Finally getting around to posting.
Great show and good time seeing the Chicago crew. It was nice talk to some of you from the board about music and life outside of music. I am guessing there had to be 20-25 forumers at the show, which was cool to see.
I was on the fence for this show when it first was announced as I'm not the biggest Gamma Ray fan. With that said, having seen them before I loved their live performance and knew it would be a great time. Once District 97 and Mindwarp Chamber were put on the bill, it became a must see for me. Being someone that enjoys various styles of metal, I was one that was looking forward to diversity of the music. Though, I realize that is tough for the average fan of Gamma Ray to want to show up for prog and thrash.
Didn't know much about District 97, but I had checked them out online and read enough where I wanted to see them live. I expected solid musicianship and they delivered. They seemed to have about 20-25 fans for them that cleared out after they played, but thus is life with local openers especially on an eclectic bill.
I can't add much on the other bands that hasn't been said. I will say they had fun on stage and they tried their best to get the crowd going.
I will admit that Mindwarp was the main draw for me. Their style is more in my wheel house, so without typing a bunch of glowing fanboy praise, I will say the crowd was noticeably more into them then any other band except for Gamma Ray and I'm sure they made several new fans. Perfect performance. Great job as always guys, and it was nice talking to Shreddy, Mike, and Mark.
Then the mighty Gamma Ray! I echo what has been said already. I cannot believe they show up after this blizzard to a small crowd after getting up so early and deliver 2 f'ing hours of solid energy. I didn't move from my spot the whole 2 hours save 1 bathroom break. I am very glad I made it to this show for what turned out to be a fun and memorable Gamma Ray show.
On a different note, it is really disheartening that show after show in Chicago gets these smaller crowds than the LA or NY shows. A few of you have speculated on the weather or the mix of the bands, but it seems a lot of Chicago shows in the last few years has excuses for poor turn out. Either the venue is too far, or bands are poorly promoted, or bad timing and conflicting with other shows, etc, etc, there is just a bad trend going on with crowds in Chicago for some solid metal acts that still do well in the US in other cities. I don't know the answer, but I just hope this changes and it doesn't cause bands to tour here less.