For several years now a nice, small festival
has been organised in the south of Holland, Rock Ittervoort. The man who
organised all this, Domien Parren, has managed to get a lot of very interesting
bands to play, including the likes of
Arena,
Riverside,
Sylvan
and
Pendragon. This year, two excellent
bands from Sweden were invited to play:
Beardfish
and
Karmakanic.
Beardfish is a relatively new and young band,
but very talented, as they were invited by
Mike Portnoy himself to join
in the Progressive Nation tour of 2009. Unfortunately due to problems at the
record label it didn’t happen. Karmakanic is known as the other band of
Jonas Reingold, who is also a part of
The Flower Kings. Noteworthy is the
fact that this was the only show in the Netherlands for both bands!
Beardfish
The youngsters from Beardfish
opened the evening. I was not familiar with their music,
so I was prepared to be surprised. Well, that turned out to be an
understatement! The band blew me away! They had so much energy in their
playing, and had such a great interaction with the audience…it was fantastic!
Singer, keyboard player and second guitarist
Rikard Sjöblom acted
as the host and talked a lot, injecting a lot of humour! He gave some nice
background information on the songs they played.
It was impressive to see him play his
keyboards, including some great vintage synths. He really is that good! And
then he stood and picked up a guitar and played just as well! And in the songs
where Sjöblom played guitar you didn’t miss the keys.
Although the band is quite young, they already
have an impressive back catalogue to play from. They played a lot from
Sleeping in Traffic Pt. 1 en
Pt. 2 and their latest release,
Destined Solitaire. The music of
Beardfish is quite catchy, and at times almost danceable. The coolest thing on
stage during their show was bass player
Robert Hansen,
who actually danced throughout the show! He
moved around so smoothly it was fantastic to see. A closer look revealed he was
moving around in his socks! Guitarist
David Zackrisson and drummer
Magnus Östgren
played excellently, but were a bit more static.
All together their performance was so amazing, I really want to see them again.
Karmakanic
After a short break, Karmakanic was up. As these are experienced musicians,
expectations were a bit high for me. I had been listening to
Wheel of Life
on the drive to the venue, so I was looking forward to the band. As always,
Jonas Reingold is quite a character
to see: always with his hat on and a smile on his face.
When they came on stage, for some reason I
thought of them not as a band, but more a collection of musicians. The
guitarist for the evening was none other than
Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings,
Transtalantic,
Agents of Mercy),
who shared more than one band with Reingold! It was awesome to
see him perform for the first time, for me. Keyboard player
Lalle Larsson turned out to be
equally impressive!
The setlist was compiled from all three albums,
although I really did miss the title track from
Who’s the Boss in the Factory!! Still, they played very well, and
it was evident they were skilled musicians. Unfortunately they had to deal with
some technical issues, which resulted in small pauses between the songs. Given
that Beardfish had put on such an energetic show, this was a bit of an
anti-climax, unfortunately.
Also the light during Karmakanic was terrible!
Both Stolt and Larsson were almost in the dark during the entirety of the show.
Singer
Göran Edman
was great, as was the rest of the band and in the end
they got such an ovation, the band returned for an encore, sung by
Nad Sylvan
who had been in the background during the show.
The highlight of their performance was the touching
Eternally, where Reingold explained that the song was about his
parents who had died in a car accident in 2008. Too bad a lot of people were
talking during that song (and others as well), so much so that Roine Stolt
asked them to be quiet.
All together it was a really great event, with great
bands and fantastic music. I’m really happy I had the opportunity to be there.
It was not as busy as previous years, so I hope for next year’s show more
people will turn up, not only to enjoy great music, but also to support this
great festival, that in the coming years we may enjoy another event.
Text & pictures by Marcel Haster (edited by Paul Watson)
Setlist Beardfish:
The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
Destined Solitaire
Until You Comply
In Real Life There Is No Algebra
Abigail's Questions (In an Infinite Universe)
Green Waves
And The Stone Says I Could Sleep
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Pictures Beardfish (by Marcel Haster)
Click on the picture to enlarge.
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Line up Beardfish:
(left to right)
Rikard Sjöblom: vocals, keyboards, guitar
Robert Hansen: bass
Magnus Östgren: drums (not visible)
David Zackrisson: guitar
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Setlist Karmakanic:
Send A Message From The Heart
Two Blocks From The Edge
When The Earth Meets The Sky
Do You Tango?
Lalle's Solo
Is This The End?
Eternally
Afterglow
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Pictures Karmakanic (by Marcel Haster)
Click on the picture to enlarge.
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Line up Karmakanic:
(left to right)
Roine Stolt: Guitar, keyboards, vocals
Lalle Larsson: Keyboards
Göran Edman: vocals
Jonas Reingold: Bass
Jaime Salazar: Drums (not visible)
Nad Sylvan: Percussion, keyboards, backing vocals (not visible)
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