Prog Power VI - Un-FRIGGAN-Believable!

[skonopa]

WARNING - This is a long one! Those that are not into prog/power metal may not be interested in all this, but here goes.....:

Well, I just got back from Atlanta, GA and got to experience one of the most incredible music events in my life: ProgPower USA VI!

Ten totally awesome bands playing over two friggan awesome nights of music!

First the venue - Earthlink Live!

The venue is pretty large, but not huge! It was still an intimate

show, in this case, about 1150 or so patrons (250 "gold passes" and 900

"general tickets"). There were the seats arranged in stadium

style in a large horseshoe fashion around "the floor". So, you

can sit and just take in the show or go down onto the floor and

head-bang with the rest of the folks down there. Me and my friend

that went with me managed to get some really good seats only 3 rows up

from the stage on the stage left. It gave me an excellent view of

the stage and can still well close enough to easily see the

performance. A few times I went down onto the floor to try to get

a closer look at the action up on stage. It is a different energy

down on the floor than up in the stands, but I was not about to stand

down there during the entire show (which started at 5:30 PM and

went on till past 2:00 AM! - both nights!).

The sound quality of the venue was excellent! It was friggan loud

(thus the use of earplugs), but it was very clean and did not sound

like it was distorted. From what I can tell, they were using big

banks of EV speakers, although I have no idea what they got pushing

behind it as amps (I would not be surprised if it was Crown

amps). On the topic of earplugs, it looks like a good majority of

the people were using them (including myself). Just a quick scan

of the people that was immediatly around me and I can see those

tell-tale little colored nubs sticking out of most of thier ears.

The crowd itself was just friggan awesome. I got the chance to

chat up many a folk (and even made friends with several of them,

including trading e-mail addresses). This show is often billed as

"an elite show for an elite audience", and I think I can agree with

this. From my interactions with the other people there, this

indeed did seem to be a very mature and sophisticated audience.

There was no moshing on the floor (This ain't Warped Tour, for crying

out loud - no whiney punk-assed kids here), and I did not even see any

drugs. I also did not encounter anybody that was so drunk that

they could not stand up either. There were no fights - not

even verbal exchanges, from what I can tell. Whenever anybody

accidently bumped into me, they were always polite with a "I'm sorry"

or "woops! My bad!" type statement (in some cases, even when I

was the one that did the accidental bumping). Even outside the

show, I was always running across folks all around Atlanta, such as on

the MARTA subway trains, at the Coke World thing, in the Underground,

downtown while exploring the area, and so forth. It was always,

"Hey dude! what's up! Hope to see you at the show

tonight!". Even today, at the airport, it was the same thing -

such as "Awesome show wasn't it! I hope you had a good time", and

so forth. It was easy to tell who - after all, how many other

folks in Atlanta have been wearing ProgPower T-shirts, as well as

T-shirts for Hammerfall, Stratovarious, DreamScape, Therion, Sonata

Arctica, and a whole host of others.

There was an extensive vender's area as well! Holy cow, now talk

about being a kid in a friggan candy store! Lets just say that I

got a pretty good sized stack of some 20+ CDs that I am just starting

to listen to (and the two or three that I've listened to so far are

just friggan awesome! (currently listening to Vox Tempus' record for

the second time - man, what a friggan incredible album - more on that

later!). Me and some $200+ dollars parted ways there! But,

hey, got some sweet scores, such as DreamScape's latest on which the

entire band signed it! I even got to shoot the breeze with thier

bassist (Benno Schmidtler) for a good 1/2 hour or so. And for all

of you that listen on tubes and turn-tables, there was plenty of this

stuff on Vinyl!

I will try to get some pictures up myself. Unfortunatly, due to

me being a friggan bonehead, the battery on my camera crapped out

during Conception's set on the first night, and I did not have my

charger with me. Howerver, I did still managed to get a number of

good pics. I am certain there will be plenty of pictures posted

on the 'Net at large. I'll try to dig some up (with proper

credit) later on.

On to the bands themselves!

Friday night (16 September, 2005):

First - Manticora (45 minutes):

Unfortunatly, I don't have any of thier albums, and only individual

tracks of thier stuff here and there. However, I was quite

impressed with thier set. The vocalist did some pretty cool

interaction with the crowd - even stage dived at the end of the

set! That was the only one I saw. There music was standard

power metal with the strong guitar riffs and the clean high-register

vocals. They did have some really nice orchestration in thier

music that I really liked. It was an excellent performance,

although maybe not my most favorite of the bands on there, but still

awesome none-the-less. Unfortunatly, I did not get the chance to

get one of thier albums at the show. I'll still have to go check

them out some more.

Second - Circus Maximus (45 minutes)

Wow! I am friggan impressed with these guys! I've never

heard of these guys before, and they only just released thier first

album (The 1st Chapter - which sold out during the show - I only barely

managed to get a copy). The music was truly epic in some

cases. The vocalist was a really awesome guy, both in talent and

as someone to just hang out with. These guys definitly put thier

heart in thier performance with some truly unique sounds.

Granted, there was a couple songs I'd wished they would've gave a good

kick in the pants on. Still, I was truly impressed and always

great to get to see some fresh talent. Looking forward to giving

thier disk a spin on my system.

Third - Orphaned Land (1 hour)

This is a band from Isreal! Hell, I did not even know they had

metal in Isreal! This was the big surprise of the night. I

only heard one sample track from these guys, but was a bit put off by

the death-metal growling. I never really cared much for death

metal myself. Then I got to hear what these guys are really

capable of! This was definitly a progressive metal band that

incorporated some death metal elements in thier music. And it

works! I was blown away at how good these guys where. Damn shame

that I could not get a CD (Mabool: The Story of Three Sons of Seven)

as they all went bye-bye on me (plus I've pretty much blown my budget

on CDs as I was reluctant to buy thiers until I heard thier set)!

Oh well - guess, I'll have to order one off thier website. Some

really powerful guitar work and lyrics. Not to mention some

interesting influences from Isreali/middle-eastern culture thrown

in. These guys truly do have a sound unlike anything else out

there. Neeless to say, I was truly impressed, and quite

pleasantly surprised at how truly awesome these guys where.

Forth - Conception (1 - 1/2 hour)

If you like Kamelot, definitly give these guys a listen. Hell,

there were some folks at the show that said they liked these guys

better than Kamelot (As hard as that to believe, as I am pretty big fan

of Kamelot myself). I've never really heard of these guys until

the show. When I finally heard thier set, I found I had to get at

least one of thier albums. Unfortunatly, thier albums never were

released in the states, so dropping $20 on an import copy of thier

latest, In Your Multitude, was kinda a bit of an "ouch"

moment for my wallet - when most domestic copies of CD's were going for

around $10 to $15 at the vender tables couple of which were the labels

themselves). Could've been worst - would've had to pay more than

$30 going through typical retail channels such as Amazon.com. The

band itself was execellent and sounded really good. There was no

denying that this band was heavily influenced by Kamelot, though,

especially considering thier lead vocalist is none other than Roy Khan

who is also the lead vocalist of Kamelot as well. For anybody

that is familier with Kamelot will have a good idea of how this band

sounds.

Last - Angra (2+ hours)

Wow! These guys are just friggan awesome (although my friend that

went down with me did not think so, but, oh well!). Another band

that I've only heard bits of here and there. Talk about some hard

hitting power metal with a definite progressive bent! I ended up

getting three of thier CD's, Fireworks, Hunter and Prey,

and Temple of Shadows (thier most recent). I loved some of the

orchestration they put in thier music. Also that vocalist (Edu

Falaschi) sounds awesome. Loved the crowd interactions he

did. At the end of the lead guitarist even held his instrment out

over the crowd so they could touch it! With all the Angra

T-shirts I saw at the show, it was no doubt that these guys are a big

hit with the prog/power scene. What a friggan awesome show these

guys put on!

Saturday (17 September, 2005)

First - Stride (45 minutes)

This is a band that has been around, but is finally getting

noticed! This was also the only American band that performed at

the show as well (out of the 10 bands, this was the only American

one!). They came from Texas, if memory serves me right.

These guys are good! No "if"s, "and"s, or "but"s about it!

Their first album is to hit the world on the 1st of October, but they

were selling pre-release copies at the show, and I scored a copy for a

mere $10! Looking forward to spinning this one on my setup as

well! Also, another vocalist that loved to interact with the

audience! He was throwing all kinds of junk out into the audience

for people to catch! T-shirts, copies of the CD, keychains - you

name it. I was to far back from the stage to be able to grab

anything. Also, this is one band that is very much influenced by

Rush and you can tell from listening to them. The lead vocalist

even sounded a bit like Geddy Lee. The real clincher was when

they did a cover of Rush's "2112", although they only played through to

the "Temple of Syrinx" part. And here I was, sitting there with

my Rush "Vapor Trails" shirt on just friggan eating it up like a little

kid with a nice big ice cream cone!

Second - Symphorce (45 minutes)

Wow! What a friggan powerful show this was! Holy $#!+, can these guys just friggan tear it up!

The really put the "power" in power metal! Also, some more great

audience interaction here! He was even coming out on stage with

one of those Poloroid "Instamatic" cameras and taking pictures of the

audience and then throwing the picture into the audience (although he

did keep a couple for himself!). One of the other band members

came out with one of those disposable cameras and starting taking

pictures of the audience himself, although he kept the camera. I

wished I had gotten at least one of thier albums, but I'll definitly be

getting one when I have money again to spend on this stuff. Even

I got called out by the lead vocalist. I was just sitting up

there in my seat and doing the head bobbing thing with a little bit of

"air guitar" on my knee. He was trying to get the audience up to

doing that "hand clap over the head" thing. I was just sitting

there in one of those music induced trances just taking in the

show. He pointed at me, then put his hands down on his knees with

his head shaking "No!". As soon as I started to do that "hand

clap over head" thing, he nodded his head "yes", pointed at me, and

gave me the "thumbs up!" sign! Kinda cool and funny! This

was also one of the great surprises of the night. I guess I was

not really expecting much, but like he said "For the next 45 minutes,

your asses are mine!". Funny at the end he said "Know, you can

have your asses back!". These guys are just friggan

awesome!

Third - Pink Cream 69 (1 hour)

With a name like that, it is easy to dismiss these guys as another

"Glam Rock" type band, but they are not! They definitly have a

more straight-up "old-school" type metal sound, but with some power

metal influene. I have two of thier albums, Thunderdome and Endangered.

They were playing some stuff that I've not even heard, so I'll have to

try to seek out some of thier other material. These guys where

cool, and this was thier first time playing in the 'States.

Interesting the band itself is from Germany, but the members were a

motley crew (crue? [] - can't say they don't sound a bit like the

'Crue as well as Dokken, though) of international, including an

ex-patriot American. The lead vocalist was British and the

drummer was Greek. During this set, I managed to work my way down

onto the floor and got right up agains the stage fairly close to the

center. Friggan sucked by this time, the battery in my camera

went dead, as I could've gotten some friggan awesome shots from where I

was. Oh well. This is one of those bands I love to listen

to for a more modern fix of that '80's style metal.

Forth - Therion (1 - 1/2 hour)

This was just friggan unreal here! I've listened to and have a number of thier albums, such as Volvin, and there two-parter, Sanctus B

(or something like that - don't feel like looking it right now).

With the very interesting operatic chorus they use in thier music, I

was really curious to see just how this would look (and sound)

live. This is also thier very first time they played in the US as

well. Thier performance was just simply breath-taking.

Included with the typical prog/power metal band setup (three guitars

(lead, rythm, bass), drums, keyboard, and lead vocalist), they had

three female opera singers as well as two mail singers, all dressed up

formal type wear (the ladies in the evening gowns and the guys in the

tuxes). It was just something else to see and hear. Also

the "lead" opera signer, in a really nice looking read dress, was up

near the front of the stage. It was cool how she slowly moved up

to the mike right at the correct time and slowly moved her arms to the

music. It was really cool to see, and hauntingly beautiful at the

same time. Therion originaly started out as as straight-up death

metal band, complete with the "death growl" vocals, but sometime around

the early to mid-'90s, they pretty much changed to a very much

progressive metal band. However, there is no denying they still

fall back to those death metal roots with the occasional growls and the

like. Ole Stratovarius is going to have one tall act to follow on!

Fifth - Stratovarious (2 + hours)

Well, what can I say! It's Stratovarious! Anybody that has

any familiarity with power/prog metal knows who these guys are.

This is a band with a pretty long history, with thier first album (Fright Night)

released back in 1989. Actually it is almost a mircle that they

are even here. There was some real internal strife going on with

the band and everybody pretty much thought they were done. It

seems they gotten thier act together (no pun intended) and managed to

put on one hell of a show (still think Therion had the better show,

though!). This is their very first appearance in the US.

They also have a new CD coming out (simply titled Stratovarius),

which was not officially due till October, but pre-release copies where

available at the show. I've only heard the two tracks, "Maniac

Dance" and "United". It is argued that Visions was thier best CD, and they did play a number of tracks from it. They did not play anything from thier Elements CDs

though, which did not surprise me, considering the amount of bad press

that was getting (I personally liked Elements Part 1 myself, and I am

not afraid to admit it). Like them or not, I was friggan stoked

to finaly get to see these guys live, despite them starting a friggan

1/2 hour late and the somewhat cheesy video display they had on

stage. Still, hearing "Black Diamond" live was just friggan

awesome. Also, these guys are definitly talented! Timo Tolkki was

just insane on that guitar. Also, Jari Kainulainen (EDIT - Jari

is no longer with the band - the bassist there at the show was Lauri

Porra) did a friggan

unbelievable bass solo! I've never seen a bass solo, let alone

one like that! I am very tempted to cruise on up to Jaxx

tommorrow night to see them again (if tickets are still

available)! I am only concerned if this new album is like

Matellica's "Black" album, which was pretty good, but after which

Metallica pretty much sucked (S&M excepted - hoping there was

redemption there, except only for that Napster fiasco pretty much was

the straw that broke the camel's back for me - I've since vowed to

never buy another Metallica CD or any of thier other merchadise

again. I won't even go through the trouble to download thier

music). As I am a longtime fan of Stratovarius, I hope I don't

seem them going down the same dark path.

Overall, I cannot even begin to put in words just how friggan awesome

this show truly was. It was just unreal. Also, I've never

seen such an incredible display of talent and musicanship as was

displayed there. All ten bands where awesome in thier own ways

and rights, and I enjoyed every single one of them. I also got

the chance to chat a bit with some of the band members, and these guys

are really down to earth. None of that "Look at me! I am

the big rich rock star here!". These guys are truly doing for the

love of the craft more than for the money (although there is no denying

that these guys want to be successful, after all, who doesn't?).

They all truly realize just how important the fans are to thier

success. Several of the bands got up there and flat out said "Hey

if not for you guys, we would have no reason to even exist!".

Maybe some of these punk *** kids that I hear on the mainstream sources

(such as the piss-poor FM radio in this area) needs to take a clue from

these guys. To bad these guys don't get more exposure on the

mainstream media, to show the world there truly is some real music out there, played by real bands with real talent.

And how much I paid for all this? $100 for both days! And

it was worth every friggan cent (plus some!). The Rolling Stones

can take thier $250+ tickets and cram them up where the sun don't

shine! I've seen far more talent in those two nights than the

'Stones could ever dream of matching! (Not to mention that I was never

a real fan of the 'Stones anyway). I guess people pay that kind

of money just because they are "The Rolling Stones" after all!

And like I mentioned before, I dropped some serious donerios on some

CDs at this show. There was just so friggan much there that there

is no way I'd ever get a chance to hear it all, let alone have the

money to buy the CD's. For all you metal heads on this forum that

is curious as to what I got, here is a run-down of the CD's I did get

at the show (there are a lot of others I wanted, but just simply did

not have the money):

Adagio - Santus Ignis - I only had a compressed, MP3 version I got off a download site - now I got the actual album

Adagio - Underworld - Same thing as above

Angra - Fireworks

Angra - Hunter and Prey

Angra - Temple of Shadows

Avian - From the Depths of Time - Never even

heard of these guys. I did talk to the guitarist for a bit.

I'll e-mail him and let him know what I think. Was funny when I

mentioned to him saying, "I cannot wait to hear this on my Klipsch

system. It oughta be good!". He replied back along the

lines of, "Klipsch? Ohh wow! Anything will sound good on

Klipsch! Didn't think about it at the time, but should've gotten

him to sign the CD.

Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter - Debut release. If this CD is anything like I've heard during thier performance, it will be friggan awesome.

Conception - In Your Multitude

Dream Scape - Trance-Like State

Dream Scape - Very

Dream Scape - End of Silence (Signed by the entire

band!) I listened to this one on the way back from the

airport. It is an awesome CD, but there is no denying these guys

are heavily influenced by Dream Theater. Look at the name as

well. There are some folks that are put off by that.

Awesome band, but try to not be so obvious with trying to sound like

Dream Theater. Still, I really like this, and having the chance

to really get to meet thise guys in person and chat it up with them for

a good 1/2 hour adds something special to the whole thing.

Edguy - Superheroes - Thier brand-new album. Was friggan awesome show when I saw these guys almost a month ago at Jaxx, along with Hammerfall.

Lyndia Sea - Lyndia Sea - I have no idea what these

guys sound like, but for $10, I cannot go wrong. If they are

anything like the descriptions I've gotten from people that have heard

them, I should be in for a treat here.

Lyndia Sea - Architect for Humanity - Same thing as above. Hey, part of the fun of this whole thing is discovering new music from new acts.

Stratovarious - Stratovarius - This is thier latest release. Unfortunatly, from the couple tracks I've heard so far, this ain't going to be another Visions.

Still, nice to see this band trying to make a comeback and is always

nice to hear new material from them. Also, I'll take

Stratovarius's worst effort over Green Day's best effort anyway.

Stride - Imagine - Like Circus Maximus, this is

also thier debut release. Also, like Circus Maximus, if this is

anything like I've seen up on stage, it is going to be a ride!

Thunderstone - Tools of Destruction - Not supposed

to come out until October, but scored a pre-release copy. I've

always liked Thunderstone and am looking forward to hearing this one.

Visions - Strange but Familier Shores... - Another

one I pretty much bought on a "hey, this looks cool" thing. I

gave it a spin this evening and I was just friggan blown away at how

truly good this was! I love it when I discover something new and

refreshing like this!

Vox Tempus - In the Eye of Time - I was looking at

this CD and this big bald dude came up to me and said, "I wrote part of

that!". I was like, "Really?". I then asked him what it

sounds like, and also turned out he was Eric Ragno, the

keyboardist. Looking in the liner notes and sure enough, there he

was. Really awesome guy and was fun to chat with him, although

briefly. He asked me to e-mail him to let him know what

thought of the album when I got a chance to listen to him. I did

tell him that I have a good high-end system, so I'll have no problem to

give this a good and proper evaluation. He also signed the liner

notes. When I got back home eailer this afternoon, I went and put

this on and gave it a listen. I was quite impressed. Very

much influenced by Styx as well as Dream Theater and Fates

Warning. The lead vocalist even sounds like Styx's Dennis

DeYoung. This was pretty damn cool - so much so that I went and

listened to it a second time! Needless to say, I sent an

e-mail to Eric telling him what I though. I'll be curious to see

if I get a reponse.

Various - Various demos and samplers, including one very impressive three CD

set just completely filled with tracks from numerous bands. It is

going to take me some time just to go through all those. And the

cool part was that these samplers and demos were all free! There

were even a couple of teenagers handing out burned copies, on regular

computer CD-R disks, of thier own demo. Some outfit called Lost

in Blue. Like I told the other bands I've met there, I told these

guys that I've got a good, high-end system that I am willing to give

this a proper listen and e-mail my thoughts/impressions back.

One thing that I noticed with these CD, at least the ones that I've

gotten to listen to, was just how good many of these recordings

actually sounded. I did not detect any compression and the like

in these albums. These seemed to be very well done

recordings. Another thing is I've never encountered the "One Hit

Wonder" syndrome. It seemed that every single prog/power CD I've

ever bought, I could put in and friggan love it from the very first

note to the final fade-out. I certainly have my preferences as to

which tracks I enjoy more than others, but it seems that I can sit and

truly enjoy all the tracks on a given CD. To bad I cannot say the

same with some of the more mainstream junk I've bought over the

years. The CD's I've bought out of the mainstream is pretty much

zilch. The last thing I bought was A Perfect Circle's latest

album, which I did enjoy all the way through.

And there you have it! One friggan awesome weekend of some the

best damn music that I could ever ask for, plus a serious boost in my

collection. It is going to take me nearly the month to truly go

through all that and give it some serious listening.

[Born2RockU]

Sounds like I missed a good one this year.

I would have been their,

...if I hadn't just returned from a 17-day trip to Japan,Singapore and Indonesia.

~I am still jet lagged from that one.~

I should be there next year in Atlanta.

Hopefully my band, MINDCRIME will be booked at the pre-party for ProgPower VII.

SKONOPA:

....did ya make it to the pre-party event? If so, How was it?

Rock on,

Craig LeMay

[skonopa]

SKONOPA:

....did ya make it to the pre-party event? If so, How was it?

Rock on,

Craig LeMay

Unfortunatly, no I didn't. I did not get to Atlanta until

something 11:30 at night that Thursday evening! I wish I did, as

I heard it was quite an event. If you get booked the pre-party

for VII, I'll have to try to plan to be there for it.

Well, the oppurtunity is to friggan good for me to pass-up, but

tonight, Stratovarius is playing at Jaxx just a mere 45-minute drive

from here and tickets are still available!

After I post this, I am gonna head up there!

Play it HARD! Play it LOUD!

[Born2RockU]

Where is JAXX ?

Is that in Georgia?

[nicholtl]

My god, if passion for music didn't come through on this post, I don't know what will! Obviously, you had the time of your life Steve. I wish I was could've been there too, although I'm pretty sure I fall into the "whiney punk-assed kid" category.

As crual fate would have it, I'm actually going to Atlanta next week to visit some friends, but had I known about this concert (I never seem to find the time to look up anything powermetal-related online), I probably would've scheduled my trip earlier. Ah wells, there's always next year...

Anyway, I'm happy you had such a f__king blast. Very, very jealous here. Enjoy your 20+ CD's! I'll be crying in the corner if you need to find me.

(By the way, why would people wear earplugs to a concert? Even if it IS loud, doesn't that just drown out everything?)

[skonopa]

Where is JAXX ?

Is that in Georgia?

It is in Springfield, VA, which is just outside of Washington, D.C.

area. It is a tiny night-club, but WOW, do they have some serious

friggan acts there! November 3rd, Saxon is playing there, and on

the 17th, Kamelot! It only take me about 45 minutes to get there

from Fredericksburg, VA.

[skonopa]

My god, if passion for music didn't come through

on this post, I don't know what will! Obviously, you had the time of

your life Steve. I wish I was could've been there too, although I'm

pretty sure I fall into the "whiney punk-assed kid" category.

Everybody there was really cool. If you behave and don't try to

start any $#!+, such as trying to start a mosh pit, you'll be just

fine. Althought I did not see it, but

apparently somebody did try to start a mosh pit during the Stratovarius

act, but it was put to a stop real quick. I found out later that

mosh pits were not allowed anyway. Personally, I find them damn

annoying. At the Sonata Arctica concert back in April at Jaxx,

some d1ckhead try to start one. He friggan slammed me from behind

so hard (and I was not even expecting it as I was just standing there

watching the show) that the friggan shoved me through three rows of

people. Damn near ended up on the stage and came close to

knocking over Tony Kakko, the lead vocalist. I was friggan

pissed! All that was going through my mind was, "Dude, if you

friggan pop my knees, there will be hell to pay!". After 24 years

of skiing, my knees are not the best and the last thing I need is some

friggan @$$hole try to start that kind of crap.

As I found out first hand, the ProgPower audience is (for the most

part) a very mature audience and they will not tolerate that kind of

crap. Just read the ProgPower forums and you'll see.

As crual fate would have it, I'm actually

going to Atlanta next week to visit some friends, but had I known about

this concert (I never seem to find the time to look up anything

powermetal-related online), I probably would've scheduled my trip

earlier. Ah wells, there's always next year...

Anyway, I'm happy you had such a f__king blast. Very, very jealous

here. Enjoy your 20+ CD's! I'll be crying in the corner if you need to

find me.

That would've been awesome, as I would've got the chance to meet you as

well. The tickets to this event sold out in 3 days back in April,

so it would've been nye impossible to get a ticket. However,

there was one guy that was trying to unload an extra ticket (somebody

must not've been able to show up), so it may have been possible for you

to get in.

(By the way, why would people wear

earplugs to a concert? Even if it IS loud, doesn't that just drown out

everything?)

I wear mine because I value my hearing. A good set of earplugs

will not drown out everything and only attenuate the volume (usually by

around 20dbs or so). I found it actually sounds a little better

to me as it takes some of the "edge" off the sound.

[Born2RockU]

Where is JAXX ?

Is that in Georgia?

It is in Springfield, VA, which is just outside of Washington, D.C. area. It is a tiny night-club, but WOW, do they have some serious friggan acts there! November 3rd, Saxon is playing there, and on the 17th, Kamelot! It only take me about 45 minutes to get there from Fredericksburg, VA.

What a coincident. My band MINDCRIME is backing up SAXON when they play San Antonio, Texas on November 12th. We are sharing the bill at a nice outdoor amphitheater that holds about 6000 people. This should a incredible night , since the temperatures will be in the low 70's .

If you have a chance to see Kamelot...GO !! I saw them at ProgPower III and they stole the whole weekend. No band came close to their energy and professionalism. They are seasoned players, and rarely just happen to be from Florida...not Europe, like 95% of all prog bands mostly are.

~Rock On,

Craig LeMay

[Guest Webmaster]

I wish I could've gone to this. It sounded awesome.

How do you like that Adagio - Underworld cd? I love Sanctus Ignis

and have been wanting to get Underworld, but I've only ever seen it for

$30 and as much as I like that band, I don't like them enough to pay

that much for one of their cds. Plus, I figure someone has to

have it cheaper somewhere. I just haven't found it yet.

Oh yeah, I've meaning to ask you, do you or did you used to post on the Shoutbox at the Progged Radio

site? I haven't been there in a while but I remembered I used to

see someone posting there using the same user name as you but I thought

it was unlikely the you, but after seeing how into Prog you are, it

probably was you.

[skonopa]

I wish I could've gone to this. It sounded awesome.

How do you like that Adagio - Underworld cd? I love Sanctus Ignis

and have been wanting to get Underworld, but I've only ever seen it for

$30 and as much as I like that band, I don't like them enough to pay

that much for one of their cds. Plus, I figure someone has to

have it cheaper somewhere. I just haven't found it yet.

That is an excellent album! Try www.cdinzane.com!

They have it for about $17. I bought my copy at thier vendor

table at the show, and that is what I paid for it. They have a

Japanese import with a bonus track for about $30, but to be honost, I

didn't think it was worth the difference to get one extra track

(although the track was probably pretty darn good!).

Oh yeah, I've meaning to ask you, do you or did you used to post on the Shoutbox at the Progged Radio

site? I haven't been there in a while but I remembered I used to

see someone posting there using the same user name as you but I thought

it was unlikely the you, but after seeing how into Prog you are, it

probably was you.

I could've very well have, as I used to listen to that myself quite a

bit. Figures, at work, they firewalled out those feeds, plus

Live365.com is getting so jacked up with ads and all thier BS about

needing to "sign up for a premier membership" to even listen to

anything decent, thus causing me to pretty much quit listening.

F' em! (and don't even get me started on the local FM stations

around here! Talk about the major suck (and doesn't help that

many of them are owned by Crap Channel to begin with)! These

people around here wouldn't know what a decent radio station is even if

they got hit upside the head with it!) I'll just load up an

external USB harddrive with MP3's and listen to those at work. I

wish XM Radio had something like that - where they played pretty much

only power/prog rock/metal. I know they have Music Lab station

(XM-51), but it is not quit like that Progged Radio. Also, XM-41

(Boneyard) plays some of that stuff as well.

But, yeah, ProgPower was just unreal! I am already making plans

to go again next year. Will be interesting to see what bands they

plan to have.