# ProgPowerUSA VIII: A Review



## Regor (Oct 7, 2007)

Ok, so for those of you who didn't get to go, did go, or don't know anything about it, I figured I'd post up my review of the bands/event. (Disclaimer: This is all my opinion... so if you don't like it, don't read it).

Thursday Night: ProgPowerUSA VIII Showcase
Vanden Plas was supposed to co-headline the night, but unfortunately were detained and sent back home at Detroit's airport (Yeah, we got LOTS of shit for that one all weekend). So instead, Halcyon Way jumped on the bill, and Freak Kitchen played 2.5hrs!!
-Halcyon Way: They were ok. Kinda average. Nothing awe inspiring IMO. Had noticed a bit of 'sustain' issue with the guitarist on the right side of the stage, using a Line6 HD147 head. I thought the noise gate was probably set too high.
-Krucible: Lance King (ex-Pyramaze) is now in this band, and they did a good job. Because of the missing band, they added 2 cover songs: Queensryche's Eyes of a Stranger (With the singer of Zero Hour on backing vocals... shoulda been lead IMO), and DT's Pull Me Under. That went over very well with the crowd.
-Cellador: Did a good job, but unfortunately, they faced a shitload of technical difficulties. One guitar went out completely (the Line6 amp), and the singer had a hard time getting the wireless mics to work. Fucked up their set really bad unfortunately. They went and added Eye of the Tiger as a last minute cover, which was pretty cool.
-Freak Kitchen: PHENOMINAL! 2.5hrs of Goody Goody!! Ask Ari, this was SO entertaining!! Total showmanship. Great music. They're why I went back this year. (On a side note, I got to talk to Mattias for a while back at the hotel lobby. Really cool guy. Even gave him my band's business card.)

Friday: ProgPowerUSA VIII Night One
Got up early to go to the Freak Guitar clinic. Wow. That's all I'm going to say. He's so amazingly talented. Thinking outside the box is an understatement. And I got lots of tips, so I gotta go practice my harmonic dive bombs now. On to the show:
-Raintime: Probably the 'unexpected' band of the show. Impressed just about everyone I talked to. 7-string band. Very good stuff. Unfortunately I don't think the 'mix' complemented their sound. They probably sound better on CD. But they performed very well.
-Communic: Not impressed at all. Something was 'missing' (Maybe a 2nd guitarist?) Singer sounds a lot like Warrel Dane of Nevermore, but the music isn't anywhere near as good.
-Virgin Steele: First off... no bass player?? WTF gives. They weren't even using 7-strings to 'not need' one like Meshuggah. And the lead singer was shirtless and wearing a leopard print suit-vest type of thing.  I left and went shopping
-Redemption: Very prog. I actually found myself liking them the more I listened. Singer was using a wired mic, and it sounded great. I could understand every word he sang. One guitarist had a 2027X, so that was nice  I bought one CD.
-Pagan's Mind: Good musically, but I was very put off by the singer's stage 'ticks'. And by this, I mean he was rubbing his off-hand across his chest like he was rubbing his nipple or something. Very disturbing, and I'm sorry to say it ruined their performance for me. It was just 'odd'.
-Sonata Arctica: Gave them 2 songs. Wasn't impressed by anything they did. Dunno why they're a headliner. Very 'basic' and average power metal. For non-musicians, I could see why ppl like them. Being a guitarist, I wasn't thrilled. Left early.

(On a side note, and not to be disgusting or anything, but ever since my chemotherapy I randomly get IBS. And something I ate at the venue didn't agree with me... so I didn't have a good night when I got back to the hotel room)

Saturday: ProgPowerUSA VIII Night Two
Went to GC, got to play a used H&K Duotone. It was crap compared to the TriAmp. So I didn't waste much time on it. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for food before the event, but I still wasn't feeling hot, if you get my meaning. So unforunately I didn't eat much there, and I also got to the venue late.
-Firewind: I sadly missed most of their set. Only caught 2-3 songs. But I liked what I heard. They had the singer from Metallium singing for them instead of their real singer, cuz of some bullshit. Anyways, I dug him in that band. Wish I coulda seen more.
-Threshold: Again, wasn't my thing. That's all I'm going to say.
-Primal Fear: Shit yeah! Great performance. Heard the songs I wanted to hear (Nuclear Fire, Angel in Black). Their show started a 1/2 hr late, because one guitarist was slaving a Mesa Triple Rec and a 5150 II's power sections with his ENGL preamp and Replifex units... well somewhere there was a bad cable, cuz they were getting AM radio stations in it. Can't believe it took them 1/2 hr to goof with it, to end up not fixing it, and playing the show with the radio station in the 'quiet' parts. I would have been able to debug it in 5-10 minutes, and had the show rolling. Nice techs they got there. (Again, this is my opinion...) The crowd absolutely ate up PF. They were the other reason for going this year.
-After Forever: Last year, Epica headlined. I thought getting another band in the same vain as Epica was a bit of a risky move. I didn't know anything about them, but I was won over as a fan. I've never really gotten into Epica too much, and I don't really know why. Maybe a little too over-orchestrated/operatic. But AF I actually dug a lot. Their singer, whose name is Floor, was amazing. Great voice. Good stage presence, and easy on the eyes too. Sounded like a mix of Cristina Scabbia/Amy Lee/Simone Simmons. Music was good too. I'ma have to get some CDs (All sold out by the end of the 2nd night. Couldn't find shit).
-All Star Jam: Pagan's Mind was the backing band, and several singers and other band members did cover songs with them. Took an HOUR to get ready for it. Can't fucking figure out why. And when they finally started, they opened with "The Final Countdown" by Europe with Floor singing it, but Floor's mic wasn't working!! You could hear the monitor mix, but nothing was hitting the FOH. So, at the END of the song, someone runs and gives her another mic.... WTF? Why did they wait?!?!?!?! Anyways, the crowd chanted "Do it again" over and over... so they did, and it was GREAT! Fuck that girl can sing!! After that, they just kept coming on and doing more and more songs. I can't remember them all, as I don't know every song that was done, but here's what I can remember. If there were other members of different bands playing, I'll mention it, otherwise it'll just be the singer mention, with Pagan's Mind backing them.

EDIT: Found a complete list of songs on the PP board.
1) Final Countdown / EUROPE / Floor Jansen(After Forever)
2) Strutter / KISS / Zak Stevens
3) Symphony of Destruction / MEGADETH / Oddleif Stensland(Communic)
4) Welcome Home / KING DIAMOND / Nils Rue(Pagan's Mind)
5) You'll Never Remember, I'll Never Forget / YNGWIE / Henning Basse(Firewind)
6) Youth Gone WIld / SKID ROW / Raintime Singer
7) Back On the Streets / GARY MOORE / Ralf Scheepers & Mat Sinner(Primal Fear) 
8) Lady Of Winter / CRIMSON GLORY / Nils Rue(Pagan's Mind)
9) Highway to Hell / AC/DC / Christer Ortefors(Freak Kitchen)
10) Back In Black / AC/DC / Christer Ortefors(Freak Kitchen)
11) Flight of Icarus / MAIDEN / PP crew 
12) Alone / HEART / Floor Jansen(After Forever)
13) Who wants to live forever / QUEEN / Floor Jansen & Ralf Scheeepers
14) Desperado / EAGLES / Zak Stevens
15) Hard to Handle / BLACK CROWES / Damian Wilson(Threshold)
16) The Real Thing / FAITH NO MORE / Ray Alder(Redemption)
17) I Want Out / HELLOWEEN / Michael Gremio(Cellador)
18) Take Hold of the Flame / QUEENSRYCHE / Nils Rue (Pagan's Mind)
19) Children of the Sea / BLACK SABBATH / Zak Stevens
20) Metal Gods / JUDAS PRIEST / Ralf Scheepers(Primal Fear)
21) Balls To the Wall / ACCEPT / Lance King(Krucible)


If I remember more songs, I'll throw them up. But all in all, the All Star Jam was a huge success. 22 songs in all supposedly. Then Glenn had announced the bands for next year. He played a little video clip that had each band and some samples of who they were. The only one I knew was Elven King. There was a band called Andromeda, which I need to look into. They sounded great. It was a great experience overall and very much fun. Glad I went this year. There's still 2 headliners yet to be announced. But unless it's something big, I may not attend next year. Elven King isn't enough for me to justify spending hundreds of dollars for. We'll see.


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## Lucky Seven (Oct 7, 2007)

Cool, someday I'm going to this, hopefully Stride and Redemption will be there.


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## Regor (Oct 7, 2007)

Lucky Seven said:


> Cool, someday I'm going to this, hopefully Stride and Redemption will be there.



Hate to tell u this. But AFAIK Stride broke up, and since Redemption played this year, they won't be back for at least 2 years.


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## Lucky Seven (Oct 7, 2007)

Really? Damn.


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## eaeolian (Oct 8, 2007)

Anyone up for a Redemption interview? I'm surprised Nick didn't break out the Conklin 7 string...


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## WarriorOfMetal (Oct 8, 2007)

ok, here's my short version:

Halcyon Way - i guess not bad for a last-minute addition, but really wasn't into them. not been a fan of what i've heard of theirs recorded, either. guitarist on the side of the stage Regor and i were on kept cutting out, and we couldn't hear the other guy for shit, either.

Krucible - pretty awesome, the Queensrÿche and DT covers were badass, and they have some cool riffage. the friend i was there with wasn't into them though. Lance King sounded great on vocals, too.

Cellador - boring, generic power metal played by a band with a very sloppy guitarist who had numerous amp issues and didn't seem to really know the Helloween cover they played.

Freak Kitchen - total fucking ownage that was more amazing and entertaining than words can describe (and i'd expected no less)...they came damn close to playing the "one million hours" that Mattias promised me and a couple other guys out on the steps in front before the show started, too. was slightly disappointed about Vanden Plas not being able to make it, but FK more than made up for it.

Raintime - badass set, but definitely sound better on CD....awesome production on Flies & Lies. pretty cool guys, too. they looked like they were having a great time, too.

Communic - also pretty badass, but they definitely do feel like there's something missing, having only one guitarist. i own both of their albums though, and i had the opportunity to talk to the singer/guitarist Oddleif about gear for a little bit as well, cool guy.

Virgin Steele - watched for about 5 minutes, just wasn't into them (which was about what i expected). one guitarist had a Hellraiser 7, i noticed, but didn't watch them for long enough to really tell what he was doing with it. cheesy as fuck, and not in a good way.

Redemption - muddy sound, guitars were hard to hear, but overall good performance....and as Regor said, the vocals were really easy to hear, especially where we were sitting (someone on the PPUSA boards said he couldn't hear the vocals...wtf?).

Pagan's Mind - only watched them for a few minutes, but they had GREAT sound, very clear. different sound guy than Redemption, same guy as Sonata i think.

Sonata Arctica - basically exactly the same show i saw the week before in Worcester, MA, but with somewhat better sound. new guitarist is badass though, although he thinks he's a mix of Vai and Emppu Vuorinen.

Firewind - BAD ASS....been a fan of Henning Basse in Metalium for years, and even though i didn't know basically any of what they played, i was really into them. Bob Katsionis is ridiculous, too, and of course Gus G. was solid. bringing out the first singer was cool, and the duets he and Henning did were pretty cool, but he totally rips his stage moves from Dio and did some weird creepy shit like feeling himself up with the mic....

Threshold - had never heard Damian before, i think i prefer Mac's voice. only caught the first 2 songs and then went to get a beer that took way too long and ended up skipping the rest of their set.

Primal Fear - total ownage....even the songs they did that i didn't know all that well, i was totally into, and Ralf was having a good day, it sounded like. near perfect performances from the whole band. 

After Forever - didn't watch a whole lot of, but what i did see was pretty cool....Floor is a great singer, and they did a cool cover of For Whom the Bell Tolls.

All-Star Jam....didn't know all the songs, but knew a good portion of them, and it was just ridiculously fun, for the most part.





bought a bunch of cds, met a bunch of cool people (including a good number of band members, all of whom were really nice and approachable), and basically just had one of the most fun experiences i've ever had.....this was my first time going to PPUSA, too.


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## WarriorOfMetal (Oct 8, 2007)

eaeolian said:


> Anyone up for a Redemption interview? I'm surprised Nick didn't break out the Conklin 7 string...



pretty sure he did for a couple songs. that reminds me, the 6-string conklin he has, which looks the same otherwise, looks really goofy and disproportionate b/c of the narrow neck


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## D-EJ915 (Oct 8, 2007)

sonata arctica + firewind = 

I'm listening to SA right now.


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## Lucky Seven (Oct 8, 2007)

eaeolian said:


> Anyone up for a Redemption interview? I'm surprised Nick didn't break out the Conklin 7 string...



HELL YES, I saw them live in Houston w/ Dream Theater and they kicked Into Eternity's ass! I have their most recent CD, it's great. They have such a clear sound on stage, it's great. I remember after Into Eternity performed, I was thinking, "Oh great, another band..." and being really surprised by how awesome Redemption was. Sorry IE fans, but Redemption is superior.


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## Matt Crooks (Oct 8, 2007)

A few corrections and additions.... 

The Skid Row song was sung by the singer of Raintime, not POS, since POS wasn't there 

"Children of the Sea" was sung by Zach Stevens.

The King Diamond song was "Welcome Home", and they nailed it!

The Yngwie song was "You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget"

Nick from Redemption did play the seven string conklin. He only plays the seven on the songs that call for it, so he did use the six a lot.

"Who Wants to Live Forever" was simply amazing.


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## Regor (Oct 8, 2007)

Matt, I kept looking for you the whole time. Didn't see you once 



Matt Crooks said:


> A few corrections and additions....
> 
> The Skid Row song was sung by the singer of Raintime, not POS, since POS wasn't there



I SWEAR I wrote Raintime the first time around. I have absolutely no idea how POS got in there?!


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## Matt Crooks (Oct 8, 2007)

Regor said:


> Matt, I kept looking for you the whole time. Didn't see you once



I saw a pickup truck with a Justdefy sticker on it, so I figured you were there somewhere. I think I even saw someone in a Justdefy t-shirt, but I was in the middle of a conversation and I never saw that person again. Was that you?

I'll be back next year for sure, we'll try to meet then, if not before...


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## Matt Crooks (Oct 8, 2007)

WarriorOfMetal said:


> pretty sure he did for a couple songs. that reminds me, the 6-string conklin he has, which looks the same otherwise, looks really goofy and disproportionate b/c of the narrow neck



Yeah, but it plays great! Those are some seriously nice guitars.


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## Regor (Oct 8, 2007)

Matt Crooks said:


> I saw a pickup truck with a Justdefy sticker on it, so I figured you were there somewhere. I think I even saw someone in a Justdefy t-shirt, but I was in the middle of a conversation and I never saw that person again. Was that you?
> 
> I'll be back next year for sure, we'll try to meet then, if not before...



Actually, my brother wore one on Friday, and my drummer wore one on Saturday. I forgot mine (duh!!).

Didn't we meet 2 years ago? When Division was there?


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## Matt Crooks (Oct 8, 2007)

Regor said:


> Didn't we meet 2 years ago? When Division was there?



I don't recall, but I don't think so. If we did, my appologies


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## Regor (Oct 8, 2007)

Are you bald with round glasses? And had a big camera?
(And for anyone reading this, Noodles did not go to PP 2 years ago)


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## Matt Crooks (Oct 8, 2007)

Regor said:


> Are you bald with round glasses? And had a big camera?
> (And for anyone reading this, Noodles did not go to PP 2 years ago)



That would be Scott, the original singer for Division. I don't wear glasses, and I have mid-back lengthed hair.


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## WarriorOfMetal (Oct 8, 2007)

Regor said:


> Are you bald with round glasses? And had a big camera?
> (And for anyone reading this, Noodles did not go to PP 2 years ago)





Matt Crooks said:


> That would be Scott, the original singer for Division. I don't wear glasses, and I have mid-back lengthed hair.



see, roger, i said that didn't sound right


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## eaeolian (Oct 8, 2007)

Matt Crooks said:


> That would be Scott, the original singer for Division. I don't wear glasses, and I have mid-back lengthed hair.



It's easy to lose track of ex-Division members, given the number of possibilities available.


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## WarriorOfMetal (Oct 8, 2007)

Regor said:


> 7) Back On the Streets / GARY MOORE / Ralf Scheepers & Mat Sinner(Primal Fear)



this was actually "Out in the Fields"


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## Oogadee Boogadee (Oct 9, 2007)

eaeolian said:


> It's easy to lose track of ex-Division members, given the number of possibilities available.



how many ex-ex-ex division members are there? just EJ?


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## Regor (Oct 9, 2007)

Matt Crooks said:


> That would be Scott, the original singer for Division. I don't wear glasses, and I have mid-back lengthed hair.



Ahh, then I was looking for the wrong bloke!! 

Yeah, that was the first time I met 'any' members of Divison. I apologize for the mixup.


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## Wayniac (Oct 12, 2007)

Regor said:


> -Cellador: Did a good job, but unfortunately, they faced a shitload of technical difficulties. One guitar went out completely (the Line6 amp), and the singer had a hard time getting the wireless mics to work. Fucked up their set really bad unfortunately. They went and added Eye of the Tiger as a last minute cover, which was pretty cool.



Hey man - I'll take the fair shots, but I'm calling bullshit on a few things.. I am one the "nice techs" they have there.  
When the guitarist steps on a volume pedal and doesn't listen when you tell him to turn it back on, don't blame the tech or the gear.
Then when breaks a string and he has no back up - don't blame the tech
Then when you hand hime the rectifier footswicth and tell him to step on the middle button and he doesn't and starts screaming that he can't play with a clean sound- don't blame the tech or the gear.
THOSE were all rookie player mistakes because he was not familiar with the gear... s




Regor said:


> -Primal Fear: Shit yeah! Great performance. Heard the songs I wanted to hear (Nuclear Fire, Angel in Black). Their show started a 1/2 hr late, because one guitarist was slaving a Mesa Triple Rec and a 5150 II's power sections with his ENGL preamp and Replifex units... well somewhere there was a bad cable, cuz they were getting AM radio stations in it. Can't believe it took them 1/2 hr to goof with it, to end up not fixing it, and playing the show with the radio station in the 'quiet' parts. I would have been able to debug it in 5-10 minutes, and had the show rolling. Nice techs they got there. (Again, this is my opinion...)



We had it debugged in your 5-10 minute window.. but THEIR tech would not allow us to change cabling or unplug the piece of gear that was causing the trouble. They insisted on their setup. And after they had the balls not to show up for line check in the am.He had an unshielded cable, and we were converting from 220v to 110...

Thanks for jumping to conclusions about our crew



eaeolian said:


> Anyone up for a Redemption interview? I'm surprised Nick didn't break out the Conklin 7 string...



Mike - He had 2 6's and a 7.. all "natural" colored, though he called one gold and one white, so I knew which one to tune which way...


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## eaeolian (Oct 12, 2007)

Wayniac said:


> Thanks for jumping to conclusions about our crew



I'll vouch for Wayne and the PP crew - I've known all of them for years, and they're top-notch. The artists, however, sometimes get in the way of them doing their job. (Blind Guardian? Aquiles from Angra? Anyone?  )



Wayniac said:


> Mike - He had 2 6's and a 7.. all "natural" colored, though he called one gold and one white, so I knew which one to tune which way...



I figured he had to, given the set list. Figures that Roger would only notice the Ibanez.


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## Wayniac (Oct 12, 2007)

Hey man - thanks for the kind words. 
YES - there were quite a few technical problems this year. One of the camera guys even unplugged one of the converters during After Forevers set.
If a Euro/US power converter that is feeding multiple pieces of gear gets unplugged somehow, it causes hell. 
The important thing is their tech and our crew worked together to FIND the unplugged converter in the dark, have a multi meter ready within seconds, take a reading to see what could be re-used and what had to be re-routed, and got it fixed in minutes. YES it seemed like an eternity (to us too, trust me).. but the band was awesomely pro and worked around it (their tech was awesome as well). THAT is what it is all about. They were total pros. Not that s**t happens, but how do people react WHEN it happens. 
Not sure what is happening with the wireless vocal mics batteries are changed all night !


Bernie had the RG2027 (?) with the Piezos...


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## Drew (Oct 12, 2007)

Wayniac said:


> Hey man - thanks for the kind words.
> YES - there were quite a few technical problems this year. One of the camera guys even unplugged one of the converters during After Forevers set.
> If a Euro/US power converter that is feeding multiple pieces of gear gets unplugged somehow, it causes hell.
> The important thing is their tech and our crew worked together to FIND the unplugged converter in the dark, have a multi meter ready within seconds, take a reading to see what could be re-used and what had to be re-routed, and got it fixed in minutes. YES it seemed like an eternity (to us too, trust me).. but the band was awesomely pro and worked around it (their tech was awesome as well). THAT is what it is all about. They were total pros. Not that s**t happens, but how do people react WHEN it happens.
> ...



As a guy who's currently in a house with UK-style power outlets who took nearly a week before he got the balls to plug in his iPod chargerr through what he was told was a US/UK adaptor, just in case...


...that's fucking impressive. Job well done. 

[action=Drew]tips his cap.[/action]


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## WarriorOfMetal (Oct 12, 2007)

wayniac, some of those are direct copy-paste responses from the tech issues thread on the PPUSA boards, aren't they? (guess that would make sense, with the same issues being brought up). glad to see you here though.....btw, any way that i could get on the crew for PPUSA in a few years? i work as a stagehand in boston currently, seems like it'd be a lot of fun to work PP at some point.


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## Wayniac (Oct 12, 2007)

WarriorOfMetal said:


> wayniac, some of those are direct copy-paste responses from the tech issues thread on the PPUSA boards, aren't they? (guess that would make sense, with the same issues being brought up). glad to see you here though.....btw, any way that i could get on the crew for PPUSA in a few years? i work as a stagehand in boston currently, seems like it'd be a lot of fun to work PP at some point.



Yep - I was the one who posted those on that board as well, so I figured it wasn't plagarism ~!  

Just wanted to make some of the behind the scenes stuff known, as I know any delay in music is usually attributed to the crew. Many times, it is directly due to the artist... but we'll take the hit on the stuff that is our fault. 

The crew is pretty experienced. Besides all being players, a few have played festivals in Europe (the guys in Prymary). Also, many of us have toured - one guy worked with Yngwie's organization, one guy was FOH/TM for Redemption on the Dream Theater tour, one is an ex-pro drummer, the other drum tech worked with Chastain and writes for Modern Drummer Magazine, and I have been out with Caffery, Tad Morose, Oliva's Pain, Ripper Owens, and Doro and worked shows with Evergrey, Cindy Lauper, and O'2L.

PP is a blast and Glenn has very little turnover on the crew. I think we have replaced 2 people since 2001...
I will keep it mind next time he has an opening though


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## Regor (Oct 12, 2007)

My apologies Wayniac. In retrospect, you're right. It wasn't fair of me to jump at the situation. But how am I supposed to know the inner workings of what goes on back stage? All I know is what I see from the front. 



Wayniac said:


> Hey man - I'll take the fair shots, but I'm calling bullshit on a few things.. I am one the "nice techs" they have there.
> When the guitarist steps on a volume pedal and doesn't listen when you tell him to turn it back on, don't blame the tech or the gear.
> Then when breaks a string and he has no back up - don't blame the tech
> Then when you hand hime the rectifier footswicth and tell him to step on the middle button and he doesn't and starts screaming that he can't play with a clean sound- don't blame the tech or the gear.
> THOSE were all rookie player mistakes because he was not familiar with the gear... s



Can you explain then why Halcyon Way's guitarist was cutting in/out as well? It kinda sounded like the internal noise gate on the Line6 was set too high, as his sustain was cutting out way too early. And that same type of thing kept happening with Cellador as well, until the amp stopped working completely. You're telling me it was a volume pedal?

FTR, I never said anything about a backup guitar, and would never blame a stage crew for that.



> We had it debugged in your 5-10 minute window.. but THEIR tech would not allow us to change cabling or unplug the piece of gear that was causing the trouble. They insisted on their setup. And after they had the balls not to show up for line check in the am.He had an unshielded cable, and we were converting from 220v to 110...



So he was using a speaker cable as a signal cable?? If you figured out what their problem was, I don't understand why you couldn't just fix it and get the show going. How does their tech have the right to fuck with your stage?? What a dumbass. You could clearly hear the radio coming from his amps. And that whole debacle delayed the show 1/2 hr, and made the show run really late on Saturday.


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## Regor (Oct 12, 2007)

eaeolian said:


> I figured he had to, given the set list. Figures that Roger would only notice the Ibanez.



I never said I didn't notice it. I just forgot to mention it. If you were there to see it for yourself, I wouldn't have to remember it   

Yeah, he had a Conklin 6 and a 7 that looked exactly the same as the 6... makes you wonder why he needed a 6?


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## Wayniac (Oct 13, 2007)

Regor said:


> My apologies Wayniac. In retrospect, you're right. It wasn't fair of me to jump at the situation. But how am I supposed to know the inner workings of what goes on back stage? All I know is what I see from the front.
> 
> Can you explain then why Halcyon Way's guitarist was cutting in/out as well? It kinda sounded like the internal noise gate on the Line6 was set too high, as his sustain was cutting out way too early. And that same type of thing kept happening with Cellador as well, until the amp stopped working completely. You're telling me it was a volume pedal?
> 
> ...



Yeah man - It's all good. I just wanted to let you hear the "other" side of the story. Is our crew perfect? Hell no. But we DO know what we are doing 

HW - I think it was an issue with his wireless and one of the other frequencies in use. If you noticed, it was just after he crossed the center point of the stage... when he was on his side, it was fine. I think next year I will be taking a look at the wireless frequencies in use (I was not in charge of that this year)

Cellador - the guy kept hitting the volume pedal on the foot controller. That amp was used all the rest of the weekend with no issues.

As far as the backup guitar - just pointing out that the "artist" was partially at fault.. we can't always overcome their lack of planning ahead. Another example - an artist that will be releasing the DVD of their performance shows up 5 minutes before stage time and wants his 3 guitars tuned to different tunings. I had them tuned rather quickly, but for some reason wanted to check them.. I did some heavy bending and they went out. Turns out they were new strings. So I stretched the hell out of them... just would have been nice if he TOLD me they were new and if he had stretched them out before handing them to me.  Otherwise we'd be hearing posts about "why was XXX going out of tune so much - were the techs not tuning the guitars correctly?!?" 

I agree about Primal Fear- but his tech was adamant, and the guitarist backed his tech. I'm not the promoter, so I can't overrule them...


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## Regor (Oct 13, 2007)

Absolutely tell me the other side of the story! I'd much rather know exactly what is going on, than speculate.


About Primal Fear - I do have to say those ENGL preamps sounded killer! Only 3rd to Pagan's Mind's 5150II and FK's Laneys. Damn those sounded good.


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## Wayniac (Oct 13, 2007)

Yep - ENGL's are monsters - I have a Straight 100 and a Savage 120 at home, and had 2 of the older preamps for years. Still have one of their power amps. 
Also a 5150, a Cameron Modded Marshall... I like hi-gain stuff, can ya tell? lol

Funny - the Laneys play nice, but everyone else who plugged in sounded quite different - alot of IA's tone is in his hands and his attack. Great dude too.. that whole band is awesoem to work with


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## Regor (Oct 13, 2007)

I know I'ma get a lot of flack for saying this (  ) But have you tried an H&K TriAmp MkII? If you like high gain, the 3B channel is an absolute beast!

(However, I've never had the chance to play any ENGL amps yet)


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## Wayniac (Oct 13, 2007)

I used to have an H&K Tube 50 and an ATS 120... both rocked, but in a different way... I like the ENGL's better, but my oild singer said my best tone (to his ears) was with the Tube 50-...


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## Regor (Oct 14, 2007)

Try a TriAmp if you get the opportunity... trust me.


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## Lucky Seven (Oct 14, 2007)

Regor said:


> Try a TriAmp if you get the opportunity... trust me.



I really want to try one. Sex Machineguns get great tone from them. Also the tone in your video is to die for. YouTube - H&K TriAmp MkII Demo


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