Memories Of ProgPower

The_Q

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Mar 29, 2003
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Lately I have been reminiscing about ProgPower 3 and what an amazing time I had. Unfortunately, due to illness, I was unable to attend PP4 and meet my wife Tarja (LOL!). I met so many awesome people. I will never forget hanging out at the Granada hotel outside under the canopy with Thomen Stauch (Drummer of Blind Guardian), just talking for two hours about metal and life in general. I didn't find out until later who he was. I thought he was just among the many fans who flew in from Europe. Hanging out with Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth and Hansi Kurch of Blind Guardian. And having breakfast with the guys from Angra as well as hanging out with all of Gamma Ray and Tobias Sammett of Edguy. I still, to this day, can't get over it. I was wondering what was your guys best fan to artist encounter at PP3 or any other PP? I think it would be cool to hear some nice stories.
 
I haven't had any "band interaction", but the funniest moment for me was leaving the Granada at 6 am Sunday morning after PPIII, and saying hi to Angra as they stumbled back to their rooms to call it a night.

Steve
 
Actually speaking of Angra I think lead singer Edu Falaschi was the nicest guy I met. He didn't speak that much English but was VERY cordial when he really didn't have to be. D.C. Cooper was also a standout as a cool guy and an AMAZING singer live.
 
I'd have to go with standing at the Laser's Edge record vendor, and John Shaeffer standing behind the table. I had the slightest idea who he was and my best friend (who is a huge fan) had never seen him before either so I just blurted out...are you in a band? He gave me this silly laugh (read: you dumbass) and said, "Yeah, Iced Earth." Ha! I guess I should pay more attention to band photos.

My second one would be meeting all of the guys from Balance of Power...SUPER SUPER nice..all of them!
 
There ain't a day since PP3 that wouldn't remember something about it, I got the time of my life.

The first nigth that we (all the gang from Costa Rica) were in Atlanta we were looking for a room in any Hotel at Atlanta (We did it like that because procastination is a nation passion in Costa Rica) and we end up at the Granada. A friend of mine and I got off the car to look for a room, when we got down we saw a guy smoking outside the Granada, and my friend told me "Ain't that Thomen Stauch?" and I replied "No way, those guys wouldn't be just smoking outside the Hotel without a dozen bodyguards or something". You have to undersatnd that we hand't see a real metal band live before PP3, so when we saw him closer and saw his face and realise that he was actually Thomen Stauch I almost died at that spot, we all ran like some school girls to shake hands with him, it was amazing.
 
Super cool bands and members:

Pagans Mind, especially Steinar Krokmo. Super nice guys. Steinar is THE guy to bring to your party. He is a nut. Jorn Viggo has a touch of arrogance about him, but it's just a little bit and it's to be expected from a lead guitarist that is at his level. He was still super cool as were all of them.
Vanden Plas: All of them are very nice and down to earth. Gunter is especially cool. He has a pretty funny sense of humor that even translates well for Americans.
Spiral Architect. I didn't get into this band at all, but they really appreciated their fans and spent a good bit of time talking to them.
Dirk Thurish from Angel Dust. Wild party guy and lots of fun.
D.C. Cooper/Jon Oliva. I mentioned these two together because both are very unassuming and act just like "regular" guys.

Bryant
 
I met an talk a little with: Henjo Richter, Dirk Schlachter, and Dan Zimmerman. The cooles guys in my opinion.

Henjo Gave me a German cigarette while we where talking.

I invited a bud to Dirk, and we made fun of D.C Cooper (in a good way of course, D.C’s vocals are amazing). I also asked him why he didn’t compose any songs in the last albums, he just told me that in the next gamma ray album he will compose some songs again. I will wait to see if that’s true. One more “cool” thing is that Dirk speaks Spanish!

And most of all I spoke with Dan Zimmerman, the coolest “band member” I meet. We spoke about a lot of things. I even had the “balls” to say to him that “Gamma Ray videos sucked in production”, he agreed… I still owe him a bottle of RUM (Which by the way was taken away from my wife by a guard at the concert, when she was trying to give the bottle to Dan, anyway the nice guard give us the bottle back at the exit, so everything was cool)

Another “funny” moment was when we just arrived at the pre-party and saw the Blind Guardian members outside, and about to leave, We where very exited to see “real” band members for the first time in our lives… when they were already leaving, my wife (she has courage) approached Hansi, and told him that we wanted a picture, she told them that we came all the way from Honduras. But they where accompanied by this “ass-hole guard” guy that was taking them to the hotel, this miserable imitation of a man (I hope he read this) believing that he was “God” just because he got to take the Blind Guarding members to their hotel, and maybe even make breakfast to them in the morning, and who knows what else (blow jobs are a possibility) told us:
“I don’t fucking care from where you all from, WE are leaving”
And the cool thing:
Hansi told him to “SHUT UP”, and took the picture with us… that was great!

I meet a lot of cool people at PP3 beside the “band members”, it was really one of the greatest experiences in my life!!!
 
My best memory was meeting Thomen.

I saw him standing near one of the vendor tables. I just kinda stared at him for a few seconds in disbelief before he said, "o_O...eh...do you have something you want me to sign?" Haha...good times.
 
my favorite person to meet was Jon Oliva last year... that man is just awesome.

I saw him walk by when someone was getting their picture taken with Zak Stevens and hold bunny ears up behind the person holding the camera... the guy getting his picture taken didn't even react; I'm not sure he realized who Jon was!

Dirk Thurisch was a fun guy to hang around too... drunk as hell but an awesome frontman. he about killed Robin and I when he stagedived because no one else was around us and we're both fairly small.

It was also amusing to be excited about meeting Balance of Power and then end up seeing them absolutely everywhere we were all weekend. we must have run into them 10 times.

Ryan