1) Blind Guardian 2) Fates Warning 3) Refuge 4) Dragonforce 5) Freedom Call 6) Serious Black 7) Savage Messiah 8) Pyramaze 9) Lord
1. Fates Warning 2. Green Carnation 3. The Gentle Storm 4. Cobalt at the 529 in the wee hours of Sunday morning 5. Refuge 6. Haken
1) Devin Townsend 2) Green Carnation 3) Freedom Call 4) Blind Guardian 5) Haken 6) Refuge 7) Savage Messiah
For those I saw: Vanishing Point Pyramaze Savage Messiah Refuge Lord Serious Black Fates Warning Circus Maximus Devin Townsend Ghost Ship Octavius Ascendia Gentle Storm (only watched 2-3 songs) Haken (only watched 2-3 songs)
1. Fates Warning 2. Green Carnation 3. Ascendia 4. Blind Guardian 5. Circus Maximus 6. Haken 7. Gentle Storm 8. Freedom Call 9. Serious Black 10. Savage Messiah
So many good bands this year. It's hard to do a Top Ten list! But here's my feeble attempt for the entire fest: 1) Fates Warning 2) Devin Townsend 3) Pyramaze 4) Green Carnation 5) Circus Maximus 6) Haken 7) The Gentle Storm 8) Ascendia 9) Vanishing Point 10) Scar Symmetry
Spock's Beard Devin Haken Savage Messiah Freedom Call Lord Gentle Storm Blind Guardian Serious Black Circus Maximus
It's close to impossible to rank them this year, but here's my attempt at highlighting my favorites: 1. Blind Guardian 2.. Dragonforce 3. Refuge 4. Devin Townsend 5. Gentle Storm 6. Freedom Call 7. Spock's Beard 8. Savage Messiah 9. Haken 10. Serious Black/Vanishing Point Those were the sets that really stood out IMO, but all of he sets were very good to completely fucking awesome.
This is hard because I think 90% of the sets were strong. Even a band like Freedom Call who I probably won't listen to again, put on an enjoyable set. My favorites in no particular order were: Blind Guardian Devin Townsend Green Carnation Gentle Storm Circus Maximus Those that don't have Green Carnation on your list, I question your sanity That was one of the most intense sets I have ever seen at Prog Power. Going in a liked the album, but that performance brought that to life so well.
Not exactly in order, but… Fates Warning Circus Maximus Devin Townsend* Anneke GB/VIP show Haken Stream of Passion The Gentle Storm Serious Black Ascendia Vanishing Point * If you would have told me 36 hours ago that Devin Townsend would be on my list, I would have told you that you were out of your freaking mind. I might have skipped out entirely, except that I wanted to see Anneke, but enjoyed the hell out of the set!
Haken Vanishing Point Savage Messiah Green Carnation Anneke GB/VIP show Blind Guardian Circus Maximus The Gentle Storm Spock’s Beard Serious Black Ascendia Pyramaze Lord Fates Warning Refuge Freedom Call Dragonforce Devin Townsend Project Scar Symmetry Ghost Ship Octavius Stream Of Passion
Green Carnation (one of the best shows I've ever seen) Blind Guardian Fates Warning Devin Townsend Spock's Beard Freedom Call Haken I missed Refuge, and only saw the last 1/3rd or so of Pyramaze and Gentle Storm.
* If you would have told me 36 hours ago that Devin Townsend would be on my list, I would have told you that you were out of your freaking mind. I might have skipped out entirely, except that I wanted to see Anneke, but enjoyed the hell out of the set! I couldn't have phrased that better..........I fully intended on staying for his entire show, but did not expect to be BLOWN AWAY at awesome it was. The comedy was just icing on the cake.
My 2 cents worth on the favorites of the weekend are as follows and pretty much in rank order: Devin Townsend Haken Green Carnation Circus Maximus Scar Symmetry Savage Messiah Fates Warning Spock's Beard (another band that floored me as i was a casual fan at best) Ghost Ship Octavius Pyramaze Lord Blind Guardian Those that I didn't list is due to only seeing small parts of their sets, but I concur with the majority here that ALL the bands played extremely well. For me this had to be one of the greatest 4 days of music I've heard in my lifetime. Outstanding job everyone !
1- Devin - There are no words. Nearly a religious experience... 2- Anneke GB acoustic - What a voice she has! And a beautiful personality to match! 3- A Gentle Storm - Expected to like them. I was floored 4- Green Carnation - So intense! I didn't expect this to rank so high. 5 - Spock's Beard - Came into the fest a casual fan. They were astounding 6 - Blind Guardian - A Bucket List band for me... 7 - Fates- John still has it. Plus it was cool to see Portnoy geeking out HARD right in front of me 8- Circus Maximus - Best I've ever seen them! 9- Haken - Amazing musicianship 10- Stream of Passion - Bummed that they are disbanding. Happy to finally see them Too lazy to go beyond 10. But really, every band was great. Probably the strongest year for performances that I can remember...
1. Devin 2. Refuge 3. Gentle Storm 3 bands i went to see, they all delivered big time, Gentle Storm surprised me by my knowledge of every song, wasn't expecting that. I;ve seen Dtp about 5 times, watched all their live shows on dvd/youtube and honestly that was the single most energetic show they have put on. Song selection was a bit narrow because of Anneke but that also made it special, it was a special show. Refuge was my favorite band for the longest time and it was my lifelong dream to see that lineup play, they crushed it, really more memorable than fates warning because it was the classic lineup playing their most notable songs, it was a complete package. Honestly i probably watched some of the least amount of music of everybody, I was always around chatting with people. I think my buddy wins though he literally only was at the Dtp show. Of the others Freedom Call (2nd half of set) and Serious Black were great. Haken was a bit too static and wankey though I was familiar with some of their stuff and enjoy their studio work, Green Carnation was pretty good but very quiet I thought the live set was better than the album for sure. Both of those bands i cut out of to get autographs (Rage and Dtp respectively). Fates Warning was decent but they didn't look that excited and the vocals were obnoxiously loud, I left halfway through the show after I heard all the songs I knew on the album and ended up having a good night otherwise. I ended up missing savage messiah who I was pretty familiar with and wanted to see and scar symmetry which I think i might have had a bit of enjoyment from.
Devin Townsend The Gentle Storm Green Carnation Savage Messiah Blind Guardian Circus Maximus Scar Symmetry Fate's Warning Vanishing Point Freedom Call Stream of Passion Pyramaze Serious Black Dragonforce Refuge Ascendia Lord Ghost Ship Octavius Haken Spock's Beard
1. Gentle Storm 2. Anneke solo (only #2 because I was hoping for less covers) 3. Haken 4. Devin Townsend 5. Green Carnation. I wasn't expecting a ton out of this, I liked the album the few times I've heard it, but live it was just amazing. 6. Stream of Passion 7. Blind Guardian 8. Ascendia 9. Vanishing Point 10. Circus Maximus
Even though they are ending that project, most of them are in the Gentle Storm touring band, which is becoming Anneke's new band. I'm pretty sure we'll at least be able to hear some old Stream of Passion songs live still.
