January 2014 saw the first edition of the Dutch Celebrate Festival. A festival that gave lovers of progressive rock music a chance to wish each other a happy and prosperous new year. A nice combination of drinks and good live music. The live music back then was presented by the Dutch bands Adeia, Minor Giant and Sylvium. The venue was sold out, which made it possible to have a second edition organized. This year at a different location, not in the centre of the Netherlands, but in the more northern parts of the country. Namely in Purmerend instead of in Utrecht one year earlier. Also different from the previous edition was the international line up. Traumhaus from Germany, Fossil Evolution from Belgium and Silhouette from the Netherlands.
 

Traumhaus

Alexander Weyland

Many had probably expected Traumhaus to be the closing act of the festival. However this was not the case because they were given the task to get the audience in the right mood. My expectations for their concert ran high, because their third and last album Das Geheimnis (2013, see review) was for me the best progressive rock album of 2013. It featured music very much related to acts such as Genesis, Martigan, Grobschnitt and Anyone's Daughter. Well, right from the start they impressed me and most of the other spectators with their amazing performance. Their first visit to our country to do a concert turned out to be a very pleasant one. They opened with the first two tracks taken from the aforementioned album. For the intro of Das Geheimnis, Teil1 keyboard player and lead singer Alexander Weyland used programmed keyboard parts before the rest of the band stepped in to finish the track and to continue with the epic Das Vermächtnis. This almost half hour long piece of music came close to the album version. Lots of fantastic synthesizer and guitar solos were done the best possible way by the already mentioned Alexander and guitarist Tobias Hampl. They were brilliantly backed up by an amazing rhythm section, consisting of bass player Till Ottinger and hired

Tobias Hampl

drummer Ray Gattner. The last one succeeded to copy the fantastic drum parts that Spock's Beard's Jimmy Keegan recorded for the studio version. Before the four musicians on stage ended their strong set with the last track taken from their final release, they played two tracks of their second album Die Andere Seite (2008, see review). Although Bleibe Hier and Hinaus may have sounded more unfamiliar, it didn't mean they were less enjoyable then the other songs on the setlist. No way! They really kicked ass! The band had deserved to do the encore that was requested by the audience after their brilliant live version of Das Geheimnis, Teil2. But time wasn't on their side unfortunately. They had to make room for the next act, leaving the crowd speechless after their stunning performance! A return to the Dutch stage this year is certainly something that might happen. I guess I will be there, together with many other people who saw the fantastic debut of Traumhaus in the Netherlands!
 

Fossil Evolution

Arnold De Schepper

You might say that the history of Fossil Evolution began almost 40 years ago when five Flemish boys started the progressive rock band Isopoda. They were often hailed as the Belgian Genesis. After releasing the albums Acrostichon (1978) and Taking Root (1981) they fell apart in 1982. In 2004 and 2013 a few reunion concerts were done which were the basis of a new band. At the time original bassist Arnold De Schepper was supported by two of his three sons. Together with former Isopoda keyboard player Luc van Hove they started to perform as Fossil Evolution. After the death of Luc schoolmate Pieter De Groeve took over the keys. Their debut album World In Motion (see review) was released in 2014 and contains progressive rock of the 70's and the neo-progressive rock of the 80's mixed beautifully with influences from pop, rock and jazz. A debut they certainly can be proud of. Seeing them on this festival was a good way to find out if they could perform their music on a live stage. With a well trained keyboard player, an experienced former Isopoda bass player and his three sons Arne De Schepper (drums), Maarten De Schepper (guitars and vocals) and

Maarten (L) and Wouter De Schepper

Wouter De Schepper (guitars and vocals) - who were all taken to a music school on a weekly basis by their mother - nothing could go wrong, you might expect. This was certainly the case, because they went through their setlist very professionally. The setlist that contained all of the album tracks and two songs from Isopoda's debut album. The title track was the opener of their set. They really gave a fine rendition of this old seventies composition. Even more than on the original album it showed influences of Canterbury music. The other Isopoda track Considering could already be heard on their debut. They turned the original version into a beautiful epic piece and therefore it was the best track on World In Motion for me. It was brilliantly copied on stage. For me personally, together with the strong instrumental Oblivion, this was the highlight of their fine live performance! Let's hope they will return to our country soon, because they are certainly worth watching!
 

Silhouette

The times when Silhouette's good and bad concerts took turns with each other, are definitely over for this band. From now on you will only witness fabulous performances from them. I came to this positive

Brian de Graeve

conclusion after watching an amazing concert where they performed their complex compositions without hardly making any mistakes. The set they did turned out to be a kind of third release party of their excellent fourth album Beyond The Seventh Wave (see review). After two release parties, one acoustic and one done as a support act for guitarist Martin Barre, they probably felt that their audience deserved a full show with all the available extras. This meant that not only they played almost the entire album, but also had many guest musicians on stage. This way they could get as close to the original studio versions as possible. Therefore besides the new line-up, with veterans Brian de Graeve (guitars and vocals) and Erik Laan (keyboards and vocals) and the new boys Rob van Nieuwenhuijzen (drums), Daniel van der Weijde (guitars) and Jurjen Bergsma (bass and vocals) they were

Jurjen Bergsma

complemented on stage by MaryO (backing vocals), Sophie Zaaijer (violin),Tamara van Koetsveld (clarinet) and Bart Laan (guitar). By using the extra musicians, most of all the more orchestral parts from their new album could be enjoyed in full glory. Furthermore the songs were visualised by beautiful images on a screen behind the musicians. This way the story of this concept album could be followed in a rather good way. Next to the almost complete new album (they only didn't play the two opening tracks) the crowd could enjoy two tracks from Across The Rubicon (2012, see review), concert opener Grendel Memories and the encore When Snow's Falling Down, and  a piece from their second album Moods (2009, see review), a fine version of Second Time Down. It was a feast to see all musicians having so much fun performing their music. In a way the good mood had an impact on the visitors and so it was not only a wonderful party on stage but in front of it as well. I guess they all realized they witnessed something special this evening. The magic of a good show was in the air.

I can only thank everybody who was involved in organizing this wonderful event. An event which had three excellent bands on stage who were willing to give it their best shot. Hopefully next year a third edition of the Celebrate Festival can be welcomed with once again a great line up!

Henri Strik (edited by Astrid de Ronde)