We head into the first official day of ProgPower USA festivities following a stunning kick-off show.

Continuing the troubles that plagued this year, Brazilian technical metallers Hibria were forced to cancel their appearance just a couple days before they were due to play today’s festival date. But the show must go on – Jeff Scott Soto was asked to fill the void and feature a career spanning set, which he did so with pride. But more on that later. Onwards with ProgPower USA!

[date]11th September, 2015[/date]
[venue]Center Stage[/venue]
[city]Atlanta, GA, USA[/city]
[support_bands]Native Construct, Jeff Scott Soto, Voyager, Anathema, Falconer[/support_bands]

Native Construct

The native Bostonian’s and Berklee graduates have been hailed as the next big thing in progressive metal, or the next Dream Theater if you will. After producing an excellent debut it’s fairly easy to say why, but the music is so complex it was interesting to see how this was going to come across in a live environment.

Native Construct were not actually due to play this festival this year, but because of yet another cancellation (this time farther in advance) of Swedish metallers Morgana LeFay the band were offered the slot. It is the perfect kind of band for this festival though, and an absolutely perfect replacement.

The music for today kicks off with the track ‘Mute‘, with each of the 5 members on stage ready and determined to prove their technical prowess and creative ability. And that they do. The guitarist are flying on their 8-string guitars and the drummer is proving an epic battery to the atmospheric keyboards in the background. Native Construct are still trying to build a repetoire among the prog loving community, and though the band don’t have the most dramatic of stage performances their approach to music is certainly impressing those in attendance for the early afternoon show today.

The band were given an hour to perform, which is almost their entire debut album dropping only the short instrumental on the album. Tracks like ‘Come Hell or High Water‘ really stood to impress along with the epic ‘Chromatic Abberation‘, and while Native Construct could improve on their physical stage performance, the sound was perfect and not a note was missed. Native Construct are definitely one’s to watch for the future.

Jeff Scott Soto

So the legend that is Jeff Scott Soto performs an extended set tonight that span’s his entire career. For those who don’t know what this man’s career entails, he was the vocalist of Talisman for 17 years, the vocalist on two of Yngwie Malmsteen’s albums, and the tour vocalist for Journey for a year when Steve Auguri had to sit out just under 10 years ago. He has also lent his vocals to Axel Rudi Pell and Trans-Siberian Orchestra if power metal is more your thing, and of course let’s not forget his solo band SOTO. He has had quite a career, and more than enough material to fill the 90 minutes given to him and his band this evening.

To be perfectly honest, I am unfamiliar with large parts of Soto’s career including that in Talisman and his solo albums, but this afternoon gives me the opportunity to see what he has to offer both musically and live.

It is pretty evident from the moment that Soto enters the stage that he is a charismic live performer all around, marching into the stage with full attitude and taking the mic as if it were all part of his natural movements. That is a kind of stage performance that proves why he has had such an illustrious career, and completely owns the sound of ‘Final Say‘ when it kicks in.

After throwing his sunglasses into the crowd, Soto begins to touch on the classic tracks such as ‘Look Inside Your Heart‘ which whips up a huge response from the crowd, making them even more excited when a full on Talisman medley is played. After 30 years, this man clearly knows what he’s doing, and has directed his band to play at pitch perfect level.

Being a career spanning set Soto just couldn’t forget some of that classic Yngwie stuff, including an excellent rendition of ‘I Am A Viking‘ and wrapping up with the Soto classic ‘Stand Up And Shout‘. With different songs from different parts of his career I must say the consistentcy in the set was odd, but completely admirable seeing that the band were not just one trick ponies and able to perfectly play all the diverse tracks in the setlist. A special set for those at ProgPower USA, and really it was something to carry away and forget the troubles that the festival faced this year.

Voyager

Voyager came to ProgPower USA four years ago and their return has been eagerly anticipated ever since. A band that apparently blew everyone away with their phenomenal and engaging performance, and have obviously built up great anticipation as the Center Stage is packed out for this show. The Australian quintet don’t play live a whole lot, and when they do it is said they give it their all.

The band storm the stage to the sound of their latest hit ‘Breaking Down‘, running around the stage and movements that fully engage with the audience. It is clear they are very happy to be there, and with an hour and a quarter to perform Voyager are going to make sure they fill their time with the very best.

Voyager were definitely one of the more entertaining bands to grace the ProgPower stage, ensuring a good blend of humour and energy accompanied tracks such as the emotional ‘Iron Dream‘ and the hilarious medley including 90’s tracks, TV shows and movies capped off of course with their rendition of ‘America, Fuck Yeah!’. Even DC Cooper stormed the stage to sing ‘Fire of the Times’, a moment that frontman Danny Estrin called ‘a dream come true’.

The band were one of the few at this festival that were not playing overtly technical music, but it makes for a fun ride and an easy sing along performance. It’s something that’s always needed at a festival, and it’s safe to say Voyager delivered. I was not in attendance for the last time the band played here, but if I compare it to the one time I saw them support someone in Australia, this was their best show to date! ProgPower USA is clearly their festival, and let’s hope it’s not another 4 years before they come back again!

Anathema

I’ll start out by saying that Anathema have never quite been my cup of tea. The respect I have for them as musicians is insurmountable, but their brand of doomy progressive metal just don’t quite tickle my fancy. Regardless of my opinion, legions of fans have appeared to pack out the venue to see the Liverpool stars’ rare US show.

The band begin the show with the track named after the band, ‘Anathema‘ taken from their latest ‘Distant Satellites‘ album. The audience response to their arrival on stage is magnificent – clearly American fans have waited a long time for this performance, and with the band given nearly an hour and a half the band will be allowed to play some of their full progressive masterpieces.

As far as stage performance goes the music is not energetic, and the physical movement on stage matches that, featuring some emotional headbanging from the audience. The performed music clearly takes on a gigantic atmosphere though – the sweeping guitar work of tracks like ‘Thin Air‘, the dark low keys of ‘The Beginning and the End‘ and the tri-way banter between the Cavanagh brothers and the audience make for a good balance of atmosphere and a bit of fun.

The most spectacular thing about the performance was when the whole room was lit with smartphone torches bringing out an astral presence for the end of Anathema’s gig, something I have seen attempted with other bands before but never quite worked out – it certainly worked here at Center Stage tonight!

The fans that watched the show tonight have clearly enjoyed what they have seen and heard tonight, and Anathema have expertly pulled off what they do. I don’t understand it, but I can’t judge against a whole room who gave nothing less than two thumbs up.

Falconer

And we reach tonight’s headline – the one and only Falconer here to play their last ever live show in the USA! Falconer have never really been much of a live band given that many of the band members are committed to full-time jobs, but the have kept up appearances in their 15 year career playing a show every now and then in Europe. Tonight at ProgPower USA however they will be calling it quits on their live performances, sad but not devastating as we all know this band to be almost strictly a studio project!

Not only a rare show is being played tonight, but a very rare headline performance – the music is kicked off with ‘Halls and Chambers‘, quickly progressing to the classic ‘A Quest For The Crown‘ which gets almost every person present singing along and making the movements of riding fake horses.

As Falconer are not accustomed to being a live band, their stage presence is quite minimal just playing the tracks as they need to do. There is something quite refreshing about that however, just letting the audience do the work and taking on the role of providing the energy in the room. The sound the band are pumping out is phenomenal with every note heard in the complex ‘Locust Swarm‘ including the hyper fast leads, and the soaring vocals of Mathias Blad taking height in the acoustic versions of ‘Wings of Serenity‘ and ‘Long Gone By‘.

As their last performance Falconer pledge to take you on a journey through the expanse of their career. From their self-title debut to their latest effort ‘Black Moon Rising‘, the band even played a couple songs from their experimental Swedish album ‘Arnod‘ to ensure that the ProgPower USA audience are catered with the most complete Falconer experience possible.

At the end of the show the band play their arguably most popular songs, ‘Mindtraveller‘ and ‘The Clarion Call‘, where the audience sung chorus could probably be heard for miles. It didn’t hit until the end but there was a slight aura of sadness about knowing (allegedly) that Falconer won’t be playing live again. The band didn’t seem too upset though, they know there is going to be much Falconer music for years to come, and that is what they do best. A fantastic performance to top off a fantastic day!