In the
beginning of 2008 a group of musicians wanted to start a new progressive rock
band. On the 29th of February they decided to go for it and they called the
band
Leap Day after this special
day. In 2012 they could celebrate their 'first' birthday and they wanted to organize
a special event. Although the band made good progress with their second album
Skylge's Lair (2011, see
review), it was
too early to target for a new release. So they organized a special gig in a
nice venue in a very small village near Bakkeveen, a place we all know as
Progfarm City. They made it a double concert by inviting their Belgium friends of
M!ndgames.
M!ndgames
|
Bart Schram |
Recently M!ndgames had to find a replacement for their guitarist
Rudy Vander Veken
who decided to emigrate to Portugal. So I was a bit afraid that I couldn't
enjoy this gig as much as the previous ones. Luckily I was totally wrong!
Matvi'Billy' Bilis
took over the guitar parts and although he has no progressive
rock background he was doing a great job during his first gig. I've seen the
band playing several times now and each time they were able to impress me. During
the latest concert they focused on the album
MMX
(2010, see
review), supplemented by some songs from earlier releases. However,
my personal favourite is
Royalty In Jeopardy
from the second album
Actors In A Play
(2006). When they perform this song singer
Bart Schram is always dressed as a king making
a nice show around it. Unfortunately they didn't perform this piece, but Schram
came up with a new act. Dressed in a jacket and wearing sunglasses and a hat,
he merely stole the show by reading the Belgium newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen
on stage (see picture) in an expressive way. By doing so he attracted all
attention from the audience while the other members of the band were focused on
the music. Therefore their appearance was a bit static, but I also noticed that
the band is still growing. With every gig I saw, they sounded a bit more
mature. However, the next thing to learn is having a plan for contingencies in
case of (technical) troubles. This time
Tom Truyers
had problems to load
new music in one of his keyboards. The silence of several minutes that followed
could have been easily filled by a song performed on the acoustic guitar. Or
even a drum or a bass solo, or whatever. Just anything to keep the audience
entertained. However, no one in the audience blamed them for that since they
witnessed a very enjoyable performance.
Leap Day
After a short break the birthday band started with the song
Half Mens Half Machine
written in Dutch for the Progwereld-project
ProgNL (see
review).
This
song is now available in three languages: Dutch, English and Frisian.
Immediately after this, Leap Day treated us to a couple of brand new songs:
Heamus,
|
Jos Harteveld |
which is part of a new concept album, and
March Under The Symbol.
Since the latter doesn't
fit in this new double concept album, it will probably appear on one of the subsequent
albums. These songs certainly raised my expectations for those next releases. I
noticed that the guitar playing of
Eddy Mulder
was very attractive during these new tunes. Not copying the previous
style, but still very recognizable. This is what we like to hear! The two
keyboard players supplemented each other perfectly.
Derk Evert Waalkens mainly played the many keyboard layers while
Gert van Engelenburg performed
the fantastic solos. But then again they easily switched their duties. Of
course we could enjoy the strong bass lines done by
Peter Stel and the stunning drum parts of
Koen Roozen as well. After three tracks of their latest album
Skylge's Lair again
two new songs were presented:
Phaeton and
Hurricane.
The latter started in a remarkable way.
Without the support of any musical instrument lead singer
Jos Harteveld
began with a powerful and screaming solo. He showed
real guts, almost frightening the ladies in the audience! During the rest of
the gig I could enjoy tracks from their debut album
Awaken The Muse (2009, see
review) with the encore
Little Green Men
as a worthy closure. It had
been a very enjoyable evening partly due to sound engineer Dammes
and his team for realizing an
excellent sound. I'm really looking forward to the new album!
Arthur Haggenburg (edited by Peter Willemsen)