final Europe post

So on Friday I went to the Alchemist CD release party with Tim and Muuk at the new Dynamo cafe in Eindhoven. Apparently the band had some customs problems at the airport so they arrived late and started the gig later. No problem of course, it's Friday night!
Since the venue is very small I decided to put some tissue paper in my ears and I was quite right to do so since the sound was very loud.
Overall they played an hour with a good set and emphasizing on their new "Tripsis" album. They also played the one song I was hoping for: Jeff Wayne's "Eve of the war". Too bad they messed it up a bit. Ah well, still a very good warm up gig from this great Aussie band.

The ProgPower Europe festival was taking place on Saturday and Sunday so my final days in Europe were spent gloriously. On Saturday Bas joined me and we ran into Mattias Norén almost right away. Mattias is the guy who designed the artwork for my dissertation.
Also met a whole bunch of other Swedes of which 3 are from Örebro! Funny how small the world sometimes turns out to be since I was in Örebro just recently for the CD release party of The Project Hate!
The atmosphere at the ProgPower festival is a unique one. There's a wide variety in nationalities and everybody's so relaxed and keen on having a great time. Additionally the amount of visitors isn't too high so there's a high amount of visitors who know each other from previous editions of the festival.
Even I also ran into some more guys I know: VM colleague Filip and two of his friends and just before Orphaned Land started I saw Bram and his Israeli girlfriend. Funny how you don't see someone for years and then suddenly run into him/her.
I said 'even' since this is only my 3rd visit to the ProgPower festival in their 9 year existence :-)

Alchemist headlined the first day and this performance was superior in every possible way to the Eindhoven gig! Again "Eve of the war" was played and this time without glitches! Love this band!
On Sunday I drove to Baarlo alone but quickly hooked up with those crazy Swedes who love to have a good time and do silly things when being drunk hehe.
Jon Oliva's Pain headlined on this 2nd day of the festival and played a whole bunch of Savatage classics and some of his new solo material. Kick ass performance!
Afterwards the after party started and the DJ played all kinds of music, not just metal. The beer flowed and the DJ played Andre Hazes, Metallica, German Schlagermusic etc.
Eventually around 3:15am I decided to go home cause I still had to drive and the weather forecast had predicted mist banks.
I shot some pics but they're not that good. I was too keen on enjoying the gigs instead of on making great pics. Anyway, you can find them HERE.

I spend Monday mostly in bed trying to catch up on sleep and once I finally got up I packed my bags, collected all newly purchased CDs etcetera. You know the drill, doing the usual stuff one does when having to travel.