Mangrove - May 28, 2011
DVD Release Party
W2, 's Hertogenbosch (NL)

Exactly two years ago, Dutch progressive rock outfit Mangrove released their critical acclaimed album Beyond Reality (see review). As always, the band played an entire version of this album during a very successful release party (see review). The whole show was at the time recorded on film, including a special set of the bands live favourites. It was not always clear if those recordings would appear on a DVD. The good quality of the material made them decide to release it as Live Beyond Reality (see review), especially for their dedicated fans.

First copy of the DVD handed over to the band by Peter Vroon

Those same dedicated fans could buy this nice goody during a special arranged release party at the W2 in Den Bosch in the Netherlands. However they had not thought about the fact that on the same day, the most important football game in Europe would be broadcasted. A lot of lovers of progressive rock music watched the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United instead. Therefore, the crowd that came to see the band was very small. Some other rock concerts held during the same period could also explain the poor attendance. One day earlier, Rush had done a concert as well in Rotterdam and Roger Waters came to tear down his Wall in Antwerp on the same day. Choosing another date was not an option anymore because that would mean a delay of a couple of months.

But it never did have any influence on the musicians as it turned out. The five musicians gave a very professional live performance just like the audience are used to hear. They did not play the whole performance from the DVD one more time but did play a selection from the bands repertoire. A song that the fans hadn't heard for a long time was chosen to open the show. Hidden Dreams (taken from Facing The Sunset) once again proved that the band is more a live band than a studio band. The live version of this track sounded much better than its studio

Roland and Chris

counterpart. The first surprise came for me when they started their second piece of music. One of the finest progressive rock songs ever written by a Dutch band was next. Wizard Of Tunes has to be played during every Mangrove gig. The song with the many Camel and Genesis influences is just breathtaking. Keyboard player Chris Jonker strapped on his mobile keyboard to play the fine synthesizer solos. To give him some room to get ready to play those parts, the other musicians played an extra improvised part. It just sounded as if it had been a part of Wizard Of Tunes since it was played for the first time. Three tracks from their masterpiece Beyond Reality followed and were done without any notable mistakes. One of them, Reality Fades, did have a nice gimmick. While it went dark on the stage, all members of the band had put on a light on their head, just like real mine workers. It looked fabulous on stage while they were

Roland during 'Reality Fades'

playing their instruments. After the Pink Floyd influenced track Time Will Tell, it was time for the official presentation of the DVD Live Beyond Reality. The band's own photographer and friend Peter Vroon presented it in a very funny way by telling some anecdotes.

The 'flow' of Zone III and its transition into Fatal Sign was next, just like you can enjoy on the DVD. It was followed by another classic Mangrove piece. After City Of Darkness, another song with a beautiful climax ended the regular set. Voyager was not a real goodbye for the band because two more great progressive rock tunes were done during the encore. However the audience had to wait a couple of minutes before they could hear the first encore There Must Be Another Way. Bass player Pieter Drost used the short break to visit the toilet before he was ready to give the spectators some more enjoyments! The title track from their latest release finished off a concert that hardly contained any mistakes. The only time that Chris Jonker's synthesizer was out of tune was something beyond his control. I am not sure if I mentioned the free candy bars that were thrown into the audience. Anyway, it was something which I hadn't seen before during a rock concert. Again I watched Mangrove giving a superb performance.