In the nineties the Polish neo-progressive rock band
Collage recorded some amazing albums. Especially
Moonshine (1994) became an international success. To me this album is a true masterpiece and
|
Karol Wroblewski |
one of the best prog
rock albums ever recorded in Poland. At the time their fans in the Netherlands
probably felt the same. The concerts Collage gave in our country were always welcomed
with the kind of excitement that could only be seen during the heydays of
The Beatles,
as it were. Back then the band members were completely overwhelmed by all the attention they got. The
songs from their studio albums were excellently performed live on stage. I
guess many prog heads were very disappointed when Collage called it a day after the rather disappointing successor
Safe (1995). This record contained more experimental music and as a
consequence the magic more or less has disappeared.
From the ashes of Collage other bands arose like
Satellite,
Believe,
Mr. Gil,
Peter Pan and
Strawberry Fields. Sometimes these bands reached the same quality level
as Collage. However, I always felt that they quit too soon and I wished that
they would reunite one day. Well, this finally happened in 2013. The musicians started to
rehearse for a comeback tour and began to write new material for an album to be released in May 2014.
Fortunately they hadn't forgotten that they were the most successful in the
Netherlands and therefore the band booked a one-off concert at venue De Bosuil
in Weert, which is a perfect location for prog rock concerts. Everything at this
venue is well-arranged and the audience can watch the bands at close range,
which makes it easy to take as many pictures you want without someone asking you
for a photo pass! I was very curious to find out how Collage's music currently sounds
after an absence of nearly twenty years!
As in the old days the band started with
Heroes Cry, the opening piece of
Moonshine.
This is a perfect song to start a concert with by its impressive keyboard intro that brought me
immediately in the right mood. Most of the musicians on stage looked familiar,
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Mirek Gil and Piotr Witkowski |
and it seems they hadn't aged that much. Also the way they played their
instruments was still the same: the fast drum parts of
Wojtek Szadkowski, the melodic guitar playing of
Mirek Gil, the string synthesizer parts of
Krzysztof Palczewska and the relaxed bass playing of
Piotr 'Mintay' Witkowski. However, one musician was missing namely lead singer
Robert Amirian
with his excellent voice and his very long hair. He was the one who always felt slightly uncomfortable by
the warm reception of Collage in the nineties. After
the show one of the musicians told me that Amirian was tired of touring; he rather stayed at home. He was replaced by
Karol Wroblewski who appeared to be a great singer
and above all a better entertainer on stage. Of course his voice differs from
Amirian's voice thus the old songs sounded differently. For people who don't know Karol Wroblewski: he's the lead singer with Believe, one of the bands that guitarist Mirek Gil had formed after Collage broke up.
After the strong opening
Heroes Cry I hoped that they would continue playing the album
Moonshine
in its entirety. But that will always be a dream that,
who knows, one day will come true. For now they continued with a number of songs from
Safe
and the band's debut
Basnie (1990). As far as the lyrics are
concerned the songs from Basnie were difficult to understand because they were sung
in the Polish language. For that reason pieces like
Ja I Ty,
Kotysanka and
Jeszcze Jeden Dzien
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Mirek Gil, using a beer glass |
sounded a bit strange compared to the other songs. But don't get me wrong: these songs were by no
means less interesting as they contain the same musical ingredients as the other
ones! During a large part of the concert the audience sang the intro of
Living In The Moonlight,
one of the excellent pieces from
Moonshine. Well, after performing
The Blues, the title track and
War Is Over, the closing track of
Moonshine, they finally had their way during the first encore followed by
God, a track from the
John Lennon tribute album
Nine Songs Of John Lennon (1993).
During the latter song,
Mr. Gil could again show
that he's an excellent guitar player. His guitar solo, for which he used a beer
glass, was breathtaking and finished an excellent concert performed by a band
that didn't belong to the prog rock scene way too long. Even without the 'hysterical'
scenes in the past they can still present an amazing show! Hopefully they will
return next year when the new album will be released. That would be great!
Henri Strik
(edited by Peter Willemsen)