WEBVTT

00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:26.800
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, metal's my religion, and yeah, it's my dope. Standing in the thunder on stage in the pouring metal rain. What a feeling, baby, the lights are exploding.

00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:55.220
METAL'S MY RELIGION

00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:27.020
Hello. This is George. This is John. We are on the road, specifically on Highway 81 in Virginia, heading south towards Atlanta, Georgia, and Prague Power 17, was it? 17. So this is the beginning of, let's see, today's Tuesday, and we're going to get home next Monday. So this is going to be quite the road trip.

00:01:30.880 --> 00:01:36.380
Hopefully we'll have a whole lot of recordings for you to keep you busy until the next episode.

00:01:36.860 --> 00:01:43.700
Well, it's funny because we're doing this long four-day festival and there's what, a third of the bands is Maryland Death Fest, I think?

00:01:44.060 --> 00:01:44.220
Yeah.

00:01:44.630 --> 00:01:56.300
Yeah, that's why I look at this as going, oh, this should be a nice, pleasant experience because it's not outside in the blazing heat and there's not nearly as many bands.

00:01:56.380 --> 00:02:24.880
And there's changeovers between each one. So I'm like, this will be a little more laid back, I think. But John, how many of these have you been to? This will be number 16 out of 17. Although I had tickets for the one that I missed, I just couldn't go at the last second. So it would be 17 for 17 had I gone. So it would be safe to say that you are an expert on Prog Power. Perhaps, yes, I might be.

00:02:25.580 --> 00:02:53.560
So for a newbie like me coming into this, what are some things I should know? Well, like you said, it's indoors, which is nice because this is down in Atlanta in September, which I don't know how many people who listen have been to Atlanta in the summer or September. It will be very hot. It's going to be in like the low to mid-90s, I believe. It's going to be hot this year, yes. And it's going to be at least 50% humidity, so it's going to be a little, ugh, when we're out there.

00:02:53.600 --> 00:03:22.920
And we have to walk about a half a mile between the hotel and the venue. So it's not too bad, but it's still going to be hot. So it'd be nice to be indoors. It'd be a nice, cool venue. Venue holds about 1,200 roughly, and it's shaped like a Greek theater if you're familiar with that, but indoors. What, six bands a day for the main festival, and the other two days it's what, four and three? So yeah, bands play longer, an hour to an hour and a half, half an hour changeover in between. So, yes.

00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:53.100
Maybe a little more laid back compared to a Maryland Death Fest, which is a constant, you know, boom, boom, boom at each band. So we'll see. I'm more interested to hear what you have to say since you haven't been here yet. But that's just the gist of the normal setup for the shows. Yeah, I'm kind of curious myself, having never been. And I'm not a big prog fan myself. I do like a fair amount of power metal. Although, since having known John,

00:03:53.480 --> 00:04:23.420
I do find myself leaning more towards some more prog bands. That could be partly just because I'm getting so burned out on some of the styles. Yeah, every couple of years I kind of got to switch gears into a new style. You know, it used to be death metal, and then I got tired of that, and I moved on to doom metal. And, you know, then it was funeral doom, and I got kind of tired of that, so I was really into black metal. Black metal I'm kind of getting tired of, and so I'm a little more open to something that's maybe a little different, a little more melodic.

00:04:27.580 --> 00:04:52.060
But I think the whole prog or progressive genre or classifications become so widespread. Now everyone's got some progressive in them now. Again, we'll go to Bandcamp as our example. If you ever look at the tags, it's like death metal, black metal, progressive metal all lumped into one and you're like, okay. Or progressive death metal, progressive black metal.

00:04:52.140 --> 00:05:22.100
That just means you know how to play. You don't necessarily get the progressive tech just because you know how to play. I think what that means now is I think progressive just now is a genre way of saying that bands are not going to just stick to the specific like they're not going to be just black metal all the time or death metal all the time. They're going to venture a little bit within that confines. I kind of like that. Some people don't. I do. I do too. I really prefer like a progressive black metal to an old school black metal. I mean

00:05:22.140 --> 00:05:51.380
Give Me Old School Dark Throne, I dig that. But, you know, that's been done, like, what, 14, 15 times already. So I prefer New Metal to have a little more, a different interpretation upon the genre. Although I will have to say, though, I did enjoy that old school, is it Blood Incantation? Is that the... Yes. So I like, I'll go for that straight ahead old school Death Metal once in a while. So I did enjoy that new album.

00:05:51.480 --> 00:06:18.040
Yeah, me too. Yeah, me too. And I like that. And I think this is possibly in response to some of my complaints that, not personally my complaints, but the things that I see that I haven't really liked about death metal lately. I think maybe other people are sort of feeling that way as well. And, you know, death metal's just kind of become very generic in many ways.

00:06:22.360 --> 00:06:49.780
Just like the new stuff is just like wall of sound, bunch of growling. That's not good death metal. If you go back to the 90s and listen to the death metal bands then, there was a lot more thrash influence and there was some melody in there. It just didn't all sound the same. Between Blood Incantation and... I can't think of it.

00:06:54.699 --> 00:07:20.660
But I think some bands are starting to get a clue of doing death metal that's slightly different. Even if it is a retro death metal, at least it's a good style as opposed to kind of what's been going on lately. And we're looking at some traffic here. Yeah, I think we might have an accident coming up. Oh boy. Okay. This is not the right time of day to have traffic on this road.

00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:49.100
We took 81 because we didn't want to go on 95, which is traffic all day, all night. Can you tell how far away the accident is? We're going to be in this for a little bit. All right. Well, at least we have something to do. It would not be a drive in Virginia without getting stuck in traffic somewhere. Yeah. If this is the worst of it, then we'll be lucky.

00:07:51.060 --> 00:08:21.000
and it's a crossroad state meaning like when you drive through Delaware you only hit a touch of Delaware even though it's a small state you just go through the small portion of it New Jersey is another state too that you just you have to go through the whole state so there's a lot of traffic you can't avoid it in Virginia the two main roads are always full of traffic from all over the eastern seaboard so can't escape it yeah all right but you asked me we got off track a little bit you asked me about you know

00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:50.980
What to expect of Prog Power? It's a long day with fewer bands, I guess is the best way to describe it. Like I said, at Death Fest it starts at a certain point early, what, 12, 1, 2? Yeah, depending on the day. And then it ends like 11. Well, Prog Power could start at that time too, but then it could finish at like 1 in the morning. It just depends how long the headliner wants to play for. Sometimes they get the freedom to play longer. I don't think there's any curfew for ending. Yeah, I noticed most of them,

00:08:51.020 --> 00:09:20.360
At least like Friday and Saturday anyway. It said like 10 o'clock till whenever. Yeah. And there's been some shows that have gone on really late. Like I think one of my buddies that's meeting us here, T.R., he probably reminds me better than I do. I think when Symphony X played the last time, they played a long time, even though they played like 10 songs. Two of them combined were like 45 minutes. But I think they played pretty late. So it happens. I mean, I think Therion's played late once before. It just depends.

00:09:20.460 --> 00:09:48.940
I could see Devin Townsend just being like, hey, let's just keep this party going and just do whatever, you know? Yeah, and the only bummer for that is usually when it's the final headline and if it's not abandoned, I'm like, wait, I'm going back to the hotel and crashing early. I got an early flight, but it's Devin Townsend for the final, so I will stay every single second that he's playing. Cool. As I was saying, I haven't always been a big Prague fan.

00:09:50.000 --> 00:10:19.980
I'm not even a power metal fan. I'm not huge. But you know in preparation for this week pretty much for the last six months I've been like investigating all the bands that are going to be there and I was kind of surprised. Initially I have to admit you know the main reason I was coming was because I wanted to see Fate's Warning with John Arch singing. I mean that's like bucket list right there. And everything else is just

00:10:21.140 --> 00:10:49.380
And then I heard that Blind Guardian's gonna be doing all of Imaginations from the other side. I'm like, hey, bonus. And, you know, Devin Townsend, great. I've seen him once before, but he'll be headlining here, so this is probably gonna be a little better. And aside from that, I don't really care. But then I started listening to bands, and I was like, ah, like this day, I like pretty much all these bands. I think the first day is kind of light for me.

00:10:51.860 --> 00:11:19.340
Streams of Passion. I'm not a big fan, but I kind of like to see them. I forget who else is that day. Spock's Beard's playing, and Spock's Beard's probably the proggiest of all the bands, because they're just a prog rock band. But for whatever reasons, they've been on Metal Blade or were on Metal Blade for a long time, and I think they get a little heavier. I was a fan for the early years, and then they kind of pulled a Genesis where the lead singer left, and then the drummer became their singer.

00:11:20.199 --> 00:11:49.000
They got a little more poppy, so I wasn't so big on that, but they've got now another new singer who's the singer from Enchant, Ted Leonard, and they've gotten back to their roots a little more, so I'm interested in seeing them. Dragon Force on day one? Yeah, I was like, hey, maybe that'll be a good time to head out early that night. Maybe check a couple songs just to say we did, and then mosey on out. I want to check out a couple songs so I can't see his fingers moving, because he'll be moving so fast he'll be still.

00:11:49.400 --> 00:12:19.380
You know, both of them, Herman Lee, and I can't remember, or whatever his name is, and I can't remember the other guy. I'm the same way. I mean, I'll check out Lorde. They're the opening band, so I want to definitely see what they're like, and from there, you know. Did you ever listen to Dungeon? Don't think so, no. Okay, they were like a power metal band from Australia. No, no, no. Buk and I were fans of them, and then they broke up, and that was the last I heard. I had no idea that the dude from Dungeon

00:12:19.420 --> 00:12:20.720
this other band called Lorde.

00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:27.240
And so when they were announcing bands earlier this year, they were like, Lorde!

00:12:27.300 --> 00:12:28.020
And everybody was like, oh yeah!

00:12:28.660 --> 00:12:29.780
And I'm like, who the hell are these guys?

00:12:29.880 --> 00:12:30.760
I've never heard of these guys.

00:12:32.140 --> 00:12:36.040
And it actually wasn't until like, I don't know, a month or two ago that I realized,

00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:37.100
oh, this is the Dungeon Dude.

00:12:37.160 --> 00:12:39.560
And so I was like, all right, well, I'm definitely interested in that.

00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:43.520
I listened to, I think they have two albums out.

00:12:44.800 --> 00:12:47.760
I listened a little bit off of each, and it's all right.

00:12:47.800 --> 00:13:17.520
You know, maybe live they'll be a little more impressive. Yeah, I got the same feeling when I listened to it. You know, give them the benefit of the doubt and Sam first, you know, before I decide. Because I don't know if they're really power or if they're prog. Maybe they have a little bit of both in them. Yeah. You know, but they didn't really stand out on either side, I didn't think so. And then there's a, I don't remember who's playing what day at this point because I don't have the schedule in front of me. Well, day two is the promoter's pick day. You know, so there's three promoters that used to do, it used to be the Wednesday, the midweek.

00:13:18.060 --> 00:13:47.420
kind of mayhem thing they did. Then there was the Thursday kickoff show. Then Friday and Saturday were the main fest. But each one of those had their own promoter with the guy Glenn being the main one behind everything. So they combined Thursday night now into they're all three guys are picking. So I think it's Ghost Ship Octavarius because Octavius. Octavius, excuse me. Because Glory Hammer. I always want to say Glory Hole. Sorry. That's because you're such a big Steel Panther fan. Yeah.

00:13:47.780 --> 00:14:17.480
Yeah, or maybe I'm just hanging out with Will down in Southeast. Yeah, so they couldn't get their visa straight, so we got Van Williams, his band, coming, so that should be kind of cool. Yeah, I think Ghost of Chip Octavius is a lot better than Glory Hammer, so I'm not displeased by that. No, to me it made the night more interesting, because while I like the next band is Circus Maximus, and while I like their first two albums, I do not like their last two, and I know they're a little bit of a bone of contention amongst fans at the festival. A lot of people love them.

00:14:17.780 --> 00:14:47.660
And then, obviously, Blind Guardian. Thursday became a much better night for me with Ghost Ship being added to it. Right on. There's another band, Freedom Call, that you said you weren't all that familiar with. I've listened to them on and off for a long time. And to me, they're like just sort of straight up power metal the way power metal probably ought to be. I think of them.

00:14:47.780 --> 00:15:17.660
as cut from the same mold as Gamma Ray slash first two Halloween albums. Right. And Kai Hanson. Right. And I've seen both those bands at Prog Power. And they were both, well, again, I'm not a big power man fan. I enjoyed the shows. They were fun. They were great to see. So I'll probably at least check out a little bit of Freedom Call. We'll see. Yeah. And, gosh, who else do we have on there? There's that band Hawken.

00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:47.560
Yeah, they're going to be like the prog metal-ish band. They're very popular with a lot of fans there, and I've seen them a couple times. They're okay. Maybe it's the guys' vocals that get me. It's a little high. It shouldn't dissuade me because half the bands I listen to either can't understand what people are saying when they sing or their voices are too high, but they'll be entertaining. They're very talented, so you'll get your money's worth out of seeing them. Yeah, I listened to a little bit of one of their albums, and yeah, it didn't really grab me. I mean,

00:15:47.600 --> 00:16:17.220
The music was fine, it's just the vocals I think kind of turned me off. Yeah, I don't even know what day they're playing to be honest with you. Yeah, I don't either. I should know and I don't so which is typical because I only know the bands I'm really looking forward to singing and I start to piece it together once I'm there to see if I need to be somewhere. Oh, hold on. I'll try to pull up the schedule right now. All right. Which I should be driving and yeah, we're still sitting in traffic. This blows. Although I see flashing lights. I mean, we're getting close.

00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:47.180
Oh, there's a sign saying we've got to get over. Sorry, Mom. Oh, dear. All right, we'll get this figured out. This guy's going to be nice and let me over. Thank you, sir. Yeah, this is definitely not driving in Northern Virginia, Maryland, D.C. right now, is it? No, not at all. Getting down here, you're supposed to get away from that crap. Yeah, I know. All right, so day three. I'll let you take a look at it there.

00:16:47.580 --> 00:17:17.500
while I'm driving. Well, there's a band called Ascendia, and right after them is Vanishing Point. I listened to both of these, and they were not bad. They were, I liked them because, you know, they were kind of heavy. Okay. A little more power metal, I guess. I think so. And Gentle Storm, of course. Definitely want to see them. And I'm not, I don't even know if I'm that big on the album, but it's Annika Van Geersbergen, you know, formerly of The Gathering. So I'm going to watch that regardless, just to see her sing.

00:17:17.579 --> 00:17:46.660
Yeah, I'm with you there. Scar Symmetry, which I'm guessing is probably going to be about the heaviest band there. Probably, yeah. I would think so. Probably one of the only ones that's going to have harsh vocals anyway. Well, it's funny because that's been incorporated more and more each year. I think Glenn's added a band or two here and there. You know, I was going back and thinking all the bands I saw that I liked and they were all the bands with the harsh vocals. You know, but like Primordial played there a few years ago and Eson's played there.

00:17:47.600 --> 00:18:17.520
Townsend has harsh vocals at times, you know, or his industrial harsh vocals or whatever. So I guess it just depends. But you're seeing more and more of that. Amorphous is played there, you know, so. But yes, I think you're right. Cigar Simitry would probably be the heaviest, probably the heaviest band. Another band from day two is Pyramids, which that'll be kind of interesting because they're going to have like, what, three or four different singers? Yeah, I want to see them just for that alone. I mean, two of the singers alone would be worth the admission. You know, with Matt Barlow singing,

00:18:17.580 --> 00:18:46.340
And then Lance King's gonna sing too. Who will also be then there. He has his, you know, he has merch there also too. So it'd be kind of cool to see him out there on stage for once. It's been a while since he's been on stage. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, I definitely want to see those guys sing. And it'll be cool because both Matt Barlow and Van Williams will be there. And the dude that sings for Ghost Ship Octavius also sings for Ashes of Varys. So maybe we'll get some little,

00:18:47.940 --> 00:19:17.180
impromptu Ashes of Aries song. You know, who knows? It's crazy. Yeah. And hell, is he 18 yet now, that kid? The ghost ship kid? Yeah. Yeah, he's young looking, man. I think he's Italian. Yeah. Yeah. Because Buk and I saw him, well, at the Ashes of Aries show that we went to in Baltimore last fall. It was almost a year ago, I think. I forgot about that. Yeah, he came out and did like a song or two with them. So that was cool. Yeah. Who else we got?

00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:18.800
And then obviously,

00:19:19.280 --> 00:19:19.700
Fate's Warning.

00:19:20.280 --> 00:19:20.360
Yes,

00:19:20.600 --> 00:19:20.980
Fate's Warning.

00:19:22.580 --> 00:19:23.900
The whole reason for me again.

00:19:24.360 --> 00:19:25.720
I just hit something on your screen.

00:19:26.500 --> 00:19:27.280
I can't see it now.

00:19:28.020 --> 00:19:28.800
It like darkened.

00:19:29.280 --> 00:19:29.440
Oh.

00:19:29.740 --> 00:19:30.180
That's better.

00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:32.460
Maybe I just had sunglasses on.

00:19:33.080 --> 00:19:33.320
Alright,

00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:34.060
yeah,

00:19:34.130 --> 00:19:34.420
I mean,

00:19:34.450 --> 00:19:35.800
do you have anything you want to talk about Fate's Warning?

00:19:37.260 --> 00:19:38.600
What more can I say about them?

00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:39.480
Everybody knows I like them,

00:19:39.660 --> 00:19:40.700
so I'm deaf.

00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:43.040
I've seen three-fifths of this band

00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:45.340
when I saw the Archmuth Theos tour,

00:19:45.800 --> 00:20:15.080
So I'm going to be glad to see the rest of the classic lineup together. Which, they've had how many classic lineups? You know, so. They're kind of the deep purple of, a smaller version of deep purple when it comes to lineups, I guess, over the years. Yeah. I, uh, you know, the first three Fates of Warning albums are classics for me. I mean, you know, if I was going to reach out and grab an album from the 80s,

00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:45.560
to say, hey, this is what mid-'80s heavy metal was supposed to sound like. That would definitely be one of the first few that I grabbed because Awaken the Garden in particular is just, you know, it's a landmark album for me. There's just no, I don't even know what to say. It's just awesome. Well, you've always said that it was never considered a progressive metal album, which now it's considered one of the founding progressive metal albums. I mean, that's what makes it so great.

00:20:45.700 --> 00:21:15.660
is that it just was what it was at that time and it's ended up morphing into something else based on how people view it over the years so I'm looking forward to it big time yeah I expect there will be tears streaming down my eyes when they play the song Guardian that song I've mentioned it before I got a lot of a lot of stuff tied up in that song so now it'll be cool and see day four opening is going to be Savage

00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:45.520
I know them somewhat. They're kind of heavy too. I don't think they have harsh vocals, but they're pretty heavy. Now is Savage Messiah the band that Blind Guardians drummer, remember he had that issue where he couldn't play anymore for them? Was that the band he joined or was it another band? I could not tell you. I'm sorry. Maybe it's Savage Circus or something. I don't know. Maybe. Next band is probably the one I hate the most on this line.

00:21:45.540 --> 00:22:15.320
in this whole bill, and that would be Sirius Black. First of all, it's stealing from Harry Potter. Second of all, the fucking singer is just horrible, I think. I don't know. So, what I'm hearing here is that, and what are the times for that? What does that go through? Till what time? 3.30 to 4.30. Hmm. So I'm thinking, and those are the first two bands? Yeah. There could be some beer drinking going on during that time somewhere. I want to see Savage Messiah.

00:22:15.540 --> 00:22:45.060
Okay, we can check them out, and then, you know, there's a half an hour break in between each band, and the band plays for an hour. It's two hours. Yeah. We'll be some beer drinking in there. Definitely. Then we'll be all, like, mellow for Green Carnation. Oh, man, I can't wait for that. That's going to be... Yeah, they're playing one song. Boy, those guys suck. Well, it's only an hour and, what, ten minutes? Yeah. So that should be fun to see. Yeah, I don't know if I've ever... Outside of an Yngwie Malmsteen guitar solo, I don't think I've ever seen anybody play that one song for that long.

00:22:46.200 --> 00:23:15.500
I literally saw Ingve Malmsteen do a solo for 45 minutes. I was like, this is fucking ridiculous. Yeah, he, yeah, I'm not going to say anymore. For fear that there are some of it, not that, I don't know how many of my friends actually, but I know that I have, people I know that are disciples and people that would like burn their albums, burn his albums in seconds, so. And that's all you're going to say about that? Yeah, I'm not saying any more about that. And let's see, after that, Refuge. Now, that's the

00:23:15.600 --> 00:23:45.500
Dude from Rage, right? Yes, and they're going to be playing Rage music, but I guess slightly newly interpreted, I guess, or whatever, or influence. I don't know how it's going to play out, so we'll see how I feel at that point, because then I've got to hunker down and get ready for Devin Townsend. Well, actually, Hawken plays between Refuge and Devin, so there's an hour and a half of that if we want to skip that at all. Yeah, and it depends. You know, if we want to get seats, because

00:23:45.540 --> 00:24:15.480
While there's no assigned seating, it's one of those things when you go to a show and you have to stand up and you're in the back and you're like, well, I'm not going to push my way to the front because I'm going to wait for this band to finish and then everyone's going to go to merch, bathroom, or smoke breaks or get beers. And that's when I'll move up to my spot. That's kind of what it is between these sets. But for Devin Townsend and Blind Guardian and Fate's Warning, my guess is people are going to be squatting as much as they can to keep their seats because they're going to want to keep those seats for those shows. So we'll see how it goes.

00:24:15.540 --> 00:24:45.500
If it's really packed and no one's moving, I might sit through their set. If not, then I'll watch a little bit and bounce around. I mean, whatever. It's not that big a room from what I can see. I mean, it only holds like 2,500 or something like that? It's only 1,200 actually. 1,200, okay. It's bigger than it looks, but it's not big, yes, if that makes sense. Yeah, the pictures I was looking at, I was thinking, gosh, I mean, it's all like, you know, if you were in a bigger arena or something, it would all be lower level. It just doesn't seem like there's much

00:24:45.540 --> 00:25:10.680
in the way of bad seating. No. Side seats are not great because you'll lose part of the stage. But you can sit in the sections that are up against the stage, the side sections, and be at the end of that section and have a nice angle in and still be pretty good. So yeah, there's really not a bad seat in the place. Excellent. Well, I'm definitely looking forward to this.

00:25:15.520 --> 00:25:44.940
recording at the very least before and after shows probably. We might do some during. I wrote to the management and asked if we could bring in Cougar Bush so that we could record between sets and they said they were fine with that. So as long as we can bring it in we will give you some commentary between sets. So it's not just John and I. There's a couple other people that are going to be with us. You want to talk a little bit about them or do you just want to wait until they show up?

00:25:45.020 --> 00:26:14.980
I can mention her names and then we can talk to her later. It's got two buddies. One from Maryland, one from your old hood in Michigan. My two friends, TR and Romy are coming down, old friends. They're from the porcupine tree world where I first met them and done many shows with those guys all around the eastern seaboard. TR is the friend that I went with to London to go see Opeth for the 25th anniversary show. I've gone to Toronto with my friend Romy for

00:26:15.020 --> 00:26:44.980
the Maiden 666 tour, which is what they played only, what, three dates in North America on that tour before they came back again. So I've done a lot of travel with these guys all around for different shows. They're seasoned traveling buddies. Excellent. I look forward to meeting them. So, you know, whenever we talk about prog and power metal on the podcast, Puke always ends up throwing in something about how the people that listen to this

00:26:45.060 --> 00:27:14.720
are categorized as nerds and things like that. I'm perfectly honest. I've never thought about that myself. But since we're headed down there, are the crowds any different? Is it a little nerdier or is it just a bunch of metal fans still? There's still a bunch of metal fans, but I think you're going to see with the prog element, and I count myself in on this, maybe a little bit older crowd. That's fine. So I will not interject.

00:27:15.020 --> 00:27:44.980
any of the personal attributes of that older crowd? No. Believe it or not. And I'm having all fun at this because... Sarcasm tags. Yeah, yeah. Sarcasm. Only because I've been a prog fan since I've been like 12. It's a mixed crowd now. And now that you've got multiple days, as before when it used to be just two days, I think you get a lot of different people. I think so many bands cross over now because of social media and internet and access that the days of...

00:27:45.000 --> 00:28:14.980
The early festivals where you had defining power and prog fans, I think you see a mix of a lot of different fans now. And the fact that the promoter has tried to bring in something a little different too, to make it just a little different, because you can't do the same thing every year. And I think that's what Maryland Death Fest does too. They try to throw a couple oddball bands in there also just to mix it up, which you should. I think you have to do that. But yeah, the more refined crowd maybe, because we're older and slower and

00:28:15.020 --> 00:28:43.040
We can't move as fast as we used to. So we're not the Coors Light crowd. We're more of a craft beer crowd. Oh yeah. There'll be some shapely craft beer drinkers there. So do you think we'll be drinking as much beer as we do at Maryland Death Fest? Well no because we won't have the parking lot. Fair enough. When we go out we'll drink beers and there's plenty of good places to drink around the area. I'd like to go to some breweries but the state of Georgia has some strict brewery.

00:28:45.500 --> 00:29:13.660
on the books that make it tough for breweries to stay open. Which it's a shame because there are some very good breweries. And God, bird just shit on my windshield. Sorry. We're driving in John's new vehicle, which he had 500 and some odd miles when we started the trip. So he's going to get a little touchy when the birds and the bugs run into it. This is what not to do when your bird shits on you. The rhyme of the ancient mariner. Bad accent time, bad accent time.

00:29:15.880 --> 00:29:44.960
So, you know, it's funny, you're going to see a lot of, probably you'll see a lot more girlfriends and wives here now because they go with their significant others. Whereas it's not going to be like, like when you used to go see Rush back in the 80s and 90s, it was a freaking sausage fest. Now when you go as they got older and everyone's older and they got wives and kids, you're seeing more women at the show. So I think that's probably changed a lot too. Although there are a lot of women at Prog Power, which is cool. I like the diversity it breaks it up.

00:29:45.020 --> 00:29:49.220
I think a lot of fans from a lot of different places people travel all around the World

00:29:49.340 --> 00:30:14.980
Festival so it's kind of cool now this is all seated there's no no room for a pit anyway right oh no there is so it's like a regular Greek theater so you have the half moon shape for seating and then on the floor you'll have the board and in that half moon of no seats on the floor up to the stage is all standing so if you choose to stand down there you can so I I don't stand anymore now because it's just too much my legs

00:30:15.020 --> 00:30:43.720
I burn out fast. I'm old, like I've said. My bones are old! My back hurts. It seems unlikely still that we would see any pit action at something called Prog Power. Well, maybe not so true. Maybe not as much as you would see at Maryland Death Fest. I will say this. The first time Therian played there, this is going back when they had the dual albums. Do you remember, what was it? God, 2004. The Sirius B.

00:30:45.540 --> 00:31:14.660
Lameria. And those two came out. I think they came then. And they played their full set. They were the fourth band that night. So they were not the headliner. They played their full set. They had like three minutes left. And they pulled the lights up. And is it Kristoff or Christopher or whatever the main guy? He goes, fuck this. We got three minutes. And they ripped into, I believe it was Black Mask. Is it Black Mask by Merciful Fate? Is that the song? Yeah. Yeah. They ripped into that for the next three minutes. And the whole floor completely broke out into a pit. Which I'm like, what are you talking about?

00:31:15.020 --> 00:31:44.140
People just stand there and go, whoo! I mean, the whole, completely the whole floor is a pit. And so it happens sometimes. You might see some for Devin Townsend. It depends if he plays some strapping young lad in the set like he's been doing. Maybe. We'll see. All right. What was I going to say? Oh, I know what it was. Since we're talking about Prague, we already talked about this earlier before I had the bright idea of turning on the microphone. Opeth just released the second song from Sorceress.

00:31:45.020 --> 00:31:46.820
Can of Orms Opened!

00:31:49.420 --> 00:31:57.020
And you've been having some conversations, not angry conversations at all with people, about the new song.

00:31:57.410 --> 00:31:59.220
Let me just throw in my two cents first.

00:32:00.250 --> 00:32:05.500
When I first heard it, because, was it Jay that sent us the link? I think it was Jay.

00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:05.780
Yes.

00:32:07.720 --> 00:32:10.940
I was like, wow, it's like Jethro Tull with David Gilmore on lead guitar.

00:32:12.540 --> 00:32:42.280
Which, you know, from a certain perspective could be like a cut down. But personally, I like Jethro Tull and David Gilmour and Pink Floyd. And frankly, to me, I thought this was probably the best Opeth song I've heard in several albums. So I was down with it. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, well, I mean, it's not remotely heavy. It's completely clean guitars, clean vocals. And, you know, the way he sings sounds very tall.

00:32:44.059 --> 00:33:12.120
And to be honest though, it sounds like Acker felt as well, so maybe he's always kind of had a little bit of toll on his clean vocals, and I just never noticed. But I don't know, what do you think? So, yeah, you were asking me if I had listened to it yet, and I had to reply and say not yet, because I'm on a Hannibal binge on Amazon Prime. So I stopped, and when I was watching, because it was just me watching at that point, and I listened to the song, and yes,

00:33:12.540 --> 00:33:42.460
It's in the vein of the last two albums, but even more so, I think it's even more proggy than the last two albums. But what I noticed in the guitar solo, I think I said to you, I said, ooh, there's a little bit of still life type playing in there. It's had that little bit of twang from still life in the guitar solo, so I thought that was cool. I may have had a little bit of a rant last night online, which anyone who follows me knows I don't do that. I avoid all that as much as possible. I have once in a while made a snarky comment, but I went on a little rant.

00:33:42.540 --> 00:34:12.500
about people being down on the song. I love reading it because I think it's silly. Everybody knows they're going to be doing this. I mean, I'm having a hard time believing everyone's butt hurt over the sound. If you don't like the direction, I get that. That's cool. You don't like it. But to get butt hurt about it at this point seems kind of silly when you haven't heard the whole album yet. Especially seeing as the first song, Sorceress, was pretty heavy for all clean vocals. And I think I may have made a comment about

00:34:13.419 --> 00:34:41.899
We don't even know where this place is on the album. There could be two heavy songs in front of it and behind it. You know, just like other songs on other albums like Harvest or Benighted. But I may have taken some shots at some of these people telling them to get a job and move out of their parents' basement and wash their clothes and stuff. And it spurred on some conversation with some of my friends going back and forth. That's what all trolls need to do, honestly. Well, let's be honest. I'm sick and tired of the political commentary, no matter what your beliefs are. I just don't want to hear it anymore.

00:34:42.100 --> 00:35:10.900
or see it anymore. I'm tired of people posting their funny little pet tricks. Don't get me wrong, I like dogs and cats. I don't need to see it every time. I don't need to see anyone's meme about how they're getting their life together. Nothing personal. I just don't want to see it. And I don't need to see another recipe. So I just try to spur some musical conversation. That's all. Makes sense to me. Alright, well hey, we're out of the traffic, I just noticed. Yeah, we have been for about 20 miles now.

00:35:12.120 --> 00:35:41.600
All right, well, that's typical George, not paying attention to where he is. Anything more you want to talk about right now? No, we'll save it for later. All right. We will talk to you later, maybe tonight. If not, definitely tomorrow before the first show. See ya. Later. Here we are. We are in Atlanta, Georgia. My name is George. Hi, I'm John. I'm TR.

00:35:42.120 --> 00:36:11.960
TR's the new guy in the house. And we are here in Atlanta. We are at the Atlanta Marriott Midtown Suites. Oh, there's a bit of an echo on that one. And we are preparing for day one of Prog Power 17. We just spent a little time at TAP, a gastropub. There's a colon in there. You can't hear it, but there's a colon in there. TAP, colon.

00:36:12.120 --> 00:36:12.660
I saw it.

00:36:12.660 --> 00:36:13.300
A gastropub.

00:36:14.240 --> 00:36:15.320
You saw the colon?

00:36:15.420 --> 00:36:16.160
I saw the colon.

00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:19.680
I didn't realize the bathroom was that small.

00:36:19.960 --> 00:36:20.840
It was small.

00:36:21.960 --> 00:36:22.740
It is what it is.

00:36:23.420 --> 00:36:23.660
All right.

00:36:23.740 --> 00:36:25.900
I'm forgetting to move the microphone around here.

00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:26.640
We're a few.

00:36:28.480 --> 00:36:33.880
We are a few beers deep at like 2.30 in the afternoon.

00:36:36.260 --> 00:36:39.660
That's because it's prog power and this is what we do.

00:36:40.180 --> 00:36:40.900
It's what you do.

00:36:40.960 --> 00:37:10.900
So, TR, introduce yourself. I'm TR. That is a very John-like answer. Excellent. He's a good friend of mine, so I think that, you know, it would follow. How many Prog Powers have you been to? I've been to two, actually. So that's two more than me. All right. Two already or two total? I thought you'd been more than that. Is this two or three? Oh, this will be the third. Yeah, yeah. But I've been to two previous to this, yes. This is my first, so I am the bitch. The bitch of the group.

00:37:10.980 --> 00:37:40.940
Not at all. You're here. It's all that matters. Yeah, okay. Fair enough. And you probably know more about these bands than I do. Well, you know, I'm not as prog power oriented as John. I certainly like a plethora of styles. And I think I'm going to learn a lot on this trip, actually. Even though, I mean, I've heard all of the bands that are playing, so. Right. Yeah, prog powers, like we talked about in the drive

00:37:40.980 --> 00:38:09.240
down. It's a little different. It's a little more laid back for the setting. Unlike Maryland Death Fest, where I was the newbie last year. Last May? Yeah. Was it that long ago? Yeah. This here is a little different because we don't have the parking lot, which I miss from Death Fest. That's a lot of fun to hang out. So we kind of have to venture out to places to get our beers. But, you know, we did quite fine on that today already. So. Yeah. What have we had? We've had.

00:38:10.980 --> 00:38:40.900
We've had some good local beers. We've had some Creature Comforts. I call it Tropicana TR. Please tell me what it is. Tropicalia. Thank you. That sounds like genitalia from the tropics. And that's why I say Tropicana. We had some burnt hickory. I also had the Creature Comforts Athena sour-ish. We had some Wild Heaven, which is all local. And then TR had some non-locals. Stone. Americano stout, which was very good.

00:38:40.980 --> 00:39:10.760
And what are we drinking right now, Mr. John? It has got the transitions. Now we are drinking Wicked Weed. I repeat, Wicked Weed, Dark Age. It's a bourbon barrel aged stout and it is outstanding. Wicked Weed is from North Carolina. And in fact, after you heard from us last, we stopped last night in Mooresville, North Carolina. And we went to Ultimate Ales. Yes, excellent.

00:39:10.980 --> 00:39:40.500
And we picked up some wicked weed there as well. Yes, we did. Pernicious. Pernicious? Is that right? That's close, yes. That's what it was. Pernicious IPA, right? Pernicious IPA, yes. Okay, so we had a couple of those. We've also got a sour that I wanted to try that we have not popped yet. It's called Oblivion. It's also from wicked weed. We're going to pop George's sour later, so. I cannot wait. We've got to get a clink on here. Oh, yeah.

00:39:40.960 --> 00:40:10.920
There you go. Yeah, we all, do you hear those when you listen to the episodes? You're like, oh, I love the clink. Oh, I wish I was there, and now I am. It's, you're in, you're living the moment. God, this is a really good beer. This is very good, and you can taste the bourbon. Yeah, you can. And TR is more the stout guy here, I think, of the group. I'm probably the more all-around guy, and George is probably more the IPA guy, don't you guys think? Roughly? I think so. So that means the role of puke is being played by TR. Oh, all right, there you go. Because he's our stout guy.

00:40:10.980 --> 00:40:39.880
Yeah, stouts and porters and pretty much all the dark beers. Yeah, that would be Bukes wrong. Yes, definitely. All right, well, so here we are in our room enjoying another tasty, very tasty beverage, as a matter of fact. Getting ready to leave in a little bit to head down to day one, which is opened by Lord, followed by streams of passion, not peams of stashion, as I was trying to say earlier. Don't cross the streams. Don't cross the streams.

00:40:42.940 --> 00:41:10.100
And then Spock's Beard and then Dragon Force. Right. I don't know how long I'm going to last for Dragon Force. I'll watch some and then from there I might be more beer. More beer. George, can I just say one thing? I'm very excited to see the Cougar Bush pretty much. I'm rubbing it against my face. It's the Cougar Bush. It's kind of famous. He's like, that's gross. You're sticking it in my face now. I'm all about it.

00:41:10.120 --> 00:41:39.260
But you know, the thing is, I've seen it, it's kind of mythic to me, and to be in its presence right now, for me is kind of moving. Don't cry tears on the cougar bush, we don't have to have it washed. I'm restraining myself right now, because it's... You want to grab the cougar bush. I do want to grab it, but at the same... You can touch it a lot, even though I just rubbed it on my face. Well, I'll rub the part that didn't get on your face. Yeah, around the side. Yes.

00:41:40.140 --> 00:42:09.640
It is soft, but there's a little bit of roughness to it. So for all of you that have looked at the cougar bush and have wondered, it is as magnificent as it would seem in real life. It is a grand piece of hair. I would agree. All right. So is there anybody today that you're particularly looking forward to? For me, I guess... That sounds like a no. Well, essentially, well.

00:42:10.140 --> 00:42:39.600
All right, well played. I guess it's, I am kind of interested in Lorde because I've just heard some clips and, you know, the singer sounds really good. The band sounds good. I was not familiar with them at all prior to this, so. Have you ever heard of the band Dungeon? No, I have not. Okay, well, Dungeon was the band before Lorde. Oh, okay. And also an Australian band. Okay, so, yeah, first of all, for all of you out there in the podcast land, I am, you know, I'm kind of a poser in this world because,

00:42:40.140 --> 00:43:09.140
I do like metal, but I don't know nearly as much as these guys. Who could possibly know as much as us? Exactly. So I'm just clinging very easily here, very vaguely to whatever's going on here. But basically, I do like these bands, kind of just what I've heard of them, but mostly I'm here for Fate's Warning that I just cannot wait to see that part of this show.

00:43:09.220 --> 00:43:38.900
This all leads up to Friday. Yeah, and we'll get there. But for tonight, yeah, Lorde sounds good. Spock's beard, I'm kind of interested in hearing what they do at this show. Maybe we could call this thing Spock's beard. Oh, yeah, I'd like that because it is, you know, it... I mean, it's hairy. It is hairy. It's evil. I feel like I need to live long and prosper when I see it. Because Spock's beard was evil, right? It was evil. That's true. Mirror, mirror, right? Yeah. Okay. So, but anyhow, yeah. So tonight for me,

00:43:40.919 --> 00:44:09.160
and Lorde, I guess, would be probably the main bands that I'm kind of interested in checking out. And I mean, I'm good with all of it. Dragonforce, I think, probably be a little over the top for me because they seem like an over the top band. But overall, you know, I'm good with all of it. And I'm looking forward to tonight's show. I'm looking forward to the whole festival, to be honest. I think it's going to be a great, the whole thing is going to be excellent. Yeah, for me, this is four days. This is one more than,

00:44:10.040 --> 00:44:37.920
So I'm like, ooh, do I have the stamina to last? Oh, you totally have the stamina to last. It's because we get to sit on this one. Exactly. And it's inside. And it's fewer bands, despite the fact it's going to be balls hot in the mid-90s. We'll be inside the whole time. Do they have AC in there? Yes. Excellent. So, yeah, I'm not entirely like, woohoo, Dragon Force, who cares? I mean, I'm curious. I'm Dragon Force curious.

00:44:39.960 --> 00:45:09.000
I do want to see Lorde and Spock's beard I'm down with. Streams of passion. Not a, I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I am like an acquaintance of their music. I've heard it. I've been like, meh, okay. I think I reviewed their first album. And it's their last show ever. And it's their last show ever. It's an event for us. It's the last show. We can be like, yeah, we were there. Where were you? Yeah, you weren't there. You're a poser! You weren't there.

00:45:09.200 --> 00:45:39.120
for Streams of Passion's last show. And everybody's like, who? But, hey. So, all right, yeah, well, it should be fun. If nothing else, it eases us gently into the first of four days. Yes. Yes, because tomorrow night will be, it's going to kick it off huge, I think, personally. Because of Blind Guardian. Blind Guardian. I know, TR, you're big on Circus Maximus. Yep. Pyramids, or however you say their name. We're all looking forward to it because of multiple singers, I think. I would love to see Matt Barlow with them.

00:45:39.220 --> 00:46:08.920
And then obviously Ghost Ship, George. Octavius. Thank you. Octavarius. Octavarius. It's funny. It's interesting. For a late ad, that's... Oh, I couldn't have asked anybody. Exactly. I mean, I was a little bummed when Gloryhammer wasn't going to be here. I don't know anything about Gloryhammer, but after seeing a couple of their videos, I mean, they seem to be like... It's kind of like the spinal tap of Power Metal.

00:46:09.200 --> 00:46:37.940
And I really appreciate the fact that they're kind of making fun of it while they embrace it. And you can tell that the guys are talented musicians. And that, you know, you can see that they're having a good time and it looks very entertaining. And so for that reason, I was really excited to see them. But of course, when they couldn't get their visas and that happened, I mean, literally, what, last week they found out?

00:46:38.020 --> 00:47:02.240
This happens far too often. Yeah, and it's unfortunate. And so for them to make this last minute late ad of Ghost Ship Octavius, which I almost did it too, is actually really great. I didn't know anything about them prior to hearing about this when Glory Hammer pulled out of this.

00:47:08.020 --> 00:47:37.740
What pulled out? I beg your pardon? Where's Will? Where's Will? He's down in Anacostia again. That sounds like, that should be like the ending of a Gwar song. Not everybody gets squirted with blood. But bottom line, you know, it sounds like this is going to be a very satisfying substitute.

00:47:38.020 --> 00:48:07.340
And in fact, you know, a lot of people are like pretty psyched about it to the point where it's like, yeah, this is like almost like why weren't these guys, you know, the first choice? Yeah, right. Exactly. So so I think it's going to be definitely Thursday night is going to be a full night of really great bands. Yeah, I was looking forward to seeing Glory Hammer. I wouldn't call myself a huge fan, not like Buke, his number one album last year. But I was definitely looking forward to seeing them.

00:48:08.040 --> 00:48:37.320
I thought it was number four last year. I thought it was number one. Oh, man. Oh, wait. No, last year was... Wilder Run was number one last year. Really? Yeah. What the hell am I thinking? Sorry, Buke. That's right. Wilder Run. Yeah. That wasn't like two years ago? I don't know. Too much beer. Anyway, I was looking forward to seeing them. And I was pretty disappointed when they dropped out. But I was very, very much more like, oh, Ghost Ship Octavius.

00:48:38.120 --> 00:49:07.800
Definitely. I mean like Death Fest this year we had a couple of cancellations that were. That sucked. That sucked. Destroyer 666. And Serpent Throne. Destroyer 666 yeah. Serpent Throne was going to play there? They had a commitment issue not a visa issue. So what was the deal with that? Oh right yeah they had a it was like a work thing. Something came up with work and so they were like yeah I can't take off work to go play. Oh man I love Serpent Throne. Yeah they're good. I mean I've.

00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:37.600
They opened for the sword that time. And I'm telling you, I was unfamiliar with the DC bra thing. No, actually, this was a couple of years ago when the sword played and they opened for them. And of course, they're instrumental, you know, like stoner doom. Yeah. Sabbath style riffs. And I'm telling you, this band brought it. I was I was blown away by Serpent Throne. And basically, like right after that show, I bought everything that they had that.

00:49:38.000 --> 00:50:07.840
of their albums. And, you know, a lot of people kind of, you know, a lot of people are down on a lot of these bands that are kind of like Sabbath copies or like that kind of stuff. Retro 70s. Yeah, retro. But I'm telling you, these guys are authentic. And I really appreciated what they were doing. They were, you could tell that they had a great sense of humor, you know, and I can't remember the guitarist's name, but basically it was like, you know,

00:50:08.020 --> 00:50:37.980
Kids Want Riffs and we're bringing the riffs and it's true they bring the riffs and I love Serpent Throne and I'm looking forward to whenever they you know create another album it's unfortunate that they I didn't know that they were going to play at Death Fest but they I'm telling you well they were at the DC Brow thing right? Will and I saw them at DC Brow and we both loved them yeah they're an excellent band and I was hooked when I first heard them and I was really you know

00:50:38.020 --> 00:51:06.480
You go to shows and you never know when you see these opening bands what's going on. Because if you've never heard of them or whatever. But sometimes you get a real gem. And these guys for me were that. And I was really glad to see these guys and to hear the music live. I mean, it was very powerful live. They sounded great live. And so... How were they live?

00:51:06.680 --> 00:51:36.640
They were outstanding. And so anyhow, yeah, I'm looking forward to whatever they do next. But it's really unfortunate they didn't show up to Death Fest or couldn't do it or whatever the issue was. Yeah. Did they get a replacement band at MDF? I know Gruesome just played twice. But I thought there was, they did get like some sort of death metal band that it was just like, oh, yay. Yeah, I don't remember. I mean, that's how memorable it was. It was like whoever they got to replace them was like,

00:51:36.700 --> 00:52:06.320
Who cares? Yeah, the gruesome double show was awesome that we got a second set of them, even though they played most of the same songs. Yeah, it was like we were out in the parking lot drinking beers going, oh, there's nobody coming on now. And then we're like, that sounds like gruesome. Shit, get in there. That was fun. That was fun to see him twice. Just it was cool. Yeah. I mean, did they play a whole different set or what was it? Like one or two songs max, I think. But it's just the fact that they're, I don't know, you probably don't know much about gruesome.

00:52:10.460 --> 00:52:35.480
They play their own. It's their own material, but it's a tribute. In the style of Jeff. So, Will was in Seventh Heaven. All of us, everyone in the group, Buke, George, myself, Jay, we all love them. They were great. So, it was fun to see them twice, regardless of the fact that they played the same songs. And kudos to them for jumping back on stage again. So, Bucket. Yeah. All right. Well,

00:52:36.700 --> 00:53:05.220
I don't know if we have anything else to talk about before the show. We will either check in during the show or after the show. I'm looking forward to see what George thinks of this compared to MDF. So, TR already knows this situation, but I'm looking to see what he thinks because this is like the luxury festival. You get to sit. You don't have to walk that far to the bathroom. Air conditioning. You know, there's no porta potty, but you better have a couple bucks because that dude's going to be pissed if you don't pay him for that towel in the bathroom. Oh, really? Yeah.

00:53:06.700 --> 00:53:36.120
That's what I'm curious to see what you think about it. If you're not big on the bands, but you like the setting, it's so good that you don't care. Or do you like the bands and the setting, or vice versa, whatever. So. Well, you know, on the way down here, particularly this morning driving in, John was like, I can't believe I'm getting George to listen to Spock's beard. I can't believe I'm getting George to listen to Dream Theater. Yeah, we progged out on the way down. And so, yeah, I'm definitely expanding my mind in terms of my prog.

00:53:36.700 --> 00:53:37.700
listening experience.

00:53:38.740 --> 00:53:42.020
And I've already got a couple of notes for things to check out when I get back.

00:53:42.240 --> 00:53:43.920
So, hey, you never know.

00:53:44.140 --> 00:53:45.340
It's all part of the deal.

00:53:45.540 --> 00:53:45.760
Exactly.

00:53:46.840 --> 00:53:47.840
All right, we'll check in later.

00:53:48.240 --> 00:53:48.540
Cool.

00:53:48.700 --> 00:53:48.980
See ya.

00:53:49.180 --> 00:53:49.420
Out.

00:53:50.020 --> 00:53:50.200
Out.

00:53:53.300 --> 00:53:56.780
Hello, and welcome to day two of Prog Power 17.

00:53:57.650 --> 00:53:58.480
My name is George.

00:53:59.240 --> 00:53:59.820
This is John.

00:54:00.700 --> 00:54:01.160
I'm TR.

00:54:03.160 --> 00:54:05.220
And, yeah, so like I said, it's day two.

00:54:05.600 --> 00:54:35.360
Today we're going to be seeing some cool bands, but before we talk about that, let's talk about what happened last night. So we got to the venue, I don't know, roughly an hour before the first band was supposed to start. And there's a bit of a line which I take it's not usually quite so bad. Well, I think on the tickets for everyone days, it's a little long. I think what was long was they added the extra security.

00:54:35.600 --> 00:55:05.560
which you felt like it was gonna be like some horrible security when we got up there and it wasn't bad it just took them a little while to wand everyone the guys were all friendly i thought i was worried it's gonna be like take off all your clothes you know because everyone you could see everyone taking stuff out of their pockets in line but i think it was just a slow security that kept the line looking even longer than it was and we didn't know until we got up there yeah i uh i had like tons of shit in my pockets and i i like i brought a bunch of business cards to hand out and well i just got rid of them all at once i

00:55:05.600 --> 00:55:35.560
all but three of them apparently as I was getting all the stuff out do we need to go back to that spot on the street we were standing and just see them all like right lying there I I meant to look when we walked out but I forgot to look and I was concerned about the recorder and the cougar bush because yeah well I took everything I had and stuffed it in my hat and they didn't look at any of it so if you if you're trying to get into a show with something you don't want them to have or at least this particular show just shove it under your wallet

00:55:35.580 --> 00:56:05.540
or your whatever and stuff it in something. And they're only looking at what you have on you. Take your contraband, set it to the side, let them wand you, take your contraband and go in. Yeah, I mean, to secure those has been pretty good for years. I mean, they don't, they're going to check every bag, minus, I guess, the woman who had the knitting needles, which I thought was kind of strange. Why you would bring those? Does anyone think, I get people bringing weed to a show. And that's controversial.

00:56:07.140 --> 00:56:35.560
Why knitting needles? I don't know. Well, you know, she... I know people that knit, and they take it with them everywhere, because when they have some free time, they do a few things. But I was like, those are big, long fucking spikes at a show. I'm like, how is that not a security concern? That's my point. You would think that you wouldn't do that for that reason. It's like, why bring a one-hour-half-year-old to the show and stand on the floor in front of the speakers? Yeah. Now, you know, in their defense...

00:56:35.620 --> 00:57:03.340
They did have headphones for the little guy, but I agree. I really don't see the point in bringing an infant, essentially, to... No babysitter. Yeah. It's like, come on. You know, why would you bring a little baby? They have no conception of what's going on. It's just... It's... I don't know. It's the first time I've seen it here. Here's the thing. Yeah, they had the earphones. Babies feel vibrations, too. Because I know half the time I'm like, man, that double bass is going to make me have to go to the bathroom.

00:57:05.600 --> 00:57:11.160
It matters to those of us who are standing next to the baby.

00:57:14.880 --> 00:57:31.180
But yeah, I took a picture. I was sitting right behind the girl with the knitting needles and I, you know, slyly or not so slyly, took a picture over her shoulder and posted it. And I was like, yeah, knitting needles. You know, get down in the pit and jab somebody through the eye with that.

00:57:31.240 --> 00:57:58.620
Well, to her credit, she didn't move the whole night. I don't think she got up once the whole time, it seemed like. She did. She did. But it just didn't seem like it. It seemed like she was always there. Did you notice if she had a sweater by the end or anything? She had something. It looked like about the size of a beer cozy. But it was open at both ends, and it was red. So I knew quite a bit about it, actually. And you just noticed the word dragon coming across it.

00:58:05.099 --> 00:58:30.200
So we got in eventually. Got in with the recorder which I didn't end up using. I think I may actually leave it back today. Somebody's knocking at our door. We will continue in a moment.

00:58:33.400 --> 00:59:01.220
All right, we're back. That was the guy from the hotel coming to look at our shower because we have like a shower stall as opposed to like a bathtub shower, which is quite nice in that regard because I hate the slipping and sliding. Anyway, the seal on the door was not so good and we had a bit of a flooding issue this morning. Yeah, a lot of fucking water on the ground. Anyway, carrying on, after we got into the

00:59:01.260 --> 00:59:31.220
the venue we went and sat down and so let me ask you guys cuz I'm the veteran here what did you guys and tears been to a few what did you think of the setup going in I mean it's not like a super plush venue but I think it's kind of a nice venue there's not a bad seat in the place yeah I liked the what do you call it Greek style theater seating but not in a massive amphitheater sort of way you know relatively small club size and yeah I thought that that worked out really

00:59:55.620 --> 00:59:59.720
Well, but you notice it is a little older crowd.

01:00:00.300 --> 01:00:28.820
There's a lot of people who've been in the scene for a long time, whether it be the Madlands or the Prog Bands. And I think people just want to sit. Yeah, and, you know, Buke sent me a message asking if it was like 90% nerds. And, you know, to be fair, it was pretty much a typical metal crowd, perhaps slightly older, so not quite as many long hairs. But there were still plenty of long hairs and tattoos. And, you know, there's dark funeral shirts. I saw that guy. I was like, cool, right on, man. Yeah.

01:00:29.460 --> 01:00:59.420
I'm wearing my Maryland Death Fest shirt today to bring a little of the heavier side. But otherwise it was a pretty typical hard rock metal crowd. What did you guys think of the sound? Overall, setting aside any technical issues, which there were a couple for two bands, I thought the sound, even with earplugs, is still pretty good overall. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, I felt like you could... There were a couple of times when, during

01:01:01.499 --> 01:01:27.500
I felt like the mix was a little bit off in a couple of ways. But overall, that was the guy working the board as opposed to the system. Yeah, right. Just sitting there and listening, you could definitely hear what you needed to hear. It seemed to me they were having some issues with the lead mic just a couple times here and there. Like the guy from Lorde, a couple times it seemed like he went out. He was a little hard to hear. And then he would get back up like, you know, I just did, people can't see what I did with the bush here.

01:01:29.460 --> 01:01:59.420
And he sounded great. And it seemed like she... George is rubbing the cougar bush on me. It seemed like the singer for... Who was by far, I think, the best singer of the night was the woman from Stream of Passion. She had a great voice. She had just a little bit of an issue once. Guy from Spock's Beard had a slow start. Once he got going... In more ways than one. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, boy. And then I had trouble hearing the guy from

01:01:59.860 --> 01:02:29.420
But I think it's because they have a wall of everything going on at one time. Every instrument is... Yeah, and I felt like you could... There were times when you could hear him pretty well. Yes. And then there were times when you couldn't. So I'm not sure if it was just his, you know, technique with holding the mic or if it was just a matter of the sound. A lot of fast-paced play. Cutting out or... Yeah, right. So I'm not sure what that was. But, I mean, you could definitely hear him from time to time. And, you know, he definitely had great pipes. But...

01:02:30.040 --> 01:02:57.040
Yeah, me too. Yeah, I thought it was good. I did spend a fair amount of time messing with my earplug placement from band to band because if I popped the earplugs out, the sound was good. And it wasn't overly loud. If I didn't already have ravaged tinnitus hearing, I probably could have gotten away with not wearing earplugs. Did you do that for Spock's spirit? Yeah. And it wasn't loud?

01:02:58.880 --> 01:03:27.280
Actually, I don't recall. We'll talk about why I didn't do that for Spugsbeard later when we get to them. You don't remember. But at least for the first two bands, and even for Dragon Force, the sound was pretty decent. But sometimes I had to tweak the earplugs a little bit so I could hear the vocals a little better. I didn't pop mine the whole time. I left mine in the whole time. Yeah, me too.

01:03:28.820 --> 01:03:58.740
It starts to get a little tight. But I find if I pop them out and put them back in, I can never get back to my original place where I adjust to eventually. So that's why I didn't do it. I have a hard time hearing it shows because with all the people talking, I was telling John, sorry if I was a little antisocial in the venue because I have a hell of a time hearing somebody talking right next to me. He was getting frustrated with me.

01:03:59.500 --> 01:04:28.000
He kept talking to me and I'd be like, "What?" And he'd say, "Eh, oh." What? Yeah. It was just the one time because I thought you heard me because I thought you responded something else because I couldn't hear you. I didn't know what you were saying. And then when I thought I knew what you were saying, it wasn't what you were really saying. I wasn't trying to yell. I just because I can't tell if I'm talking too quietly. So I finally just said, "It's me!" And he went, "Oh, no, no, no." And I'm like, "Oh, all right." Yeah, so don't feel bad about that, George.

01:04:28.820 --> 01:04:58.780
I just nod and smile. I'm like, you're talking a lot and I'm only getting every third word. It's rough. It's hard to hear. I don't like taking out the plugs either in between just because then you've got to jam them back in and everything. It's not an issue. It's pretty hard to talk even when there's no bands playing if I have the earplugs in. I tend to take them out so I can socialize a little bit as difficult as that is. It's a little easier if you're standing and you can

01:04:58.800 --> 01:05:26.020
sort of group into a circle and talking to each other's faces. But when you're leaning across the seats, it's like, it's nearly possible. But so first band was Lorde, as we mentioned. And I don't know, personally, I thought they were pretty awesome. You know, they came from Australia. The dude from Dungeon, which John said that they actually played a couple of Dungeon songs. Yeah, apparently they played four Dungeon songs. Half their set was Dungeon. It was cool.

01:05:29.520 --> 01:05:58.780
I don't know if that was a Lord song or a dungeon song but it's funny because I just happen to be rereading the Dragonlance books at the moment which is the Legend of Huma is based on one of the characters from the Dragonlance series and I was like the fuck I was like just reading about this I think it actually is a dungeon song if I'm not mistaken I could be wrong but I think it is okay so but yeah they sounded good you know I haven't seen and I'm going to repeat myself with this a lot I haven't seen a band a power

01:06:22.980 --> 01:06:27.160
I thought they were good,

01:06:27.320 --> 01:06:57.300
But every song after a while sounds the same to me because I'm not a big power guy. I will say this. The choruses where everyone's singing, they were singing. It didn't sound like they piped in any extra vocals. So then I don't mind the gang singing if it's everyone doing it on stage. They were great. I just couldn't differentiate songs after a while. And not having a whole lot of experience in that whole realm. I've heard some power metal bands. To me, there was...

01:06:57.340 --> 01:07:27.300
Because the guitarist, I guess, has kind of been around a while. I think, like you said, it's like 26 years he's been doing this or something. And so to me, when I listen to that band, even though it's, I guess, maybe classified as power metal, to me there were elements, there were old school elements of what they were playing that sounded very much like straight ahead metal in the flavor of Maiden or one of the

01:07:27.340 --> 01:07:57.300
those other earlier metal bands that to me kind of that kind of undergirded the power metal and I may be just like coming from a place that maybe doesn't make sense but to me that's kind of like the impression I got like there was like this foundation of like old school metal but with the power piece it like layered on top of it yeah well we had this george i had this conversation in the car that we did not record that power metal

01:07:57.300 --> 01:08:26.440
Original Power Metal is really a derivative of Speed Metal, which is a derivative more of like some maiden and a lot of priest. You know, Iced Earth, I guess, early in the years. So Power Metal today, I think, is different than what it probably was X number of years ago. So yes, you're right. They had a lot of older 80s, early 90s style to them. Yeah, Power Metal used to be a little more diverse. It was just sort of a general style. Right. And then I think it just became a template.

01:08:27.020 --> 01:08:56.380
And so they just got cookie-cuttered at that point and pigeonholed them. I guess we just call them power metal because I don't know how else to classify them. I would say that, yes, they're more just a metal band. Straight-ahead metal, I would think. More or less. That's the impression I got. And, you know, I feel like a poser with you guys because I really... I like metal. I like mostly hard rock and the kind of standard metal bands.

01:09:22.560 --> 01:09:26.540
So, what about the next band, Stream of Passion?

01:09:27.540 --> 01:09:57.000
So, a couple things about them. First, this was supposed to be, well, she came out and said this was their first show in the United States and their last show in the United States because by the end of the year, the band will cease to exist. And so she didn't really get into the details of that. I guess some, like we did hear a couple things about what's behind that. Yeah, they're just calling it quits. But bottom line was, is that, first of all, I thought they did

01:10:01.720 --> 01:10:26.200
They played a couple of cover tunes, which I thought, you know, if this is your last show, I think you'd want to play your own stuff more. But I kind of thought that their covers were interesting. But she had great vocals and the band was good. They did suffer from technical difficulties at one point where I guess the guitarist and maybe even the bass player had to leave the stage.

01:10:26.260 --> 01:10:55.480
They recovered fine because the keyboard player and the singer were able to play a song. I thought that actually worked very well and really didn't seem to alter the vibe or the flow of the concert any. I thought they were very good. I thought they were real tight. Her vocals were outstanding. I thought the mix was good for them.

01:10:55.880 --> 01:11:25.840
Once Everybody Was Playing And Each One Of Them Seemed Very Talented Musically So Overall I Enjoyed That You Could Tell That The Guitarist Was Having Problems Because I Couldn't Hear Him At All The First Two Songs Before He Left Stage The Guy With The Little Like Yeah The Little Dime Star I'm Sure It's A Good Guitar Yeah You Could I Mean It Had The Compound Radius And You Could Tell That It Was Like A Metal Construct Like Constructed Specifically To Play Fast

01:11:25.920 --> 01:11:55.840
and all that. But it looked like it was a toy though because it had no head and I don't know who makes it. It looked like those old Steinberger guitars. Yeah kind of but even like a more modern take of that. Yeah. But yeah I agree with you there John. You just seem to get in a little bit of trouble but once he came back. Later on it was like you could hear him guys. You could hear him. His solos you could hear and stuff and so it was cool. I agree with everything you said. I mean I'm not big on anymore on the kind of symphonic gothic whatever. It's not even gothic melody. It's just symphonic

01:11:56.380 --> 01:12:25.100
But they didn't overdo the symphonic part. And I'm interested to find out if they've covered those two songs. One was Sonata Artica and then the other was Radiohead. I'm curious if they recorded them and released them. Because if they did, I agree two covers in your last show. But if they actually recorded them and released them, then okay, they're in your repertoire then a little bit. So I would have preferred another song from them.

01:12:25.180 --> 01:12:26.000
But it doesn't matter

01:12:26.080 --> 01:12:27.200
that the Radiohead cover

01:12:27.320 --> 01:12:27.780
I thought was actually

01:12:27.980 --> 01:12:28.340
kind of cool

01:12:28.980 --> 01:12:30.260
It didn't sound like

01:12:30.540 --> 01:12:30.840
Radiohead

01:12:31.080 --> 01:12:31.820
but it did sound like

01:12:32.020 --> 01:12:32.200
Radiohead

01:12:32.300 --> 01:12:33.040
So they had their own

01:12:33.380 --> 01:12:34.180
flavor to it

01:12:34.600 --> 01:12:34.820
Yeah

01:12:35.420 --> 01:12:36.060
It was a little

01:12:36.660 --> 01:12:37.280
I mean obviously

01:12:37.540 --> 01:12:38.260
it was a little more

01:12:38.420 --> 01:12:38.940
bombastic

01:12:39.260 --> 01:12:40.000
Yes it was

01:12:40.220 --> 01:12:41.780
And so you know

01:12:42.640 --> 01:12:43.540
in that way

01:12:43.960 --> 01:12:44.300
the really

01:12:44.820 --> 01:12:45.420
you know the nice thing

01:12:45.500 --> 01:12:46.240
about the Radiohead

01:12:46.380 --> 01:12:46.940
version is

01:12:47.060 --> 01:12:48.080
and we're talking about

01:12:48.640 --> 01:12:49.420
Street Spirit

01:12:49.840 --> 01:12:50.500
Street Spirit

01:12:50.640 --> 01:12:50.760
Yeah

01:12:50.840 --> 01:12:51.380
or whatever it is

01:12:52.600 --> 01:12:53.760
You know that song

01:12:54.000 --> 01:12:54.580
kind of builds

01:12:54.600 --> 01:12:59.200
It's very quiet and then it kind of builds and builds and then it's huge.

01:12:59.610 --> 01:13:01.000
Cause I'm a creep!

01:13:01.260 --> 01:13:02.320
That's the only song rhythm I know.

01:13:02.460 --> 01:13:02.680
Okay.

01:13:03.280 --> 01:13:16.040
Well, Street Spirit is...it kind of follows that same kind of recipe of just kind of being real quiet and then building and just kind of getting big, you know, and just being powerful.

01:13:16.690 --> 01:13:19.340
And they kind of pretty much...it was boom!

01:13:19.450 --> 01:13:22.780
It was on the whole time and then it got really even more bombastic.

01:13:23.600 --> 01:13:51.800
But it was a cool version. It was an interesting take on that song. The other cover, I'm not a fan of that band, so I didn't care, personally. As I said, I was going to say this again. I think this was probably the first time I've seen a female-fronted symphonic band live before. And I've stated probably many times on the podcast that I'm not a huge fan of that style.

01:13:52.960 --> 01:14:22.920
But that's only because Evanescence came along and killed everything and everybody was like, let's cookie cutter this and make a hundred more of these. When people like The Gathering first started doing this, I was like, this is freaking awesome. This is brilliant. And that was more metal based as opposed to symphonic, even though they had the gothic feel to them. Yeah. There were other bands like Third and the Mortal and, you know, Theater of Tragedy and stuff like that. So yeah, you know, I liked all of those bands. It's just, you know, too much of it.

01:14:22.980 --> 01:14:52.920
A Good Thing Ends Up. Going really bad. And that went south fast. Yeah, the whole genre just, for me, is done. Yeah, by the time this band came out, I was kind of getting over it. But I think I did, I'm pretty sure I reviewed their first album, at least, mostly positively. In defense of this band, though, they are, I believe, an Arne Lucas' project, weren't they? They were. The first album he was involved with. And they're a Dutch band, and I believe She's From Mexico, the singer. So I can see where they came.

01:14:52.980 --> 01:15:22.920
came from and they don't think they morphed too much from that. I don't know them as well. I had the first album too. I just haven't listened to it in ages. Yeah, me neither. But I thought they sounded great. You know, her voice was pretty amazing. I've certainly not heard too much singing like that live. It's usually a lot of... Well, what was nice is they didn't have in the let's put in, for formulaic purposes, the growling guy. Yes. You know, whereas After Forever may have been one of the first bands to do that.

01:15:22.960 --> 01:15:52.840
and George will correct me on the pronunciation. Tristania? I say Tristania. Okay. And they're probably one of the very first ones to do that. Yeah. That was original. Yeah. And now it seems like everyone throws it in. Within Temptation also, can't forget them early on. And what's the band with Christina Scavia? Who the Quill? Which he wasn't necessarily as guttural. He did some harsh vocals, but all those early bands, it was new. And it seems like now you're right. They just throw that in there to have it in there now.

01:15:52.980 --> 01:16:21.780
But they don't do that in this band, which was kind of nice. It's just her. And she's not too operatic either. Yeah, there was another band that I really liked that did that was called Dismal Euphony. And they had an album called All Little, I think the album was called All Little Devils. It was like their second or third album. And I freaking loved that, you know, the harsh vocal guy with the clean vocal woman. And there's another band, I don't know if there was a dude singer at all,

01:16:22.980 --> 01:16:52.940
Cry. Oh, yeah. Do you remember them? Their first singer, and I think it was their first album, I freaking loved that. They had a song like Be My God, I think it was, and it was great. And then they switched singers, and I was like, nah, not so much. There's a case of a genre that was new and different that everyone can get into that immediately just, like you said, Evanescence showed up. And it's, we can blame them all we want. They might have just been the band that got to be the most popular, although she didn't endear herself with a lot of

01:16:52.980 --> 01:17:22.940
of people and her bandmates. But there's a genre that's just completely fallen off the earth for a lot of people. And it's too bad because everyone still feels strongly about the early stuff still. Or at least likes the early stuff still. Yeah. It's telling that, as far as I can tell, her career isn't really doing anything. At least not like it was. I believe they're working on a new album. I just saw that because it's all big news again. Really? But I mean, I haven't... I know they put out a follow-up album. I think the Guitar Player slash Boy

01:17:23.420 --> 01:17:52.920
or something. But I mean, you never hear about them anymore. And that is a good thing. Don't worry. Blubbermouth will have it on there. And Corey Taylor will comment. As will Scott Ian and Rob Flynn and a whole other host of people. Oh, Nikki Sixx, I'm sure, will be on there too. Because now he's commenting all the time on everything. And then Phil will come along and goose step all over it. No, actually, and I'm not defending Phil.

01:17:52.960 --> 01:18:22.220
Phil will just walk down the street and somebody will have a problem. Yeah. No offense to Phil. I'm just trying to think of the various blabbermouth dramas that have reared to their head lately. We should just stop there because it'll just morph into something horrible. Yeah. We're getting a little off the track here. So after Stream of Passion, there was a bit of an extended break. Yes.

01:18:22.960 --> 01:18:52.440
You know, everything was set up so that there would be a half hour between bands, which is pretty typical of shows that only have one stage. Yes. And let me state for the record, this is a crew that works for Glenn that he is very loyal to. And those guys work, and girls, they've worked their butts off. I'll say my piece, and I'm getting out because these guys will go off for the next hour. They'll take the whole amount of time we waited to describe what they think. It'll be like us sitting in traffic for Sabbath.

01:18:55.840 --> 01:19:21.500
They had technical difficulties setting up if Spock's beard brings a boatload of shit with them. I wasn't happy about it, but I'm willing to wait for the answer on what happened before I decide to rage or accept. Stop being so reasonable. I'm going to go get some water and check what time it is. I'll let these two have their little rant and I'll be back. I'm just having fun.

01:19:23.680 --> 01:19:51.900
Yeah, so it was supposed to be a half hour changeover. They were supposed to start at 8. And they did not start until like 9.15, 9.20, somewhere around there. Essentially when they were going to be done. Yeah, exactly. And I get very irritated by this whole Axel Rose syndrome. But I don't think it was... I understand.

01:19:52.980 --> 01:20:22.040
I've retracted at this point most of the things that I said. You probably weren't thinking that it wasn't that. Meaning that it wasn't that. Meaning you probably think it was Axel Rose Syndrome. Well, it's like, you know, I consider the Axel Rose Syndrome to be he just doesn't feel like coming out yet. And in this case, I was, you know, pulling completely out of my ass with no basis on fact or any sort of reality that they brought too much gear or it was too complicated.

01:20:22.560 --> 01:20:50.660
And it was taking them longer to set up. And because they're the second to last important band, it's okay for them to take a long time setting up their computers and all their stuff. Or that they just weren't prepared and they're like, oh shit, this is going to take longer than we thought. Either way, you know, my time's important too. Where did you have to beat it last night? Technically, I didn't. But as I was telling TR earlier while you were tolling off.

01:20:53.960 --> 01:21:21.840
While you were in the shower. The softer side of prog power. Anyway, you weren't in the room. And, uh, fuck, what was I going to say? Oh, yeah, how my time is important. You know, we could have had an interview set up at 1130 after the show. I could have been going to meet my brother. And suddenly, instead of getting out at 1130 when it's supposed to, it's getting out at one.

01:21:22.560 --> 01:21:52.400
And I'm like, you know, and I understand things happen. And a small delay is inevitable. And it's not like I went off. I pretty much kept my mouth shut about the whole thing. And I'm only talking about it now because we've been talking about it. It irks me when something goes so wrong that it has to interfere with your life.

01:21:52.560 --> 01:22:21.460
outside of what was planned. I know, I'm being very rigid. I'm going to add just two things. One, the first thing I will bring up when we talk about Dragonforce and George's time. And two, I will factor this in. It had been a while since George ate. Yes, I was a little bit hangry. And I can say that because TR has witnessed me when I haven't eaten after a while. It's just like, ah! It's so different for me. You've seen the bear get grumpy.

01:22:23.120 --> 01:22:24.520
Somebody woke the bear up.

01:22:26.400 --> 01:22:28.460
Yeah, but I'm happy with myself.

01:22:29.010 --> 01:22:30.700
I did not unleash the bear.

01:22:30.730 --> 01:22:31.780
I did not make a scene.

01:22:31.790 --> 01:22:34.080
I did not, you know, throw a tantrum.

01:22:34.210 --> 01:22:36.540
I just quietly pouted in the corner.

01:22:37.300 --> 01:22:37.840
And, you know.

01:22:37.840 --> 01:22:39.280
And for the record, I wasn't happy either.

01:22:39.580 --> 01:22:42.460
I just was given a benefit out because I've been to enough prog.

01:22:42.580 --> 01:22:43.540
I've been to all the prog powers.

01:22:43.960 --> 01:22:44.240
Minus one.

01:22:44.310 --> 01:22:46.040
To know that when there's a technical difficulty.

01:22:47.960 --> 01:22:48.540
Here's the thing.

01:22:49.060 --> 01:22:51.800
They were actually trying to set up because you could hear them playing.

01:22:51.880 --> 01:23:21.760
And that's what was annoying me on a different level. I was like, they're doing, they're working on it. Why isn't it happening? So I wasn't thinking it was Axl Rose. Like, well, I'm going to eat some more chicken and I'll just go out whenever I want to. I wasn't thinking that. I wasn't either. I just felt like maybe they had miscalculated their time or they, just because they're like, oh, well, we have to have such a big setup. We get to take more time. And I'm like, screw you, you know? Now that you said it that way, I will.

01:23:21.880 --> 01:23:51.840
I can see that. If that was the case, then I would be on your camp 100% then. If that were what it was. If it's true. If it's true. I mean, yeah. You know, it could be literally any kind of technical issue of, hey, we can't get this to come through. And yeah, this, we're not getting this patch or we're not getting this keyboard sound or. Yeah. And if it's a technical cable and you're trying to troubleshoot the cable or maybe you've got some other issue or now you've got like, oh, who knows? I mean, it could have been a bad mic. It could have been a bad mic.

01:23:51.880 --> 01:24:20.760
I have no idea.

01:24:21.860 --> 01:24:51.580
It's interesting because Bands in Newport, and you may have been with me for a couple where Bands have been, Serenity I think got cut short, didn't they? Didn't they have some technical issues? And I think they lost a song or two on their set when we saw them. And somebody asked Glenn, are you going to cut Spock's beard? And he said, no, they're playing the full show. So at least that didn't affect their set, even though we had to wait for them. And more, and even though I'm not a Dragon Force fan, it didn't affect them. They got to play their full set, which seemed like everybody was happy. It just, you had to wait an extra, basically,

01:24:51.860 --> 01:25:21.840
what 35 40 minutes to get them eventually almost an hour yeah well i mean yeah it was a good hour um yeah because uh dragon force went to they went on pretty quick though is what i'm saying yeah they got them up pretty fast within like half an hour i mean they were supposed to come on at 10 and uh spock's beard got off at 10 and so then there was like a half hour changeover that i think they maybe came on at 10 30 so yeah they were

01:25:21.860 --> 01:25:51.840
probably only a half hour late. Well the reason I say it was fast is because if they had so much of a problem getting Spock's beard set up and they did have a lot of cables rolled out there they got that stage set up fast for Dragon Force and they changed the stage set up completely different set up and now I know why they had the neon stickers did you guys wonder why those neon stickers were on the stage like where's the set up and then it was all for Dragon Force so they were ready to go for them I wonder if that drum set was set up beforehand and they just started bringing out the big pieces all at one time because it was

01:25:51.880 --> 01:26:21.800
It was a completely different set, wasn't it? Oh yeah, the drums were over here, the keyboard was over there. I mean, it was like a whole swap out, plus they had that extra little riser or something for those guys. So credit to the crew for making up for the Dragon Force fans. Yeah, and so one of the other things that kind of yanked my chain a little bit was Spock's beard came on knowing full well that they were really, really late, and they acknowledged that, and I'm like, alright, that's cool.

01:26:23.220 --> 01:26:51.700
And then the funny guy with the mutton chop thing in the work shirt look that doesn't work for me. So they play some songs or whatever, and you're starting to wonder, okay, are they cutting short? Are they going long? What's going on? And at like quarter after nine, 20 after nine, somewhere around there, he's like, you want one more song? As noted, they played till 10. That one song was like, and he,

01:26:51.900 --> 01:27:20.300
Eternity. It was 19 minutes. Yeah, it felt like half an hour, just based on looking at my watch. But I'm like, who comes on that late and then closes with a song that long? It just seems like a dick move. Frog band. So see, you didn't even complain about that, so you had no problem with that. Yes, we're used to this. Wait, wait, you want to hear one more song? I thought, okay, we're in for it. Yeah, exactly. Mind you, we are seeing Green Carnation, who is playing one song that's an hour long.

01:27:21.860 --> 01:27:50.960
Was that Saturday or Friday? Yeah, Friday. So I think all that was, that's funny. You didn't, and I agree, actually, I would have preferred two songs or three songs. I would have, personally. Just to give more to their set. But, you know, also when you think about a prog band, you're kind of getting two or three songs in one song because there is a little bit of variety and a little change up and that kind of stuff. Maybe it was a selection of the song. That was more the issue. I'm not a super fan of that song. I told you eventually when I, I did consider everything you guys said last night and thought about it. I was like,

01:27:51.880 --> 01:28:21.840
I think I'm agreeing with them on the last song. Everything else I was fine with for the most part, the last song, eh, wasn't, maybe not the best ending song for me. Yeah. So, and that's coming from a fan now. So. TR. Spock's beard. No. No. So, I'm, I was, I guess, familiar with this band since whenever they came out because I do like prog bands and I've been into prog bands pretty much my whole life. But this is just one

01:28:21.880 --> 01:28:51.840
I just never got into and I've listened to them and I just for whatever reason and by all rights I should like this band but I just it doesn't I'm not compelled by this band and I you know and I last night didn't change anything about that for me I kind of was hoping that maybe seeing them live would change my mind or that they would do something live that

01:28:51.880 --> 01:29:20.600
And this has happened to me for other bands. You see them live and it's like a different band and you kind of look at them in a whole different way. And then you can kind of, I don't know, you can essentially listen to their music and feel like, okay, I've got a memory of them live in my mind that kind of changes the way I think about the studio music that maybe before it didn't really do it for me. But that didn't happen with this. And I was, I really, I,

01:29:21.880 --> 01:29:51.740
I want to like these guys, but it just... But you don't. Yeah, I just can't. I really... Screw Spock's beard. I mean, look, I got nothing against them. They're outstanding musicians. And you could tell that they were getting behind the music. I just didn't feel anything from it. And it didn't really grab me. And so, yeah, I got nothing against them. It's just that I just wasn't moved by it. And I wasn't compelled by it.

01:29:51.860 --> 01:30:19.620
and I just really, you know, it just didn't do much for me. Take your singer with his 90s haircut and his damn work shirt, your Eddie Van Halen looking guitar player, and get the hell out. That's editorial by George. And I'm just kidding, by the way. So for metalheads who don't listen to prog, this is an ongoing thing amongst prog fans that we will go back and forth about how we do and don't like certain things.

01:30:21.880 --> 01:30:51.840
Yes fans, but we'll go off over periods of Yes. And we'll add another friend in who comes up with something we're both like, you need to shut up. You know, so this is... Like earlier, I said that the best Yes song ever is Owner of a Lonely Heart. And we were like, what? It's... While some people like myself get more demonstrative about how we express it, it's all... This is all for fun. We're just fucking with each other. Now, there's no, like, death threats like some metal band fans can be. Yeah, I mean, it's...

01:30:51.880 --> 01:31:21.800
I'm one of those fans too. Well, I think we all feel strongly about, you know, the different music that we each like and that we, you know, have opinions about. And it's all right to have an opinion about it. I mean, each of us kind of comes from a different place musically and inspirationally. And so, so yeah, you know, we're always, we're not going to see eye to eye on everything. And I, like I said, I did want to like this band and I was really hoping that this live performance might change my mind, but it just kind of reinforced why I really can't,

01:31:21.880 --> 01:31:22.560
get behind them.

01:31:23.400 --> 01:31:31.240
And so, but I mean, again, it was, it was, it was, it was good. Once they got past the, like those first two songs was like.

01:31:31.240 --> 01:31:34.620
They played their first old song. I thought they sounded better. Yes. I agree. I agree 100%.

01:31:35.430 --> 01:31:41.940
You know, vocally, it seemed like he either needed to warm up or he had to get used to the sound or maybe the monitors. I'm not sure.

01:31:42.660 --> 01:31:49.640
I don't know how you guys felt. Was he doing too much? Playing guitar, singing, playing keyboards, all at the same time kind of thing.

01:31:49.740 --> 01:31:51.380
He's got an interesting vocal style.

01:31:52.360 --> 01:32:21.660
He can clearly hit those high notes, but he does it in a way that's kind of... I don't know. He has a different style that I'm familiar with. It didn't look like he was exerting a lot to do it. Did you feel that? No, but it still felt like it was kind of... It was high, but not screechy. It seemed like it was difficult, but yet he was able to hit them without any problems. So it was just... I don't know how to explain this, but it seems like he has like a kind of a... like it's difficult to do, but yet you can...

01:32:21.680 --> 01:32:51.660
tell that it's not because he's able to hit these notes. Maybe it's difficult for other people to try to do the same style, but for him, while it looks difficult, it's not. Yeah. He has a very unique voice. While it's not, I know, George, you can comment on it because you're not from the proxy as much as maybe we are. It's not an annoying voice. It's a higher voice. Yeah. So it translates okay. It's not screechy, but I can see where people might not like it, but I don't think it's a screechy like James Labrie at his worst. It's nowhere even near that. Oh, no. No. He has a

01:32:51.680 --> 01:33:19.020
He has a good singing style. I agree. It took them just a little bit to get warmed up. He had to get a little warmed up. But then once they did it smoothed out and had a pretty good mix. You could hear all the instruments pretty well. I think they do. I think they and I'm a fan. I'm a fan of all the Neil Moore stuff. And I'm getting into the stuff with Ted Leonard as their singer. The stuff with Nick as their drummer when he sang.

01:33:21.680 --> 01:33:51.600
So I like the older stuff better. I still am not as big on the newer stuff so maybe that didn't translate so well for you guys because it doesn't sound a lot like the newer, older stuff. So you could tell, could you tell the difference between the older stuff and it seemed like the older stuff had a different feel to it. It does have a little more contemporary, less proggy feel maybe. The new stuff does. Yes, agree. Alright, fair enough. I'm tired of talking about Spock's beard because... Yeah, I was ready for them to be done. Because they weren't the band I came here to see the most, that's why. Yeah, well, you know,

01:33:51.700 --> 01:34:21.500
By the light of the next day, and having slept on it, you know, if I take away the things that irritated me about it and listen to the music, which I slept through half of it, admittedly. It's okay, because I was dozing during Lorde. I think we all kind of dozed. But I, if they had come on on time and there'd been no problems, I probably would have said I liked it. Because, you know, while it wasn't heavy and it wasn't metal,

01:34:22.100 --> 01:34:51.480
It was cool. I thought they played well. They had a big sound though, even though they weren't metal. It was still a big sound. Meaning you weren't getting like, who's a prog man that's really light? I can't think of someone off the top of my head. Like Glass Hammer or somebody like that? Yeah, I mean like Genesis, even though they're prog, they could get, old Genesis can get pretty heavy with their sound. Oh yeah. Yeah, so maybe it doesn't translate well trying to explain it. You'd have to hear it. Yeah.

01:34:51.680 --> 01:35:20.620
Well, and they did claim to be the Kenny G of this festival, which I thought was pretty funny. They did. They were self-deprecating on stage, at least. And they said, thank you for putting up with us tonight. Let me ask you guys this. As much as you may not have liked the set or it wasn't something you enjoyed, you have to like the diversity, though, of going from kind of a metal band to a symphonic band to a far, far prog band, then way out to power metal heaven for some people.

01:35:20.720 --> 01:35:24.860
I kind of like it the diversity on a non-traditional

01:35:25.240 --> 01:35:26.540
festival day which is Friday, Saturday.

01:35:27.300 --> 01:35:27.400
Right.

01:35:27.620 --> 01:35:32.420
And it does mix it up and it kind of, it does kind of make it interesting

01:35:33.220 --> 01:35:37.260
and it does give you a little break because sometimes, you know, getting all of that,

01:35:37.510 --> 01:35:41.280
like you guys were talking about Death Fest, you know, where it's pretty much you're getting

01:35:41.940 --> 01:35:47.180
not the same thing but like you're pretty much getting like, yeah, it's black metal thrown in,

01:35:47.370 --> 01:35:48.040
some thrash.

01:35:48.100 --> 01:36:15.640
So you're getting it in the face pretty good for a while. And to kind of get that break from time to time isn't bad. And it kind of gets you kind of amped up. And when Dragon Force came on, I was like, okay. You kind of felt like, all right, let's go. I was looking to go, even though I didn't last long with that go. So maybe this is a good thing that even if I liked it and you guys didn't, that we're actually talking about the festival as opposed to going to a festival.

01:36:18.100 --> 01:36:19.560
of the six bands that played that day.

01:36:20.540 --> 01:36:20.620
Yeah.

01:36:20.880 --> 01:36:24.880
I mean, have you been to things where you're like, I really didn't care about most of the bands?

01:36:25.420 --> 01:36:26.060
Yeah, Death Fest.

01:36:27.300 --> 01:36:27.480
Yeah.

01:36:27.640 --> 01:36:34.460
I mean, I cared about a lot of bands, but there's a lot of bands, you know, when we do our postmortems on the Death Fest days, we skipped a lot.

01:36:34.600 --> 01:36:36.240
We're just like, you know, we didn't even watch them.

01:36:36.460 --> 01:36:39.960
So maybe this is a good point that we're able to go back and forth about it.

01:36:40.020 --> 01:36:41.260
We're actually talking about the festival.

01:36:41.700 --> 01:36:41.820
Yeah.

01:36:42.020 --> 01:36:44.500
But there's also fewer bands here, right?

01:36:44.660 --> 01:36:44.700
Yes.

01:36:44.900 --> 01:37:14.540
And Death Fest is like really, it's all day and it's a, well, it's multiple stages. So you've got your good venues too on top of that. Okay. Yeah. They also are down at two soundstage and, uh, Ramses. That would be pretty overwhelming. I would think if you really wanted to, you know, talk about every band that played at that. And, and I mean, that's, uh, that would be, I think a pretty burnout. Yeah. You, you, it would be very difficult to really absorb all that and really come away with, okay, here's how this band was every for every band.

01:37:14.900 --> 01:37:44.840
Especially with the amounts of beer that we drank. We did okay yesterday ourselves. I think that's why we slept through Lord. We didn't sleep through them. I actually heard the whole show. I just kind of was nodding here and there. Not through any fault of theirs. No, they were great. On stage, I thought they were great musicians. I thought they were tight. One last thing I wanted to say about it, because I know you want to move on, George, is either you or Buk or Jay always talk about how European festivals are more willing to mix up their band lives.

01:37:44.900 --> 01:38:14.500
as opposed to American. And here we are getting that. And here we are striking up all this conversation. So maybe we need more of that here. Whether you like it or not. To me, it's a good thing. Elect Trump for diversity. I mean, wait. I'll take Cartman, please. Excuse you guys. I'm going home. Excuse you guys for having a festival. Right. So, yeah. So Dragon Force was the last band on. And that was interesting.

01:38:14.900 --> 01:38:44.780
None of us were particularly fans. I wanted to see them. I wanted to see them just to be like, all right, well, what's this about? And I don't dislike them. You know, I think I don't I don't dislike them either. I just I don't really entertaining. And I enjoyed like the energy that came out of them after kind of I think everybody. Well, a lot of people kind of felt after after Spock's beard. I think a lot of it was, you know, nothing against them. They're a more mellow band. You know, like what we got from them was a more laid back.

01:38:44.880 --> 01:38:46.720
kind of thing.

01:38:47.600 --> 01:38:54.360
And so, you know, you hit the accelerator and it's like, here comes Dragon Force, you know, you strap in and go.

01:38:55.360 --> 01:38:57.280
And that's how it was from the get-go.

01:38:57.520 --> 01:39:01.040
Bam, they hit it and it was just like, you know, and you felt your hair fly back.

01:39:01.560 --> 01:39:05.120
And, you know, so from that regard, it was entertaining.

01:39:05.410 --> 01:39:06.160
It was fun.

01:39:07.500 --> 01:39:14.000
The keyboard player, which came from like a skate park or whatever, flying on his behind, you know,

01:39:15.020 --> 01:39:44.100
He had the key tower rocking. Yeah, exactly. Well, it didn't really do much rocking when he couldn't get it to work. Yeah, he seemed like he was just like holding his fingers over it, not doing it. I was expecting to be all like, he didn't want to do anything. So yeah, maybe it wasn't working. Is that all the red lights on there? Like, yeah, not working. So I'm going to admit it, not a Dragon Force fan. Although I don't hate them like you guys. We're saying either, you don't hate them. I don't like the formulaic stage presence though, which is running back and forth. One guy goes one side, one guy

01:39:44.140 --> 01:40:14.100
I realize there's a logistics issue getting guys especially when you have cables which none of those guys have cables I don't think so that gets to me is a little cliche you know and then like the two guys at least they're moving around no I don't have a problem with that but it's like Maiden moves around but they do all kinds of and I'm not just saying because of me but they do all kinds of it's not choreographed they're always all over like they do the choreographed

01:40:14.120 --> 01:40:43.500
I don't know that I felt like it was choreographed like you do. Here's why I say that. So the singer would be on the riser in the middle and then the two guitars would walk up and he immediately dropped back. And then he would come back up and they'd drop off. It didn't seem like there was ever a point where the guitarist would be playing and the lead singer would just come up and put his arm around him. And then they'd run off. And it seemed like they always do it every show is what I'm saying. Maybe not choreographed. It probably kind of organically evolved out of multiple shows of doing this.

01:40:43.580 --> 01:41:13.520
And they got a lot of people on stage, so they probably got to think about how they're going to move. And I think that's why they do the switch together at the same time. I just like when there's times when it looks a little more improv in their stage set of that song. I like that... You know, the only guy in the band that I knew what he looked like was named Henry Lee, the guitar player. I don't know. Whatever, the one guitar player. That's very famous. Yes, the one you always hear about. I've seen him before. I had no idea.

01:41:13.600 --> 01:41:42.740
what the singer looked like. I didn't realize he was the love child of Sebastian Bach and Nico McBrain. I feel so glad I'm not the only person who's there. I was like, where did Sebastian Bach join the band? He definitely had the Bach hair going. And he had the pipes, too. He had the pipes. And then, what was I going to say? I don't know. Carry on. I was just going to say, we discussed that we probably wouldn't make it the whole show for them. We'd give them time because you'd want to see them.

01:41:43.580 --> 01:42:12.940
And I think it ended for everyone on the same note, which was the keyboardist came out with his skateboard look, and he had the keytar, and he was jumping all around. And I don't know what possessed him to do this, but the drum riser was fairly high. Would you guys say about a foot and a half, maybe? It was a D or two, not two, maybe not. And he just possessed, and the space between the edge of the riser and probably the edge of the kit, you know,

01:42:14.140 --> 01:42:41.820
If it was two feet, I'd be surprised. Maybe two and a half. But there's also a bunch of shit on there, too. It's not an empty space. He just was possessed to jump up under the riser and his foot caught on the edge or whatever, and he just slid right into the... I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish. I think he was going to jump up there and rock out with the guy. And he just dropped to his butt instantly. He slid into second base on his butt.

01:42:43.580 --> 01:43:13.200
You could tell he was totally embarrassed, but he just... He popped right back up. He got up and took his hat off and took it about. Thank you, thank you. And smart. When you do it that way, everybody's like, okay, you know. But this is how you know he was a smart kid. He put that keytar down and got right back behind the keyboards and didn't want to rock that keytar. And you could see me telling offstage, I'm good, I'm good. But doing that, he completely fucked up their sound because something happened on the kick mics.

01:43:13.580 --> 01:43:42.940
And we were getting massive static feedback kind of thing going. Yeah, a bunch of that. Yeah. And then at that point I just looked over and I said, I think I'm done now. I remembered what I was going to say, and that was that the bass player is also in that new Joey Jordison band. I want to say it's Sin Sanum, I think is how it was. So it's a much heavier band, you know, with Attila from Mayhem and some other people.

01:43:43.600 --> 01:44:13.440
And I was like, oh yeah, that's funny that he plays in such a diverse, you know, from extreme power metal to extreme metal. Well, that's kind of cool. I like that when guys do that. And that first song, you know, we're expecting the really fast picking. And it didn't seem like the guitar player guys were going that much faster than you expect to see. But that bass player's hand was a blur. He was on that E string and just going. I was like, oh man, he's got, you know,

01:44:13.580 --> 01:44:43.160
some sort of repetitive stress injury in his future. I didn't get as much of the fast soloing as I thought. I'm sure it was there. There was some there. I heard plenty. No, no. What I mean is there was some there, but it wasn't extended. It seemed like they were contained. I know that there's songs where they really go off for a while. The second song seemed like they did a little more soloing on it, but it wasn't as extended. I got to see a little. Were you guys tripping out by the little blue light on his? Yeah, I was like, what is that?

01:44:43.580 --> 01:45:13.560
I didn't know if it was on the guitar, I guess it was on his hand. It was on his hand, and I felt like my cat, because I kept, my head kept bouncing, following it, because at one point when he started doing the same thing you were saying about the bass player, it was just lightning fast with his pick hand. I was like, what the fuck? I assume that's why he does that, to sort of highlight how fast it is. Oh, man, well, again, I'm gonna use, you were looking at me funny last night, TR, it's the earth spinning so fast theory. He was going so fast at one point, the blue light wasn't even moving as much as you thought it was, because it was one stream of

01:45:13.600 --> 01:45:14.160
A blue light

01:45:14.780 --> 01:45:15.540
because it was so

01:45:15.680 --> 01:45:16.220
he was moving

01:45:16.440 --> 01:45:16.960
like a boy

01:45:17.820 --> 01:45:17.920
yeah

01:45:18.280 --> 01:45:18.600
it was like

01:45:18.740 --> 01:45:19.360
just going

01:45:19.620 --> 01:45:20.100
really slow

01:45:20.340 --> 01:45:20.640
even though he was

01:45:20.660 --> 01:45:21.740
like the whole time

01:45:21.940 --> 01:45:22.100
so

01:45:23.840 --> 01:45:24.520
I was done with him

01:45:24.640 --> 01:45:25.160
after two songs

01:45:26.120 --> 01:45:26.440
yeah

01:45:26.760 --> 01:45:26.860
so

01:45:27.420 --> 01:45:27.880
after that

01:45:28.020 --> 01:45:28.680
we left

01:45:29.480 --> 01:45:29.800
and

01:45:30.740 --> 01:45:31.500
that was pretty much

01:45:31.520 --> 01:45:32.160
the end of the adventure

01:45:32.340 --> 01:45:32.740
for that day

01:45:34.620 --> 01:45:35.240
yeah I'm not gonna

01:45:35.420 --> 01:45:35.960
comment on the dude

01:45:36.120 --> 01:45:36.920
down in the bar

01:45:37.080 --> 01:45:37.600
at the hotel

01:45:37.780 --> 01:45:38.200
who wouldn't let us

01:45:38.340 --> 01:45:38.540
eat there

01:45:38.700 --> 01:45:39.440
so we'll leave it at that

01:45:39.660 --> 01:45:40.420
fuck that guy

01:45:40.920 --> 01:45:41.740
that was the point

01:45:41.840 --> 01:45:42.220
do we do

01:45:42.340 --> 01:45:42.720
do we do

01:45:43.240 --> 01:45:43.560
Yeah

01:45:43.580 --> 01:46:13.540
We do a little preview of today. So who's up first? Who's on first? Previously it was Glory Hammer. Of course they had to pull out of this thing because they couldn't get the visas or whatever the issue was. So they put in Ghost Ship Octavius. Yes. Van Williams. So that'll be the first band. Definitely looking forward to them. Yes. Yeah, definitely. I thought that was a very good substitution for last minute. I don't know how hard it was to get these guys. You have to think that they've got a number of

01:46:13.620 --> 01:46:43.500
that are booked and signed. That if something happens, they can slide in. That their schedules are open to do that. There has to be. Well, and I would think if you're Ghost Ship Octavius, you're probably pretty excited to get in at the last minute, you know, if you can. Because you're going to probably get a lot of new fans. Put me in, coach. Yeah. Well, they're going to have a lot of fans already, too. Right. There are going to be people here that would be like, oh, yeah, great. Here they are. So, yeah. And then Pyramaze is after that.

01:46:44.660 --> 01:46:47.700
"Circus Maximus" and finishing up with "Blind Guardian".

01:46:47.800 --> 01:46:49.260
Wait, but what about "Blind Guardian" now?

01:46:49.640 --> 01:46:59.040
Playing all of "Imaginations" from the other side and presumably some other stuff since they have an hour and a half set and I don't think the album is much more than an hour if even.

01:46:59.220 --> 01:47:04.140
If even now, so we'll probably get a nice 25 minutes of more material which will be cool.

01:47:04.780 --> 01:47:05.040
Yeah.

01:47:06.060 --> 01:47:06.140
Yeah.

01:47:06.490 --> 01:47:06.600
So.

01:47:06.820 --> 01:47:13.420
I'm just curious, now let me ask you this real quick, do you want them to start with that or would you rather have them start off with a few songs and then,

01:47:13.440 --> 01:47:42.360
announce that they're doing it. I think they should just jump right in. And they probably will. I'm indifferent if they play a few songs and then they like to make a big thing about it. Like, we're going to do this. And then they end the set that way with the album. I could see that, but I don't think they will. But you would prefer they just jump right into Imaginations. I don't really have a preference, I guess, as long as I'm getting it one way or another. But just based on other shows that I've seen where people play the whole album of something, like, you know, Amorphous did that.

01:47:43.440 --> 01:48:13.360
When they did, not Peace Sells, Rest in Peace, they did that. But they came out and played three songs, and then they played the whole album and closed the show. I can't decide which one I like better. Yeah, I think pretty much all the times I've seen bands play the whole album, that's like the only thing they do, which is like, oh, it's kind of short. But I mean, I haven't seen that many that have done it. Pagan's Mind did that. We saw that a couple years ago. And they did two sets. So they did the album, took a break, and then came back and did like a best of.

01:48:13.440 --> 01:48:43.400
for the rest of their career. I like that. I can do that. That works for me. I don't really care about Circus Maximus, personally. If they played songs from Referee's two albums, I would enjoy that. I'm like TR with Spock Spear with Circus Maximus's last two albums. Hopefully it's a varied set. I would like to see a varied set. Then, hearing the new

01:48:43.420 --> 01:49:12.940
would be okay as long as I'm hearing some of the older songs. I don't think they're going to do that. I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. Maybe they will. Hopefully they will. And I'm looking forward to seeing Matt Barlow singing with Pyramids. And Lance King, right? I keep saying that he's going to be here and I'm hoping I'm right about that. Yeah, I mean it says he was. So that would be cool to see him too. The reason why I say it is because while I'm not some super fan, it would be nice to see all the singers from a band contribute. It sounds like it would be a fun set. That's why. Yeah, well didn't it say they had three singers?

01:49:41.980 --> 01:49:43.380
Yeah.

01:49:43.420 --> 01:49:45.420
I mean,

01:49:45.900 --> 01:49:47.260
haven't they done those Alan land shows?

01:49:47.300 --> 01:49:47.500
I mean,

01:49:47.820 --> 01:49:49.120
or not shows,

01:49:49.300 --> 01:49:49.880
but the albums,

01:49:50.240 --> 01:49:51.060
but I mean,

01:49:51.080 --> 01:49:52.580
I would love to see something like that live.

01:49:52.600 --> 01:49:52.960
So I'm saying,

01:49:52.980 --> 01:49:53.300
Oh yeah.

01:49:53.520 --> 01:49:53.580
Yeah.

01:49:55.900 --> 01:49:56.140
All right.

01:49:56.320 --> 01:49:56.740
We good.

01:49:57.060 --> 01:49:57.260
We're good.

01:49:57.660 --> 01:49:57.880
All right.

01:49:58.000 --> 01:49:59.640
We will talk to you later,

01:49:59.880 --> 01:50:03.080
either tonight or tomorrow and fill you in on what happened.

01:50:03.640 --> 01:50:03.860
See ya.

01:50:04.000 --> 01:50:04.140
Cool.

01:50:07.100 --> 01:50:07.580
Punch drunk.

01:50:08.100 --> 01:50:08.840
What's up?

01:50:11.660 --> 01:50:12.320
We're not drunk.

01:50:12.460 --> 01:50:42.360
We're just tired. It's been a long day. Let me tell you. Yes. It has. It's a short day because it's 1225. It is now. It is now Friday. But we just, we just squeezed all the last juice out of Thursday and here we are. So, yeah, today was the second day. And as we probably already mentioned, it was Ghost Ship Octavius, Pyramidus, Circus Maximus, and Blind Guardian.

01:50:47.240 --> 01:51:12.420
I like today I thought today was a good day I enjoyed three of the four bands I didn't dislike the fourth band I just was not into them but well I'm sure getting that so I'll just start with Octavius if you want sure I thought they were good I thought they needed some warm-up it seemed like they were a little tight at first and that might have something to do with the fact that they were a late entry but I enjoyed the set

01:51:12.440 --> 01:51:38.800
The sound was not good for them. And it got better as the show went on. But all in all, I think they put on a good performance. And for, like I said, a late entry, they did about as well as they possibly could. Only thing was, and I didn't realize this, you guys said it was a short set by 10 minutes. So, oh well, you know, it was cool. I enjoyed them a lot. And I'm looking forward for more from them.

01:51:42.440 --> 01:52:12.420
I have to say it that bass player dude was pretty damn hot I did not know they had a hot bass player I think that made to the lore it came out in some very kind of Victorian gothic faces painted kind of thing but I guess it just added to the whole ghost image a little bit of a kind of there seemed to be kind of a air of mystery about them or it the the delivery

01:52:12.460 --> 01:52:42.380
They seemed more mysterious or... Vaguely steampunk. Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. I think that's a better description. Yeah. And I don't know about you guys, but at first we thought there was, like, I don't know, some sort of insulation falling from the ceiling. Yeah, it was really disturbing. It was like, at first it was like, oh, look, they did something and, you know, something's coming down while they're playing. It was like, it looked like, at first I thought, it looked like insulation. Yeah. Now this was falling from the ceiling.

01:52:42.580 --> 01:53:12.320
above the crowd, not above them. Right, above the whole pit area. And it wasn't like it was coming out like confetti does in sort of nice, you know, even streams. It was like it was coming down like it was snowing, but it was also coming down in large chunks. Yeah. And it turned out later, it just, I guess there were like suds or bubbles. It was supposed to, I don't even know if it was just maybe supposed to be, because if you looked at the set list that you looked at online at that,

01:53:12.460 --> 01:53:42.000
it said something about haze. So I think that maybe that was supposed to kind of haze out, but it ended up just blasting out with like bubbles and suds. And it looked like a washing machine was above the area and just busted open. So I was, you know, I always go straight to, you know, disaster. I was like, first of all, I was like, oh, it's best else. And then I was like, whatever it is, it could catch on fire like at the station. And I'm, you know, eyeing it.

01:53:42.040 --> 01:54:11.720
I'm not paying any attention to the band for a couple songs. I'm just staring up there going, what the hell is that? At one point I kept saying, well, it's not falling on us, it's falling on them. That sucks to be you. And I looked, I was like, oh shit, a piece just hit me. So, yeah. But it was just suds and it just kind of vanished after a while. I mean, it just went away. And it never came back for any other bands. No. Yeah. I think it was there during the break and then gone. Yeah. So, oh well.

01:54:11.800 --> 01:54:41.760
It was kind of odd. Yeah. It was a neat little trick. Yeah. But yeah, I thought that Ghost Ship Octavius played a really good set, ultimately. Yeah. And, you know, that singer-guitar player guy, I saw him play a little bit with Ashes of Aries. Singer, yeah. You know, he came out and just did like a song or two, I think, with them. And he looks pretty young, but he seems pretty talented, so. He's got a really good voice, and he's a pretty good,

01:54:41.800 --> 01:55:11.760
He's a pretty good player from when we did hear him. I think, yeah. He's got a bright future if he keeps doing it. Excellent. What about Pyramaze? Now, I mean, I gotta say, you know, Blind Guardian played a pretty damn good set, but Pyramaze was like, that was wow. I was like, ah, it's gonna be hard to top. I didn't know much of, I haven't listened to a lot of them. I know who they are and I know about them, but they played a killer set. Yeah, and part of what made that

01:55:11.800 --> 01:55:41.760
that's so awesome was the fact that in the throughout the band's history they've had three singers on the first two albums Lance King was the singer on the third album Matt Barlow was the singer and then the guy with the Norwegian name that Matt Barlow can't print our Lance King print it one of that who was it couldn't pronounce it yeah and so there's been three singers and they were all there and so like the current singer came out and

01:55:41.780 --> 01:56:11.420
They played for like four songs or six songs. Yeah, it was a bunch. They played a lot of songs. And then I think they did like three with Barlow and three with Lance. And then they did one where all three of them were singing. And that's just, that's so cool. Yeah. I'll tell you, the current singer was good. But when Matt Barlow came out, I mean, he brought a ton of energy with him. And he was psyched and pumped. And the pit flurry was already having a good time. But man, everyone,

01:56:11.780 --> 01:56:41.720
He went berserk when he came out. It was awesome. It wasn't any, you know, moshing like there was later on in the night. It was just all pogoing and people just fists and he sounded great. You know, he really did. Matt Barlow, as you may know, is a favorite of the Metal Heads podcast. He's been on with us twice now and such a good guy. The dude is like the equivalent, the epitome to me of like duty and like strength. And, you know, I mean, he's a cop.

01:56:41.800 --> 01:57:11.760
by day and a heavy metal rock star by night. I mean, the dude is just amazing. And my favorite part was his attire. George, would you care to tell us what kind of shirt he was wearing? Hey, John? Fuck you. And thus, I win. Yeah, so if you've listened to yesterday's broadcast, this morning, whatever it is, well, the one regarding yesterday, I was talking about

01:57:11.800 --> 01:57:41.760
talking about how I didn't like the dude from Spock's beard because he was wearing this work shirt kind of thing and what does Matt Barlow walk out in but a work shirt but it had like ashes of areas on the back and it's Matt Barlow so he can do whatever the hell he wants if you're on stage they do look like they're comfortable like this because these guys are all wearing these like skinny jeans and tight shirts and here these guys come out and he's nice kind of flowing shirts that they're not huge on them it's look like you're comfortable on stage and at that age they're probably want to be comfortable

01:57:43.320 --> 01:58:11.760
Pyramids thoughts? I really enjoyed them. I enjoyed everything about every segment of that whole set. Each singer had a different kind of vocal style. Not vastly different, but each guy you could tell just had his own thing going on, which I enjoyed. And you could tell that they all seemed to be excited to be there, which was really cool. Because, you know, I don't know much about the

01:58:11.800 --> 01:58:40.460
the history of this band. I understand that there's been a lot of lineup changes and a lot of different people have been in and out of this band, but I thought it was great that each of the singers was very complimentary of the others and was grateful to be there for this show, which was a very special show, I could tell. And the audience was very receptive. The songs, I felt, were really good, solid.

01:58:41.780 --> 01:59:10.240
They were, I felt, up to this point, one of the more melodic bands that we've heard. And of course, each of the guitar players were just really tearing it up. And I really enjoyed it. I felt that there was a ton of energy there. Like you said, when Barlow came out, it was like, whoa. There was a lot of energy to start with.

01:59:11.800 --> 01:59:41.320
It went up a notch. And then, you know, each guy just continued to carry that momentum. And so I enjoyed that whole thing. It was, you know, at the end of it, like you said, it was kind of like, wow, how's anybody going to top that? That was really outstanding. And so, yeah, that was, to me, that was probably one of the best performances we'll probably see all weekend.

01:59:41.800 --> 02:00:11.340
Yeah. Did anybody else think that the guitar player on the right side of the stage looked a little bit like Aragorn Viggo Mortensen? I was like, dude, Aragorn's on the stage, right on! Was it me? Was he playing guitar? Or was... No, the reason I was saying is there was no bass player I saw on stage. Well, that was... So was he playing bass on some of the songs on the guitar? Because he was playing a certain way. I'm not sure about that, because I was thinking... No, no. That was the thing.

02:00:11.780 --> 02:00:41.760
I was thinking the same thing. At times he was playing like he was a bass player. I thought he was just kind of doing backing chords. And he was doing that. Yeah. But I thought some of the bass sounds might have been coming out of the keyboard. Nobody was using foot pedals. So I don't know. So it was like a doors kind of thing. Well you remind me of actually Animals with Leaders a little bit. How they have the two guitarists and just a drummer. And one guitarist kind of plays a certain way so that he gets some of the deeper notes. Right. But you could tell that there were actual

02:00:41.800 --> 02:01:11.620
low bass notes that were more than what would come out of that, what he was playing. It was interesting. I don't know where that was coming from. Tape. Either that or there was something going on in the keys. Maybe the keyboard guy was triggering some of the bass stuff. That occurred to me as well. Where's the bass player here? Where's the bass? All right.

02:01:11.800 --> 02:01:40.740
So then next up is Circus Maximus. Let's start with the TR on that one. This is kind of a loaded question. Actually, I enjoyed them. I know that you guys probably didn't enjoy that set as much. Not that I really thought it was super awesome. I enjoyed it. I thought it was good. Each of those guys is very talented.

02:01:41.780 --> 02:02:11.180
And they're, I think, another melodic band that, you know, is... But, you know, I understand where you're coming from. As we talked about some of this, you know, the singer's got kind of a very clean style that is, you know, maybe you didn't really see the congruity between his vocal style and the music.

02:02:11.800 --> 02:02:41.620
Yeah, well, you know, I gave a lot of thought to this afterwards because I know that no matter what I say, I'm going to come out the bad guy here because... I don't think so. No, because my reasons are not really fair, okay? It's really a personal opinion that I can't expect to enforce on the rest of the world, and I understand that, you know, because I try to be as fair and even-handed as possible when I can, but God,

02:02:41.940 --> 02:03:11.760
Damn, did I hate that. And I was, so I'm trying to explain this in the most reasonable and unoffensive terms. Heavy metal music should be heavy. That doesn't mean it has to be heavy all the time. Blind Guardian can play acoustic songs. You can throw in some ballads, but there should be some aggression in there somewhere. And Circus Maximus, the songs, all the players and the

02:03:17.180 --> 02:03:21.660
I just don't consider that heavy metal because there's really nothing

02:03:21.920 --> 02:03:41.760
aggressive about it like I said the dude could easily sing for the Pet Shop Boys or he could go out and do George Michael songs he's got an amazing high-pitched voice and he sings in a very pop style I have nothing against pop music I like Madonna like Duran Duran I like all kinds of pop music I just don't think that this band is a very popular music I don't think that this band is a very popular music I don't think that this band is

02:03:41.800 --> 02:04:09.580
is metal. And I know that's an elitist thing to say. But, and so one of the things I was thinking about, I was like, you know, if you take a scoop of ice cream and you throw it in a pot of boiling water, is it ice cream anymore? No. It's become something else. And if you have music with distorted guitars, but it's not heavy in any way, is it still heavy metal? I don't think so.

02:04:10.600 --> 02:04:14.440
I don't like those people that try to say,

02:04:14.700 --> 02:04:17.060
that's not true cult metal or anything like that.

02:04:17.880 --> 02:04:20.460
And so I hesitated to say anything at all.

02:04:21.120 --> 02:04:22.760
But God, I really hated it.

02:04:25.440 --> 02:04:27.280
Am I the middle ground on this one?

02:04:27.800 --> 02:04:28.960
I hope so, yeah.

02:04:29.560 --> 02:04:32.680
All right, so truth be told, I was a fan of the first album.

02:04:32.720 --> 02:04:33.340
I loved it.

02:04:33.880 --> 02:04:35.060
And I liked the second album.

02:04:35.160 --> 02:05:05.120
And the third album was when they kind of went to this popier, maybe more progressive rock, not progressive metal sound with the pop element to their choruses. Because they have this weird chug-a-lug during the intros and during the verse, but then they go to this very pop melodic chorus, which is odd. So I see where that comes from. I didn't dig it because it was mainly songs from the last two albums. They did do

02:05:05.160 --> 02:05:34.880
I think three songs from their second album and one song from the first. So I've been waning on it. So I wasn't as big on it. They're, like you said, they're beyond talented. There's no doubt those guys know how to play. And they sound great. I mean, they sound clean. It just wasn't doing it for me. And I do like their early stuff. So I would have, if they played more of the early stuff, maybe I would have enjoyed it more. But you can't expect them to when they have a new album out. So. I feel their talents would be better served.

02:05:35.160 --> 02:06:04.580
in a different vehicle. I think they would be more popular. They would find a more appropriate audience. However, the audience here freaking loved them. My mind was blown by the fact that the audience lost their mind for this and then were doing a pit for Blind Guardian. I'm like, it just doesn't, they just don't go together for me. Yeah, they had the second best response, I think. They did.

02:06:04.700 --> 02:06:33.520
Of the two days, Circus Maximus was two. Obviously, we'll talk about who was number one in a second. But, you know, and I contradict myself with this because, to me, the spirit of heavy metal is heavy metal takes in everybody that doesn't fit anywhere else. And it doesn't matter what it is, if it can in any way, shape, or form fit under the heavy metal umbrella, come on in. So, it just rubbed me the wrong way.

02:06:33.640 --> 02:07:02.660
This was your Spock spirit. This was my what? This was your Spock spirit, basically. Yeah. Maybe. And I'm sure I'm going to have a band this weekend where I am not getting it. Surprise guests steal Panther. And their pet snakes. Screw you guys. I'm going home. They better not be here. I don't know. I don't think that really fits either.

02:07:04.180 --> 02:07:33.520
All right, so then after that, of course, the headliners, Blind Guardian. This is my second time seeing them. First time was at Jack's, which was good, but it was at Jack's, so it wasn't on a caliber with what we saw tonight, which was pretty fucking amazing. And they played a really long set. I mean, they must have played almost two hours. Yeah, they played the whole album, Imagination, from the other side, and I think they opened with three songs.

02:07:34.160 --> 02:08:03.380
And then they encored with four. So they played a long time. So roughly what? Almost what? 19, 20 songs? I guess it was 12 songs. I can't even think right now. I'm so tired. Math and any sort of higher skills is not functioning right now. I thought they were. I'm going to use the word. The podcast word. I thought they were amazing. Amazing. It's going to be great. I've seen them. I think this is my fourth time. I saw them.

02:08:03.660 --> 02:08:33.080
The First Time of Prog Power. And I liked them then. Even though at the time, which I was way behind the times, I didn't know much about them. And I saw them a few times after that on the tour with Symphony X. But this blew all three of those shows away, hands down. My question to you guys is, what did you think of the vocals tonight? How did you think he sounded? I thought he actually sounded pretty good. I did too. Considering I've seen some video where he sounded like he was struggling a little bit. And I think they masked any part where he might have struggled by having... Gained vocals.

02:08:34.040 --> 02:09:03.580
But they weren't like, you know, let's swing from a vine with our swords or whatever. It seemed like it was all controlled. I thought he sounded really good. He's probably because of those calisthenics he's doing on stage. He's got one leg out straight and another leg bent and he's like singing. Which, you know, I remember seeing like Bruce Dickinson doing that in the 80s. Although it was a little more to the side. This was more of a front to back kind of thing. But what do you think, Tia? I like how you're trying to do this on a podcast. While I'm sitting, yeah, I'm like, you know,

02:09:03.660 --> 02:09:33.600
No, just like this. We're the only ones that can see this. And it is a hideous sight. Here's another band with a ton of energy and that the audience just went bananas for. It was really, really great. It was a great performance on their part. You could tell that I think that they were a little overwhelmed with the audience.

02:09:33.680 --> 02:10:03.620
audience response. I mean, this was a special show. What was one of the encore tunes they played? It was Valhalla? Yeah, or something. Yeah, they said that they had never played that in the U.S. What was that? That was the Holy Grail. Okay, yeah. Yeah, they said they never played that in the U.S. So I think they save a lot of little gems for their prog power dates. And so that was kind of cool that, you know, they brought

02:10:03.660 --> 02:10:04.620
That kind of stuff.

02:10:04.840 --> 02:10:10.540
Well, the thing about them is that when they play in Europe, they'll play them way bigger stages, and the crowd's just as enthusiastic.

02:10:10.760 --> 02:10:12.620
So I think you're right, though.

02:10:12.620 --> 02:10:16.260
I think they were a little overwhelmed by the fact that they had a U.S. crowd that was like this.

02:10:16.580 --> 02:10:21.880
And they were playing that Valhalla song, and at the end, the crowd is singing the refrain, perhaps.

02:10:22.080 --> 02:10:24.920
I don't know what you'd call it, chorus refrain, whichever part it is.

02:10:25.860 --> 02:10:31.000
And they just sang it over and over again without anything else going on for like five minutes.

02:10:31.420 --> 02:10:32.320
At least five minutes.

02:10:32.520 --> 02:11:02.460
And he's just sitting there going, okay, we want to play another song. And he got something. And the drummer, you know, he kind of was doing stuff. And then he'd stop and they're like, okay. And Hansi finally is like, okay, this is how I'll do it. I'll come in with them and I'll sing and then I'll hold the last note so everybody holds the note and we can stop. I thought the audience was outstanding tonight. Every song, I thought his engagement was,

02:11:02.520 --> 02:11:32.500
the best of anyone so far. He talked. Sometimes I get annoyed when singers talk every song. When they announce a song, what this next song is. No, don't tell me. Just play it. But it was different with him. He engaged. He talked. He always tied it in. The last song on Imaginations from the other side is, and the story ends. And he's like, well, I hate to say it, but the story has to end. And so it was always relevant to whatever. But in between each song, before he even

02:11:33.740 --> 02:12:02.340
He really was engaged. Even before you got a chance, it was just, guardian, guardian. And it wasn't like a couple guys. I mean, it was the whole place. It was just chanting, guardian. And a couple times he had to back off and just wait. And the guitarists were laughing. They were just like, okay. And the one guitarist had a birthday, so everybody sang happy birthday and they broke out some drinks. That was kind of cool. The whole set was great. Yeah, it was just a really, really cool,

02:12:02.520 --> 02:12:31.880
The whole thing, like you say, it was just from beginning to end. Everybody was into it. The energy did not wane one bit. And the audience was really just going bananas for the whole thing. I mean, and this was the first time I remember seeing people crowd surf during the last couple days. So, you know, you had crowd surfing, you had a little mosh pit. Pick up big for Valhalla.

02:12:31.880 --> 02:13:01.600
I don't even know about half the floor is a pit for Hala. So that was kind of cool. It was kind of cool. I mean, I would be pissed if I was a guy down there who didn't want to be involved, but it was cool to see a lot of energy down there at, what, 12 or 10 or 1145 when it's getting close to the end of the night. I have to wonder if this is going to be sustainable over the next two days. I mean, yesterday was awesome. Today was more awesome. If it's like this line graph of going up, up, up the next two days,

02:13:01.720 --> 02:13:31.680
Although, frankly, for me, I would think Fate's Warning would have to be on Saturday for that to happen. But I'm sure Devin Townsend could easily take it up a level. Both the headlines will be special with energy. I don't know about the rest of... What's her name? Hakenhock and whatever, how you pronounce it. I think they'll probably have a good reception. I bet you any money, whether you like it or not, but I bet that General Storm has an excellent reception because Annika Van Gersen is a

02:13:31.720 --> 02:14:01.340
popular singer amongst all people I know that like rock and metal. That'll be fun to see her. Well, she's very charismatic. Yes. And she's an amazing singer. Let's touch on tomorrow briefly since we may not have time before we get there. So there's one, two, three, four, five, six bands tomorrow. And I'm just going to rattle them off real quick. Ascendia, Vanishing Point, Freedom Call,

02:14:01.720 --> 02:14:31.380
Gentle Storm, Scar Symmetry, and of course, Faith's Warning with John Arch. Now... John Arch, the whole lineup. Well, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not trying to minimize it. I'm just tired. Mr. Zimmerman, Mr. DiBiase might not be happy without that. I don't care about them. I don't care about John Arch. So I was actually looking forward to seeing Ascendia and Vanishing Point because I felt they were like a couple of young,

02:14:31.720 --> 02:14:57.300
heavier power metal bands that were going to be interesting to see. But as wiped out as we are and as much as we have to do tomorrow, we might skip them. I think we play it by ear. I think we go in and we check them out, then you might go back out. I mean, tomorrow's the day you start to do everything. The first two days is just standard shows. The main festival days are Friday, Saturday. So the vending's open.

02:15:01.700 --> 02:15:29.520
and people go for hours and come back. It's much different than these two. Today was a little more open, but it breaks open completely tomorrow. Yeah, and for me, the last four bands of the evening, Freedom Call, Gentle Storm, Scar Symmetry, Fate's Warning, I got to see all of that. Freedom Call, maybe not all of it, but I got to at least see some of it because those guys are pretty cool. Yeah, I think we'll watch it, or somebody will, because we need to have seats so we can have a good view for Fate's Warning.

02:15:31.720 --> 02:16:00.540
You guys like Scar Cemetery? I've listened to one of their albums. I don't know if it's maybe two albums ago or one album ago. So I thought they were pretty good. John? I'm getting my first dose. All right. Cool. It's funny because their latest album was out last year, I believe, or maybe it was the year before. Might have been the year before. Because I think we talked about it with Chuck and Godless.

02:16:01.720 --> 02:16:31.680
came on with us and they were all like scar symmetry and i was like lame and then i because i was like it sounds like an old engve album with the way they're the the clean vocals are but then i went back a little later and listened to it again and i was like this is actually pretty cool and it's interesting because they do mix this like 80s engve style you know i'll see the light tonight kind of stuff with like and i'm like oh that's interesting so uh

02:16:31.720 --> 02:16:58.139
So yeah, I think they're, I've probably already said, they're probably going to be the heaviest band unless Devin really whips something out. So it should be interesting. Yeah. I think we're all about ready for bed. Does anybody have any closing remarks? Looking forward to tomorrow. Let's do it. All right. Let's get to sleep. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye.

02:17:01.260 --> 02:17:30.700
Yeah, it's too bad we can't sneak beers in. Yeah, like Death Fest. Death Fest, yeah, we were sneaking all kinds of beers in. You would have liked Death Fest. You like Death. Who was playing? We'll talk about it. All right, here we are again. It is Friday, day three of Prog Power 17. And before we head over there today, we're going to talk about... Okay, so today's the day at Prog Power where they apparently, right before the last band,

02:17:31.260 --> 02:18:01.099
They play a video showing who's going to be here next year. Is it everybody that's going to be here next year or just like the headliners? I believe it will just be Friday and Saturday's events. They'll do the two main days. And you will get the headliners, yes. But like everybody for both days? Everyone. Everyone. All right. So do you have any predictions for who is going to be up on the screen tonight? You know, no. And it's silly that we're doing this, but we talked about this.

02:18:01.260 --> 02:18:31.160
We didn't know who we thought. And I said, let's do this. But I'm going to throw one out only because they haven't played in a while. I don't remember. Well, when was the last time? Did we see Evergrey a couple years ago, TR? I don't recall. I don't know. I said Amorphous. I'll stand by that originally. But they're playing in the States in April. So I don't know. But that was my first pick because their last... Is somebody banging on the door? That was the... Their album's done pretty well. I have some ones I'd like to see. But in terms of big names,

02:18:32.499 --> 02:19:01.200
So predictions slash wishlist. Yeah, okay. So for a wishlist, I would love to see a band called Pressure Points, which I think is a nice kind of proggy death similar to Opeth slash Ghost Reveries period. That would be kind of cool. I would like, and I don't know if Glenn will ever hear this. Glenn, please, Wilderun would be awesome here at the festival on any one of the four days. I second that. Yes. I don't know if you guys have ever listened to Wilderun out there, but if you haven't, you should.

02:19:03.300 --> 02:19:06.120
I don't know what TR what do you think I mean any ideas because I'm

02:19:07.960 --> 02:19:13.300
who would you want to see TR well I'm with you on amorphous because I would love to see them

02:19:15.340 --> 02:19:21.219
what do you think about catatonia I mean they might be around at that time yeah I kind of like that that

02:19:21.260 --> 02:19:24.920
might be a decent choice to have them come because they're at new albums getting a lot of talk so

02:19:25.659 --> 02:19:26.019
Yeah.

02:19:26.719 --> 02:19:28.160
Might be a little old by then.

02:19:29.340 --> 02:19:29.440
Yeah.

02:19:30.000 --> 02:19:30.480
Maybe, perhaps.

02:19:30.750 --> 02:19:33.019
But, you know, they tour for a while on some of these albums.

02:19:33.300 --> 02:19:35.580
So, and, you know, who knows.

02:19:35.760 --> 02:19:39.519
But, yeah, those would be my key ones.

02:19:39.700 --> 02:19:45.480
I don't, you know, again, since this is not my milieu, I'm a little bit at a loss

02:19:45.780 --> 02:19:48.840
for picking, you know, kind of obscure bands.

02:19:49.260 --> 02:19:49.620
But...

02:19:49.620 --> 02:19:50.740
Sure you can't opine on it?

02:19:50.940 --> 02:19:52.720
I can't opine on this, I'm afraid.

02:19:53.480 --> 02:20:21.960
But yeah, you know, who knows? I mean, can you imagine Opeth being at this show? Now I can. Right. I mean, it would be interesting. I don't know that they would, but it probably wouldn't, but that would be kind of cool. Yeah. I should mention we are one stronger today. And we're going to come over here and he's going to say, no, no, no.

02:20:22.020 --> 02:20:51.800
So he's going to have to introduce himself now. Oh, wow. Hello. What's your name? What is the name? Just your first name. Romy. Hello, Romy. Welcome to the Metalheads Podcast. You look like you do not want to be talking right now. It's okay. You know, I just came from Detroit, so this is how we normally look. Yeah. That's fair enough. I know Detroit. But do you have any predictions, wish list, anything like that? For next year? Not.

02:20:52.040 --> 02:21:19.740
a prediction, but it would be nice to, it'd be kind of cool to see Unisonic, but I don't think they'd come out here. They're more doing the Euro thing. Japan is probably where they're big. But yeah, I'm kind of like with TR. I don't really know a lot of the more obscure prog power bands. I'm into a lot of older stuff, so I haven't really kept up.

02:21:20.520 --> 02:21:49.660
All right, fair enough. I got a power band, maybe. Speak into the bush. Oh, boy. I don't know if I can do that. I'm not a fan of this band, per se, but what about Avantasia? Does he finally get them, seeing as they're doing the U.S. date? I mean, is that a possibility? Seems likely. You know, and it seems like that's all, what's his name from Ed Guy Does now? Tobias. Tobias? Yeah. Maybe that's one of them. I don't know. Who knows? He can't bring Circus Maximus back because they're here again.

02:21:50.520 --> 02:22:18.360
Pain of Salvation already played. Symphony X just played recently. So maybe it was a bad idea to do this right now. I can't think of any pants all of a sudden. Well, I guess we'll all be surprised later today. The Dark Horse, for me, timeless miracle. There was nothing going on there. So yeah, I don't know what happened there, but the recorder just made this like wee noise and stopped recording. So I had to reboot it. So John was about to say something, though.

02:22:20.540 --> 02:22:50.500
I don't know what's the band's name but there's a crazy technical progressive metal death metal band it's like N-E and then O-B-F-E-S-K-I-S something or other so if you know a name like then that's who it would be yes but I've seen their shirts all over the place I'm wondering if they might not be a good choice to come in you know this is good because now whoever is up there we can go that's who we met that's who we met yeah exactly geez I don't know I guess I wonder because

02:22:50.540 --> 02:23:20.500
This band like Sabaton's come a couple times, and I wonder if they're ever going to come back again. I'm not a super fan, but I know they're very popular here for the power side. There's a Michigan band called Eminent Sonic Destruction that might work in this festival. You know, you ever heard of them? No. Yeah. And these bands would never, I don't think they'd ever come, but I did hear Galactic Cowboys is doing another album now with the classic lineup, which is going to be pretty

02:23:21.061 --> 02:23:50.500
I don't know if anybody remembers them but uh you know corner would be nice to play here but I don't again I don't think that that would work in the see this is a genre that I kind of am gravitating to so I don't think that those bands would fit into what's going on Maryland death fest kind of thing yeah yeah but they do like their last record grin was pretty uh progressive it's true I got one for you how about this with his new album out how about somebody

02:23:54.119 --> 02:24:19.580
I'm going to go with that as my hopeful. Maybe it'll be Emperor. That's where they're going to play. Yeah. I don't think Emperor's going to be playing at Frog Power. Everybody's heads would explode. They'll be like, first we're going to do Circus Maximus, then we're going to do Emperor. Exactly. Complete different ends of the spectrum. I'm going to Eson as my super pick for coming next. Super pick. Powerball.

02:24:20.520 --> 02:24:21.540
My power balls.

02:24:23.961 --> 02:24:24.620
All right.

02:24:24.900 --> 02:24:25.540
Anybody else?

02:24:25.760 --> 02:24:26.380
Anybody else?

02:24:27.980 --> 02:24:29.280
Just looking forward to today.

02:24:29.760 --> 02:24:30.100
All right.

02:24:30.340 --> 02:24:31.920
Well, we will talk to you again after.

02:24:32.340 --> 02:24:32.640
Okay.

02:24:33.020 --> 02:24:33.160
Bye.

02:24:35.780 --> 02:24:36.220
We on?

02:24:36.640 --> 02:24:37.460
We are on.

02:24:38.261 --> 02:24:41.060
It is now 40 minutes into Saturday.

02:24:42.190 --> 02:24:45.540
We just finished with day three of Prague Power 17.

02:24:46.220 --> 02:24:46.580
Yes.

02:24:47.080 --> 02:25:15.560
And it is just getting more and more tiring. And like, it's because we're getting, you know, cumulatively less and less sleep and rest and proper food and watering. And so. You stand at Death Fest in the hot sun. You sit in a nice, well, semi-cool venue. And we're more tired in the semi-cool sitting down venue.

02:25:17.080 --> 02:25:46.600
It was just like 12 hours of sitting down. Or no, 10 hours of sitting down. But we were there for like 12. Yeah. So. It's a long day. But it was a good day. Oh, it was a great day. God, it's so long. Yeah, I'm going to need that. Wow. It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. So I hear. So, we had a bunch of bands today. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

02:25:47.080 --> 02:26:16.920
The Cow Palace. Nope, that's in San Francisco. The Palace of Auburn Hills. I've been there. Last time I was there, I saw... No, it was like White Zombie and the Ramones. This was a long time ago. Sounds like a late 90s concert. Yeah, it had to be. I mean, pre-Rob Zombie. Anyway, yeah, so we saw Six Bands Today, Ascendia, Vanishing Point, Freedom Call, Gentle Storm, Scar Symmetry,

02:26:17.080 --> 02:26:18.140
and Fates Warning.

02:26:47.080 --> 02:27:17.040
He felt like they weren't getting enough attention or I don't know but then there was the guitar player guy you know the big beefy bald guy with the goatee that dude I have I'm like I've ever seen anybody as happy as that guy in my life he was smiling the whole freaking time and I mean not even just smiling but like grinning like he just won the lottery it was crazy and at one point he tried a couple times he tried to get the audience to do something they didn't do anything and and then towards the end of the

02:27:17.080 --> 02:27:46.840
He came out and flipped his arms up and down trying to get people to do something and they did it. And he wasn't on the mic or anything but I saw him mouth, "Thank you." It was cute. So then we had Freedom Call which was another German power metal band along the lines of Halloween Gamma Ray, that sort of thing. That dude was really pretty happy. He's cracking a lot of jokes.

02:27:48.339 --> 02:28:17.040
It was entertaining. It was very campy. Yeah. And... They take themselves seriously, that's for sure, which was great. You know, they... Definitely, you could tell, like, the lead guitar guy, singer, he just was... Seemed very happy. Seemed like he was, like, excited to be there. And just, like, you know, they wanted to bring the fun, have a good time. You know, it's a heavy metal

02:28:17.140 --> 02:28:22.320
party. It was their first time in the U.S., and that seems to be a real

02:28:23.260 --> 02:28:28.820
common trend with this festival. I missed most of the show because I came back to the hotel.

02:28:29.300 --> 02:28:32.420
I had a raging headache. Most of the Freedom Call show, that is. Yes.

02:28:33.180 --> 02:28:39.660
I missed it, but I would think that they would have been there at least once or twice touring with somebody at some point.

02:28:40.300 --> 02:28:43.340
So I did get to see the end, and I did enjoy

02:28:43.360 --> 02:29:13.320
the restart of they would play the last note of the last song because they wanted the crowd to cheer as if it was the greatest thing ever on planet earth and they did i thought that was kind of cool i appreciated them having fun with that so the little bit i saw i thought they were entertaining definitely yeah and then holy shit and then gentle storm was not so gentle personally i mean i you know i knew

02:29:13.360 --> 02:29:42.580
that she's a great singer and all, and I figured it would be entertaining, but holy hell. That just, I mean, that blew my mind. I mean, that, you know, I was like, man, Fate's Warning's going to have to do something pretty special to live up to this set because it just, you know, that's probably going to be the thing I remember the most from this week. Yeah. That was definitely, as much as I love Fate's Warning, I think they're equal for me for different reasons, though.

02:29:43.180 --> 02:29:47.180
Fates Warning obviously was the nostalgic part but also seeing something we've never seen

02:29:47.800 --> 02:29:50.780
for me getting to see Annika Van Geersbergen live again

02:29:51.660 --> 02:29:54.760
and thinking that she was just going to do the Gentle Storm stuff

02:29:55.400 --> 02:29:56.920
and she did her whole career

02:29:57.400 --> 02:30:00.640
picked pieces from all different projects and bands

02:30:01.500 --> 02:30:04.960
and the energy from them I thought was by far

02:30:05.390 --> 02:30:08.300
the best from everyone combined as one unit

02:30:08.820 --> 02:30:09.980
they sounded great

02:30:11.600 --> 02:30:39.300
And she was fabulous, I thought. There were like six people on stage, and they were all like moving and dancing and banging their heads. And it was just, it's like it was almost like it was choreographed, but it didn't look or feel choreographed. It was just they moved so well. Seemed seamless, like they were used to doing it. Let me tell you, she had banged more than most guys, most singers did so far.

02:30:39.400 --> 02:31:09.300
I mean when they did a couple gathering songs I mean she really laid the wood down when she was headbanging it was kind of cool to see because she kind of looked like that during the early years when she was just a kid when she joined them so she's got va-va-voom affirmative she's pretty darn amazing and so it turned out that the bass player and the backup singer were from Dream of Passion yeah and then the

02:31:09.320 --> 02:31:33.960
I think the rest are her own band, right? Or Gentle Storm band? I would assume so. I don't know enough about Gentle Storm personally, but her solo band, I think so. Her husband wasn't playing with them on drums. It was the drummer from the Arian Projects, Ed Warby or Warbly or whatever, I can't pronounce, who was good. He was great.

02:31:39.340 --> 02:32:08.660
because they're disbanding Gentle Storm. And she wants to keep these people. She's doing a solo album next. But it's not technically a solo album, I guess, because the whole band will be on the solo album. And she wants to just keep this ball rolling, basically. So I don't know if Gentle Storm was no more. Dream of Passion is no more. Dream of Passion is... Yeah, I'm thinking that it's a solo project.

02:32:09.320 --> 02:32:39.300
are going to morph, I think, together. Yeah, because what's-his-name, Aryan's not going to be part of it, presumably. Yeah, I think that maybe that's what she meant, is that he's not going to probably be part of it. He doesn't tour, I don't think, anymore. He does very limited live stuff, as far as I know. I was hoping he would have been here, but I think that was like a 0% chance he'd show up. Well, I've got to say, based on what we saw, I am definitely looking forward to that solo album. What did you think? Yeah, I was knocked out because

02:32:39.320 --> 02:33:09.300
I'm not familiar with her or her band so to me it was kind of a new experience I I mean I kind of well John had clued me in a little bit to some of her work so I'd kind of gotten a kind of a taste of it but I didn't really you know as he said she went through her old career so you got to hear a little bit of everything and so amazing vocalist I was I was I was blown away as well just

02:33:09.340 --> 02:33:33.680
because she was able to sing that way throughout the entire show. And it was powerful, just powerful vocals that can lay you out. I mean, it was amazing. And she wasn't forcing it, you know what I mean? It was like that's her natural ability there.

02:33:39.340 --> 02:34:08.460
was also really terrific. And together they sang very well. And just the whole band sounded great. At times it was like a wall of sound. And you got just pow. It was everything. And it was a good mix. The sound mix was very good for that band, I thought. I did too. Because sometimes it was a little uneven at times for other bands. But like Scarsimetry.

02:34:09.320 --> 02:34:38.580
But this was just really a great performance. And you're right. The energy from every band member was there. And it was plentiful. And the crowd responded. I mean, everybody in that place was into that whole set. That was the first standing ovation I've seen so far in the three days. And I gotta say, I loved how they would be playing along.

02:34:39.340 --> 02:35:09.280
and it would just kick into this groove and they'd all be banging their heads in unison together and then just back into what they were doing and then back into the headbanging. It was just amazing. John, what was that ballad that she did, the two female vocalists and the one guy that played the guitar? That song was, because it brought it down for a second, but it was kind of like,

02:35:10.600 --> 02:35:38.700
It was just really, it was perfect at that time because, you know, after all that kind of heavy stuff that was going on, to pull it back to this just really light, intricate kind of ballad, which literally an acoustic guitar and two voices that was kind of medieval sounding, you know, again, I'm not really familiar with this, but to me that's what it sounded like.

02:35:39.320 --> 02:36:07.720
And it was so, that was the gentle part, I guess. So light and delicate, but not flimsy or weak. It was still strong. And it was a nice little break, and you got this other dimension, which I thought was really, really nice. Yeah, the two songs that did Valley of the Queens, actually, according to the set list here, or I'm just saying.

02:36:07.740 --> 02:36:37.240
And Isis and Osiris, which are both from the Aryan project into the Electric Castle. So, you have something to say, probably. I got a lot to say. Would you say that it cleansed your musical palate? Yes, perhaps. Perhaps? Wow. No, it was definitely, it was a nice kind of,

02:36:37.760 --> 02:37:07.300
Change from, yeah, instead of just, you know, like, because most of those bands that we saw all kind of gave you the same thing through the whole show. And that was kind of a nice difference that we got that I felt was kind of a welcome change of pace. Yeah. All right, so then, did you have any more you wanted to say? Oh, no, I'll just make quips every now and again.

02:37:08.479 --> 02:37:37.580
Fair enough. Well, let me know when you need to quip up. So then, unfortunately for them, Scar Symmetry had to follow that. And while they did a good job, I felt like they were having some trouble figuring out what to do with harsh vocals in the mix. You couldn't hear it at all. The first two or three songs, it seemed like, yeah. There was nothing. I was like, where's the love for the man with the harsh vocals? Come on.

02:37:37.760 --> 02:38:07.580
For me, that was like a breath of fresh air. I'm like, yeah, some harsh vocals finally. I've been days and days of all these clean vocals. And it was cool to hear that, or almost hear it anyway. It got better eventually. It did. It actually got much better, and you could really hear the guy. And he had what I thought were excellent harsh vocals. I mean, really, like, you know, a little more of the gamut there. I mean, most of it was kind of gravelly, but he,

02:38:07.700 --> 02:38:37.480
He had a little bit more than that. Yeah, exactly. And I thought, and John and I talked about this. Our favorite musician of that band was the guitar player on the right, the lead guitar player. Santa Claus? Yeah, Santa Claus, the bald Santa Claus. He had an excellent style, and you could tell that his tone was outstanding and just really effortless.

02:38:37.700 --> 02:39:07.660
Exactly. He just played with such ease and it was so clean. Every note was clear and every note was clean. Not like it was distorted, but what I'm saying is it was just so cleanly played. Yeah, exactly. He didn't seem like he fit the band, though. I'm not saying he's... His style just seemed like it could be played elsewhere. Yes. To me. I feel like he's probably capable of...

02:39:07.700 --> 02:39:37.660
multiple styles, multiple genres, because the guy just seemed at ease with anything he did. Indiana Jones. Yeah, he played the theme from Indiana Jones at one point, which was kind of funny. So I thought that was funny, but then I noticed, and I only saw, I saw about 75% of them, I guess. You guys tell me, did it seem like they were a little disorganized in between songs at times? I don't know if they were just trying to get something on the computer to, you know, like...

02:39:37.700 --> 02:40:06.840
One of the other gripes that we've had during this is all these keyboard parts that nobody's playing. It's all patched in. And I understand it too because the bands today, it seemed like, at least with the Gentle Storm, it didn't seem like it was necessary to have someone there for it because it was more guitar driven. But it seemed like it was a lot today from everyone. And we were kidding around a lot about like, oh, you know, there's a keyboard.

02:40:07.700 --> 02:40:36.720
I volunteered to pretend keyboard up there for every band. You could have done it. I would have done it. And you would have done it well. Yeah. Now I might have to disagree with you guys about the gentleman you're talking about. To me, even though I only caught like, what, three Scarce Dungie songs, I would have to say that the gentleman that stole the show was the chap with the flag-covered sleeveless shirt.

02:40:36.840 --> 02:41:06.740
The Swedish man wearing the American flag. I was like, should I be offended by that? I need to ask Colin what's his name? Let's talk about the shirt. Copernicus or whatever. Well, you know, I think, because I got the impression that they probably don't get to the States much. And I'm sure that this was like, I don't, I just thought they were having fun. Yeah, exactly. I think they were trying to honor the States and, you know, just be like, hey, we're with you and, you know, we're having a good time. He was having a good time.

02:41:06.820 --> 02:41:36.780
He's pounding down beers. Yeah, right. And my point is, actually, I think he overshadowed this guitar player you're talking about. Oh. At least from a fashion perspective. Oh, yeah. I thought it was interesting because, you know, the clean singer was, like, tall and built and handsome, and the harsh singer was kind of short and trollish. Yeah. I was like, that's a curious dynamic you have there where, you know, the pretty boy sings the pretty stuff, and the...

02:41:36.820 --> 02:42:05.240
Not quite as Pretty Boy does the... It would actually be cooler if a band had two singers, if the Pretty Boy was doing the hard stuff, and the troll-like mountain man was singing the clean stuff. To me, I would be more interested in that. Just me. The clean vocal guy, he was just Mr. Party Boy. He was all bouncing around and having fun and having drinks. They were all having fun. And the other guy, he was just a little more... Like, he could have been into Monomarth, you know? Yeah.

02:42:06.800 --> 02:42:36.780
He looked like an offspring of Amon Amar or Valiant Thor, yes. Yes, but he was a good... He was good. I thought his vocals were great. He's been around. I looked him up and he's been in Panthemonium and Edge of Sanity. That's the other Swano one. Was he really? Yeah, I don't know what he did. I didn't look that far, but he's been in a lot of projects. Yeah, cool. So he's got... Okay. He's got the...

02:42:36.800 --> 02:43:05.900
The Pedigree, that's what I'm looking for. Yes, thank you. We're talking about, I guess, Troll Boy, is that his name? I don't know. I don't know his name. So what do you guys, that's how you're referring to him. So I'm trying to. We're not making fun of him at all. No, he was awesome. No, he was. And he was so grateful too. Like everybody in that band was very grateful to be there. Very grateful to the crowd for the response. I mean, the crowd got into it and they enjoyed it. They were mixing it up. There was a mosh pit down there in the middle.

02:43:07.640 --> 02:43:36.780
I was wondering how well they got along because it always seems like whenever there's a band with two singers one of them always feels like they're not getting their due but like the two singers were all like you know arm in arm at the end I thought about that too but they did you know they you could see the body language was there they they get along each guy has his own thing and and that's what they're that they do but even the even the clean vocal guy did a little bit of the harsh vocals a little bit of the harsh vocals

02:43:36.820 --> 02:44:06.780
I thought he did yeah I mean he's in another do author or something like that which I want to look that up because I bet he does our vocals in that band that was cool all right so then so the only reason we came this is the whole reason I'm here the whole reason I was like I have to go to this more reasons but for you guys I know this was the main main reason for coming and that was fate's warning with John arch and the original

02:44:06.840 --> 02:44:36.340
The Guardian lineup. Which was only together, I think, for what, one album? Am I correct in that? Because didn't Frank Oresti come in on that album? Yes, they were together for only one album. But what an album. So I can tell by the looks on all your faces, we're all mightily disappointed. Mightily disappointed that it had to end, that is. Yeah, I told you, the only thing I wish is John Arch would have just kept the mic a little closer to himself,

02:44:36.500 --> 02:45:05.020
because I missed some of his high notes. Other than that, I have no issues with that show at all. Oh, yeah, it was great. He sounded amazing. Yeah, and it hit the spot. I mean, they all sounded great, and it was really cool to see all of them playing, and to get the whole album was awesome. I actually was hoping they would have played more, but when they got done, I was like, you know, I think I've had enough. I think there's no need to go any further.

02:45:06.520 --> 02:45:35.140
A couple more songs off of "Spectre Within". So, but hey, take what we can get, right? Oh yeah that was completely satisfying, you know I mean the whole thing was exactly hit the spot and you know we'll probably never see that again, and so it was a special show, it felt great, the audience loved it, everybody was into it, you know, and it looked like they were filming it so maybe we'll get a DVD of it?

02:45:36.500 --> 02:45:38.460
I hope so and I mean you know hopefully

02:45:39.390 --> 02:45:40.700
we'll get if nothing else

02:45:40.950 --> 02:45:42.720
you know the audio because I mean it would

02:45:42.740 --> 02:45:43.600
just really be cool

02:45:44.600 --> 02:45:46.400
oh so I'm looking at the set list

02:45:46.640 --> 02:45:47.400
and they actually

02:45:48.360 --> 02:45:49.380
canceled out a song tonight

02:45:50.000 --> 02:45:50.060
what

02:45:50.720 --> 02:45:50.780
yeah

02:45:51.940 --> 02:45:52.640
night on

02:45:52.920 --> 02:45:53.400
night on

02:45:54.000 --> 02:45:54.440
brockin

02:45:55.579 --> 02:45:56.020
yeah

02:45:56.120 --> 02:45:57.120
I thought they played that on

02:45:57.400 --> 02:45:58.040
keep it true

02:45:58.760 --> 02:45:59.780
they did but they

02:45:59.960 --> 02:46:01.460
they actually it's marked off on the

02:46:01.600 --> 02:46:01.780
set list

02:46:02.600 --> 02:46:03.140
because they played

02:46:06.040 --> 02:46:06.480
Kyrie

02:46:06.500 --> 02:46:34.740
I thought they did. And so I thought that was weird because I was expecting another song off of the first album. So I don't know. Apparition, man. Oh, yeah. I think everyone was into Awaken in the Garden, but Apparition seemed to almost kick it into a second gear. Everyone seemed to really get pumped for that. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. What did you think? Of Fates? No, of the pulled pork.

02:46:36.500 --> 02:47:06.340
The Pulled Pork was pretty good. It did have a bit of heat at the end, but it was married with the coleslaw. It was a nice cooling. Okay, now how do you compare it to Faith's Warning? They were both delicious. Much like the coleslaw countering the heat of the barbecue sauce, it was a nice balanced act. It was a good show. Part of me is a little bit over the whole album thing from bands.

02:47:06.500 --> 02:47:33.600
But it is nice to see on occasion. This probably is one of those occasions. Because this is an album that you wouldn't normally expect to hear. And they didn't overdo it. I mean, they're only playing a few shows of this. So it kind of makes it a bit more special. Until they announce the world tour next week. Well, that's a different story. Those guys have actual jobs.

02:47:36.500 --> 02:48:05.500
What's interesting about seeing that is now this group and its own or different variations have seen all these different reunions because Romy and I saw the Parallels reunion in Connecticut and the three of us saw the Archmothéas which okay yeah oh it's a different band now I was actually Face Warning all right because it was all Face Warnings guys in it you know but they were doing Archmothéas music so and then we got to see this version which I thought was cool so I will treasure it always

02:48:06.000 --> 02:48:35.380
Oh yeah, definitely. Anything more on Fates? No, I'm just getting back, we'll get back to the other band now as the year goes on with their tour. So, if they ever tour the album. Yeah, the current fern, yeah. Oh yeah, I can't wait to see that because the new album is phenomenal. Yeah, they were going to be touring. Yeah, I'm just waiting for when it's, you know, we can see them, so. Yeah. So the other thing that happened tonight that we sort of skipped over getting to Fates Warning,

02:48:35.440 --> 02:49:03.300
was the announcements for next year. Now, you're all going to have to help me with this one because there was a lot of bands I didn't even know, and one of them that made me laugh out loud with its silly 80s style spelling of di-nas-di. I was like, wow, is that like a hair band? God, I can't even remember any of those horribly spelled words from the 80s.

02:49:05.440 --> 02:49:34.580
I knew Pain, which I thought was funny because Prog Power is going to have the dude from Hypocrisy there. Granted, he does play a very different style of music in Pain. I thought that was pretty cool. And I've heard of Angel Dust. And Lords of Black, I've heard a few songs. I'm trying to get the... Was it Sunburst? Sunburst I've never heard of. What was the other... Here we go, I got it right here.

02:49:35.120 --> 02:50:05.100
All right, so the Friday is Sunburst, Distorted Harmony. Is that right? Lords of Black, Angel Dust, which will be kind of cool because I saw them a long time ago when they played at Prague Power. So that might be interesting. Myrith is coming back, which is their fan favorite. They went over really well. They're a band from Tunisia, I believe. So that'll be kind of cool. And then an interesting... They'll get canceled because they won't be able to get into the country. They've already been in once, so I think they'll get in again. Excellent. And then...

02:50:05.120 --> 02:50:35.000
Well, wait, before we announce the headline, should we talk about the fact that we only got two of the bands picked? Yeah. Yeah. And truth be told, we didn't do this earlier, but the last minute before this all started, I said to everyone, you know, I bet that Mike Portnoy is going to do some all-star thing because he's here to see Fate's Warning. And lo and behold, the first headline is Mike Portnoy's Shattered Fortress, which is his 12-step program thing that he did.

02:50:35.140 --> 02:51:05.100
hero for dream theater is five songs with 12 parts that might be interesting only because of who might come with the band now i was i was talking to tiara about this it's to me anyway it seemed like sort of a disappointment that that would be a headliner somebody that doesn't even currently have an album out now granted if it's an all-star thing you know if he's got some really big names in there i guess okay but it still seems like it should be maybe like second billing yeah and maybe because

02:51:05.160 --> 02:51:34.900
Because it's Portnoy and Dream Theater and so the prog side. So just name alone, even though he doesn't have the catalog to back it up? Well, yeah, it's all going to be Dream Theater music is what it's going to be. Oh, okay. It's all songs that were performed at Dream Theater. Oh, so this is new material? Not the five songs that he's going to play. I think it's like it's an out. It's something he's never played live before, but in its entirety, I should say. He's played bits of it, but yeah, this is, I guess, a premiere.

02:51:35.140 --> 02:52:04.520
of the Hulk. What is it? The 12 Steps? Yeah, of A.A.A., I guess. Wait, so it's a bunch of songs about A.A.A.? It's his recovery and his journey recovering. That's interesting. Yeah, so he tried to get Dream Theater to play it, and I guess they never wanted to do it or it didn't work out or whatever. Who knows? They were a bunch of bag of dicks. I'm sure there's two sides to the story of Dream Theater, trust me.

02:52:05.140 --> 02:52:33.820
I'm sure it is. Yeah, they never performed it, so he's getting a chance to perform it. They've done all-star stuff before here. I mean, half of John Oliva's stuff is always an all-star band, it seems like. That would have been something good to see, or has he been here too recently? Oh, when's the last time he's been there, so it's been a while. John Oliva. A couple years, right? Oh, well, no, last year. Oh, last year. Yeah, he did Streets from Sabotage. Oh, all right.

02:52:35.120 --> 02:53:05.100
He wanted to see that. So I'll do the second day real quick. And I'm going to butcher some names here. Taramaze. Is that it? Is that the name of the band? I don't know them. Dynasty or whatever you want to call it. Dynasty. It's a Janet Jackson song. Here's one that I thought was interesting. Snowy Shaw is going to be there. And it looks like he's going to be doing kind of what Annika Van Giersbergen did. Kind of a

02:53:05.140 --> 02:53:34.080
Career Retrospective. So you're going to play some Demi Borgir? Yeah, they were showing all the bands. I know. I didn't quite understand. I'm like, you're not going to be singing King Diamond? I mean, come on here. I mean, I don't know. I thought he was a bass player. It'd be interesting. What was the other one? Drummers. Memento Mori was another one, I think. It'll be interesting to see what he does. He's on stuff, too. Yeah, he's on material, exactly. Yeah, I got a promo from the label once, and I was like, nah, that's okay.

02:53:34.860 --> 02:54:04.820
Pain was the other band which I cheered for and then I looked over Roman and I realized crap it's not John Oliva's Pain it's the band Pain. I thought you were referring to Pain of Salvation initially or something. No absolutely not. Yeah I wonder how many people like thought that's what it was they're all cheering and then I was like wait. Uh this band I can't pronounce the name because I'm an idiot so I'll show you it's uh where are we here? Right there. Oh I'm gonna guess like Amaranthi? Yeah I guess. Now that was the band with three singers the chick

02:54:05.020 --> 02:54:34.800
The Growler and then the clean singer dude. So, I mean, if you're talking just two singers having an issue, what about three? Well, we saw three this weekend. We already did. Oh, yeah? Pyramids. Pyramids. And it worked just... Yeah, but they're not all currently in the band. I don't think that's all. The band we're talking about, though, that's coming, I think were here a couple years ago and everyone loves them. Speaking of Pyramids, I don't know if anybody else noticed, I pointed it out to TR, but the singer

02:54:34.840 --> 02:55:04.800
and Vigo Morton's and lookalike guitar player were three seats down from us in a row. Really? That's awesome. And then I guess the final headline is Catatonia. Which you predicted. Which I predicted. Which I only threw it out because I didn't know what else to say and I was surprised to see them. So that's the lineup. I'm still going to come because I go every year. This might be a little different year for me in terms of who I see and how I go about it. But

02:55:04.840 --> 02:55:34.500
I may experiment with some of the bands I don't know. I'm hoping Thursday is the linchpin for it. I'm hoping it's Thursday like this time. We'll see. Cool. Why don't we do a quick rundown of what's going on tomorrow. After today, and as tired as I am, I think I'm going to... I've revised my expectations for tomorrow. We have another six bands. Savage Messiah, Serious Black,

02:55:34.840 --> 02:56:04.660
Green Carnation, Refuge, Hockin', and Devin Townsend Project. Actually, seven. I'll have a seventh band. Oh, right, right. Mr. High and Mighty over here, Gold Badger, is also getting the... Did you call him a badger? He's a badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger. Mushroom! He also gets an acoustic set from Annika. Yes, at 12. It's a gold badge for the gold badge members.

02:56:04.820 --> 02:56:34.700
of Prague Power and the VIPs. There should be a gold badger on the back. Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger. A snake! You know we all want to see that tomorrow. Yeah, we're going to get an acoustic show from her tomorrow with the gold badge and VIP people. Which only John gets to go to because he's special. I'll be sleeping or something or drinking. Special only for that one hour, maybe. Yeah. All right, well, I,

02:56:34.840 --> 02:57:04.700
They originally wanted to see Savage Messiah, but they're opening the show, and that's starting to seem like something that I don't really need to be there for. Especially when the band after that is Sirius Black, which is just serious shite as far as I'm concerned. I don't know if anybody else likes them, but they're right up there with Circus Maximus on my shit list. Did I just shit on anybody's favorite band? No. We're priming for Reincarnation to start today, I think. Yeah, that's 5 o'clock. That's a nice good start time.

02:57:06.500 --> 02:57:34.700
And then Refuge, which I guess is going to be a bunch of Rage songs. I'll check out a little bit. I don't know about you guys, but I'll check out a little bit. Skip Hagen. I may watch them a little bit. They're very entertaining. Maybe not then. Well, maybe I'll watch them just to have seats. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And then Devin. I like how on every other day, oh wait, today it said to close, but the first couple days it was like, you know, 10 to 1130.

02:57:34.820 --> 02:58:04.800
10 to 11.30 and then it's like to close meaning whenever the hell he wants to stop. I hope Devin Townsend just pulls no stops and just goes all out tomorrow. Yeah. We'll see. All right. Well, we'll check in again after that and tell you how it went. Excellent. See you. Peace. Hello. Prog Power 2016 or 17 if you prefer is in the books now and

02:58:04.840 --> 02:58:32.600
What a day it's been. Even though we only watched a couple of bands really. Well, we got the majority of the bands for today. Yeah. Well, we skipped Savage Messiah as much as I wanted to see them. I wanted to relax and have some food and some beers and wanted to do that more. Then we showed up. Before that, speaking of beer, it's time to cheer.

02:58:34.840 --> 02:59:04.060
Cheers to Glenn. Yes, thank you. Cheers to all you guys coming down with me this year. This is the best year it's been for me. So thank you very much. You're welcome. And thank you for having us. Yeah, you guys were cool coming down too. I was referring to the bands. I'm not kicking it. No, yes, I truly do mean that. I had a blast with everybody. I do mean that. It's been a blast. So anyway, yeah, so Savage Messiah didn't see him.

02:59:05.080 --> 02:59:34.660
They were probably pretty good. Next up was Sirius Black. Sirius Suckage as far as I'm concerned. We got there while they were playing and then strategically waited for them to finish playing before we went in to the seating area. To take our seats from Wednesday night again. We reclaimed our seats. The thinking here was between sets everybody comes out to do whatever. Go to the bathroom, get food and drink.

02:59:35.260 --> 03:00:04.760
You know, buy merch, have a smoke, whatever. And so when they came out, we went in and found four seats that were good. That were apparently the same seats from Wednesday. Yeah, I think they were exact same seats. I think so. As a matter of fact, we were in that section three of the four nights. Yeah. Did we mention that this is just open seating? I mean, I don't know that we said that explicitly, but it is. And you just, it's general admission, even though there's seating, but you can pretty much pick whatever seat you want.

03:00:04.840 --> 03:00:34.800
and you can sit in it and that's it. And nobody's seat is their seat. Although there are some people that always sit in the same seats, but overall you can sit wherever you like and that's kind of a nice thing because different people want to see different bands so they want to be close for one and then maybe they'll go down in the pit for one and maybe they'll just not even go for another. So it is kind of nice if you want to pick your own seat to sit in. On the other hand, it wouldn't drive us quite so crazy

03:00:34.840 --> 03:01:04.800
trying to save our seats if we had assigned seats. True. If it was, you know, these are our seats, get out of our seats, you fucker, then we could all go do something. But we always had to leave one or two people behind to hold on to the seats. Only problem with that is that would defeat the purpose of me having a gold badge and getting in early to pick us prime seats. So... Well, your gold badge could get you the best seats. Maybe. I guess we'd have to test that scenario out. And if it got me good seats, then okay, we can go to assigned seats.

03:01:05.040 --> 03:01:32.600
seats. But that would be me, though. It wouldn't be you guys. I couldn't say, well, I need 15 seats in the first section. I got a crew coming this year. Well, you know, that would be sort of the point of the gold thing is you get preferred seat. You know, maybe it's like with the airlines or even some of the concert venues now, you can literally go on the screen and tap the seats you want. Or even, what's the movie theater?

03:01:34.840 --> 03:02:04.800
You know the one where they serve food and beer and all that stuff. Anyway, you get to pick your seats ahead of time there. Special Theater. I can't think of the name of it. I was just there. Same thing. You can buy beers and food and take it in and stuff like that. I know what you're talking about. This one they actually come to your seat and bring it to you and you can just order

03:02:04.880 --> 03:02:33.900
stuff from your seat. Oh, okay. So that's, well, I was pondering right there for anyone to see. Yeah, hold on. While John ponders, listen to the girl from Ipanema. Sorry, drinking beer. So then we went in, we got seated so that we could see the first band that we were actually wanting to see, which was Green Carnation. And they're doing the whole light of day, day of darkness, single,

03:02:39.159 --> 03:03:03.840
It was a nice show. I enjoyed it a lot. They sounded great, I thought. The singing was good for a whole hour of one song. And everyone played great. It sounded pretty close to the album, I thought. Romy's not here because he's actually talking to the guitar player on the street somewhere. So we just sort of waited a little while and started without him. Maybe he'll show up. What'd you think, TR?

03:03:04.840 --> 03:03:33.080
I enjoyed it. I'd only heard that maybe once or twice before. And, you know, I thought, well, this is going to be kind of ambitious. But it was very seamless and smooth. And everybody did sound good. It was a good mix. And I enjoyed it. One other thing I thought, I don't know if you guys noticed, I thought, oh, man, one song. People are going to basically walk out at some point because they're going to get tired of hearing this. Did you drink all my beer?

03:03:36.840 --> 03:03:37.280
Maybe.

03:03:39.060 --> 03:03:40.280
Like, my can's empty.

03:03:40.440 --> 03:03:40.580
Yeah.

03:03:41.050 --> 03:03:41.740
You got more then.

03:03:44.260 --> 03:03:45.580
I thought everyone stayed.

03:03:45.770 --> 03:03:51.040
The attention span from everyone was very good, and they got an amazing standing ovation from a lot.

03:03:51.040 --> 03:03:53.020
It wasn't, there weren't a lot of green seats.

03:03:53.640 --> 03:03:55.320
There were a lot of seats with people in them.

03:03:55.660 --> 03:03:56.680
So I thought that was cool.

03:03:56.960 --> 03:03:59.220
There weren't that many standing ovations this week.

03:03:59.440 --> 03:04:03.860
I mean, the very first one I saw was Gentle Storm.

03:04:04.340 --> 03:04:04.640
Yes.

03:04:04.660 --> 03:04:32.940
And then... Fates for sure. Fates Warning was the second one. Yeah. And then... Did Pyramids get one? I don't think they did. I think they got a lot of... Some people kind of stood up, but... Yeah, it wasn't like totaled the whole place just like Fates was and like General Storm was. Yeah. And then... And then Green Incarnation. And then, of course... Madness? Devin got one too. The Absolute Circus?

03:04:36.461 --> 03:05:03.160
So then after that, Refuge played, which is, he explained, is the classic lineup of the band Rage, the three-piece lineup. And I don't know, does that mean that Rage is still around? Sort of like Face Warning has another version of the band. And so he did this on the side with these guys, or is Rage broken up? I don't know. I don't know enough about them.

03:05:04.660 --> 03:05:34.520
to early 90s period. And I had zero expectations. And I walked out of that just fucking loving every minute. It was like, I don't want to call them poor man's motorhead like I said earlier, but it had that feel of just... Oh, yeah. Straight ahead. Three guys just rocking it out. Yeah, pushing it. And they were having an absolute blast on stage. Yeah. And the songs were pretty basic. Yeah. You know, but it was, but there was a lot of great energy. And these guys, you know, they looked like they were having fun. The pit was huge for them.

03:05:34.940 --> 03:06:04.500
You know, so. Which actually, one guy kind of killed that pit. He pretty much took it over and had the whole half his floor to himself because he was whipping his head around like anything and kicking people, so. They were very enjoyable. I also had no expectations, but you know what, I came away like, yeah, that was good. I enjoyed that. They were entertaining. And, yeah, they definitely brought it. Yeah. Cool. The next band.

03:06:09.841 --> 03:06:34.500
We were corrected on the pronunciation. It is not Haken. It is Haken, like bacon. And I refer to them now as Faken. Because I thought they absolutely sucked hard. And I think, I'm not sure, Tiara, your level of suckage on this. Mine is not maybe as bad as George.

03:06:34.660 --> 03:07:04.240
but it's pretty close. I think we were in a strict minority on this one. It seemed like everyone loved them. The whole place was crazy about them. Which means the whole place was full of idiots. No offense to all you idiots out there. Yeah, well, you know, I'm, I don't know. I don't know. I don't understand what took place there because I, I mean, I get it. These guys are very technical, you know, they're.

03:07:04.700 --> 03:07:34.620
Yeah, they're great musicians and everything, but at the same time, coming off of that, coming off a refuge, which was just like, and just like in your face, you know, just rocking out, then this kind of thing happens, and it's kind of a little more obtuse, and so, you know, we're kind of sitting there, and I don't know, even though they were doing really complex stuff, I was completely bored by it, and I just was not, I don't know, I just didn't really get it.

03:07:34.660 --> 03:08:02.160
I didn't get it either. I did not enjoy them. And I'll be honest, the first time I'm going to poo-poo the most, and I don't want to do this, I absolutely could not stand their singer. Within two minutes, I was just ready to claw off all my skin on my face. I couldn't stand him. I would listen to James LaBrie on his worst day of the year for four hours straight.

03:08:02.880 --> 03:08:32.840
Yeah, I had to get up and leave for a while because it was so bad. I mean, I don't want to be a bad guy and say that. I don't want to, you know, because I know a lot of people like him. I'll be the bad guy. Just for me. You can be the bad guy, but you know. It wasn't, it didn't jive. Yeah. I'm sorry. I actually have their latest album and I've listened to it and I thought it was okay. But it just didn't translate, to me, it didn't translate to a live kind of a show. And I don't know. You're right, we're in the minority because the whole

03:08:36.939 --> 03:08:38.940
I don't understand it. I don't

03:08:38.940 --> 03:08:43.060
get it. Maybe I don't know if I'm just too old or I don't know. But I

03:08:43.420 --> 03:08:46.860
just did not think they were all that. I really didn't. I didn't think they were anything.

03:08:47.090 --> 03:08:51.040
They were fucking horrible is what they were. The singer who by the way is

03:08:51.140 --> 03:08:55.000
the love child of Weird Al Yankovic and Gallagher with his

03:08:55.360 --> 03:08:58.020
curly hair and his mustache and his little green

03:08:58.280 --> 03:09:02.280
tie who then came out later with his 80s like shuttered

03:09:02.320 --> 03:09:31.500
sunglasses like he was on Miami Vice or something. They were the most pretentious band I've ever seen. Musical talent aside, which they don't really have any anyway. Well, they had musical writing, I think you're saying. Proficiency on your instruments. I'm going to not agree with that. They had some, but first of all, as I was telling TR, they should start with six-string instruments and learn how to play those first because they weren't playing. They fucked up a lot.

03:09:32.300 --> 03:10:01.820
And there were far too many moments where, speaking of going bananas, it sounded like they were a bunch of monkeys banging on instruments because it was very discordant. And if that's what jazz guys do, they play extremely discordant stuff that doesn't sound like anybody's playing with each other. Great. But beside that, the singer never even had a passing fancy.

03:10:02.280 --> 03:10:32.260
with singing in key. He was entirely sharp the whole time. It was like, I can't even attempt to do it. It's like when you're at the ball game and somebody's trying to sing the Star Spangled Banner and they're just like, strangling a cat. He was strangling a cat the whole time. I never heard anything that sounded good out of him. It was just, I had to leave. Yeah, well, the podcast will probably lose so many people now because of that. I don't care. If you like

03:10:32.320 --> 03:10:37.240
get out we don't want you here's well no you can like them just you're not

03:10:37.300 --> 03:10:42.780
allowed to talk about them or play them within our vicinity here's the thing i had an issue with

03:10:44.000 --> 03:10:49.780
was it a beard convention i mean everyone had yeah there wasn't there wasn't one person in that band

03:10:49.780 --> 03:10:53.640
that didn't have a beard right yeah i didn't have a beard so i was wondering i was kind of laughing

03:10:53.780 --> 03:10:58.660
about that because i knew you'd probably comment on that well yeah and in a second we'll get to devon

03:10:58.680 --> 03:11:28.340
because neckbeards came up during his, which is funny because half of his band has neckbeards. And then the dipshit bass player for Haken with his, I've got short hair everywhere except in front, and so I can't see, and I keep flipping it back like it's an annoyance, even though I have it this way on purpose. What a fucking dipshit. And he talked just like that. Yeah, what a fucking dipshit. Wow. Spock's beard and Circus Maximus just became the greatest bands ever. At least they can play. Yeah, yeah.

03:11:28.740 --> 03:11:58.640
I agree. Whether you liked them or not, they at least had chops and were entertaining in some value what it was. I was totally bored by this band. Well, at one point, I think you looked over at me and I dropped my head and you just burst out laughing. Yeah, because it was just like, oh, God, you know, we've got another hour of this. When is this song going to end? So anyway, I don't even think we should go ahead. And Mr. Pretentious Singer, and I say they're pretentious because of all the things that they did that they

03:11:58.680 --> 03:12:28.640
They thought were so cutesy. And the singer, he's like standing up on the drum riser as the keyboard player plucks individual pretty like new age notes. And he's plucking them out of the air. Like, fuck you, dude. And he's like, you know, slinking around on the stage. I'm like, dude, you took a little too much of whatever it is. That's why I say we came off a refuge, which is just like, you know, like in your

03:12:28.680 --> 03:12:58.220
face, three guys just blasting it out. And then, you know, then you get like this kind of, yeah, pretentious stuff that's like the complete antithesis of that. And it's like, okay, how did we get here? What, you know, I can't make that kind of a... Do we do something wrong? Are we being punished for something? You don't get to be pretentious like that unless you're actually good. Now, if Devin was doing that, I would be like, yeah, okay. This is the greatest fucking thing ever. These guys.

03:12:58.680 --> 03:13:28.640
No. No, I don't think so. I think we've heard how we beat that horse. But, you know, the gods of music shined upon us and said, well, you have suffered enough. Here is Devin Townsend project. But there was still some suffering to do. And yet, I enjoyed that suffering. Yeah. You know, they were having some technical difficulties. And personally, I think Devin Townsend covering for a shit show is almost better than Devin Townsend not even having a shit show.

03:13:28.680 --> 03:13:58.640
and just playing a normal show because he just recovers so well he's so damn funny yeah and he he was primed to go i mean he the curtain hadn't even opened yet and there must have been a bit at least for the normal person not the typical metal there was at least five cringe worthy moments of what he said early on i was just like this is gonna be a shit show in a good way it's funny because he's like the curtains there and he's like let me out and you know it was great and

03:13:58.680 --> 03:14:00.480
Referencing parts of his mother's anatomy.

03:14:02.660 --> 03:14:04.280
I forgot about that!

03:14:06.921 --> 03:14:12.380
And it's funny because you can't see him. You just hear this disembodied voice saying this ridiculous...

03:14:12.380 --> 03:14:15.600
Yeah, from behind the curtain because they hadn't pulled the curtain back yet.

03:14:15.860 --> 03:14:23.660
He has somewhat of a natural operatic voice or at least when he goes into his Devon Townsend character on stage, which I think obviously he's...

03:14:23.660 --> 03:14:52.680
I think it's part him and part this kind of, I don't want to say psychosis, I think it's just his stage persona. He has this somewhat already operatic voice when he talks. He talks with such emphasis and to hear this coming from behind the curtain, it was almost like, is this the modern day Wizard of Oz? All of a sudden, he's the man behind the curtain. Bitch, take your dog and get out of here. We're closed today. And the best song he played all night was the opening song.

03:14:52.800 --> 03:15:22.780
T.R. would you like to comment on what that song was because I know you've played this song in your band. Oh right so right so yeah he starts just goofing around and uh and you know and perhaps it's because it's a fellow Canadian uh he he played uh the first maybe refrain or so of of summer of 69 which was pretty funny because he did it in a goofy voice and you know just

03:15:22.800 --> 03:15:50.720
Yeah, Brian Adams. Yeah, Brian Adams, for all you metalheads that don't know what that is. As soon as he did, I said, we are really in store for something we haven't seen in a long time. I've seen him so many times on tour. And he was singing it in a very gravelly, goofy sort of way. Not even like a harsh voice, but just like a, me and the guys from school. Yeah, we knew we were going to get something good.

03:15:52.820 --> 03:16:22.780
I think out of the four of us, it's safe to say I'm probably the biggest Devin Townsend fan of the four of us. Overall, I mean, I think you like him, George. I know Romy likes him, and T.R. you're not on the fence, but you haven't really gravitated to him that much. I'm certainly not on the fence anymore. No. I'll say this. I enjoy his live performances as long as the mix is good. And we'll talk about that, but the bottom line is he is immensely

03:16:23.879 --> 03:16:52.780
And you can't get offended by what he does. No. Because he... Because it's all a joke. I mean, it's all just in fun. Because he went after some people during the show, which was my personal favorite moment of the... Yeah. Which we'll get to. But he actually... He verbally... I wouldn't say he attacked him, but he called him out. He called him out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody was leaving the room, and he saw it, because they were going through the door by the side of the stage. Yeah, all the seats and down the...

03:16:52.800 --> 03:17:22.260
And he's waving. He's like, bye! Bye! Yeah, and then he, I guess, he said, will this make you happy? And he got in this just bizarre crouch and just started noodle soloing. Like, is this making you happy? You're gonna stay now? It's just neurotic city. Yeah, that was one of my many favorite moments of the night. Yeah. And I loved how they would just be, like, playing something that's very, like, lush and textured.

03:17:22.820 --> 03:17:52.780
And he and Annie, as he called her, were singing something. And then, much like Gentle Storm, all of a sudden, wow, they just jump into something heavy as hell. And I love, he's such a tall, lanky, strange-looking guy with a bald head. And when he gets down into his, like... It's like a gorilla crouch. He's like, you know, sort of like the Hansi pose, but not quite so calisthenic-looking, where he gets forward and he's got his guitar forward and he's...

03:17:52.800 --> 03:18:22.500
and he clenches his neck and all the veins are popping out. And he's just like... There's that weird thing where he hunches over too when he's playing. And he just kind of does that big stomp and he has that funny face. He's kind of got that ragey face where he's scrunching it up and he's like... And his arms are so long. It's like when he goes and puts them out it's like... He's got a really wide wingspan there.

03:18:22.800 --> 03:18:51.840
That was so enjoyable. Minus the fact that, I don't think we need to waste time, really, but they had a serious amount of mixing problems where we couldn't hear. You could hear almost as if it was stage presence only, as if it was monitors only. Yeah, and you couldn't hear them for probably half the show until they had a serious technical issue with the computer on. I don't know if the computer dropped out or whatever. And he was making fun of it, talking about, you know,

03:18:52.820 --> 03:19:22.780
on these computers and then they fuck you. So basically his acoustic guitar was not, the signal wasn't going back. And so basically when he strummed it you got nothing. So he threw it off the stage and was get rid of this guitar and bring me back my other guitar. And then the acoustic guitar worked and it seemed like from there the sound wasn't 100% but it did get better. It got better and it still should have been better. Yeah and then what he did there was basically, because

03:19:23.500 --> 03:19:52.780
He's all about the wall of sound and all this backing stuff that fills out everything. And what he called it was a campfire song where he wanted everybody to kind of sing along with him. And Annika was out there and he was there and he had his acoustic guitar. And it was super cool because we had kind of... You could just tell that they were kind of struggling

03:19:52.820 --> 03:19:57.460
with the mix and it was kind of frustrating and for the first time you could hear

03:19:57.700 --> 03:20:22.780
everybody. You could hear the guitar, you could hear him, you could hear her and it was just a really cool moment because everybody was singing along and it was just a really, it kind of for the moment banished all the kind of feelings of frustration that I was feeling. I was feeling it too. Where it was like, oh man, why can't we hear her? Why can't we hear him? I mean, there were times when you could

03:20:22.800 --> 03:20:51.480
hear him or his guitar. You could hear his guitar and then you couldn't really hear it. It was just very strange. I'm not quite sure what was going on there. I know you thought it might have been the wall sound, but I feel that when he did play the acoustic guitar, he still couldn't hear that that well. There was nobody else out there but him. That's what made me think it might have been the mix. Who knows? Damn you, Lisa Furr. Yeah. Whoever you are, you got some work to do.

03:20:52.400 --> 03:21:21.600
Apparently her name was Lisa, but Devin called her Lisa-fur. Yeah, which was a bummer because I thought Annika was really belting out some songs. She was. And I think we could hear her purely on her own. Voice alone. Yeah, voice alone. I think there were a couple times, because we were fairly close. I mean, we were maybe, I don't know. Less than 100 feet? Yeah. I'm not that far. And so there were times when she was singing,

03:21:22.400 --> 03:21:26.720
I know that we were hearing her just natural voice over everything.

03:21:27.180 --> 03:21:31.040
Like just purely without any amplification because she's that powerful.

03:21:31.300 --> 03:21:35.300
Yeah, like the first song, you couldn't hear either of them.

03:21:35.500 --> 03:21:41.720
And then you could hear her doing like just like back up, you know, kind of things.

03:21:42.100 --> 03:21:44.360
And Devin's sitting there singing, and all you hear is her.

03:21:44.410 --> 03:21:49.820
And I'm like, well, as good as is to hear her, but we should probably hear him too.

03:21:50.360 --> 03:22:18.860
You knew something was up when she actually got frustrated. The whole weekend, she had nothing but smiles the whole weekend and thanking everyone and saying, I love you, every two seconds. She got frustrated and walked off stage to change mics. They didn't even have another mic. I thought it was very odd that they didn't have another mic for her. She had to sing on the main mic a couple times. You know what? They were professionals. They worked it through and kept going strong and hard. Before I forget,

03:22:20.360 --> 03:22:49.880
I don't know if we have any more about Devin, but you should talk about your super secret show. Oh, yeah. Yes. So the gold badge and VIP people get a special show on Saturday at noon. And today's special show was, and by the way, we pay for it too. It's not a freebie. Yeah, but you get the opportunity to go. And I say that because I think that helps get us the show. And we're all glad we pay. But we got Annika Van Giesburg again, all acoustic, just her.

03:22:50.360 --> 03:22:50.700
and a guitar.

03:22:51.240 --> 03:22:51.560
And her boobs.

03:22:52.620 --> 03:22:53.640
She made reference to that.

03:22:53.780 --> 03:22:54.900
Yes, she did.

03:22:56.680 --> 03:22:58.880
I'm going to keep that a secret for us gold badge, people.

03:22:59.340 --> 03:23:01.920
You'll just have to wonder what she said about them.

03:23:03.740 --> 03:23:05.040
She's a very funny woman.

03:23:05.820 --> 03:23:08.000
I mean, she has a natural presence on stage.

03:23:11.399 --> 03:23:13.220
And there were people crying in the audience.

03:23:14.300 --> 03:23:19.400
I myself felt a wave of emotion during one song because her voice is so beautiful.

03:23:19.740 --> 03:23:49.340
And yet so painful singing some of the songs. And some of the lyrics are rough on some of the ones she did. And it became Happy Time. She did a lot of covers. I mean, a lot. You said she did Jolene? She closed with Jolene by Dolly Parton. She did a Fleetwood Mac song, which I didn't know. She did Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. She did a Queen song. I'm trying to think of what else she did. Oh, the song that surprised me. It surprised you, Tara, when I mentioned to you. She pulled out Drowning Man from U2.

03:23:49.760 --> 03:24:19.620
Which is, we're talking ultra deep. And she's like, I don't think this is famous. I'm thinking, not famous. I don't think anyone remembers that song at all. For those of us who are early true youth, I mean, that's going way back. And actually, that's a favorite of mine. And I kind of wish I'd seen her do that. So now, what kind of stuff did she do of her own? Was it like her own solo stuff or other kind of? Yeah, she did some gathering songs. And I think she did some of her stuff.

03:24:19.760 --> 03:24:48.800
But I'd have to go back and look because I was a little iffy on one or two songs. But I'd say half the set were covers. And I know some people were a little, you know, butthurt over it. It's her show, first of all. This is a bonus. Yeah, it's not an actual tour show. It's a bonus that she did. Just as a heads up, folks, she just got off the line with Devin, you know, going through their sound check.

03:24:49.100 --> 03:25:17.160
She literally left soundcheck with Devin Townsend, ran upstairs, quickly changed, or did something for five minutes, and jumped into another hour and some odd minute set. So for all those people out there who are a little butthurt she didn't play enough of her own stuff, get over yourself. Who are you? I mean, just enjoy it for what it is. Would I have liked to hear more of her stuff? Of course. But at the same time, her singing Wish You Were Here is fucking badass. And she's playing the guitar. She tried. She admitted that she wasn't great.

03:25:17.200 --> 03:25:17.560
Yeah.

03:25:17.910 --> 03:25:19.460
But she's more than proficient.

03:25:20.040 --> 03:25:22.920
Of course, she picked a song that you need to really nail.

03:25:23.570 --> 03:25:28.020
Meaning that he has such a distinct style and sound.

03:25:28.560 --> 03:25:29.520
And she still pulled it off.

03:25:30.120 --> 03:25:31.280
She could sing the phone book.

03:25:32.340 --> 03:25:32.480
Yeah.

03:25:32.510 --> 03:25:33.080
And here's the thing.

03:25:33.090 --> 03:25:34.120
It was only supposed to be an hour.

03:25:34.160 --> 03:25:36.220
She was running 15 minutes late because of sound check.

03:25:36.630 --> 03:25:39.640
And Glenn came out and he said she's going to play her whole show.

03:25:40.380 --> 03:25:43.040
Quite frankly, I could care less how long she could play all day if she wants to.

03:25:43.040 --> 03:25:44.540
I don't care what she could do or whatever she wants.

03:25:45.300 --> 03:26:15.160
And she had finished her set and walked off stage. And the lights came on and everybody left. And she came out and she started saying, where are you going? This is a game. I'm supposed to go off stage and you're supposed to call me back. And I was like, oh my God, they want me to come back and do another song. How wonderful. You're supposed to call me back. And literally she says, where is everybody? Everyone's God. And literally half the place cleared out. And then she says, well, now I feel like an asshole. Well, if they hadn't put the lights up, probably they wouldn't have done that.

03:26:15.280 --> 03:26:44.580
But here it is, everyone left, and she's joking, self-deprecating about herself. So I was like, this can't end. I don't want it to end. So it was very fun. Right on. All right, well, that's Prog Power for this year. Did you want to do your top and bottom threes? Yes. So top three bands this week. Bottom three bands.

03:26:45.300 --> 03:27:13.100
3 is... I think we got that pretty well. Your number 1 is your number 1, and your number 1 worst is the shittiest. Yeah. Top 3 is no problem. Well, almost no problem. Normally on the podcast, we do 3, 2, 1... I'd say we just do the 3. I'd say we just each do our list and then move on. Okay. So why don't we start with TR. What are your... I don't know, you want to do bottom 3?

03:27:15.280 --> 03:27:43.360
was so much easier for me. Obviously, Fates was huge for me, and I really enjoyed that. That was number one. And I got to say Gentle Storm had to be second because that was really a tremendous performance, and I was actually moved by that. I really thought it was really, it was an amazing performance. Number three for me,

03:27:46.199 --> 03:28:13.300
This is really hard because there were a lot of great bands at this Prog Power. I've been to a couple of Prog Powers now. This is the best one by far. Yeah. This, for me, thus far, was probably the one with the most bands that I enjoyed. And really, other than... I'll go with my lowest three now, which would be Haken because that... What was your third one?

03:28:15.300 --> 03:28:45.260
Now I'm mixing it up. So other than that, there were really actually, to be honest, there weren't any really, there weren't other, okay, so I didn't really care for Spock's Beard a whole lot, but. So like your number two? Yeah, that would probably be like my number two bad. So Hagen, Spock's Beard. But, but, you know, when you look at all the bands, and there were plenty of bands I didn't know, they were actually, I enjoyed

03:28:45.680 --> 03:29:15.260
almost all the bands really because they all did a pretty good show and I felt like there really wasn't anything that I really deplored you know overall I felt like everything everybody came and it was like yeah this is pretty good and maybe it's not like I'm gonna go out and buy all their stuff but I was entertained they did a good show they were good musicians I'm good you know so

03:29:16.200 --> 03:29:42.960
So maybe that's what I'll do. I'll do two and two. Fates and General Storm. And then on the bottom, Haken and Spock's Beard. Even though I don't think that that's representative of Spock's Beard. So I really don't... I mean, it just didn't reach me. Because I really don't... They didn't play badly. I thought they were... As musicians, they're very good. It just didn't reach me musically.

03:29:45.280 --> 03:30:11.700
You know, just you didn't get it. It just wasn't like my favorite or I just didn't care for it. So it's like I thought they, you know, from the standpoint of did they play well? Yes. Was it a good mix? Yes. Was everything really pretty decent? Yeah. But did it reach me? No. I just didn't. That's fair. Because two of my three are that way too. I didn't hate them. I just didn't do anything. Am I doing mine now? Yes, you are.

03:30:15.300 --> 03:30:44.960
the best. So going three to one, I'm going to go Dragon Force first. Or as my number three. I wasn't into them and I'm not, I didn't like them already. So I was like, eh. Didn't hate them at all. Didn't dislike them. Just they did nothing for me. I'm sure power metal fans are sharpening up their dragons. You know, they got to do what they got to do.

03:30:47.739 --> 03:31:15.260
Thanks to you laughing, I forgot my number... My number two? My number two. I'm now forgetting my number two. So my number two and number one are going to be combined. Number two is Haken, and my number one was Haken. I've got a number three for the best. Pyramids was really...

03:31:15.280 --> 03:31:44.400
top-notch. That was really a great show. That was cool. And I don't want to forget that because Fates, boom. Gentle Storm, wow. And then Pyramids. I knew nothing about them, and they just had an incredible show with each of the singers, and I was amazed by each one of them, and the band was really good with each one. So I don't want to leave that out. Okay. I do have a number two. It was Circus Maximus. I couldn't remember.

03:31:44.440 --> 03:32:14.400
I did not dislike them I just don't like the two new last two albums so it just yeah they were your Spock's beard they were yeah it didn't hate them at all actually and and they were enjoyable to watch in terms of their performance just I didn't like the music all right so my top three I'm gonna put Devin Townsend a three only because I'm a fanatic for him and I thought the show got better as it went along and it was an absolute it was a circus my number two is gonna surprise you guys

03:32:14.420 --> 03:32:43.600
It's Fate's Warning. As much as I love their set and I wanted to see Awaken of Guardian, it could not top Gentle Storm for me. And I'm throwing in the acoustic show with that. It just could not top it for me because she's my favorite singer, male or female, and the energy from them, I didn't expect them to put out what they did. And everything, it seemed like everything went well, they had no issues, and the sound was great. So they're my number one, Gentle Storm.

03:32:43.840 --> 03:33:13.800
So basically Annika Van Geersbergen was my whole weekend. Wow. So if Buke and Jay were here right now, they would have a fucking cow because John's list and my list is exactly the same in every way. We did not talk about that. We did not. Would they be sharpening their dragons? Yes. My third hated is Dragon Force. My second is Circus Maximus. And my number one hated band is...

03:33:13.820 --> 03:33:43.040
is Haken. Yeah, Haken on Haken. Haken bacon. Haken's a bacon. And then my top three that I loved, number three was Devin. Number two, surprisingly, was Fate's Warning. Number one, Gentle Storm. That just blew me away like nothing did all week. I could not believe that. You know what I think? Because I think we knew what we were getting with Fate's Warning. We knew we were getting Awaken to Guardian. We just didn't know how it was going to translate. Exactly. It was awesome and incredible for what it was, and it's something that I never thought I was going to see.

03:33:43.620 --> 03:34:13.560
However, it was a known thing, and Gentle Storm just came in and just stole everything with something that had no idea that could happen. Yeah, I agree. I mean, as soon as she started dropping Gathering and Arian songs, I was like, oh, this is gonna just crush me. And it did. Yeah. All right. Any last remarks? Awesome time with you guys. Really, I really,

03:34:13.600 --> 03:34:42.600
I truly mean that. And I had a fabulous time at the festival. And I watched more bands this year than I ever have of any festival. Next year, maybe not so much. Maybe next year, if it's just me or whoever, I'll force myself to watch bands to enjoy the festival for what it is. And I'm ready to go home, but I'm looking forward to next year already. Right on. And I just want to thank you guys for including me today.

03:34:42.780 --> 03:35:12.180
and all the other days on the podcast. This has been a lot of fun. It was great meeting you. It's been a pleasure. And, you know, it's been a pleasure meeting the Cougar Bush. And I'm stroking the Cougar Bush right now. And so, yeah, I've, you know, I've been listening now for a while. As a friend of John's, when he clued me into the podcast, I've been checking out various episodes and enjoying the,

03:35:13.779 --> 03:35:39.340
All that the podcast has to offer. The camaraderie. The camaraderie. The beer-fueled calamity, if you will. And so it's really a pleasure to take part in that and to meet you, George, and to have the fun we had this week. It was a blast. So thanks very much. I appreciate it. No problem. Anytime. All right. Well, I'm going to close this segment with a question. Where's Romy?

03:35:44.760 --> 03:36:10.560
Hello. When last we met, we wondered, where is Romy? Well, we found out where Romy was. Where was Romy? He was actually back at the hotel the whole time as we were. We just had a little miscommunication, and we missed him. And he didn't know where we were, and we just didn't link up either direction. So we missed him for our post-mortem from the festival. So sorry, Romy.

03:36:12.800 --> 03:36:39.360
there with us to help finish things up. Currently, John and I are on Route 81 heading north, heading home. And we made another stop at the beer store. John actually made a comment earlier. How did it go? I just can't stop buying beer bottles. And you kept saying, step away from the beer. And I said, I can't help myself.

03:36:42.800 --> 03:37:12.660
something like, there's more beer in here than luggage. Yeah. There's more beer in the car than luggage, which actually is true. Oh, boy. So that should be fun unloading the car when I get home. Yeah. So the festival's over. We're headed home. It feels like there should be a Jackson Brown song about this. Okay. But what is that called?

03:37:12.800 --> 03:37:42.760
The Loadout? You know what I'm talking about? Yes, I know what you're talking about. Okay. I don't know. I figured we should just say something about Enclosure. Well, I do have something to say Enclosure. We have Romy's top two. I can't remember his top three. Oh, that's right. But I'll do it real quick. His two was Fate's Warning, and his number one band for the weekend was, and we predicted this, Green Carnation. So, I can't

03:37:44.119 --> 03:38:12.140
I can't remember. So sorry for not remembering Romy, but I got at least her top two. Excellent. And no bottoms? No. I figured, ah, what's the point of that, you know. Because you didn't see as many bands, so I don't know if he'd be able to come up with a bottom or not. That's true. No point in asking. Alrighty. So yeah, I mean, it was a great week. It went by really fast.

03:38:12.800 --> 03:38:42.700
Got very little sleep. And it just, it was so nonstop. It was so different than Death Fest, which was a lot more relaxed and like, you know, you watch a band, you don't watch a band, you wander around. There's just not as much room to wander around there because of, if, you know, unless somebody's actually physically playing on the stage, the merch and food areas,

03:38:42.800 --> 03:39:12.760
are really packed. So it's kind of like, well, you don't want to go wandering around then. I think also this year we wanted to see most of the bands. Even because we wanted to save our seats for the headliners. So we, because we got, we had good seats all four nights, I think. Yeah. And in past years, I watched maybe half the bands and people were like, oh, why aren't you watching every band? Because I don't want to. But I want to walk around and look at merch. And while merch is not as much as it used to be in terms of quantity, I still

03:39:12.780 --> 03:39:40.340
They still walk around the area. But it was just packed because they had a lot of food vendors this time compared to previous years. But when there's fewer bands to watch, I leave the hotel and I go somewhere. I find a bar or I get something to eat. Some tacos. Yeah, we missed out on the tacos this year. But I go down to Vortex, which is always a fun place to go to. This year we went to World of Beer. I met you guys down there after I saw the Annika Van Geersberg and Acoustic Gold Badge VIP show.

03:39:43.460 --> 03:40:11.160
I'm usually back and forth. I go back to the hotel and crash for a little bit and come back. It's different because Death Vest is constant but you can kind of walk out to the parking lot and hang out. Whereas in Prague Power you have to do a little walk in to get somewhere. So yeah, you're right. If you're stuck at the venue, it's a long day because you don't really go very far. Yeah, it was like 8 to 10 hours of like hardly going anywhere. Just sort of like your seat, the bathroom, your seat, maybe the food vendor, your seat.

03:40:12.820 --> 03:40:40.940
We don't care about keeping our seats. When you don't care about keeping our seats, then it's fine. People are wandering in back and forth and grabbing poaching seats that open up all the time. We actually had, I mean, our line of sight was great and our distance was super. Even though the pictures look far away, we were really close all four nights. So, yeah. All right. Well, I guess that's pretty much the end then. I can't think of anything else to say. So,

03:40:43.699 --> 03:40:55.940
We'll see you with a new episode in a couple of weeks. So hopefully this can hold you over until then. Alright. Talk to you later. Bye.