This year would have marked the third installment of the Kansas City Power Metal Fest, but like many smaller festivals, money became an issue and as such, it never happened. Around this time two years ago, the first KC Power Metal Fest happened and like many weekend music festivals, there was a fair share of weirdness and drunken fun.
The original festival was to have been a one day event, but became two when more bands were added onto the bill. One of those, however (Cage) dropped off a month or so before it was supposed to happen. The Friday show was divided into two sections: the outdoor patio show that primarily consisted of local bands and the indoor show, which saw two local openers plus Seventh Calling, Leatherwolf, and Avenger of Blood. Leatherwolf was undoubtedly one of the most difficult bands to deal with, as their antics in their day in town brought headaches for the people that had to deal with them (promoters, "tour guide", and hotel staff). Here's the story: the band had arrived at the venue, when about three hours before the show, they want to go back to the hotel. I know there's actually something to do around the venue like, oh I don't know, eat or get drunk. Rest should have happened before you got to the venue and if that wasn't an option, caffeine is the answer. Back to the story, about an hour before they were to hit the stage, someone got the call that they wanted to head back to the venue, and being that the "tour guide" was getting wasted himself, that left the only non-drinker, one of the promoters who was pregnant at the time, to go get the band. Since she needed someone to tag along, that meant I had to do something, since I wasn't anywhere near merchandise tables helping out. Now, before actually getting the band, we headed to McDonald's for food, and somehow, overshot the hotel by quite a bit, literally ending up on the other side of the highway, so we had to do a U-turn to head back to the hotel and pick up the band. I left before the show ended so I could get rested up for the next day.
Saturday was the Manilla Road, Widow, Sacred Dawn, and Twelfth Gate show, and there were many drinks and some pizza had, though none of the beer was had by the pregnant co-promoter. The first live interview that I ever did also happened that day, as I had an opportunity to interview Sacred Dawn over dinner. Other than a flub on my part, which caused the interview to be interrupted and restarted from the last point of success, it went alright and for better or for worse, set a time marker for what I can consider a decent interview (7 minutes or more is considered a decent interview). The show itself was pretty good and brought some friendships with the bands, namely Widow, who are as much a part of Kansas City metal as they are Raleigh metal.
On a side note, Leatherwolf ran into problems with the hotel staff with things like getting extra hotel keys and just being general jerks.
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