Chicago Powerfest 2008

Time for a trip into the (not so) way back machine and May of 2008.  On the first of that month, I made may way with a few friends to the Chicago area for Chicago Powerfest.  The trip officially began shortly before 9 AM on Thursday, as the plan was to make this a road trip through part of the Midwest.  The first rest break happened just as we crossed into Iowa and the small town of Lamoni.  The drive through Iowa stunk, literally, as there were many instances of covering the nose, and other than that, there wasn't much to note there.  As we crossed into Illinois, one of the things that caught my eye was how high the Mississippi River was, as some poor sap likely would have had to get to his or her house by boat.  The closer we got to our destination, the more the traffic picked up.  We got to our destination of Mokena, which is just outside of Chicago, around 5 PM.  That was enough time to check into the hotel and grab some White Castle, and no, there was no Sack of Ten bought from there.  Since the White Castle and the venue were in walking distance from the hotel (literally across the street), it made things easier.  The first evening was the kick-off show, which was Pagan Fest with Tyr, Turisas, Ensiferum, and Eluveitie.  Rather than get into the review of the show, I will say that the evening was fun and didn't have much in the way of incidents.

Friday was kind of slow, with a lunch at Denny's across the street.  While one of the friends had the gold package that was part of the sponsorship, which meant a meet and greet with the band, everyone else got stuck in the hotel room watching Spongebob and old men talking about "horse sex."  The evening brought a bunch of unmemorable bands opening for Iced Earth and the return of Matt Barlow to vocals.  Before that, there were unruly people in the crowd and band members losing their cool.  When Iced Earth hit, there were sound problems.  Keep that in mind as I talk about Testament's set the next day (their set, not this piece).

Saturday was morning watching of house renovation shows and making fun of them.  Around noon, we actually got out of Mokena to head to Chicago in an effort to check out Kuma's Corner and Metal Haven Records.  The drive was pretty long, with the Chicago city traffic accounting for a good part of that.  First up was Kuma's Corner, which for the uninitiated, is a hamburger joint that has metal band names for sandwiches.  A word to the wise, weekends are generally the most packed, so a wait time of 30 minutes minimum should be expected if you do decide to head there one weekend.  After that was Metal Haven, which along with 2nd Avenue Records in Portland, OR, is a great place for metal music albums.  Both places happened to be not too far from Wrigley Field, which the closest we got was about a mile south.  We got back to the hotel about 6 PM, which meant a quick turnaround to the venue, and it also meant missing at least the opening band.  Overall, the Saturday set was considerably better, if only for the bands on the bill that evening.  Testament's set was delayed about 30 minutes for sound problems, but when they did hit the stage, the Pearl Room wasn't the same afterwards.

The next morning was time to go home, which meant an 11 AM leave time.  Instead of going back through Iowa, we decided to head through the St. Louis way, which meant nothing of note.  Fortunately, we didn't go through the St. Louis metro area, so that's one good thing.  We got into town about 8 PM, thus ending the weekend of metal in Chicagoland.