OK, so here are my thoughts on the bands - overall I thought this was a good year. Wednesday/Thursday not super great, but I had fun and Evergrey was there and it was all good. I only skipped one band the whole weekend, and even then I heard a tiny bit of their set.
Wednesday:
While Heaven Wept - they were a little rusty and I think it showed, but I didn't mind at all. I'm glad they were able to fill in on such short notice, and I enjoyed their set. Particularly the Vast Oceans Lachrymose portion. It would be cool if they reformed and came back with another album. Moody, kind of dreamy - I like their vibe and liked them the last time they played.
Theocracy - not really my thing. At the beginning of the set I thought the singer was great, but after a couple songs he started to bother me. I stuck around for about half the set, then headed out to the lobby to chat with some friends. While we were talking I could hear the beginning of Time by Angra (which is a fantastic song), and headed right back inside to watch. I certainly never expected to hear an Angra cover, pretty much ever, and it was nice that they did it as a tribute to Andre Matos.
Sanctuary - I liked them way more than I thought I would. I didn't care for them so much last time - possibly because I was used to Warrel with Nevermore and didn't care for his vocal style with Sanctuary nearly as much. Not being familiar with Sanctuary probably worked in my favor this time around, because I wasn't comparing their new singer to Warrel and thought he sounded great.
Insomnium - ehhh - didn't do much for me. I think I gave them about 25 minutes to make sure, and then headed out. There was nothing wrong with them, I just wasn't feeling it.
Thursday:
Tomorrow's Eve - enjoyable set; good singer. I listened to their latest album just a week before, and recognized a song or two in their set. Nice way to start the day.
Mayan - no thank you. This is the only band I didn't really give much of a chance; I popped in for less than a minute, was reminded of why I didn't like them last time, and walked right back out. Spent the set chatting with Kattelox most of the time.
Galneryus - I listened to one of their albums and thought it was possible that I could dig their set. The album was a little more varied than I'd expected. But live, it just wasn't the case. I gave them a full hour because I know how much Kattelox likes them and it didn't kill me, but it was just too speedy and the vocals and I didn't get along too well.
Evergrey - hands down the best band of the festival up to that point. I've seen Evergrey a lot, with all of the times they've been to ProgPower as well as some headline tours, and this was one of my favorites. Tom sounded awesome. They were really intense, heavy, and tight. I couldn't care less that they didn't play much old stuff. They played In Search of Truth in its entirety one year, so I was fine with it not having representation this time. They've been on a strong run since Jonas and Henrik rejoined the band and all of those songs were great live.
Friday:
Paladin - not bad, just not really my thing. I stuck around for most of the set until they started passing out plastic swords, and took that as my cue to leave.
Subsignal - awesome.
I've been a fan since the Sieges Even Art of Navigating by the Stars album. All 5 Subsignal albums are really good, and I was looking forward to this set a lot. I was not disappointed. The band was on point, singer was great, they played from all 5 albums, and it was a joy to finally see them. Their hour set went by in the blink of an eye. I did have to laugh at the stage banter though - "we don't have much time so I'm not going to talk much." Shortly after, he proceeds to talk too much.
Not enough that they could have played another song though, so it's all good.
Barren Earth - I gave them a song, found them kind of annoying, and went to the lobby to sit down for a bit. I could actually hear them quite well from there, and it sounded better than inside.
Psychotic Waltz - kind of weird, but in a good way. I liked some of what I heard in preparation, but I do wish I had been a little more familiar with them. Either way, it was a good set and Devon Graves is a really entertaining front man. They seemed to have a dedicated following of fans who were super excited to get to see them.
Orden Ogan - Cheers to them for pulling off such a great set while having to make last minute adjustments. They've been playing with backing tracks for the bass over the last year - their singer/guitar player broke his thumb, so the bass player switched to guitar to play the singers parts, and they made do with backing tracks for bass while trying to find someone. They wouldn't have been able to in time for ProgPower, so it was going to be the singer in the center, guitarists on the left and right, piped in bass. But then their lead guitar player was unable to attend at the last minute, so the singer had to play, but not his own parts, because those were the parts the bass player had learned. He had to learn the parts of the guy who couldn't make it, and said he had about 12 hours to do it. I guess they thought it would just be too weird with only two guys on stage besides the drummer, so their lighting guy learned the bass parts in those 12 hours as well. The show came off really well despite all that, they were energetic, the crowd was into it and they were certainly my favorite power metal set to that point. They're a little heavier than some of the other bands but less speedy, and that works so much better for me.
Seventh Wonder - I really should like this band more than I do. Something just isn't there for me. I did watch the whole thing though, enjoyed some songs, thought Tommy sounded good, thought the bass player was really good, as always. Great set, wouldn't skip them... but was also ready for them to be done when it was time.
Saturday:
Sorcerer - maybe the surprise of the weekend for me. I didn't think I'd dislike them; just wasn't sure. Their set was killer. Great vocals, backing vocals, good guitar players. I'll be checking them out to see how I like their studio albums.
Jag Panzer - not bad. Singer was good, good set, no real complaints. I watched about half and was satisfied with that.
Caligula's Horse - unbelievable. When I started listening to them a few months ago, I was wondering why no one sent them to me in my roulette. I read a comment that people were expecting them to be a sleepy prog band live - I didn't expect that at all. I thought they'd be good, or even great. Nonetheless, I still wasn't prepared for them to be as good as they were. They were on fire, the crowd was nuts, and it was just intense. Heavy parts, emotional parts, they had everything. I really hope they do come back and sooner rather than later.
Poets of the Fall - enjoyable. I don't know their song titles well enough, but I do know they didn't play anything from the album I liked most (Clearview). But they were good; I was maybe restless towards the end but it was nice to sit back and watch them in between Caligula's Horse and Threshold.
Threshold - I felt like the happiest person on the planet during their set. I can't even explain how much I love that band. I sponsored them, which I've never done before. It meant I got to watch their whole set in front of the barrier. You also get to watch 2 songs from every other band up there. I did it for Subsignal and the sound was so bad that I was kind of relieved that I had to leave. So for Threshold, I wanted to be up close but wanted to be able to hear them even more. I decided to go up there, see how it went, and I'd probably go back to the soundboard after a while. No. Once I was there, I didn't move. I took my earplugs out and decided to just deal with it. After a bit I didn't notice or care. They sounded fantastic. Glynn sounded fantastic. Johanne is awesome and is entertaining even when he's not playing - acting out the intros of songs and stuff like that. I think I sang every word except when I was smiling so hard I was almost laughing because it was so good. I was so close I could have tied Karl's shoes for him when he came to the front of the stage. Legends of the Shires is one of my favorite Threshold albums, one of my favorite albums period, and they played a lot from it and it was incredible. Afterwards, I got to do the meet and greet and it was really cool. At first it was stressful because the crew told us we had to be done by 10 (and the show ended at 9:45) because no one could be around when Demons and Wizards came through; but Threshold barely got to their dressing room and had time to change before it was 10. Thankfully, they kind of discarded that notion and let everyone meet the band and talk with them. I'd met them before, and as always, they were really nice, laid back, and humble. It was pretty much perfect. On a side note - I had a text from Kattelox which he sent in the middle of their set talking about how he was having fun - it was well after Slipstream and well before Small Dark Lines, so I imagine he liked at least 3 songs.
Demons and Wizards - great, great set. I'm way more of a Blind Guardian fan than Iced Earth, but have no issues with this project. Hansi's one of a kind and that was just a really fun set. I did see that Kattelox texted me about his promised drink during the middle of it; I don't usually look at my phone while I'm enjoying a set, but I did check during Valhalla and thought I could get him one while the crowd sang for 20 minutes.
No luck, so we'll have to do it next time. And we will. It's too bad you couldn't get back stage Katt, because I would have given you 3 or 4 drink tickets.
I had a blast this year and it was cool meeting cramx and jingle.
Topic: ProgPower USA XX, Sept 4-7 2019 - Pretty Maids-Evergrey-Seventh Wonder-Dem&Wiz+ (Read 37566 times)