Freakchylde's

Alrighty-

Thursday:
Spent most of the day hunting down Orphaned Land for their soundcheck, complications came up because apparently the hotel had all their computers down, and the front desk guy had issues in finding which rooms they were in. Thankfully, the woman I spoke to when I arrived knew who I was talking about and let me know that they had already left. So in the meantime, I run to snag DC (very cool guy to talk to btw, despite his original skepticism with the studio musicians), got him to and from his soundcheck, then off to snag food. Finally get a call from Orphaned Land after that and run to snag them. I swear, the car became a sardine can. 🙂 It was great to meet them though, they did everything they could to make things easy. Spent the rest of the evening hanging out at the Loft, watching the soundchecks and taking a nap in the backroom. The pre-party was great, all the bands had great sets, and I’m disappointed that I could not get decent pictures of anyone. I couldn’t figure out how to change the speed on my camera, so everything came out blurry. Oh well, can’t bring it next year anyway. 😀 Spent most of my time back in the back with my bodyguards, Avi, and Norm. Got to harass Zilla for a good bit and meet Kyle and his brother. Afterwards, off to the pre-party after party.

Friday:
Up at the ass crack of dawn to snag Manticora, drop them off at the venue, then off to pick up Circus Maximus, followed by Orphaned Land. After I dropped them off, I headed back to my hotel to take a shower and grab my clothes for the evening. Changed pants and headed back to the venue. Hung with the crew for a while before heading out to take Orphaned Land back to their hotel. Back to the venue to put on the warpaint and get myself into my bodice. Hung out on the floor some more, checked the vendors, then back to snag Orphaned Land. Got them back, and prepped for their set. Theirs was the only full set that I managed to catch. I saw 2 songs from Manticora and I really, really wished I could have seen more. Caught one of Circus Maximus’ set *pout* and completely missed Conception. Spent all of Angra’s set hanging with Eden (very cool guy btw), we watched maybe 3 songs then headed out for a quieter area. Around 2, I get a call back to the venue to grab Angra’s stuff. I do not like these guys anymore. I really enjoyed their song with all the drumming, but they are prima donnas and they left their manager to take an hour to load up my van, instead of helping come under the 5 min time limit I set (I was off the clock for this). In fact, they put some heavy stuff in my car – that I couldn’t move – so I was stuck there. Finally got into bed around 4.

Saturday:
Started at 8A so I could pick up Symphorce and Pink Cream for their soundchecks. Once I had those guys at the venue, I headed up to the VIP room for an hour’s nap before taking Pink Cream back to their room, then back to my hotel room to check the email and get ready for the night. Back out to snag Stride, drop them at the venue, then Symphorce (which caused me to miss Stride’s reissue of a Rush song), then back for Pink Cream. The best part of the night was watching all of Symphorce’s set from the press area, Glenn gets much thanks for allowing me to stay for the entire set. Watched Pink Cream from backstage and spent most of the set trading funny faces with Uwe. Didn’t do much running back and forth that night, except with Symphorce and taking them to snag cigs. Was invited to go swimming with them, unfortunately I left my suit in my room. 😦

Highlights:
Discussing personal defense with Orphaned Land’s mgr..
Towel fight with Shane in Stride’s ready room (I still have the welt on my leg).
Making Lars my bitch for 5 minutes.
Back ‘n forth with Avi.
Making the car silent by letting Pink Cream know I spoke German.
Glenn letting me watch Symphorce from the front row.
Getting a chance to talk with Eden.
Hearing Manticora imitate Michael Bolton.
Watch the official ProgPower groupies try to attach to Manticora.
Making faces at Klaus behind one of the guys who cornered him and making him laugh for no reason.
The Corset picture!!!! Though, I’m irritated with whoever decided to lean in during the Glenn pic, that was my bad shoulder that went down.
Meeting Norm!