
The acoustic tour
Less Is More started in
Brighton four days earlier, but this evening
Marillion gave a concert in my beautiful hometown. I was rather
unsure what to expect, because in general I’m not fond of so-called unplugged
gigs, so I had my doubts… However, after
Go,
Interior Lulu and
Out Of This World
I was totally convinced that this was going to be a great Marillion gig. The
band looked happy, the audience was enthusiastic right from the start and the
sound quality was top-notch. Especially
Steve Hogarth
’s vocals were
amazing and crystal clear, dominating the songs in a way I’ve never heard
before. The first highlights were
The Space
from
Seasons End, Hard As Love
from my favourite album
Brave, and
Quartz with a heavenly electric guitar

solo by
Steve Rothery.
After a
short break, the band returned for the second set that was even better with
tracks like
Cover My Eyes, Beautiful, Estonia
(shivers down my spine) and
You’re Gone,
one of my favourite songs from
Marbles.
The
audience reacted very enthusiastically: they clapped so loud that they finally got
the guys back for five encores!
Gazpacho,
Made Again, Easter (sheer magic),
Answering Machine and
Three Minute Boy
ended
this fantastic set. I never saw the band so relaxed on stage and you could tell
from the Monty Python-like jokes from Steve Hogarth and
Pete Trewavas
that they were enjoying themselves too. I never thought that I would say this,
but I was overwhelmed by this beautiful unplugged concert. Miracles do happen
after all!
Martien Koolen (edited by Peter Willemsen)