Hasse Fröberg and Musical Companion
& Penny's Twisted Flavour
March 4, 2011 - De Boerderij, Zoetermeer (NL)
After the wonderful album Future Past (see review), I was anxious to learn how it would sound on a live stage. A live concert of Hasse Fröberg was never disappointing, so even before I heard a single note, I knew this gig would become a special evening for progressive music lovers. I was welcomed by stage manager Paul de Ruiter at De Boerderij. His helpful and caring attitude made me feel at home, especially when he told me that I could have an interview with Hasse Fröberg after the show. Wow, I wasn't prepared to interview, but I was very pleased to meet a musician that I look up to.
Penny's Twisted Flavour
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The Dutch band Penny's Twisted Flavour
served as a support-act. The last time I saw them they played an instrumental
set because their vocalist had just left the band. For this gig they had asked
special guest vocalist Rodney Blaze,
one of the vocalists participating on the latest album of
Star One.
The band started instrumentally showing how the four musicians
had grown towards each other music wise. With Inside,
the band introduced guest singer Rodney Blaze. From the
moment he entered the stage I felt there was a kind of chemistry between all
musicians. All the technical bits like Matthijs
Kieboom doubling
Mark Bogert's guitar, Wendy Heuvelmans'
solos and Harmen Kieboom'
s fills were played perfectly.
In the middle of the set we got a short acoustic interlude, wherein Rodney's
vocal qualities could be heard in full glory. Very impressive! Before finishing
with another instrumental part, Rodney almost left with a bang. He was tripped up
by a wire and almost fell head first into the mixing unit! But anyway, seeing
Penny again was wonderful: great music, nice people. Afterwards I inquired after the origin of the band's name and they answered: 'Every other week there's a different story about the name. Which one do you want?' I had to take that for an answer and so they kept it a secret and also a point of amusement. |
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I also wondered why the cymbals of drummer Harmen Kieboom hang that
low. I could watch him all the time while most drummers hide behind a huge
amount of cymbals and drums. He told me that it's easier to play this way because
the communication with both the other band members and the audience is much
better. |
Hasse Fröberg
After a short break Hasse Fröberg and Musical Companion entered the stage. From the first moment on you could feel the power, the tightness and the atmosphere in their music. Hasse Fröberg's voice was as great as ever while communicating with the audience all the time. Drummer Ola Strandberg played both powerful and subtle increasing the music's quality with all his delicate drum sounds. Thomas Thomsson played his bass guitar in a very melodic and steady way. Seeing keyboarder Kjell Haraldsson play is a feast for the eyes and ears: tasteful and magnificent solos filling all the gaps. On the left side of the stage we found the band's junior guitarist Anton Lindsjö,
whose guitar technics are just fantastic and sounding superbly. The band played
all the songs of their debut album Future Past
and in addition we got a number of songs Fröberg wrote for
The Flower Kings. Songs like
Piece Of The Sky, Fallen Empire and
Only My Blood
are great songs and they work very well on stage, while
Magic Pie
indeed brought magic on stage. The twin solos that Fröberg
and Lindsjö played together sounded very interesting and retro. Sometimes
Thin Lizzy came to my mind.
The atmosphere during the concert was rather intimate, the audience felt as if
they became part of the family of the Musical Companion. Another nice fact was Patsy
Delledone, a friend of the band from Canada. She was online via Skype to watch
and listen to the show. With the laptop on stage she could hear the audience clapping
and shouting for the encore, a wonderful version of
Stardust We Are. Hasse Fröberg was
accompanied by the keyboards and a few very enthusiastic people in the
audience. This must have been a great sight, to see from the stage how people
sing along. For me it was a musical highlight to become part of Hasse's
followers. After the show, when the band members had talked to the fans, Hasse Fröberg took me apart to give me the opportunity to ask some questions backstage. It became a pleasant conversation in the presence of Patsy Delledone on the laptop doing a great job helping me out with the interview (see interview). After all it was a special evening that I won't easily forget.
Pedro Bekkers (edited by Peter Willemsen)
