FIRST DAY: PRE PARTY WITH ECPLIPSED BY SANITY,MIDNIGHT, AND CIRCLE 2 CIRCLE.

Ever since my buddy Taylor turned me onto the Prog/Power fest a couple of years ago, I am a total fan of this yearly show/party/reunion! It is all about the Progressive/Power/Melodic Metal movement that has been somewhat underground in the USA for some time. It is pretty much unknown here in America,but for a few lucky obsessed prog-snobs that grace the Center Stage theater every year for 9 years now, its all about this music and the people who love it! Glenn Harveston puts on this show once a year in Atlanta, Georgia with his loyal crew of stagehands/music lovers and he is sold out every year! Next year at Prog/Power X is one of his best line-ups to date, but I dont want to get ahead of myself. The show starts with the pre party up in the Loft at the Center Stage and then ends with a drunken Metal Kareoke down in the Vinyl Bar, where you can sometimes see some major singer from some killer band kicking peoples asses to some classic rock!
First of all on wedsday, we have to get to our hotel rooms and get ready for the first night. Its going to be a long and crazy four days, so you got to get prepared for some craziness and fun! I get to stay on my first nite with Bear, one of my good buddies from San Fransisco and Eric who also promote Bay Area Rock Fest.

Bear and me getting ready for the first big nite!!

The absolute first thing we do is get the hotel driver to take us to get beer(A P.P. Staple!) and go to eat at Gladys Nights Chicken and Waffles, which was so amazing!!! We can barely walk after that meal and we take the Marta (Train) back to the hotel and get ready for our first nite of metal!
We head over to the PP center of metal madness and party’s, the Grenada, which is walking distance, and meet up with our fellow metal-heads at the pre-party,pre party, Happy Hour! Thats where you get your $2 beers and get ready for the first show. We meet up with a bunch of people, mostly well seasoned PP vetrans, and start the nite off good with a few beers and metal chat. We are all excited for another killer PP fest and are anxiously awaiting the first nite!

The crew at the Grenada!!

Zak, Me, and Mitch from C2C!!!

First There is a killer young metal band from Atlanta called Eclipsed By Sanity with Patrick “Hoyt” Parris on vocals that put on a kick ass show! Pat’s dad, Hoyt, from Pathfinder Productions asked me to come check them out and I am glad I did. Eclipsed By Sanity is a balanced blend of Progressive Power and Thrash metal including a fair share of melody, harmonization, and in your face guitar work.(Taken from their Myspace page…) This band really can go far if they keep up what they are doing! Pat is a cool frontman and has the look to bring in the ladies!

Pat Hoyt Parris!!

Then after a few libations and some chatting with Zak, Mitch, and Bill from C2C we settle in for something that we cannot explain later. A set from Midnight of Crimson Glory fame with John “Spock” Zahner, and Matt LaPorte backing him up. I never got into CG, but I hear from my friends that they were incredible, but looking at the small fraile man onstage I was like this guy was a killer lead singer back in the day??

He was doing some weird spoken word stuff and looked like he was completely lost at one point. It looked In my opinion to be a train wreck. Everyone at the show was completely confused as to what they just saw so we just shrugged it off, had another beer and moved on to wait for Circle 2 Circle…

The night was saved by Circle 2 Circle who jumped onstage and gave the crowd a burst of energy that we needed after that! After more beers and more killer metal I was feeling great! C2C was so fucking kick-ass that I had to stop shooting for a bit and just enjoy the metal onslaught and bang my head for a few tunes like, Fatal Warning amd Soulbreaker, and Chase the Lies! This band is truely one of my faves for the sheer melodies and great vocals of Zak Stevens. Zak Stevens throwin some metal!

The addtion of Bill Hudson on guitars really jump started this band and gave them an extra added energy. It seemed like he had been with them from the start as good as he was meshing with the band.

Mitch was having a blast on keys and bass and just cutting up for the crowd

I love this band and hope they go far with their brand of US Metal! They deserve it!!
After the show we hang with the C2C guys and go down to Vinyl for the metal Kareoke show. We meet some great new metal-heads and some old friends there and some really cool guys from Saint Deamon were hangin with us.

Nobby, Jan, from Saint Deamon and Sascha from Helloween and Frode Johnsrud, Pagans Mind Manger!!

Nobby the bass player and Jan Thore, their singer, had many beers with us and we partied til we were kicked out. I got to see Jan sing some Zep songs and see how amazing his voice was before they kicked our asses on sat nite! Now I was really excited to see this new band of Nor-Swedes play! Nobby and Jan thore!!! Our drinking buddies the whole weekend!

Even Kai Hansen from Gamma Ray was hanging out late into the night!!

And even get to chat with amazing vocalist Lance King!!

We had a total blast and got a ride back to our hotel by the sweet bartender Whitney. Me and Bear and Eric laugh our asses off til God knows what time when we finally pass out….. PP day one over…

Myspace pages:

http://www.myspace.com/circleiicircle

http://www.myspace.com/eclipsedbysanity

http://www.myspace.com/t42midnight

2 comments:

no1trekman2002 said…

Great Vocals, Great Music. And one beautiful Metal Lovin Babe!! What more could you ask for. Love it.Since you enjoy CIIC, I bet you would love Savatage too. 😉

February 1, 2009 at 5:11 AM

Leah Burlington said…

Hahaha! Never was a HUGE fan but still dig them…JOP was killer!!

February 14, 2009 at 3:43 AM

EDGUY

( I went to this show last year and finally am getting the review up…sorry it took so long!!)

OCT 25TH San Fransisco & OCT 26th Hollywood 2008

One thing that I will never understand is why we dont get any killer Prog/Power Metal bands in Vegas. It sucks that I have to travel to another state to see some of the most incredible and extremely talented Prog and Power Metal bands from all over the world! Every time there is a tour they pass Vegas by. They hit Phoenix, LA or SF and then,whoa, what happened to Vegas?? We were lucky one time and got Iced Earth. They sold 300 tix at the HOB, but I tell ya they were the most rabid metal fans you could ever see! And we actually got Nightwish last year to a count of like 900 in attendance. Not bad for Vegas!!

So when I saw that two of my fave Prog/Power bands, Edguy and Kamelot were going to be doing a tour together, I was ablazed with enthusiasm!! But then I saw what I was afraid of, no Vegas date…great, again I would have to take time off work and fly to LA or SF to go see two of my heroic bands. So guess what? I said fuck it and managed to get three days off, a round trip ticket from Vegas to Frisco and Frisco to LA and had two great friends to stay with in both towns. I was like, “I might as well see them twice!!”It was an ingenious plan!! It wasnt too expensive and so I booked my flights!!

My first stop was in Frisco to stay with my friend Bear who promoted BAR-Fest last year and go to SLIM’s to see these two amazing bands! SLIM’s is a small club that holds maybe 6-800 people and it is a bitch to see any bands unless you are right up front. I saw Symphony X and Epica there earlier last year and was lucky enough to be in the tiny photo-pit so that I could watch the show without getting crushed. It was amazing having Russell Allen sweating above me and making faces at me all nite!! Lol!!

Bear and I in Frisco!!

So we get there to a packed house and its already totally fucked to get up front but me and Squeak(The other killer Photog in ‘da house) manage. Dirk from EDGUY totally hooked me up with a photo pass so I was stoked to be shooting off the cuff!

Danger Dirk!!

I have never seen either of these bands and I am so excited I can barely see straight! So we get into position in the tiny pit and out come the always enthusiastic and bombastic EDGUY!!! I hear a lot of shit about these guys and I am telling you, they have so much unbridled energy that it permeates from their pores! They live this shit!! They Breath it!! They ROCK IT!! They brought it on and in a big way!!! They started with one of my all time fave rockers “Mysteria” and everyone was bouncing with glee but when we thought it couldnt get any better, they busted out “Sacrifice” which is also another tune that I always turn people onto when I tell them about EDGUY! Its just shreds and is a roller-coaster ride of a song!!! They kick out the crazy “Lavatory Love Machine” and I just crack up! We have to get out of the pit after the third song and right away we are crushed… now we gotta try and find a spot to stand where we can see because we are two short-ass photo girls and we cant see shite!Tobias Sammet is the always silly and adorable front-man that is a seriously talented singer and songwriter! (check out Avantasia!!) He gets the crowd all riled up and crazy and even gets people heckling him, but the ever grinning front-man isnt fazed and just keeps on joking and cutting up like a stand up comedian…”German’s arnt suppsosed to be funny” Tobi tells me in a short interview at WOA in Germany in 07, but this dude is really funny!! He just cant seem to help it!

Tobias Sammet!!

After a sweet rendition of “Mandrake” he shows his vocal talents in the song “Superheros”. This is really a cool song, I dont care what you say! They do an older song called “Vain Glory Opera” from the CD of the same name and show how talented they truely are and how they used to be a total power metal band!! Tobi plays with the audience more and then ends the set with”King of Fools”. I really enjoyed the set and was sad that they were over but then remembered that I would see them again the next nite!

Jens!

After a short break the lights get all low and red and there is a ton of smoke and we were in for a real treat of metal godliness… Kamelot was about to hit the stage and bring the fury that is true a Prog/Power/Symphonic Metal band!!!! The intro of ” Rule the World” comes on and out come the talented musicians themselves. Roy is all regailed in a black robe with buckles and belts and looks dark and ominous!

Roy “freakin” Khan!!!!

These guys are the more serious of the two and show how to put on a seriously beautiful spectacle!!! Thomas Youngblood was all over the stage and flaunting his prowess on the guitar and of course Casey Grillo was a master on the drums and you had to wonder how the hell he playes so fast and tastefully!!

Thomas Youngblood rockin the six string!!!

This band is one of the best out there in their genre and I am so happy and blessed to be shooting the show again in the tiny pit. I am blown away by the way Roy Khan takes control of his audience and the man has such a stage presence that brings you into his world of wonderous songs. He has an amazing voice and I know that he had a cold or something due to a quote he said later about being sorry about sneezing onto a fan up front…lol! If he was sick and not at his best, he could have fooled me and did, because he was mind blowing to me. They put on a show that was intense and there was an energy in the air that was felt by all. It was Oct and we were all sweating in this small club as Kamelot rocked our asses off with songs like,”When the Lights are Down”, “Soul Society”, “The Pendulous Fall”,”Center of the Universe”, and then my all time fave song “Abandoned”. That song always makes me want to weep. When Oliver Palotai started the intro to that on the keys I almost fell down. It was heavenly!

Oliver rippin’ up the keys!!

They then played out the rest of the set with, “Descent of the Archangel” “The Human Stain”, a duet with their female singer who’s name I dont know, with ” The Haunting”After that it was “Edenecho” and “Forever”. They go off the stage as we all cry NO! and then come out to pummel us with encores , “Ghost Opera”,”Epilogue”,”Karma” and then the always ominous and creepy “March of Mephisto” to end the set! I was spent, I was satisfied, I was happy! What a fuckin’ great show!!!!

The next day I get on a plane to Hollywood and do it all over again…I gotta tell ya the show was exactly the same the next nite except for the venue was the famous Key Club in Hollywood and it was a lot bigger and the stage was better and so was the crowd! We ate at the Rainbow Bar and Grill before and had the famous pizza they have there and met up with some old friends. We hit the club and I get another photo pass thanks to Taz the TM. I didnt it need though, there wasnt a photo pit and I already had killer photos from SF anyway. I just enjoyed the show and the company I was with. EDGUYwas a blast again and kicked so much ass and I was able to jump around and go a bit crazier this time. Then Kamelot was on fire again and Roy seemed
to be feeling better. The energy was palapable and we just felt it in the air. It was another hot and sweaty show and everyone was having the time of their lives,including me! They both put on fantastic sets and I was again satiated but totally exhausted.

Hangin with EDGUY after the show….Dirk,Jens and Felix!!

Bill Hudson,Casey Grillo, me and Dirk at the Rainbow….

Eggi with a cup on his head…lol!!!

Rockin the horns up with Lemmy at the Rainbow after the show!

I am so glad I hit both shows because both bands are just so amazing and they are great guys that deserve so much more fame and recognition!! I had a killer time and would totally do that again if they come through my area. Maybe one day Vegas will wake up and listen to something new and fresh and finally realize there is more out there then Hair Metal……

I would give these show the coveted \m/\m/\m/\m/\m/ way up!!

MYSPACE: http://www.myspace.com/edguy
WEBSITE:www.edguy.net

NEW EDGUY VIDEO!!

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