.
5) Playing electric guitars with various electronic objects.
6) String quartet

Jeers:
1) Savage Circus' singer forgetting his lyrics when they only have one album to perform.
2) Jorn not involving the crowd in any of their show.
3) Lack of t-shirts... which was mentioned
4) Proposal during Evergrey's set. As awesome as it would be to have that happen... I wanted to have some heavy / good music for their whole time... Not some great music... Then 5 minutes of proposal.. followed by a somewhat cheesy playing of "Recreation Day" in celebration of his acceptance.....


Uhh... Guess a semi cheer can go to the cute girl who sat next to me during Jorn's set. Was funny because she kept falling asleep. She did that head rocking thing where your head falls down then shoots up real fast over and over again. Was a funny looking headbang hehe. Even if it wasn't intentional.

 

[AngraRULES]

Cheers:

-ALL (and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE) of my friends and people I met at the festival who I don't see everyday and made this week memorable.
-All of the bands that put on awesome shows and 99% were amazingly friendly. Special mentions go to the Pagans Mind and Jorn guys (SKOGSBAER IS-KREM, STEINAR!!!), all of the Mercenary guys, Michelle Luppi from Vision Divine, the Zero Hour guys, Lance King, Mike from Circus Maximus (you ole' bastard hahaha!) and Mark Jansen from Epica.
-Glenn Harveston. You're the man and your stage diving was insane!! Thanks once again!
-Balls of Steel.
-Parties at the Granada! Woo-Hoo!
-Balls of Steel.
-The Soundgood Cafe (or whatever) a block away from the Granada.
-Shane DuBose. Thank you SO MUCH!
-Balls of Steel.
-LAMB OF GOD!!!!!!! (not the band)

Jeers :

-Jens Carlsson reading the lyrics. That was a big big big turn off by someone who I consider great!
-Spending too much money on CD's. LOL
-Nightmare Records selling out a lot of stuff that I wanted to buy! LOL
-The uncaring attitude of Simone Simons towards a LOT of people.
-Sets running late.
-Mercenary didn't bring any merch with them.
-I was expecting more of the whole "Big Surprise" during Jorn's set.
-Spending too much money on CD's.
-Vending machines at the Granada.

 

[Magius]

Cheers:
-Shane DuBose. Thank you SO MUCH!

I did neglect him, didn't I? Allow me to compensate:
Shane

 

[monstershredder0003]

jeers: i wasnt fucking there!!!!!!!! damnit!

 

[BlindPanzer]

Jens wasn't readin every single line from the lyrics sheet, he'd just take a peek at the sheets every once in a stanza. It seems understandable seeing as his main band is Persuader, he also is doing Dark Empire with Matt Moliti, and also had to sing a few cover songs. Also Jens usually doesn't move much on stage while performing (at least with persuader) so I don't think his performance suffered with or without the lyric sheets.

 

[LunaTEKKE]

Cheers:
"Stars." No doubt I wasn't the only one who was 80% sure that the last surprise would be the Hear 'N' Aid cover, but it was really cool to see and hear anyway.

Jeers:
2. The lack of official band tour T-shirts. Nothing Glenn had to do with obviously, but a little dissapointing.

CHEERS: I didn't see "Stars" coming at all. I was blown away 20 years ago by the original effort to get such an amazing collection of vocalists together for a good cause, so this was a HUGE highlight for me.

The overall caliber of vocal talent at the festival is at the top of my "Cheers" list. I remember thinking during Circus Maximus that I was witnessing one of the best vocal performances I’ve ever seen. As it turned out, I added a few *more* performances to that list before the weekend was over!

JEERS: On the merchandise, it's unfortunate that more bands didn't take advantage of the opportunity. I would have bought WAY more stuff. (Hmmm...so maybe that should be on my "cheers" list instead...)

 

[woosta]

Cheers:
1. Glenn's hard work once again
2. Power bands once again bringin' it to fire up virtually everyone
3. Last year's "Spicy Ass Fart" guy holding it in this year
4. The Girls. WHERE did all the hot girls come from this year? This hasn't been the case to this year's degree in the past at our festival!
5. Freak Kitchen allowing me and some others to say "we told you so"
6. Quick and painless entry (and prompt too)!
7. That drunk bastard from Memphis Tenn. getting tossed and whining around about missing Evergrey. Have some control, brother. I've never really understood the $116 cover charge to drink that so many seem to pay anyway.


Jeers:
1. Our 4th(?) Danish band, none of which has been the Danish Gods Pretty Maids
2. Spotlights
3. Evergrey YET AGAIN at PP and Jorn headlining
4. The 1 single band of the weekend with no chorus or memorable melody whatsoever that disconnected the majority of the crowd before any of the "big" bands hit the stage. That's gotta stop. Talented? 100% Nice Guys? 100%. Damn near unlistenable to your average attendee and if we ARE bringing in new fans, as it appeared to me, then acts like this will ensure that they'll never come back.
5. Food. $10 Burgers? I think not. "50 orders behind"? Oh boy.
6. Bad Hawaiin shirts...you KNOW what I'm sayin' here!
7. Announce the signings between sets and get that big brother off the "stick" who is always doing all the stereotyped metal-head yapping up on the stage.


Thanks again, Glenn. I didn't like everything but who does? I still had a great time and appreciate all the time and effort that you put in (even though I don't even know that half of it, I'm sure).

 

[Yngvai X]

cheers:

1. FREAK FUCKING KITCHEN. Best performance by any band at any progpower IMO.
2. Savage Circus doing some major ass kicking (Jens' need for a lyric sheet didn't bother me, and I think his dead on performance more than made up for that anyway).
3. Sweet mills, jumps, and nips
4. TECHNO RAVE
5. YEEEAAAHHH!!
6. The Freak Kitchen guys being some of the most awesome dudes to hang with.
7. "ever get your shit pushed in?" "of corpse!"
8. "I'M A WATER MOCCASSIN!"
9. Grabbing the orbs.
10. beer with pegasuses and castles are metal
11. The Goodstone cafe for providing lunch and dinner for the whole weekend.
12. NECRORAP!
13. Swedish friends named Aki
14. "I CAN'T FEEL MY DICK"
15. Spear-fishing jungle monkeys...HUAHUAHUAHUAHUA

JEERS:

1. The staff at the Granada (again).
2. Lack of vendors and t shirts.

 

[Screaming From The Heavens]

CHEERS:
- Mercenary and Epica for giving the progpower fan the added value of rare live covers... both choosing great songs and KILLING IT!!!
- ALL the band members for hanging out and putting up with our incessant pandering, questions, pictures, and autographs.
- All the gorgeous ladies of metal in attendance... oh, indeed.
- The Harvester... all that needs to be said. \m/

JEERS:
- Lyric-reading during Savage Circus, even kind of humming in parts... I mean, WTF? With Thomen being out, they should have come even MORE ready and prepared to blow us away. Not the worst performance, but just a letdown. Instead of being into them, it made me want Iron Savior.
- Energy during Evergrey. The absence of Michael Håkansson was noticeable for me... Larsson was a robot. And between the MANY curtain closings and fan marriage proposal... no chance of building momentum. Not bad, just expected more.
- YES, lack of performing bands' t-shirt merch. Mercenary would have sold out had they brought some.

 

[Palabra de Dios]

Freak Kitchen would have sold out of t-shirts as well, but that's for when I nab all of them from their webshop whenever it opens.

 

[ragingsaxmachine]

Cheers:
All the bands and nice people, especially Jorn's entourage.

Jeers:
Tom Englund wandering into the crowd for Jorn's set. He was right behind me, and looked bored as hell. I guess it's a cheer for being bold enough to chill with everyone. Whatever, I had fun.

 

[JenniferLynn]

Cheers - first in foremost, my Malakas; you two MADE PP for me...
the Pagan Mind guys - as cool as they are talented (piano songs make me sad!!)
Micheal from Circus Maximus - for his take on the draperies around the venue, singing while we took a pic and draggin' me in to watch about 20 seconds of Evergrey's 'I'm Sorry' ... He rawks...
Tore and the Granada porch ~ TO THE PORCH CREW!!!
Circus Maximus - holy shit I love them and must own their stuff #1
Vision Divine - holy shit I love them and must own their stuff #2
Jamie the bartender - for the love of God who gave him a mic?? (It was funny tho... )

Jeers -
um...
hmm...
Oh that I couldn't use my plastic as much as I would've liked ~ I would've spent ALOT more...
That it had to end and there was alot of people I didn't get to say good bye too!!
and damn did it end quick!!!

 

[Angrafan]

Cheers:
Friday night

Jeers:

Saturday night!


I enjoyed a few moments of Vision Divine and Epica.. But overall Saturday night didn't do it for me at all..

 

[livingwithwolves]

It was ALL great for me. CHEERS all the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rockyracoon]

Cheers:
1. Saturday night.
2. Pre-party.
3. Karaoke
4. Marriott breakfast buffet
5. Bartenders in Vinyl.


Jeers:
1. Upstairs bartenders being dicks about water and their TACKY little signs bitching about tips. By the end of Sat night, their attitudes were way outta hand.
2. Where was that hot bartender from previous years, I forget her name???
3. T-Shirts...lacking

 

[Formerly known as Chris F5]

1 major jeer
no Maria(hot bartender)

 

[Hajeka]

Cheers:
--EPICA @ PPUSA
--My friends & the nice people I've met.
--Olaf and Michele of Vision Divine
--Mark and Yves of EPICA

Jeers:
--Someone telling Glenn I was going to video tape Vision Divine's set. (I guess I got lucky with my disposabal Walgreens camera)
--Simone Simons
--Olaf's tiny hamburger
--The Super 8 hotel