Knight Area
CD Release Party 'Nine Paths'
October 8, 2011, Dru Cultuur Fabriek, Ulft (NL)
It's always nice to attend CD
release parties because you know for sure that the musicians will put their
best foot foremost. They just don't want to make too much mistakes in front of their
hard-core fans. Mostly they play one set consisting of new material, and a second
one for the already familiar songs. The release party of
Nine Paths, the new CD of
Knight Area (see review),
was no exception to that rule. Just like two years ago they started
their performance with the new album, but this time they wanted to do it a bit
bigger than during the release party of Realm
Of Shadows
(see review). The venue was larger and they also played on a
bigger stage than usual. However, this time the venue was not located in the
backyard of the band's hometown. They had chosen for the Dru Cultuur Fabriek, a
venue in the eastern part of The Netherlands that used to be a factory. Fortunately,
it didn't appear to be a problem for the many fans living in the western part
of our country. The large number of visitors made sure that this live gig felt
as a home game for the musicians.
Knight Area started with Ever Since You Killed Me, the opening piece of the new album. From the first notes it was obvious that they'd once again created a special album. The song has a very high standard with all the progressive rock elements we enjoy so much. More tracks from Nine Paths followed, but in random order. Unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy the guest vocals of Charlotte Wessels (Delain) on
Please Come Home.
However, this wasn't a problem at all since hardly anybody was familiar with the
album version, and thus lead singer Mark Smit
sang this ballad perfectly on his own. A special mention goes for the fantastic
guitar solo by Mark Vermeule at the
end of this song that was followed by Pride And Joy,
a superb instrumental piece. This tune was a perfect vehicle for
some strong keyboard and guitar duels between
Gerben Klazinga (keyboards) and Mark Vermeule. Then another
highlight followed. The River - no cover
of the Bruce Springsteen-track - has
been written by bass player Gijs Koopman.
It was easy to determine that he wrote this piece, because of the sublime playing
on the bass guitar and the bass pedals. After this song the audience got a
little confused. 'More to come', Mr. Klazinga said, as if he wanted to say 'see
you after the break', but not all band members left the stage. Then Mark Smit
started to sing The Balance.
Unfortunately,
I missed this piece because I just went for a toilet break and get myself a drink.
Fortunately there was indeed 'more to come' in the first set before they
performed the final piece Angel's Call.
After this strong new tune it was time to present
Nine Paths
officially. The man, who did most of the promotion activities to make
this live show a success, received the first copy from the musicians.
I used the break to talk with the musicians about the new album. Obviously I could only compliment them since the fine new material was very well performed. The second set was dominated by the older songs starting with The Gate Of Eternity, the very first track of their debut. Next was a medley made up of two songs taken from the second album. The combination of Exit L.U.M.C. and Courteous Love
worked perfectly. All the other performed tracks taken
from the previously released studio albums sounded marvellous proving how well Knight
Area perform their material on a live stage. They gave a final encore after
Dark Souls. I hoped they would finish with
Mortal Brow
and indeed, they did. It ended a great concert of wonderful
progressive rock music.
However, at first I had no indication at all that they would perform Mortal Brow. At first Mark Vermeule started a solo performance on his electric guitar that included several well-known TV-tunes. It was nice to hear short fragments of Inspector Gadget, The A-Team, Dallas and Magnum. Even a small part of Saevis Tranquillis In Undis was performed. It was funny to see that drummer Pieter van Hoorn made clear that Vermeule played much too long on his own. Then the other musicians entered the stage one by one. By the sound of the first notes of Mortal Brow the people in the audience went mad. This was just the piece we wanted to hear! Mark's guitar solo led to an outstanding climax. They even included some reggae parts; very funny indeed, but let's hope that they'll stick to their own genre. Mark Smit ended this great release party by saying that it was their best live show ever. Well, I'm not sure about that, but who cares.
Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)
Nine Paths, the new CD of
Knight Area (see review),
was no exception to that rule. Just like two years ago they started
their performance with the new album, but this time they wanted to do it a bit
bigger than during the release party of Realm
Of Shadows
(see review). The venue was larger and they also played on a
bigger stage than usual. However, this time the venue was not located in the
backyard of the band's hometown. They had chosen for the Dru Cultuur Fabriek, a
venue in the eastern part of The Netherlands that used to be a factory. Fortunately,
it didn't appear to be a problem for the many fans living in the western part
of our country. The large number of visitors made sure that this live gig felt
as a home game for the musicians. Knight Area started with Ever Since You Killed Me, the opening piece of the new album. From the first notes it was obvious that they'd once again created a special album. The song has a very high standard with all the progressive rock elements we enjoy so much. More tracks from Nine Paths followed, but in random order. Unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy the guest vocals of Charlotte Wessels (Delain) on
|
| Knight Area in concert |
I used the break to talk with the musicians about the new album. Obviously I could only compliment them since the fine new material was very well performed. The second set was dominated by the older songs starting with The Gate Of Eternity, the very first track of their debut. Next was a medley made up of two songs taken from the second album. The combination of Exit L.U.M.C. and Courteous Love
|
| Mark Smit |
However, at first I had no indication at all that they would perform Mortal Brow. At first Mark Vermeule started a solo performance on his electric guitar that included several well-known TV-tunes. It was nice to hear short fragments of Inspector Gadget, The A-Team, Dallas and Magnum. Even a small part of Saevis Tranquillis In Undis was performed. It was funny to see that drummer Pieter van Hoorn made clear that Vermeule played much too long on his own. Then the other musicians entered the stage one by one. By the sound of the first notes of Mortal Brow the people in the audience went mad. This was just the piece we wanted to hear! Mark's guitar solo led to an outstanding climax. They even included some reggae parts; very funny indeed, but let's hope that they'll stick to their own genre. Mark Smit ended this great release party by saying that it was their best live show ever. Well, I'm not sure about that, but who cares.
Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)
