M!ndgames - March 13, 2011
't Blok, Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel (NL)
From time to time the people of Gebouw 't Blok at Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel - calling themselves Progfrogs - organize a Sunday afternoon gig. Initially they had booked Dutch band For Absent Friends, but due to unforeseen circumstances this band wasn't able to play. So on short notice they asked the outstanding Belgian prog rock band M!ndgames who were willing to play for a small, but enthusiastic audience. The last time I witnessed M!ndgames on a live stage, I missed the epic piece Royalty In Jeopardy. It was left out of the concert they gave in Utrecht in 2010 (see review) because then they formed part of a triple concert. This meant that they had less time to show all their musical talents to a Dutch audience. For me, the absence of this classic epic was one of the reasons to attend this performance of M!ndgames. I hoped they would include it when more playing time was available. This time they were the only band playing at a rather new venue in the western part of The Netherlands.
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M!ndgames once more
proved to be a very professional outfit that had no problems at all to play the
songs from their three so far released albums on a live stage. However, the set
list was dominated by their latest effort; all songs from
MXX (2010) were
performed even in the same order as the track list on the album. In between
they performed material from International Daylight
(2002) and from their masterpiece Actors In A Play
(2006). The first highlight of this concert was taken from the latter.
The Statue
gave me shivers down my spine caused
by the superb performance. The church organ intro played by
Tom Truyers was
breathtaking. This also applied for the guitar parts by
Rudy Vander Veken who can play fine
melodic solos as well as great riffs. After the show bass player
Maximilian von Wüllerstorff told me that
The Statue is one of the
most difficult tracks to play live. I guess you have to be a professional
musician to judge how complex this piece is, because to me it looked as if it
was just a piece of cake! The second highlight was
Travels from MXX.
The difficult time signatures and strong instrumental parts made this a
fantastic epic piece. Unfortunately Beggars Breakfast
was the only song taken from International Daylight.
Sadly that they didn't play more
tracks from this album that brought Belgium back on the prog map. |
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Lead singer Bart Schram introduced The Pendulum as being the last song of the concert. The reaction of the audience was unanimous for they didn't like that at all. The music and snacks that were served - without any cost - had brought them in a very good mood. It was too soon to call it a day, so they wanted more strong progressive rock music although Bart Schram told the audience that The Pendulum was one of their longest pieces of music with an outstanding climax to end a performance in style.
Personally, I was more concerned about the fact that they hadn't played my favourite track Royalty In Jeopardy yet. I had already given up hope when Mr. Schram entered the stage once more with a crown in his hands while saying 'look what I've found'. After all I was the luckiest guy in the audience that afternoon.
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It had been a long time since I saw the act of the king and I wondered how Bart Schram would play this special part this
time. According to the reactions in the audience he succeeded very well. Dressed
in a king's cloak he threw chocolate coins into the audience. Not only children
picked up the coins from the floor, but also many adults were in for this
chocolate treat. This third highlight consummated the band's performance, but surprisingly
the musicians were ready to do another encore. The long epic piece
Both Sides Of The Show was next. An
epic with a perfect ending: the kind of climax you can hear in a song as
Afterglow by Genesis. |
This Sunday afternoon gig proved to be a real happening. It was very well organized by the Progfrog-people. I hope they will contract more strong prog acts like M!ndgames. In that case they'll find me more often at this venue on a Sunday afternoon. No doubt about that!
Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)
