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Progfarm 2010 November 6, 2010 - De Harmsdobbe, Bakkeveen (NL)
Toyz Toyz hails from the city of Delft and was founded in the spring of 1996. I was lucky to see them once before during a fine performance at the Bospop Festival (Weert) with a newly recruited female singer. However, soon after this gig they broke up, got
together again and split up again in 2002. Early 2004 a couple of former band
members decided to start Toyz afresh. This time it worked out very well as people
could see and hear at the Progfarm Festival. Most people were very impressed by
the musicianship of this rather unknown band, especially pieces as
Remember and
Tides had a big impact. The keyboard parts of
Arjan van Gog and the
steady groove from the rhythm section created a fine atmosphere on which virtuoso
guitarist Peter van Heijningen
could do his musical tricks. Sometimes he sounded like
Andy Latimer or
David Gilmour which provided
the songs with a progressive rock flavour.
But his style of playing also revealed that he learned a lot of the likes as
Steve Vai and
Joe Satriani. This way the music got harder-edged. A good
example was Face The Mirror.
The keyboards mostly had a supportive role,
but got occasionally a leading role as well, like the nice piano intro on
Intersection
or some tasteful synth solos on a couple of other songs which we can enjoy
on the new album released in 2011. All together the band could look back at a
very successful and surprising performance.Silhouette That was definitely not the case with Silhouette, another band from The Netherlands. They recorded a rather strong second album with Moods (see review), but they seem to have problems to perform their music properly on a live stage. During my first live encounter with Silhouette at the Starsound Studio in Utrecht (see review) they already made a rather unstable impression, but I had good hopes that they would grow music wise if they could play more often. About a year later I saw them again being a support act for Martigan in Germany (see review). I had the impression that they'd grown and got rid of stage fright. So I was really looking forward to see them a third time. I was quite sure everything would fall in place this time, but unfortunately reality sometimes differs from one's expectations. The opening tune Far Away didn't reveal a band being able to give an excellent performance. The second track Concert Hangover indicated that Silhouette was going
to perform a concert with ups and downs. However, the keyboards and the lead
vocals of Erik Laan
were certainly not to blame. Both his voice and the keyboards
sounded very well, whilst his fellow musicians sounded rather poor from time to
time. The drums performed by Jos Uffing
weren't sounding good enough
throughout the whole set. However, unlike previous concerts I had no problems
with his lead vocals this time. From behind his drums he succeeded in singing properly.
In many songs the bass guitar of Gerrit-Jan Bloemink
sounded not only too
loud, but very similar and without any variety! He certainly has to try
different bass lines or use some bass pedals and other effects to make his
playing more professional. Unfortunately guitarist
Flamborough Head The hosts and hostess of the festival always enter the Progfarm-stage as third in a row. This year wasn't different and Flamborough Head performed a solid set as expected by the audience. The set list was slightly
song certainly was one of the highlights of FH's wonderful performance. As
usual lately, they started with Schoolyard Fantasy
followed by Canto.
During the latter, lead singer and flutist
Margriet Boomsma had some
problems with one of her flutes. The valves didn't work properly because she
had left the flute in the band's rehearsal room way too long. She believed that
the audience had noticed some missing notes and therefore she wanted to explain
what had happened. However, Koen Roozen
started his drum parts for The Trapper
much too soon which made Margriet speechless. Before starting an
excellent version of the title track of their latest album she could tell her
story. The band ended their set with a new piece:
Lost In Time / Right Here For A Moment.
I heard this song for the second time and it really started
to grow on me. Hopefully the band will record it for the new album. After they
had finished, the band members felt they performed a good concert. The stress
of organizing the festival doesn't effect their playing any longer. Sunchild / Karfagen 
How often can you witness
a progressive rock band from the Ukraine on a Dutch stage? Well, I guess this will
hardly occur, but this year Progfarm had programmed
Antony Kalugin, one of
the musical masterminds from this country. Together with five musicians and a
female singer they performed the music Kalugin had written for the albums he recorded
with Sunchild,
Karfagen and Hoggwash.
Some of them came by
plane but Antony, his lovely wife and a couple of other musicians made the
journey by car. On their way to The Netherlands they suffered a lot of rain and
a five-hour delay when crossing the Polish borders. Nevertheless, they managed
to get here in time to show their talents to the Progfarm-audience. And the audience
really loved them! While the seven musicians played a collection of songs from the
aforementioned bands they got a warm response that inspired the musicians to
give the best possible performance. With only one keyboard Antony was ready to
kick ass. He controlled the performance by giving directions to the other
musicians like ticking their excellent bayan - a kind of accordion - and
harmonica player Sergii Kovalev
on the shoulder when he had to play
because he was blind! The musicians started with a song taken from Karfagen's
latest album Solitary Sandpiper Journey.
Kingfisher & Dragonfly was
a great introduction to perform several tracks from the first two Sunchild-albums.
We could enjoy songs as Astoria and
Rain Drops, but also
Train Blues / Midnight Train
on which the harmonica imitated the sound of a running train. After
this Karfagen's music was placed on the stage including
A Winter's Tale,
one of my favourite pieces. Despite the lack of the excellent Moog-solo from
the original album this piece sounded perfect. Mr. Kalugin played excellent
with a lot of passion and emotion. During
Close To Heaven singer Viktoria Osmanchko
and guitarist Roman Gorielov
got a well deserved solo
spot. This short piece performed on the acoustic guitar was also the encore.
Initially, they didn't want to play it because they were afraid that they would
steal time of the next band to play. Fortunately, the organizers could persuade
them to do one final song before ending their excellent concert. This gig not
only contained the wonderful music written by Antony Kalugin, but also elements
of the original Ukrainian folk music. This musical melting pot was apparently
appreciated by most of the spectators, because shortly after they left the
stage all CD's but one were sold out... D'AccorD: The final band to perform had the difficult task to keep the attention of the audience after the excellent performance of the Ukrainian musicians. However, the band members from the Norwegian band D'AccorD seemed to have no problems at all with that task. They performed music inspired by a number of bands. In the songs taken from their debut album, I could easily recognize bands like
Jethro Tull,
Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and
King Crimson. D'AccorD began with
Play By The Hall Rules.
Arstein Tislevoll succeeded in getting
the same kind of
Mellotron-sound from his Nord-synthesizer that I love so much on the album. We
could enjoy the same sound while performing a great tribute to King Crimson by
playing an excellent version of 21st Schizoid Man
and Starless.
The man who stole the show on stage was lead singer
Daniel Maage. Even
with a sore throat he was capable to sing his vocal lines with a lot of passion
and emotion. Bravo! Also his organ, flute and guitar playing were very strong.
However, the perfect guitar solos were done by
Stig Are Sund. Some
people in the audience couldn't appreciate this kind of progressive rock with
elements taken from blues and hard rock. However, in my opinion the band can
look back at a well-performed gig and return home knowing that they played at
the best progressive rock festival of The Netherlands.Again, that's the only thing I can say about the Progfarm Festival. Sadly it wasn't sold out this year, but it doesn't prevent me from saying my famous last words: it still remains the best progressive rock festival of The Netherlands! Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen) |
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Setlist Toyz: DepartureRemember Tears Of Joy Mindscape Face The Mirror Tides Shifting Gear Thermal Wind Far Away Intersection Dream On No Way Out TG Rock On Wood Beat Of Life? |
Pictures Toyz by Arthur Haggenburg Click on the picture to enlarge.
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Line up Toyz: (left to right)Arjan van Gog: keyboards Peter van Heijningen: guitars Robert van Kooij: drums Jeroen Boldrik: bass guitar |
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Setlist Silhouette: Far AwayConcert Hangover Where Are You Now Moods Another Bedtime Story Long Distance Unreal Meeting The Answers Searching For Her |
Pictures Silhouette (by Arthur Haggenburg) Click on the picture to enlarge.
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Line up Silhouette: (left to right)Gerrit-Jan Bloemink: bass guitar Erik Laan: keyboards, vocals Brian de Graeve: guitar, vocals Jos Uffing: drums, vocals Aldo Adema (guest): guitar on Moods & Another Bedtime Story |
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Setlist Flamborough Head: Schoolyard FantasyCanto / By The Bank Of The River The Trapper Looking For John Maddock Captive Of Fate Lost In Time / Right There For A Moment |
Pictures Flamborough Head (by Arthur Haggenburg) Click on the picture to enlarge.
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Line up Flamborough Head: (left to right)Edo Spanninga: keyboards Marcel Derix: bass guitar Margriet Boomsma: lead vocals, recorders, flute, acoustic guitar Eddie Mulder (guest): acoustic guitar, backing vocals on Captive Of Fate Koen Roozen: drums, percussion Gert Polkerman: lead guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals |
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Setlist Sunchild/Karfagen: Kingfisher & DragonflyAstoria Rain Drops The Great Me Shall We Run Train Blues Midnight Train Ode To A New Life A Winter Tale Polka Labyrinth Illusionist Close To Heaven The Last Card Day Of Destiny Encore: Close To Heaven |
Pictures Sunchild/Karfagen (by Arthur Haggenburg) Click on the picture to enlarge.
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Line up Sunchild/Karfagen: (left to right)Sergii Kovalov: bayan, harmonica, backing vocals Antony Kalugin: keyboard, recorder, lead and backing vocals Oleg Prokhorov: bass guitar Viktoria Osmanchko: lead and background vocals Andrii Kobylianskyi: electric guitars Roman Gorielov: acoustic guitar Sergiy Balalayev (in front): drums |
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Setlist D'AccorD: Play By The Hall RulesNew Song Time To Play Bin 21st Schizoid Man Starless This Is The One Capitale Venditio |
Pictures D'AccorD (by Arthur Haggenburg) Click on the picture to enlarge.
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Line up D'AccorD: (left to right)Arstein Tislevoll: keyboard Martin Sjoen: bass guitar Daniel Maage: lead vocals, electric guitar, flute, organ Bjarte Rossehaug: drums Stig Are Sund: lead guitar |
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