My third concert and the third time something goes wrong. First time Riverside had problems with the console, second time they were late and had to rush with the soundcheck (I think they even mention this in the documentary) and now this. I didn't even know if I could make it, and eventually went with a fever. Up until 7PM it was ok as the nearby shopping centre was open but the wait was just killer. I mean the first hour was ok, being in the crowd and stuff it was bareable. But later on it got progressively worse. Glad I was relatively upfront so I got in pretty 'early' (9:30-ish) but got my fair share of shoving. There was a tiny lady just in front of me and if it weren't for the fact that I weigh 200lbs and could handle a bit of crowd pressure we would have another 'casualty'.
Another thing - I got standing tickets, but it didn't really matter cause I could go and sit anywhere I wanted (with the exception of the vip lounge). Adding the fact that they were significantly more expensive if I had one I would be seriously pissed. But I had to sit down at some point - the fever took away my energy. No problems with filming or anything - later I saw a guy without any press pass just making photos through the whole show (not just the first 15 min) with a full professional 35-105mm lens DSLR - nobody cared. I mean we could with a little effort make a 4-6 camera bootleg. It would probably look and sound better than chaos in motion
As fot the show - didn't really care about Periphery, but it's a shame they didn't get a chance to play. Mikes kit looks a lot smaller in reality than I thought. The light show was excellent. As for the band - same old, but JP almost ruined the evening when he had a hickup in the BAI solo. The best parts were the acoustic set and onwards. Mike's solo was boring to be honest. And for me the sound ranged from 'suck' to 'bareable'. The quieter moments were fine, the volume was OK (usually I find it too loud) but when it was full steam ahead it was a blurry wall of sound for the most part. I'm going to even start a thread on this, cause I'm starting to think that the dudes behind the soundboard are just deaf, after all those gigs. Or they just don't care. I don't know.
The crowd was static for the most part, except for a group just in front of JP - they were having a lot of fun. It was also a bit funny how they were distributed - the right part of the venue (facing the stage) was packed as it was closer to the main entrance, but the left was nearly empty. Its on one of my photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/106198900388106623983/DTPoznan?authkey=Gv1sRgCOyjtI2HjKW0VgOh, and a big middle finger to some of the fans waiting later at night for the train for talking smack on Mangini. One dude elaborated that his kit looks stupid with the octobans on top facing the crowd like cannons, as if he "was the disco king", MP was better, no leadership blabla.