Melodic Rock Fest 2: Y&T, Winger, W.E.T. and more

[Azrael LenGraden]

I was there for
Rock Sugar - Background vocals AND lead vocals were played on a backing tracks... very disappointed
Edens Curse - Mix was horrible, backing vocals were louder than the mains, and there was a lot of boring fret board gymnastics going on by the guitarist, not impressed. Their performance was made even less impressive by the band that followed.
Pride of Lions - Far out ceaded my expectations… Toby Hitchcock made every other singer up to that point look like an amateur. He was flawless. His natural ability was inspiring, Jim Peterik is a legend… Anyone who knows anything about songwriting knows this man is talented. To see a 65 year old and a 26 year old up their singing and performing the way they did was awesome. The rest of the band was incredible as well. These guys stole the show in my opinion. They did all the PoL songs I wanted to hear, they also did one of my favorite Survivor songs I never thought I would ever hear, "Oceans” which has one of my favorite Frankie Sullivan solos in it. Mike Aquino nailed the solo pretty dam good, to say I was impressed is an understatement. Jimi Jaminson got up and sang "Burning Heart"... they even made listening to “Eye of the Tiger” fun again as their version was rockin!

Danger Danger was great, I didn’t care for their selection of songs as they didn’t play what I wanted to hear but the energy and amount of fun they were having on stage really appealed to the crowed. Their new album, REVOLVE, is actually very good but my two least favorite songs on the CD are the ones they played… go figure. Overall a very good performance.

Y&T - I grew up on Y&T, and I have always admired Dave Meniketti as a guitarist, singer, and performer so my expectations were high. I have never see them live and the last two times they played Chicago were the same weekends of PP so I was looking forward to this show. They were great, played all the songs I wanted to hear and Dave just rips on guitar. The vocals were great and Phil Kennmore is quite the character. The new songs sounded really good live as well.

As far as the the fest it was pretty cool, got some great comments on my Evergrey shirt and struck up more than one conversation because of it. I saw at least 4 PP shirts.

 

[adaher]

What I want to know is how a Winger and Danger Danger show can't draw 1000 fans in Chicago, but Stratovarius and Angra can draw that easily in Atlanta. There has to be a failure to promote the gig for that to happen. Maybe Andrew should see if Glenn wants to help out if he wants to have another go at this. By all rights, that lineup should have filled the venue easily.

 

[Matt Crooks]

What I want to know is how a Winger and Danger Danger show can't draw 1000 fans in Chicago, but Stratovarius and Angra can draw that easily in Atlanta. There has to be a failure to promote the gig for that to happen. Maybe Andrew should see if Glenn wants to help out if he wants to have another go at this. By all rights, that lineup should have filled the venue easily.

Could be that Winger and Danger Danger are pulling from the 35+ crowd who generally have a lot of work and family responsibilities, and Strato and Angra are drawing from a younger crowd who generally have fewer responsibilities and can more easily get to an out of town festival.

 

[Creeps]

Well ProgPower week still has a few days open... Sun, Mon & Tue I believe, maybe MR Fest should take those dates and just make a week of really good music.

 

[adaher]

Could be that Winger and Danger Danger are pulling from the 35+ crowd who generally have a lot of work and family responsibilities, and Strato and Angra are drawing from a younger crowd who generally have fewer responsibilities and can more easily get to an out of town festival.
__________________

I don't really think that's it. If Winger and Danger Danger just played a regular concert in Chicago, I think they'd sell 1000 tickets, easy. You wouldn't need people to come from out of town.

I do wonder if the venue had something to do with it. That 35+ crowd likes to have a place to sit. The idea of standing for two days made me think twice.

 

[AirGuitarLoonhouse]

I'm sure the organizers of this fest (and Glenn and other festival organizers) have done their demographic homework and weighed the pros and cons of venue and location.

Outside of the economy I think the biggest factors for a lower turnout were:
1. Some of the key headliners are playing this summer at Midwest Rock Fest with other nostalgic metal bands.
2. Fair or not, the target market for the headliners are in it for the nostalga, and like the criticism weighed at PowerFest for Testament / Iced Earth being the main reason for attendees, I think this fest suffered the same fate. For the price of the ticket to sit through all the other "openers" made it tough to pull in higher numbers. Perhaps a few bigger names in the "nostalgic" melodic scene could have helped.

I believe the location in the Chicago area is a good location as opposed to the SE (as suggested above). Chicago has the ability to get road trip traffic from major cities such as Minn-St Paul, Milw, Cinci, St. Louis, Indy, Det, and Clev all within about 5 hours. Of course a venue in the NE would be similar with the many markets in close proximity.

 

[Met-Al]

I really wish I could have gone to this show, if only to see Winger and Y&T. I've always liked AOR, but outside of the older bands from the radio, I really don't know enough about the genre. I figured this show would have served as a great introduction. Unfortunately, I can only afford one expensive festival per year, even if I only live about an hour away from Elgin. I'm sorry to see that the fest didn't pull in the numbers for which the promoter had hoped.

As for the situation with CD Inzane, I'm not shocked in the least by Zane's actions. I gave CD Inzane three chances when it came to their online service, and each one of my orders was messed up. They didn't even send me my last order, and after multiple calls to Zane, I was rather rudely told that I was pretty much S.O.L. for not paying $10 to have one $14 CD shipped through UPS. Needless to say, his company no longer receives my business.


Stay metal. Never rust.
Albert

 

[The Invisible Guest]

I thought seriously about going last minute to see Winger, but I passed on it. It was a Sunday night for one .. which is just plain tough to deal with when you work Monday mornings. I would have been lucky to get two hours of sleep.

There was nobody outside of Winger I wanted to see that night and the only other band on the fest that interested me was Y&T who played Saturday night. Had W.E.T. still been on the bill I probably would have went, or if Y&T and Winger played the same night I would have went. As it was there just wasn't enough draw to get me to go.

If they have it in the city next time I might consider it more seriously as there is a ton of stuff to do in Chicago as opposed to the burbs. Multiple day fests should be in the city. Hopefully if Powerfest gets their act back together they will do something inside the city and stay out of the burbs.



Britt

 

[KingsGene]

It was a Sunday night for one .. which is just plain tough to deal with when you work Monday mornings.

There was nobody outside of Winger I wanted to see that night and the only other band on the fest that interested me was Y&T who played Saturday night. Had W.E.T. still been on the bill I probably would have went, or if Y&T and Winger played the same night I would have went. As it was there just wasn't enough draw to get me to go.

These are my reasons why I didn't go. I don't understand the rationale for the Sunday night instead of the traditional Fri/Sat, especially for a fest where he's counting on out-of-towners to fill the room....and an older crowd to boot. Just ain't gonna happen...

And, the promoter offered refunds early on to those that already bought tickets prior to W.E.T. canceling. Granted, that's a nice gesture....but then you can't complain when you don't meet the numbers in the long run.

Plus, I think he waited too long to announce the roster....people need time to plan stuff like this.

 

[templeofmax]

I was there for
Rock Sugar - Background vocals AND lead vocals were played on a backing tracks... very disappointed
Edens Curse - Mix was horrible, backing vocals were louder than the mains, and there was a lot of boring fret board gymnastics going on by the guitarist, not impressed. Their performance was made even less impressive by the band that followed.
Pride of Lions - Far out ceaded my expectations… Toby Hitchcock made every other singer up to that point look like an amateur. He was flawless. His natural ability was inspiring, Jim Peterik is a legend… Anyone who knows anything about songwriting knows this man is talented. To see a 65 year old and a 26 year old up their singing and performing the way they did was awesome. The rest of the band was incredible as well. These guys stole the show in my opinion. They did all the PoL songs I wanted to hear, they also did one of my favorite Survivor songs I never thought I would ever hear, "Oceans” which has one of my favorite Frankie Sullivan solos in it. Mike Aquino nailed the solo pretty dam good, to say I was impressed is an understatement. Jimi Jaminson got up and sang "Burning Heart"... they even made listening to “Eye of the Tiger” fun again as their version was rockin!

Danger Danger was great, I didn’t care for their selection of songs as they didn’t play what I wanted to hear but the energy and amount of fun they were having on stage really appealed to the crowed. Their new album, REVOLVE, is actually very good but my two least favorite songs on the CD are the ones they played… go figure. Overall a very good performance.

Y&T - I grew up on Y&T, and I have always admired Dave Meniketti as a guitarist, singer, and performer so my expectations were high. I have never see them live and the last two times they played Chicago were the same weekends of PP so I was looking forward to this show. They were great, played all the songs I wanted to hear and Dave just rips on guitar. The vocals were great and Phil Kennmore is quite the character. The new songs sounded really good live as well.

As far as the the fest it was pretty cool, got some great comments on my Evergrey shirt and struck up more than one conversation because of it. I saw at least 4 PP shirts.

So you were the one with the Evergrey Tshirt? I had the PPUSAX T shirt on!!!

 

[Rezz]

So you were the one with the Evergrey Tshirt? I had the PPUSAX T shirt on!!!

I wore my PPXIII shirt friday night.

I thought it was a great show. Aside from a few technical difficulties like the mix during Eden's Curse and whatever slowed down Rock Sugar I thought the sound in the venue was great. Loud enough to rock but not ear-splitting. Far superior to most shows I see in smaller venues.

Several of the bands I didn't know before the show really impressed me, especially Crown of Thorns and Talon. I was familiar with Pride of Lions but I wasn't prepared for how awesome they were.

I really thought they screwed up by trying to control the merch to the extent they did. Several times I went to the CD booths after being blown away by the band on stage, ready to buy a CD or two from the band only to find they didn't have any. I had been very picky in my CDs purchases leading up to the show, figuring I would load up at the show like I do in Atlanta every year but the selection just sucked.

Another issue I had is that the days were just too damned long. Over 12 hours in the venue Sat & Sun was too much. My buddy and I even got there early enough that we claimed prime seats on the balcony every day and held onto them until the end, but we were still exhausted.

Other than those issues I thought it was a very enjoyable festival.

OH yea, I was really hoping something heavy would fall from the rigging and hit the Rainbow Foundation guy on the head. Nothing fatal, just heavy enough to send him home for the remainder of the weekend...

 

[Sir Exar Kun]

I wore my PPXIII shirt friday night.

So who is on the PP 13 shirt then? That way I can plan around whether to attend that year or not....

LOL..... Assume you meant PP VIII...... I wore that to the TSO show here this spring, and not a single comment from anyone there.

 

[Rezz]

LOL..... Assume you meant PP VIII...... I wore that to the TSO show here this spring, and not a single comment from anyone there.

Doh! Yea, of course that's what I meant. I did get a few comments on it. One guy turned out to be the drummer for Ted Poley's solo band. He actually played at PPI although I forget which band he was with at the time. The comment I usually get when I wear it is something along the lines of "OMG! You saw PRIMAL FEAR?!?!?! I HATE you!!"