ProgPower USA

I've been to the famous ProgPower Festival, right here in Atlanta... how cool is that?!

The festival weekend started on thursday evening. Manticora, Gamma Ray and Helloween (together Hellish Rock or something like that) would be the pre-show. I didn't know how to get there and I didn't know any person going. so a bit before the festival started off, I had posted on the progpower forum to see if there were other tech students going to the festival. And there were, and they've been taking me along the whole weekend which was really great!
So on thursday, I arrived at the venue. And I was kinda shocked: it was so small! Like 1/3 of the size of the AB in Brussels!
Manticora didn't really impress me, nothing special.
Gamma Ray was my favourite band of the evening. Good show, catchy songs, great frontman! I didn't know them, but their show got me into them.
Helloween was too loud. I couldn't distinguish the instruments anymore, and I mostly like their old songs. Pitty they didn't play "Heavy metal is the law"... The end was really cool though, the Gamma Ray guys came on stage to play two songs with Helloween. One of which was the classic "I want out". That was awesome!

So the next day, the real festival started. I had class until 4, so I missed the first band. We were just in time to see Elvenking. I expected more from them, actually. The singer didn't sound good to me, the overall sound was pretty bad. But the violin was very good.
I've seen a bit of andromeda, they didn't really impress me.
Riverside has very good music, I think, but their stage performance is really boring. I would rather hear them on CD, I think.
And afterwards, the best band of the weekend hit the stage: Amorphis. They were amazing! Very energetic, very passionate about the music they were playing. I was impressed. The frontman with his kneelong dreads was really impressive when he was headbanging.

Then on Saturday, we spent some time warming up before heading to the venue. The first band we watched was Rob Rock. Embarrassing lyrics, bad stage performance, horrible band.
Afterwards, Mustach came on stage. They were great. Funny Swedes that were so glad to play in America and have American whiskey on stage. Their enthusiasm gave their whole set an extra vibe. Then we went out of the venue for dinner, and I had the best food I've had ever since I came to the US. Bonehead's or something it was called and it was delicious! Then I've seen some of JOP's set. I like his music, but it's CD material. Their stage presence is nothing... JOP himself combines keys and singing, so he is seated all the time. That doens't really give you the impression of watching a metal show... Afterwards I lined up for watching Iced Earth. They started their set more than 30 minutes too late, while their fans had been standing closely packed, waiting for them, for more than an hour... They weren't bad at all, although the interaction with the crowd could have been better. And there was this annoying guy with the white t-shirt that started a moshpit every now and then. He was way too drunk and just annoying me (and jumped on my toe, and then right afterwards a 150kg fatso jumped on my other toe, it looks reddish-blue now...). I was hoping for some cool songs for the encores, but the guitar player's amp had blown up so they had to stop their show. Pretty cool performance, all in all.

It's been a great weekend, I was only a bit dissapointed because it turned out to be so small. I thought it was much bigger, but the atmosphere was really good.

And now I have to restart making homework and the like... I calculated it out, and I spend the double of hours on working here, than I spent at VUB... I now study about 100 hours a week... I need an easier semester coming spring...