Flamborough Head October 16, 2010 - Starsound Studio's, Utrecht (NL)
In April 2009 I
visited a small progressive rock festival at the Starsound Studio's in Utrecht
(see review) organized by Dutch prog band Flamborough
Head.
In spite of the fact that only few people showed up, they recently organized
the same kind of mini-festival again.
Watching this fine band perform was a good reason to drive to
Utrecht, but the performances of Yesterdays
(Romania) and Mindgames
(Belgium) were a good excuse to
write a review about this progressive rock festival. Both bands had become
friends with Flamborough Head after they had visit the northern part of The
Netherlands to perform at the legendary Progfarm Festival. This annual festival
attracts visitors from different countries, but even this small festival proved
that progressive rock has no borders. There were spectators from Germany and
even a man from Japan.
Flamborough Head Together with some thirty natives they saw Flamborough Head perform first. The band showed that people who didn't attend this festival missed something special. With the new guitarist Gert Polkerman, the band has become a very strong live unit. His style of guitar playing is perhaps less melodic than that of former guitarist Eddie Mulder, but instead we can enjoy a more aggressive guitar sound on stage. However, a very enjoyable sound with no traces of prog metal at all. The band performed some new songs as well. We could already enjoy Canto and The Trapper on the latest edition of the Progfarm Festival (see review), but Lost In Time / Right There For A Moment was completely new. The new pieces showed that Flamborough Head didn't step backwards after Mr. Mulder left the band. The new compositions are still of a high level, sounding very melodic. The band still performs songs from their first line-up that recorded Unspoken Whisper (1998) and Defining The Legacy (2000). Margriet Boomsma did a great job in forgetting their former lead singer Siebe Rein Schaaf. Schoolyard Fantasy and Garden Of Dreams brought back a lot of good memories. I also noticed that Mr. Polkerman enjoyed playing those old guitar parts. He often played them with a big smile on his face. For me, the highlight of this fine performance was Looking For John Maddock, the 20-minute long title track of the band's latest release. This epic piece containing different moods and changes was splendidly performed with a leading role for keyboardist Edo Spanninga.Yesterdays Next on stage were Yesterdays from Hungary and Romania. The musicians used a piece of music written by George Martin for The Beatles-movie Yellow Submarine to introduce them on stage. The first song Forog A Tánc was performed a bit uncertain, but after a couple of songs they became in their element and the show continued quite smoothly. I noticed that only two musicians had also participated in the line-up that played in 2006 at the Progfarm Festival. Zsolt Enyedi (keyboards) and Ákos Bogáti-Bokor (guitars, vocals), were also responsible for the progressive rock elements in the sound of the band. Drummer Domokos Csergö had returned after recording the band's debut album Holdfénykert (Moonlit Garden). Unfortunately, only a couple of tracks of this album were performed, but thank god, at least they picked out the best song. Seven, introduced as Eleven, got an excellent live rendition that I enjoyed very much. The remainder of the concert contained only new songs. Eight of these songs will appear on their forthcoming second album. From time to time these songs sounded rather strong, especially the fine instrumental passages were of a high level and the contribution of flute player Gábor Kecskeméti was a real treat. Some of the new songs contained some jazz or jazz rock elements. The way Linda Horváth - the band's new female lead singer - sings showed that she might have a jazzy background. It was her first concert with the band, but this fragile young woman wasn't afraid to show her vocal talents to the audience. She sang the new piece 33 very well. This piece of music was written for Paradiso, the next Colossus/Musea-release. The audience wanted the band to do an encore. After the encore Tükör their time was up, but they can look back at a well-performed concert.Mindgames That also applied for Mindgames. Thanks to Flambourough Head our Belgian friends returned on a Dutch stage. So they could finally play songs from their highly acclaimed new album MMX. They began with the opening piece of MMX. The Source showed that we had missed something special since 2004. This progressive rock band can be considered as being one of the best from Belgium. Even the keyboardist of Yesterdays was very impressed by the sound of the band, especially the sounds of Tom Truyers. During the intro of The Static he played some impressive church organ samples on his keyboards. His colleague of Yesterdays moved behind Truyers to have a close look to learn how he managed to get such excellent sounds out of his instruments. However, I think singer Bart Schram was the most impressive musician. His vocal performances almost sounded the same as on the three studio albums. Sometimes you might get the idea that his voice came from a tape. The way he supported the lyrics with some theatrical acts looked very professional as well. | |||||||||||||||
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When I gave him a compliment after the show he just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Unfortunately, he had
left 'the king's act' in his home country. If you liked the acts of
Peter Gabriel in Genesis you must have
seen his royal act in the song Royal In Jeopardy.
He acts very seriously
while playing the king throwing money to the audience, but the song was left
out of the set. Instead we could listen to more songs from
MMX, like the epic pieces
Travels and
The Pendulum.
I was very curious to learn how Tom Truyers would play
the rather weird, but beautiful keyboard solo during the middle-section of
Travels.
Well, he just did it in a perfect way. Mindgames also deserved an encore and
the few people left in the audience made enough noise to get them back on stage.
Their last song was Both Sides Of The Show,
a beautiful epic piece that finished an excellent performance.
Hopefully this wasn't the last MMX-show
in The Netherlands...
Too bad, that only a few people visited the Starsound Studio in Utrecht to witness three wonderful live acts. The prize to see the shows couldn't have been the problem. Maybe some other concerts held during the same weekend could have been the reason for prog heads to show little interest. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned Flamborough Head may organize such triple live shows again. I had a good time just like all the other people who joined me in witnessing some outstanding progressive rock bands. Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen) |
Setlist Yesterdays Forog A TáncMélyrepülés Éjszaka A Városban Ne Félj Bábjáték 33 Játék Zápor Megpihensz Seven Encore: Tükör |
Pictures Yesterdays by Arthur Haggenburg Click on the picture to enlarge. |
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Line up Yesterdays: (left to right)Gábor Kecskeméti: flute Zoltán Kolumbán: bass guitar Zsolt Enyedi: keyboards Linda Horváth: lead vocals Domokos Csergö: drums Ákos Bogáti-Bokor: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars |
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Setlist Mindgames: The SourceGlory Of The Night The Statue Outside The Gloom Travels Beggars Breakfast Destination Sky The Pendulum |
Pictures Mindgames by Arthur Haggenburg Click on the picture to enlarge. |
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Line up Mindgames: (left to right)Tom Truyers: keyboards Benny Petak: drums, electronic percussion Bart Schram: lead vocals, acoustic 12 string guitar Rudy Vander Veken: electric guitars, acoustic six string guitar Maximilian von Wüllerstorff: bass guitar |
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