As a Marillion fan I have been following Gazpacho for years. They played not only at the Marillion convention, but I also saw them as a support act at Marillion’s Utrecht gig in 2005. Marillion helped these Norwegians in the past, by releasing their first three albums on their own Racket Records label. But nowadays, Gazpacho can stand on their own two feet. Their music is unique, not comparable to anything else, not even Marillion. So I won’t mention the other band, the M-word, again…

De Boerderij wasn’t sold out, but with an audience of 600 people, they were happy. Singer Jan Henrik Ohme told us that they played for 50 people the first time they were in de Boerderij. I was one of them. I had high expectations this time around and so did a lot of others whom I spoke to before the gig. But with the first tones, Gazpacho wasn’t meeting them. I was really scared what was going to unfold, because it sounded not too good! Apparently the first song they played was an obscurity, which they had never played live before. I couldn’t hear Jan Henrik’s beautiful voice. Maybe it was the technique that failed, maybe the band wasn’t in form yet, needed to warm up? Who knows. All I know is, they made up for it, big time...

After this incident, they moved on with  117, a song from the album When Earth Lets Go, from their early years. The setlist was quite different than before, but that’s a good thing, very surprising. We could hear how they grew. Although I like the old albums, Night and Tick Tock remain classics for me and they always have to play a lot from them. Last time I saw Gazpacho live, I missed quite a bit, because they began to play earlier than normal. It was on the venue’s website, but I didn’t look beforehand, so I was very disappointed to say the least when I entered the Boerderij that time and heard Night being played, and I still had to hang up my coat and everything.

The surprises didn’t stop. After these two songs, Jan Henrik announced that they are working on a new album and they played a new track, The River. I can’t say much of this song. It sounded like Gazpacho, not too long and a little jazzy. The audience seemed to like it. But then, there was Night, the first three songs of the album.  Beautiful projections on the backdrop and goosebumps for me... This was what I had hoped for. And after this it was only getting better and better… For a moment I regretted not standing on the other side, in front of guitar player Jon-Arne. But in the end I was totally captured by Mikael, who played the violin so breathtakingly! I almost wished for his bow instead of a plectrum.

More breathtaking moments were to follow. An acoustic set by Jan Henrik, Jon-Arne and Thomas, both on keyboards, of  When Earth Lets Go. I didn’t hear a sound at de Boerderij, everybody was impressed by the voice of an angel, that’s how his voice was described by some people. And it’s true. They played a long set, over two hours. Another acoustic moment later on by Jan Henrik and Jon-Arne on guitar, playing Symbols. Beautiful is the only word to describe it by. I am going to listen to that  song, from the album Firebird again. At the end Bravo and Snowman, the classics. 

The new drummer Lars Erik Asp did a great job. I never noticed the former one, who moved to Italy for the love of his life and a new born. I usually don’t pay much attention to drummers, but this new one was very prominent. Also bass player Kristian Torp played a bigger part than before. Maybe that was part of the result of the red wine he was drinking, but I think the whole band has grown up, they acted more like a whole, as a band of size. With entertaining capacities. 

The biggest news of the night, apart from the announcement of the new album, was that in September they are playing at Loreley again. After the show Jan Henrik told me that it wasn’t yet sure which day, but he hoped it would be on the Saturday, before Marillion. Well, I think they don’t need Marillion anymore. (And I promised not to mention the M-word again). There will be a lot of fans travelling down there only for Gazpacho!  Hopefully I will have heard the new album by then, so I can be in total ecstasy again.

Text Janke Rijpkema & Pictures by Miranda Bril (with special thanks to "De Boerderij").