Cheers and Jeers

[Mardoch]

Were you on the left side of the stage, by any chance? I wound up next to this drunk woman who kept trying to shove/elbow me over to block the views of the people behind me (??????). I spent the first good part of Soilwork's set being both annoyed at her behavior and concerned that she'd fall over until she finally vanished. :/

Left side, yeah. She was short and had long wavy dark hair. Were you the one who agreed with my crude, but happy, comment at her departure?

 

[Akumu]

Left side, yeah. She was short and had long wavy dark hair. Were you the one who agreed with my crude, but happy, comment at her departure?

Possibly! I was on her right - I can't remember what you had said, but we're definitely talking about the same person, and I was DEFINITELY relieved when I looked over and found her gone. The security dude tried communicating with her earlier, but wound up not doing anything, nor did he respond to me asking to me asking if I should've gotten some water for her or something. Ugggh.

 

[SkiBumMSP]

• Heather, Justin, Su, Tracie, Mike, Dave, and Steve - another year of grand memories made at the festival with you all. Appreciate all you do for the festival and the fun we have.

That was awesome having got to hang out and party with you pretty much the entire weekend. I think I got a some pictures I want to send you. Gotta admit, that was pretty epic, upon leaving the venue Saturday night, being told to take as much of the leftover beer that we can carry.

Looking forward again for next year and seeing all you guys again.

 

[DustyV]

How was Soilwork???
usually this board is filled with in depth commentary on the various bands performances, but I haven't seen much of that this year.... Also, I don't think I've seen Soilwork or Xandria mentioned once ... Were they that awful???

 

[Mardoch]

No. Soilwork was awesome. The vocal mix wasn't perfect, the cleans were buried,for the first half-ish, and there were some unfortunate guitar tech gremlins...but that stopped none of the onslaught. Was worth being up front on the floor for.

 

[AngraRULES]

Soilwork was great. Full of energy and got a bigger reaction than I thought they would. As Doug said, the vocal mix wasn't perfect but nothing that really affected their set terribly.

My biggest complaint about their set though, was the lack of songs off Natural Born Chaos. I mean, just one? Really?

 

[Finn Mac Cuhal]

Nah, I thought all of the bands did a fine job this year. Soilwork is not my cup of tea but they put on a very engaging performance. I stayed for every minute and my sppreciation of the band increased quite a bit. Xandria did quite well both sounding strong and putting a lot of movement into the set.

The only knock I would toss out was for Damnation Angels and I actually thought they sounded great. Too much piped in music and their stage presence sometimes felt weak but they sounded excellent.

Jeer: None that anyone could do anything about. I guess I could complain about the self-absorbed idiots who leave drinks and trash from the night before under seats and in other inconvenient places. Oh. and ProgPowerUSA only coming once a year!

Cheers: Glenn, Jen, Nathan, their staff and crew, the staff at Center-Stage, the bands for their energy and friendliness, the vendors, and everyone that attended. This was my second year at the festival and if anything, this year was better than last year (if that is even possible). Next year, I just may go ahead and die after the last band plays on Saturday so I can die in bliss!

 

[miel]

How was Soilwork???
usually this board is filled with in depth commentary on the various bands performances, but I haven't seen much of that this year.... Also, I don't think I've seen Soilwork or Xandria mentioned once ... Were they that awful???

Check out the YouTube playlist of fan-filmed footage and see for yourself - both were great, IMO!
The playlist has over 1700 views and counting!!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLKbU7H3GVFKuy_OwlJVuY9omqShH9zmv



~Jen

 

[DustyV]

Great! Good to hear, thanks all...........

 

[not223]

Jeers:

• While this show is much better than most of metal shows, drunk people suck. From the woman that basically started touching random people and then dropped to the floor (refusing to get up when security asked) and had to be carried off by security,

Oh my, I was one of the people accosted by her! I freaking love Soilwork and was totally getting into it when this random drunk broad starts tapping me on the arm and incoherently speaking to me. She then proceeded to try and hang on my friend, to which security finally took notice. "Is she with you guys?" UH, NO! I told him I thought she was just wasted and needed to sit down. It took 2 big dude-security guys to remove her after she tried a sit-in on the floor. Despite all this Soilwork was fucking awesome, it's too bad they had a show in Mexico the next day and could not hang. Their bass player Ola is a show unto himself! Very entertaining.

 

[not223]

I weighed in on a jeer, but I should comment on the GOOD (which of course greatly exceeds any slight negatives):

*Getting to talk to Lasse, Truls and Mike from Circus Maximus on Thursday night; and special thanks to Mike for granting a goofy request from me to make a message for a veteran PP-goer and huge CM fan who could not attend this year--great guy to put up with that and to accommodate...THANK YOU SO MUCH!

*The Soilwork guys remembering the club show I spoke to them about at the signing table and putting on a blistering set Friday.

*Getting to see Armored Saint live again, and Joey V. remembering me after not having seen him for about 10 years

*Probably my main reason for attending: Circus Maximus live for the first time; as killer as I'd imagined and they played "Burn After Reading", which was a must-hear for me. Cool and funny guys too

*OF COURSE Glenn joining CM in his gold jacket to recreate the PPUSA video they made last year

*Being lucky and having Wayne (the stage manager) give me the setlists from both CM and Saint--THANK YOU SIR!

*Getting to hang with some great people at the Courtyard and at the venue.

*Myrath--a complete surprise, I knew nothing about them and was really impressed by their set; they gave a headliner's performance as the second band on Friday. The sound during their set was phenomenal.

*Getting to see Xandria's first US live show.

*Midtown Atlanta: I love it. Easy to walk around to everything, great weather, friendly people at most businesses. Good location.

Small jeers:

*merch-related: being told 2 completely different prices for the same item at 2 different merch tables. $20 or $10 for a poster? I'll take the $10 version, thank you.

*a few people that could not handle their alcohol....but in a crowd this big, I guess you'll have that.

 

[nomisofsiman]

The only knock I would toss out was for Damnation Angels and I actually thought they sounded great. Too much piped in music and their stage presence sometimes felt weak but they sounded excellent.

I would have the same complaint though with Sabaton. They do have a keyboardist though who wasn't there, so I wonder if that would have changed it a bit. I would say though with Damnation Angels, while they were great most of the set, the singer seemed to lose steam and his voice towards the end of the set. Am I the only one that noticed this?

 

[Finn Mac Cuhal]

I would have the same complaint though with Sabaton. They do have a keyboardist though who wasn't there, so I wonder if that would have changed it a bit. I would say though with Damnation Angels, while they were great most of the set, the singer seemed to lose steam and his voice towards the end of the set. Am I the only one that noticed this?

Yeah. Sabaton really needs to find a keyboardist. Their stuff is not so complicated that a good keyboardist could not carry the entire load. The boys from Sweden did, however, keep up a very energetic stage presence which generally kept me from noticing the absence of the keyboards on stage.

The main reason it was so noticeable on Damnation Angels was because several times the guitarists would retreat to the speaker bank and face away from the crowd for long seconds. It tended to reduce their stage energy. Musically, I think their style will always feature a heavy reliance on tracked musical support and that is not a knock. DA was great. If they ever come back to Atlanta, New Orleans, Nashville or New York, I will do my very best to get there to see them. I am just not a fan of the "time out" part of their presentation.

One more cheer: The guy that mixes the 2014 line up announcement video. Outstanding job. It is a relatively small touch but really adds to the anticipation.

 

[miel]

One more cheer: The guy that mixes the 2014 line up announcement video. Outstanding job. It is a relatively small touch but really adds to the anticipation.

Wayne Joyner

 

[Pellaz]

I think everyone's already covered all of my cheers, and as for jeers, I was all set to jeer the Artmore but after an initial problem with our room assignment, they really stepped up and got us settled in nicely. Then they were really tolerant toward the late-night courtyard afterparties this year, so kudos to them!

Special "wow!" cheers to Morglbl for an astonishingly tight set and an AC/DC cover that was completely unexpected and pretty damned awesome. (Richard Cheese would have been proud. )
Cheers also to Myrath for overcoming a lot of adversity and performing one of the best sets I've seen at PP in recent years...kinda reminds me of another progressive band who played the festival many years ago -- and will again -- and who brought the house down even after massive travel difficulties.

Cheers to seeing a lot of first-timers this year, especially locals. Bonz from Stuck Mojo?

Cheers (and third-party jeers) to Glenn for scheduling PPUSA two weekends after DragonCon next year. It's awesome for some of us localz that we get a break between the two, but for those who travelled here for both events this year (spending almost two weeks in town, whooo)...oh, well. It'll take a really LONG vacation for y'all to do both next year.....

Jeers to me for not seeing/talking to a lot of the regulars I'd normally have seen...I guess that was mostly timing. Also jeers to me for being completely wiped out Saturday morning...combined DragonCon and PPUSA fatigue, plus I'm not getting any younger....

Like I mentioned to Pellaz, it seemed as if there was even more positive energy than usual this year.... at a fest that's well known as a fun experience. Always great to see people enjoying themselves at PP. I would probably miss that the most if the event ceased to exist. Hopefully we can enjoy PPs for many years to come. I can think of no better place to have my 70th birthday party than PP XXIV.

Nahh, you're not a day over 50, bud.

As so many others have said, ProgPower is about the bands, sure....but the audience and camaraderie is the festival's "secret weapon" that really keeps bringing people back year after year.

Soilwork was great. Full of energy and got a bigger reaction than I thought they would. As Doug said, the vocal mix wasn't perfect but nothing that really affected their set terribly.

My biggest complaint about their set though, was the lack of songs off Natural Born Chaos. I mean, just one? Really?

This.

Also, someone mentioned earlier about bands losing stage-momentum when they have to pause between songs, etc. Soilwork was prone to this as well.

 

[Riceloft]

*Midtown Atlanta: I love it. Easy to walk around to everything, great weather, friendly people at most businesses. Good location.

I agree with this, however, did anyone else notice a greater abundance of homeless around this year? On the highway exits, at the parking lots across from Vortex, even on peachtree on the walk back from the venue there were about 4 sleeping homeless against a building. Just seemed out of place from previous years. I would more expect to see that in Downtown Cleveland (and have!) than Midtown Atlanta.

 

[kellsco]

I agree with this, however, did anyone else notice a greater abundance of homeless around this year? even on peachtree on the walk back from the venue there were about 4 sleeping homeless against a building.

I noticed. Between the venue and the Artmore, I saw them huddled up against the building trying to sleep. Kinda shocked me as I had not seen this in all the years prior.

 

[ManipulatorGeneral404]

I agree with this, however, did anyone else notice a greater abundance of homeless around this year? On the highway exits, at the parking lots across from Vortex, even on peachtree on the walk back from the venue there were about 4 sleeping homeless against a building. Just seemed out of place from previous years. I would more expect to see that in Downtown Cleveland (and have!) than Midtown Atlanta.

I specifically interacted with two of them. One insisted on escorting me to my hotel and "loves showing people the way," then also insisted that I tip him for the service I didn't need. Cheers to my hotel's front desk for handling the guy with class and firmness. A second flagged me down on the way out of Da Vinci's Thursday evening and wanted me to spare a couple bucks; I had some leftover pizza, but he pushed the cash, and was quite frustrated when I wouldn't budge while still somewhat appreciating the slice of pizza.

Given that Glen Mollen of Circus Maximus takes clothes from homeless people according to the band's Q&A video, he should have a lifetime supply of wardrobe from this year's festival. The beggars were abuzz.

 

[Mardoch]

Wayne Joyner

Huge cheer for Wayne. I could never match his quality and turnaround time combination.

 

[LunaTEKKE]

jeers

Already a week removed from it

This. Was in a bit of a funk all week with the end of ProgPower and the U.S. Open, finishing a lengthy book with a bummer ending, and heading back to work. Just put on “Streets” to cheer myself up!