(pictures included throughout).
Getting There
Wednesday night/thursday morning: Pick up Goltark and motor our asses all the way to Atlanta, Goal: Pick up Curufin and Shippou (NeoGohan) From the Atlanta Airport at 500pm. We left at 230am. Drove all that way and ended up at the airport about 10 minuites after their flights got in. So we picked them up and whatever, and skirted back to our hotel. Well, what we thought was our hotel. See, The Granada had a room reserved for 5 people on Curufins Card, but for whatever reason, It got denied. So they gave the room away at 4pm that day. We got there about 530. At this point, I'm mildly upset, because I've been up since wednesday at 11am. So we eventually get a $50 discount and thrown into a single room, with a kingsize bed and a pull out couch. Whatever. It's somewhere to crash for the night. We get into the room and bam, no couch. Feck. So whatever. We get cots, pillows, towels, and beer and settle in for the night. More bad stuff happens, but in the end it's cool cause Curufin got drunk and I worked up a pretty good buzz, (and being very overtired) So after much fun of drunken stupor and getting to know each other, we crashed... at like 3am.
Day 1:
Friday: Get up at 8am and find out the hotel manager is from 30 minuites away from where I live. After some idle chitchat, we get things worked out and it's (mostly) all good. Cool. Head down for some breakfast, and marvel at the 2 Suits tried to make head and tales of all the metal heads that had invaded the hotel. I'm sure I saw some of the bands down there, but Hell if I knew what any of them looked like. So we get in line for ProgPower at 11am. First in line too. Good stuff. Hour goes by and who walks in but fuckin NIGHTWISH themselves!! Of course, I'm all like =O to say anything or whatever, and I'm sure they had a long trip anyway, so whatever. Sit there for a bit, and Tuomas (the nightwish keyboardest) came out and walked around a bit before going back in. Cool. He came back out some time later, and I had a few words with him, mainly good luck, and hope you guys rock tonight. He seemed more than happy to chat. Very cool guy. Curufin and I eventually got our pictures taken with him and his tour manager, who seemed more than happy to comply. Cool.
K.. the Bands:
Redemption
I didn't know what to really expect from these guys, and I can't say I was surprized by their performance, nor was I disappointed, really, at all. They didn't leave a hugely influencial mark on my "must listen to these guys" list, but they were a very good opener. I was banging my head a bit to them. Not too heavy, not really bad. Good stuff. I wouldn't mind seeing them back at PP5.
Mercenary
According to the program, Mercenary wasn't exactly a popular choice among PP4 goers, and the band knew it. Despite this, when the curtain opened, they immediately started tearing it up. I had no idea they were so frowned upon before they even got a chance to play, and I was looking more forward to seeimg them than anyone other than Nightwish. Fortunately, I was up front on the left side of the stage, and was not 10" from the stage too. They announced Mercenary and I went fucking bonkers. The crowd seemed to be headbaning a bit, but I gave them everything I had. My arm didn't come down during their entire set, nor did my head stop moving, and I was actually able to sing along. Gotark and Majin_Kenshin from the BG board were both right there with me, enjoying the hell out of the show (though neither had heard any of Mercenary's prior to the show) .. Mikkel (the lead singer) and Kral (the bassist + growels) seemed to really appreciate us as they graced us with their presence through most of the set, despite being on the far left of the stage. There wasn't one song that Mikkel wasn't over bending down in front of us headbanging and singing to us, nor one song Kral didn't look over and give us the \m/ (metal horns) ... Fucking incredible. After the (sadly short) set, Jakob made his way off the stage, setlist in hand, and guess who he gave it to? Well, here's a guess. ... I managed to go to the band signing the next day and have them all sign it for me. They were all very cool about signing it, and even seemed impressed when I produced the setlist. They're wicked cool. I got a poster from them too. I'm going to frame the poster, and put the setlist in the frame too.
Mercenary Pics:
Mercenary 1[url=http://www.goatproductions.net/progpower4/mercenary2.JPG]
Mercenary 2[/url]
Mercenary 3
Mercenary 4
Mercenary 5
Mercenary 6
Setlist, for those who missed it above.
Vanden Plas
God Almighty did these guys SUCK. I had never heard of them until that night, so I really didn't know what to expect. Someone told me they're a pretty good powermetal band with some prog style. I dunno. They had absolutely NO stage presence, no charisma, their performance was flat, dull, and just booring. I would have definitely liked to see either of the first two bands grab up the one hour slot over these guys any day. Not impressive at ALL. In fact, I had to catch myself more than once to not yawn during their stuff. I mean, I was right in the front, I'd have felt terrible If they were to look at me, and I'm yawning my ass off. (Boredom didn't help, but I was mostly getting pretty tired after that. As I said, I gave Mercenary just about everything I had.) Either way, Ick. Waste of an hour.
Nightwish
Supposedly the cream of the crop, the big draw, the reason everyone was here. Yah, I was hella pumped about seeing them, and they didn't dissapoint.. too much. See, They're from Finland, and this was their first US show. They were jetlagged to hell, I'm sure, and while you couldn't tell from Emppu, Jukka, Tuomas, or Marco, Tarja was just kinda zoned through the whole gig. I give her a lot of credit, she tried to put a lot of energy into everything she did, but she didn't talk to the crowd, hardly at all, that was mostly left up to Marco (Bass)...which was sweet, cause he did rule, to my surprize, but you could tell she just wasn't handling the time zone difference well yet. At one point, she needed to take a 5-10 minuite break, so the band did a cover of Crazy Train, which fuckin ruled. We were right in front of Tuomas, and got a few glances from the rest of the band every now and again, and I pulled everything else I had out of my reserve tank to sing along and throw whatever energy I could at them. They did play a fair amount of songs for an hour and a half, and a lot of good oens too. I was happy to have seen them. I think the highlights of this set was getting half a beer from Tuomas (the can has most likely been thrown out at this point cause my dumbass self left it at the fucking hotel), and hearing "Over the Hills and Far Away" as the closer. I must say I did enjoy this performance immensely. Emppu is fucking hilarious when he throws picks into the crowd. You'd have to see the look on his face.
Nightwish Pictures
Nighwish 1
Nighwish 2
Nighwish 3
Nighwish 4
Nighwish 5
Nighwish 6
Nighwish 7
Nighwish 8
Nighwish 9
Nighwish 10
Nighwish 11
Nighwish 12
Nighwish 13
And then there was SyX ... who was pretty ok, Goltark and I made the mistake of sitting in seats paralell to the speakers. my ears were fine until then. Dumb dumb dumb. As always, when I see them live, this being time #2, their guitar and drumwork leave me incredibly impressed. Love them live, hate them on CD. They played oddesy or whatever too, it was pretty sweet. Too bad I nearly feel asleep. No pics. =/



