Prog Power USA IV - September 4th, Day 1 - The Preparty
Metal Reviews

Release year: 2003
Prog Power USA
Reviewed by Ben

First off, I am gonna warn you. This show review is massive. It is more of a day by day account that happened to me rather than just concentrating on the band’s performances. Because the experience in itself is about 75 % of the why I went, I am obligated to include it in here.

It was a dark Wednesday morning when I got to the airport and despite the fact that it was five in the morning and I had absolutely no sleep the night before I was still incredibly excited and wide awake. Less than 6 hours from now I would be in Atlanta having the time of my life! In Dallas where I had to have a change over flight was where I happened upon my first Prog Power encounter of 2003. I was sitting in the lobby listening to my stereo when this guy comes up to me in a Symphony X shirt and we both point to each other and say, “Prog Power?” at exactly the same time. So now the two hour flight to Atlanta from Dallas is a lot less boring and mundane as the whole time there we discuss metal ranging from D.C. Cooper and Vanden Plas to Vintersorg and Finntroll. As the plane touches down in Atlanta and I can feel it, the pent up frustration of having Prog Power III being the last concert I had attended start to come bubbling to the surface and when I step out of the plane into the airport I felt like I had been here just last week, not ten months ago. Me and Symphony X guy walk to the MARTA (rail transit system) to go to the hotel and there we part ways. Flying solo here and being by myself on the MARTA ride gave me some time to think and man, I was already so pumped up with adrenaline about what was going to transpire in the next few days. I was gonna see NIGHTWISH!!!

So my stop finally comes and I hop out and begin the short trudge to the hotel I was staying at the Fairfield Inn. Oh, one quick word of advice. If you decide to go to Prog Power in the future stay ONLY at the Granada Suites or the Fairfield because those two hotels are where all the bands stay at. Do what I do and split a room that way its affordable and every time you go down to the lobby you run into one or more of the bands at the event. I passed the venue, Earthlink Live, on the way and my heart literally began to start pounding like a hammer and I just couldn’t stop smiling. I met up with an eccentric dude with long curly black hair who I found out was Jim Raggi, creator of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess magazine. So, we walked to the hotel which was now just a stone’s throw away and were discussing metal and even though our views on certain bands differed greatly, (C’mon man, Edguy kicks ass and you know it!) it was still fun and entertaining considering where I’m from there are no metal conversations whatsoever. Throughout the course of the event I saddled over to the LOTFP table and had more metal musings with him too, differing tastes in music but always a good conversationalist. Anyways, there were some delays getting into my room seeing as the attendant apparently didn’t know that my name was in the system for the room as well as the guy I was splitting it with so I hung out in the lobby for a few hours which was fine by me, ha! Another thing I must mention about the Prog Power crowd is that they are some of the coolest people around, I was surrounded by people that I either did not know or met briefly from the previous year and yet I just went around to everyone introducing myself and proceeding to have various metal discussions and musings until I noticed Matt La Porte, guitarist from Circle II Circle walk in and head to the elevators. I quickly grab my Watching in Silence disc and hurriedly catch him and so he becomes my first of MANY autographs that I will obtain this weekend. I tell him that I enjoyed the album and ask if they’re gonna play my personal favorites, Into the Wind and Watching in Silence and he tells me not to worry they’ll be on there. I retreat back to the lobby to wait as Matt heads up and who do I run into there? Matt Johnsen, guitarist of the traditional metal band Pharaoh! (look for an interview with him in the next several weeks) So hell, this comes as another unexpected surprise and I find out he’s here to promote his own metal magazine, Feast or Famine and we end up talking about the Pharaoh cd and he’s actually surprised someone other than his friends recognized him. I tell him I’ll find him again in the weekend cos I plan on getting myself a real version of After the Fire, not the cardboard promo that I had to review it. By this time it was getting pretty late, the preparty was about to start in an hour and I was damn hungry, the only thing I’d eaten all day was a frozen (literally) sandwich on the plane. After a few minutes of hassle at the front desk again, the clerk finds out I can check in (yay) so I head up to the room and within five minutes of me being there my roommate and the guy who was letting me split the room with him showed up and I found out he goes by the name of Ed Prevenslik. We get ready to head out to the Riviera Club and run through our inventory of supplies: Cd booklets, camera, paint pen and money. Everything’s a go so we head out! As we step back down into the lobby lo and behold it is everyone from Pagan’s Mind just chilling there right in front of my face! So we of course head right over there and chat with em and I get both albums autographed and also get props for being the first person that had both Celestial Entance and Infinity Divine. The guys from Pagan’s Mind were EXTREMELY cool and I kept bumping into em throughout the course of the weekend. So, after this fun and cool diversion me and Ed proceed to the Riviera again. When I step through the door I take a look around and begin my quest for autographs and pictures. I literally run into the members of Nightwish as I bump into Tuomas by accident and that’s when I realize that everyone is here except for Tarja but I kinda figured that would happen, you know, smoky club and whatnot plus she probably would have been mobbed even worse than Hansi Kursch was last year. So as I’m talking to the Nightwish guys I am begging them to play Ever Dream. Tuomas and Jukka tell me to not hold my breath cos they don’t play it now because it is really hard on Tarja’s voice so dammit, I’m disheartened because that is MY Nightwish song! After thanking them and taking pictures (which obviously didn’t come out, I’ll get to that later) with em I start looking for more autograph candidates. Now here is where things start to get a little blurred together. So much stuff began to happen that it’s hard to remember the exact order and everything two weeks later. I met up with my friend Mike from Massachusetts and Prog Power III and we run around together looking for bands and are successful with Mercenary, Secret Sphere and he gets the Pagan’s Mind guys as well. After a quick dinner at the pizza place next door we arrive just in time to catch the first band Kategory V. They were a lot more Power Metal than I thought they would be and really surprised me. I caught most of their set as I was walking around and noticed that Jon Oliva was over at the bar surrounded by Savatage fans. To make things brief now (I still have two more days to get through and this is just the preparty) I alternated from being out on the floor and ducking into the Gold Badge lounge with Mike and ended up chilling with the guys from Secret Sphere some before I decided to call it a night. Being up since four in the morning took it’s toll on me so me and Ed headed back to the hotel after watching a good portion of Prymary.

Back in the lobby of the hotel I ran into some metal heads in the lounge so I struck up a conversation with em and ended up talking with one of em, Darrin, pretty much all night. Metal musings ranging from Helloween to Spiral Architect and also talking about how shit-infested St Anger is. Finally at about three in the morning (almost pulled a twenty four hour day) I went to my room and fell asleep.

Killing Songs :
Ben quoted
Other albums by Prog Power USA IV that we have reviewed:
Prog Power USA IV - September 6th, Day 3 reviewed by Ben and quoted
Prog Power USA IV - September 5th, Day 2 reviewed by Ben and quoted
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