Trumtram

I feel content in not knowing who any of you are talking about.

I can't speak for Lorenzo and Adam (by all accounts they are amazing with fans, no shade here), but I can't let this statement stand by itself, because I had the pleasure to meet Jessica, who was the OG Lorenzo/Adam kind of person. For my money, she deserves more than that. Right before the M&G in Hamburg (2003), when we had to get to the meeting point and wait for some time, she was so kind and supporting to us nervous and psyched teenagers. Her name was synonymous with LP at the time, because it would appear under many LP posts. I remember how I adressed her the very first time this night with: "So you are the famous Jessica. It's so nice to meet you." She was super sweet and caring to us that night, so it feels necessary to me to give her the credit she deserves, by correcting this statement.

The live experience is great, no doubt. But the fact that you have to be a member for consecutive years to be able to get the pre-sale stuff is sinister. Also, there are many people around the world that don't get a chance to see the band in their general area, so they are getting excluded by default from the biggest perk of a membership. And now there is downtime until whenever, so no one can use this perk either way. The LPU used to be more than just the live stuff. They need to do more exclusive stuff that all members can enjoy without having to pay for stupid shit.

Ah, thanks for clearing this up. But all the buzz about the countdown (or rather countup :D) was gone, because word about all of this got out rather soonish after it started to go up. Either way, the interest levels were not comparable at all once the countdown started to count up for about a day or so.

The countdown itself was great. Even the counting up thing was fine as a small Trollnoda thing. But they should've stopped it at the album release date (05:09), because it was close enough to the finish of the original countdown. Instead, it went up without any new information (after generating ENORMOUS buzz during its countdown) and the whole thing fizzled out. And wasn't it even discarded at some point because no one cared anymore or more info about the comeback came out from publications anyway? I can't recall it going back up to 100. Whatever, the whole thing became deflating and should've been handled differently. First half amazing, second half total blunder.

Yeah, never forget the anti climax of that one

That is true, but it's still an item worth having because of its content. I haven't listened to any CD on my boxsets, but it's still something I would buy to have these songs in my collection. Also: They are selling TAPES... TAPES! Who has a tape player nowadays? That is the stupidiest trend anyways... The whole point is that the band (as far as I can tell) COULD easily do exclusive stuff at a very low cost, but they just don't. Like you said, it would be easy to do a live chat, but it's not happening. Mike streamed during COVID, he could do that again for the LPU, but he doesn't. He could point a camera at his screen and talk about how a FZ song came together, but nope. And you know what? Pretty much any band member could be like: "I take a couple thousand out of my bank account that contains millions after millions and help produce a nice CD for LPU members to have". Not that I would ever ask for that, but when you got fuck all money, even that would be possible.

Not just with this LPU package.

It's cool that they are finally getting called out for this.

I couldn't believe my eyes, either. You know it's BAD, when stranger is forming critique.

The LPU packages way back were so cool. Even though it took forever until they arrived, getting them and going through everything was so thrilling and fun. Haven't been a member since forever, but reading this is depressing. There is so much they could do, but they choose not to, for some reason. But I guess your assessment tracks: "So we're basically paying for the privilege of being marketed to." I get why they don't do M&G anymore. But man, having met them multiple times is something I'll always remember, especially those times when these M&G were so SMALL (like, 30 people at most or something). It sucks that they amped up the commercial aspect of the band so much, but c'est la vie... Again: Vote with your wallet, even if that means having to miss out on something. It's the only way.

This episode made me really happy. Seeing all those people from around the world coming together all the time for LP is super wholesome and awesome. Would've loved me some Alex, though.

I'm with you on that one. We don't know her current status, which is why I asked for new information on that if available. It's super fucked up what lengths these assholes will go to to make your life hell. And AGAIN: I don't judge her negatively by the fact because I know what being in the closer range of this cult means.

My god... How dense can one person be? Scientology IS a cult. She IS a member (if you have different information on that, please share). So TECHNICALLY she IS in a cult. Other people hate her just for this FACT, which is their thing - I don't. But I can acknowledge facts, which you are obviously having trouble with. You really need to stop interpreting what other people think or what kinds of people they are. You are not good at it, and it's reaching unseen levels of logical fallacies. Not withstanding the fact that it gets insulting with your constant assumptions. So, please, call a spade a spade, so we can discuss something concrete. Everything else is needless trolling. I would love to chill for now, but I also can't let such behavior continue to happen. So, sorry for everyone who feels "disrespected" because of this off-topic excursion.

I read stuff in the shoutbox, so... yeah, I can see what nonsense you like to spout. And to close this: You extrapolate the crazy stuff (which is despicable) from different forums/communities onto people over here on no ground other than "it was tracking". So next time you do so, gladly point at a concrete thing a concrete person said so that we all can see how you come to these conclusions, instead of keeping it vague and up for interpretation. I know what people write about the band and Emily out there (again, despicable), but that doesn't apply here at all (from all I can tell, at least). So, again, if you talk about being disrespectful, please be an example and not a driver. PS: Scientology is a cult, so make of that what you will.