ProgPowerUSA September 26-27 2008 (and the 25th!)
This year I finally was able to attend the ninth annual Progressive and Power Metal festival in my hometown of Atlanta. Over the years, some of the biggest and best bands from around the world have come for a weekend of music and fun and I cannot believe this was my first one!
Without even considering the festival aspect, I bought tickets almost a year ago because
Riverside was playing. Over the last couple of years this Progressive Rock band from Poland has become one of my top favorites and they planned a rare US appearance at ProgPowerUSA IX.
Once the tickets were in hand, I began investigating the other bands on the bill. As I listened, some I have come to love, like
Andromeda and
Amorphis while others were not my cup of tea. That I was going to see several bands I enjoyed, all at the same place in one weekend was irresistible.
Never having been, I was blown away by the atmosphere and the people. The Center Stage Theater in Atlanta is a perfect venue for such an event. Capacity is about 1100 and every seat has a great view. Dim lighting and couches surrounding the arena gave the place a feeling of a nightclub or private party. Music fans from all over met and got to know each other, bands would come and join the social atmosphere.
When time for the signings came, fans lined up, met the bands and walked away happy with autographs and pictures. No security, no hassles. Inside the show, there were no fights, no mosh pits just a lot of rock and great fun. This was one of the most well behaved crowds in my concert going career, which now numbers in the thousands of shows.
Bryn, Lisa and I made the 12+ hour trip without a hitch. Jon Freeman at SPV (thanks, bro!) hooked us up with tickets for the Hellish Tour, whose stop in Atlanta was added to the ProgPowerUSA fest on Thursday night, Sept 25.
Manticora opened the show and while I am not a huge fan of this metal band from Denmark, they did put on a great performance.
Gamma Ray was next (the co-headliner with
Helloween) and what a performance! Having only heard their latest CD a couple of times before the shows, I was unsure what to expect. A mixture of metal and arena rock, these guys put on a hell of a rock show. Although Kai Hansen was an original member of
Helloween, he has found his calling as the leader of
Gamma Ray.
Having never seen
Helloween before but semi-familiar with their music, they were better than I expected. While Andi Deris was a fine front man, I was more impressed by the guitar duo of Michael Weikath and Sascha Gerstner. They was they worked together reminded me of older Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, trading leads and loving every minute of it. The evening was only a taste of what was to come.
Friday was the official start of ProgPowerUSA and the Italian Prog-metal band
Pathosray started things off. Having listened to their debut, I was even more impressed with their live performance. It is not easy to start a crowd off at four in the afternoon, when the audience knows five other bands are following but
Pathosray did an impressive job of generating excitement.
Next was the Italian Fantasy-metal band
Elvenking and all I knew before I got there was what I had heard on their Myspace page. The interesting part to their mix was the addition of a violin player, which gave their medieval brand of metal additional layers of sound.
Of the bands I discovered only because of their placement on the festival list,
Andromeda has become one of my all-time favorites. After checking out their Myspace pages, I picked up their three CD releases, plus their new live DVD long before we got to Atlanta. The Swedish band plays Progressive Metal in the vein of Dream Theater but they do not sound like anyone else. They have evolved since their first release and their latest, The Immunity Zone (released one week before the Atlanta show), is arguably their best yet. Their performance was one of the strongest of the weekend, marred only by some technical difficulties during the last song that was beyond their control. Many people in the audience were impressed with their set and the professional way they recovered from the end of set problems. I will not miss them the next time they come stateside. (I “bumped” into them the next day and have started a friendship with
David Fremberg, the lead singer. Details in chronological order i.e., part 2.)
The German metal band
Iron Savior was next and although they gave it their all, their Judas Priest-style rock was our cue to make a food run. The festival has bars but no food, so they allow pass outs and there are a few restaurants within a block of the venue.
We got back in plenty of time to see the band that brought us to ProgPowerUSA,
Riverside, and we were not disappointed. A couple of years ago, a last.fm friend Dee told me that is I enjoyed Porcupine Tree as much as I appeared to, I should check out Riverside. I have since picked up all four releases, including the German 2-disc edition of their latest CD, Rapid Eye Movement. (And I cannot wait for their first live DVD next month!!) To say I am a fan is an understatement but nothing prepared me for the ‘live face” of Riverside.
Mariusz Duda, vocalist and bassist, has said there are two sides to
Riverside: the studio and the live. And he is absolutely correct; the band plays like they are on fire live. These days it is rare that a band floors my jaded concert-going self, but I was picking my jaw off the floor during their entire set. (Even other bands the next day were asking, “Did you see
Riverside? Wow!”!) I will never miss a
Riverside tour again.
Wrapping up the first night was
Amorphis, a band who came all the way from Finland to headline the festival. I have enjoyed their last two releases and was looking forward to seeing them live.
Amorphis started as a death metal band but had become more progressive in the 21st century. With their lead vocalist change in 2005, Tomi Joutsen is versatile enough to handle clean melodic vocals while bringing back some death growl elements from the bands early works. Being as old school as I am, few bands with death growl vocal turn me on,
Opeth being the largest exception to the rule.
Amorphis now joins that short list as there was no denying their electrifying performance. Powerful yet melodic,
Amorphis was a worthy closer to ProgPowerUSA Day 1.
Details about Day 2, meeting some of the bands and looking forward to next year will be in the next installment. Thanks for reading!
Helloween
The Scythe, which was SO awesome. It was great being right up front ! They also played Infection and 
