Alquin
January 15, 2010 - 013, Tilburg (NL)
Sailors & Sinners,
the latest album of Dutch veteran rockers Alquin
contains
music that can hardly be labeled as progressive rock music. I rather
call it mainstream rock. However, the band started their career in 1972 and recorded
several albums containing great prog tunes. Those tunes are still on the band’s
repertoire and therefore a visit to one of their concerts is always a feast.
During a live show, Alquin perform their music with a lot of passion and
enthusiasm and there’s always room for improvisation. The gig at the 013 venue
in Tilburg, The Netherlands proved this again.
After a short intro taken from a tape the band hit the stage and played
The Mission, the
opening tune from their latest album. It’s a rather mediocre song, but the way
these senior musicians performed it showed that we deal with one of the best
live acts from the lowlands. Next on the set list two more songs from
Sailors & Sinners followed by
Revolution’s Eve,
an old piece from their third album
Nobody Can Wait Forever (1975).
The audience immediately reacted enthusiastically on hearing the
first notes of this excellent song.
It seemed as if they had been waiting for the band’s old stuff. Guitarist
Ferdinand Bakker got a leading role on
Soft-Eyed Woman,
another oldie from their highly acclaimed album
The Mountain Queen (1973). Bakker let his black Gibson Les
Paul guitar sound very melodic. Terror Eyes
was the first song from the band’s comeback album
Blue Planet (2005).
I think the songs on this album are slightly better than the material on
Sailors & Sinners.
The title track was the last song before they took a short
break. On the album this track lasts for about fourteen
minutes, but the live version is a couple of minutes longer and more powerful.
After the break, I
expected a short acoustic set, but after performing the acoustic ballad
Holland from
their latest album, they changed gear. For
Return To The Blue Planet,
Mr. Bakker’s
electric guitar and the five string electric bass of
Walter Latuperissa were
plugged in again and the audience was treated to another old song:
Fool In The Mirror.
The taped intro of new track Kite Runner
sounded like an
Indian tribe dancing for rain. It made some people in the audience scream-along.
After this song, lead singer Michel van Dijk
got a piece of paper from a
person in the audience. “This is a winning lottery ticket”, he joked. “The first
prize is a four-week vacation at Ferdinand Bakker’s place including guitar
lessons and free meals.” In fact, he couldn’t read the note without his glasses
and handed it over to saxophone player
Ronald Ottenhof. The message on
the paper appeared to be a request to perform songs from the album
Marks, but a band hardly ever change their
set list so they continued with the new track
Behind The Tree. When I listened to this song on
Sailors & Sinners,
it didn’t remind me of
Camel at all, but strangely enough this
time it did. The sound of the Hammond organ played by
Dick Franssen was very recognizable for
New Guinea Sunrise (1975),
certainly one of my favourite Alquin-tracks giving me a lot of joy.
Throughout the concert
Ferdinand Bakker’s violin lied on one of the amplifiers. Fortunately, he picked
it up for the last two songs of the regular set.
Mr. Barnum Junior’s Magnificent And Fabulous City,
part 1 from the
Marks-album (1972) got a false start,
because the violin was out of tune and had to be tuned first. The Hammond-intro
of the next song made my heart beat a little faster. For me, an Alquin-concert
isn’t satisfying without my all-time favourite
The Dance (1973). The first part
didn’t include Ferdinand’s
distorted guitar sound. He now played the melody with his violin which sounded as
if it had always been this way. The second part featured solos on piano, guitar
and saxophone. The band’s well-known single
Wheelchair Groupie never
became a hit single actually, but it is always welcomed as one and therefore a
solid choice for a last encore. Together with
Central Station Hustle it appeared to be a perfect piece to end the
concert, leaving the dedicated fans behind in a great state of mind.
Again, they witnessed a wonderful live performance.
Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)
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