Since September 2010 the Dutch Progfrog team monthly organizes special Sunday afternoon concerts at 't Blok in Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel. Everything is done on a non-profit basis and only done to give sometimes rather unknown bands in the progressive rock scene a chance to show their talents to the Dutch audience! International acts such as Franck Carducci, Anima Mundi, United Progressive Fraternity, 3RDegree, Unreal City and The Watch already made their way to the stage in this venue. During those shows the combination of snacks and great music is a common thing. To celebrate the five years anniversary of Progfrog and the venue, a free festival was organized. Originally seven bands were booked, however only one week before the actual date the Belgian formation Mindgames had to withdraw because of personal circumstances. Therefore six Dutch bands could be enjoyed. (Henri)
 

Flamborough Head

Margriet Boomsma

The band that opened the festival early in the afternoon were the first band that actually started the Progfrog concerts; Flamborough Head from the northern parts of The Netherlands. Their second performance at the same venue was last year in September during the Friske Prog Middei (see concert review) with Leap Day. Not much has changed since that concert. The line up of the band is still the same with Eddie Mulder on bass guitar. Even the setlist was almost a duplicate, with the only difference that Looking For John Maddock was skipped

Live video: The Trapper

because of less time to perform than one year earlier. Again mainly songs taken from the band's latest release Lost In Time (2013, see review) dominated their performance. The only piece from another album was the one the band uses to say goodbye to their audience. A song taken from an album made with their earlier line up, namely the epic piece Garden Of Dreams from the band's second album Defining The Legacy (2000). Their concert was certainly a good one that unfortunately also included almost the same minor mistakes that were made during their last performance at this venue. However, it didn't mean people were sacked after their show, which of course wasn't needed because those who came to see the start of the festival had seen a very pleasant show, even though it included some sound and light problems. (Henri)
 

Ulysses

L to R: Gijs Koopman and Michael Hos

Marathon was supposed to play at the ProgFrog Festival but they cancelled a few days before the official day. Ulysses replaced this band at the very last minute. I heard that there were problems with sound and light effects during the performance of Flamborough Head. Sadly Ulysses still suffered from the consequences of the sound and light problems. Despite the problems the band kept their humour and played fantastic. The keyboards were very soft at the beginning of the set for example, but the problems were solved halfway during the set.. During their show you could tell they are a bombastic band. Furthermore you could say the stage was probably too small for a band like this. The band's front man and lead singer Michael Hos sings very well and knows how to use his voice. Before the band was going to play #Sadness -Lost What Was Not Mine they invited female

Live video: Sadness

singer Petra Honing (lead singer of Equisa) on stage, who was in the front row of the audience. The band didn't announce they would play a track with an extra singer so this was a lovely surprise for the audience. She sang along with Michael on the earlier mentioned composition which was great, just like she does on the new album from which it was taken. Halfway during the performance most of the sound problems and light problems were finally solved. Before the band started to play the instrumental track #Surprise - The Unexpected the singer made a joke towards the keyboardist Ron Mozer and told the audience that "he can handle this track". I certainly loved this instrumental song. Sadly the band couldn't play all the tracks they wanted to play due to limited time. Therefore only songs taken from their brand new album #eMotion could be enjoyed! Too bad, because this band deserved more time to show what they really got and I think this band deserves more attention. (Iris)
 

Armed Cloud

L to R: Wouter van der Veen, Daan Dekker and Boris Suvee

Armed Cloud are pretty new to me, I heard that they were great and now I finally had the chance to see them perform live. First thing I noticed was that lead singer Daan Dekker was wearing a nice jacket at the start of the gig. He was also a real 'show man' who made a great show about his performance. He moved a lot on the stage, made big gestures with his arms while singing and drawing the attention from the audience. Luckily there were no major sound problems anymore so they sounded very good live. This is a young band with a lot of potential to grow bigger in my opinion. They show a lot of energy on stage, mostly because of the lead singer of course. He

Live video: Helping Hand

sings great, knows to reach the high notes without problems. The other members are also very good, they know how to play both the soft and louder parts during the tracks. After the band played their first song the audience began to sing a Happy Birthday song for Daan because it was his birthday. He became very emotional because of the fact the audience wished him a happy birthday. As if this wasn't enough, the band also played the same Happy Birthday song after a few tracks. Daan was flurried again and told the audience he should arrange more gigs when it's his birthday. The audience demanded more songs when the band finished their set. Sadly they couldn't perform any longer because of the tight schedule between the band changes. (Iris)
 

PBII

Ruud Slakhorst

PBII are well known for some years now and was formed out of the original members of the band Plackband. Despite they had mayor gigs not so long ago I never had the chance to see the band perform live. I was very curious how they would sound live. When I entered the room where they played I noticed that the band brought a lot of musical equipment. They had the most equipment on stage compared to the other bands that played at the ProgFrog Festival. I was surprised that it would all fit on the stage. Alex van Elswijk has an awesome bass guitar (MusicMan Bongo if I'm correct) and also bass pedals on stage for example. The lead singer Ruud Slakhorst has a cool pose, standing confident and wearing sunglasses.
This is a band with a lot of experience with experienced musicians so I was curious how they would perform on quite a small stage. The keyboardist Michel van Wassem sings a lot as well and even has a song where he

Live video: Perfect Day

does the lead vocals, called In The Arms Of A Gemini. Moreover background singer Nathalie Mees not only sings but also played recorder on In the Arms Of A Gemini and Life In The Clouds. I also noticed that bassist Alex played additional keyboards on the last song called Grand Finale. The band played a lot of new tracks from an album that is still be to released, which is great! They were making jokes about the fact that they kept on playing brand new tracks that haven't been released yet. Well I really loved it that they played a lot of new songs live. Life In The Clouds and Mother were amazing to hear and I'm really curious about the new upcoming album. Singer and spokesman Ruud really appreciated that the audience was still enthusiastic and full of energy while there are so many bands playing that day. When he announced that they were going to play the last track the audience was disappointed and wanted more. (Iris)
 

Sylvium

L to R: Ben van Gastel, Fred den Hartog and Rich Huybens

A band I was really looking forward to was Sylvium. They are pretty different than the other bands that played at the festival by making more atmospheric music. The light show also helped empowering their performance. The new bassist Rich Huybens is doing a fantastic job. He played fantastic, you couldn't notice he's just been with the band for only some months. A big surprise was the fact that they brought a guest musician on stage. Tadjiro Velzel played saxophone along with some

Live video: Fragile

of the tracks the band played during their set. He mostly performed special saxophone solos. During the intro of Signal To Noise drummer Fred den Hartog and keyboardist Antal Nusselder made a mistake so they had to start over the same song. For lead singer and second guitarist Richard de Geest this was a reason to made a joke and said Signal To Noise Take 2 before they started playing it. Despite the intro problem during Signal To Noise the band did great! I really loved how they played live and sounded very good indeed. Unfortunately their set was way too short with around 45 minutes on the clock. The band should have played longer in my opinion because they are fantastic! I hope to see this band more often in the future. (Iris)
 

Silhouette

L to R: Jurjen Bergsma, Rob van Nieuwenhuijzen, Brian de Graeve and Bart Laan

Silhouette are a great band to end the festival with. Sadly they had a bit of a messy start because of sound check problems. Sometimes the sounds of the microphones were gone but that didn't bother the band too much by giving away a good performance. The band really enjoyed being on stage. Their lead singer Brian de Graeve is also a very theatrical singer, just like the singer from Armed Cloud. Sometimes he played on a twelve string acoustic guitar as well. When Brian had nothing to do during some of the tracks he left the stage and walked amongst the people in the audience. Erik Laan doesn't only play keyboards but is doing a lot of lead and backing vocals

Live video: Lost Paradise

as well next to playing the bass pedals. They also had an extra guitarist Bart Laan on stage who played along with some of the tracks. Daniel van der Weijde broke one of his strings during one of the songs. The band made some jokes about the broken string and that the guitarist was so fast with replacing it with a new one. They also thanked Bart for filling in the gaps. When Snow's Falling Down, the last song of the set, was dedicated to Brian's father. Brian wrote the song when it was snowing and thought about when he was young and how he went sledding with his dad. After playing this beautiful song the audience wanted more. Since they were the last band (Mindgames supposed to play but cancelled it due to a loss in the family) the band played three, yes three, extra songs! The audience went wild and really appreciated that Silhouette played longer than expected. (Iris)

After watching six great acts at a very well organized festival, it was obvious that I and the rest of the members of the Background Magazine team that were present were very tired. But I guess we didn't care at all because we had the time of our lives watching the bands and get something to eat at the catering behind the venue. Progfrog, congratulations with your fifth anniversary. You gave us a very good birthday party. Thank You!!! (Henri)

Text by Iris Hidding & Henri Strik (edited by Astrid de Ronde)