Dutch Exposure Final:
Incidense, Trip Trigger, Profuna Ocean
Special guest: PBII

May 4, 2013, Xinix, Nieuwendijk (NL)


By means of a contest FREIA Music started in 2012 a search for new progressive rock talent in the Netherlands. More than thirty bands signed up and finally eight bands were selected to record about ten minutes of music in order to deliver the full length album Dutch Exposure (see review). Three of these participants, chosen by voting, would compete during a festival. The winner of this competition gains a record deal with FREIA Music. On the 4th of May, after a false start at another venue, the finale of this competition took place at venue Xinix in Nieuwendijk. The finalists were Incidense, Trip Trigger and Profuna Ocean. As special guests PBII were invited to perform the band version of their symphonic rock opera 1000Wishes (see review).

Incidence

Incidence
I had seen Incidense once during a rather strong performance at the Starsound Studio in Utrecht in May 2012 (see review). Their music can be described best as a mixture of progressive rock and metal. They alternate delicate and soft passages with strong rock, metal riffs and challenging rhythms. The band opened with Reality Check, written for the album Dutch Exposure.  At some points you could hear that this track has been influenced by Dream Theater and Rush. Just as during the first performance I witnessed, I noticed that the keyboards of lead singer Lucas Kruiswijk remained in the shadow of François Koopman's guitar. Although he succeeded in playing some solos on the organ and synthesizers, I still like him to get a more dominant role in the band, which is very common with progressive rock music. Occasionally this could be heard on tracks as Remnants Of The Past and Ultimate Sin. The last one featured a duel between the guitar and the keyboards. The short excerpt from the film The Matrix  worked very well as a professional opening for the final piece Abeyance.

Joost Kralt

Trip Trigger

Next band were Trip Trigger, again a band blending prog rock and metal. During their performance I clearly heard references of bands like Rush, Tool, Incubus, Porcupine Tree and Muse. The combination of pounding rhythms, soft melodies and compelling lyrics appealed to many people in the audience. Obviously they also played News Feed and Wave Away, their contributions to Dutch Exposure. Both tunes got descent live versions mainly due to lead singer Joost Kralt who had no problems at all to copy the original studio versions live on stage. As far as I'm concerned their opening piece Trial & Error was the highlight. During this track the sound of the keyboards played by Erik van Ittersum, was quite similar to a space rock band like Hawkwind. All in all Trip Trigger delivered a strong performance.

Profuna Ocean

Profuna Ocean, the final contestants, played a kind of home game since most musicians live rather close to the venue in which they had played more than once. The band already surprised me with
René Visser and Raoul Potters (r)
Waiting For The Fall, their contribution for Dutch Exposure. This song contains intense musical passages alternating with heavy rock parts. In my opinion this song belongs to the highlights of this album. Therefore my expectations ran high since I regarded them as the favourites to win this contest. Well, they didn't let me down during their excellent performance and honestly speaking: they played the kind of progressive music that I like the most. Their long and varied compositions contained strong instrumental parts that I had missed most of the time during the performances of the other two competitors. Their music could be best described as a crossover of bands like Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd and Anathema.


After these three performances it was time for the jury to decide which band would win the contest. They had skipped the idea of letting the audience vote because they were afraid that the band that have gathered the most fans at the venue would win. However, before the jury announced the results it was time for the evening's highlight!

PBII

We've already written a lot on this website about PBII and their rock opera 1000Wishes. The past two years and a half, the band worked hard to write and record the CD based on the book Eric And The Land Of
Ruud Slakhorst, Nathalie Mees and
Ronald Brautigam
A Thousand Wishes written by Ronald van der Pol and dealing with a boy who has to fight against cancer. It's a story of courage, hope and friendship. The net proceeds of both the album and the book will benefit the Kika Foundation (children free of cancer). The CD has been recorded with The Hague Youth Symphony Orchestra and various guest musicians including Steve Hackett, the former guitarist of Genesis. So far already three concerts were done with a full orchestra (see review). Obviously they couldn't perform with the orchestra this time, but instead the orchestral parts came from a tape. However, the soprano singer Nathalie Mees, who made a big impression on the album and during the three concerts, appeared as a full-time member of the band.

Just like the orchestrated version, the band version of this rock opera was a real treat. They had left out the narrative parts of the story, but instead lead singer Ruud Slakhorst had the task to tell the story between
Alex van Elswijk and Ruud Slakhorst
the performed songs. From time to time this was also visualized by showing images on a projection screen. The track list of the original studio version had been slightly changed, but that had no effect on the story at all. Of course guitarist Ronald Brautigam played the guitar parts of Steve Hackett on Evil Weed, just like all the other ones. I think the highlight of this performance was the encore. After some cheering and clapping, the band returned on stage in order to perform Grand Finale, an amazing piece of music! It seemed that the band had practised a lot before this show since all musicians played their parts in the best possible way. I can only give them all a well-deserved compliment for succeeding in performing this rock opera with such a small setting. Especially the soprano voice of Nathalie Mees during Land Of 1000 Wishes and Parental Thoughts proved that the audience watched a real professional band. I guess the bands that were waiting for the jury's final judgment will agree with me that they have to try a bit harder to reach the same musical level!
Profuna Ocean is the winner!

Dutch Exposure Final

Profuna Ocean appeared to be the winners of the contest, but to me that wasn't a big surprise. Of course the other bands had tried to achieve something special during their performances, but they have to face the fact that the best band wins, so my congratulations go to Profuna Ocean, but also to Peter Lindenbergh of FREIA Music, who came up with the idea of this Dutch Exposure contest.


Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)

Setlist Incidence:

Reality Check
Remnants Of The Past
Silence Must Break
Ultimate Sin
Abeyance




Pictures Incidence by Arthur Haggenburg

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Line up Incidence:

(left to right)
Lucas Kruiswijk:
keyboards and lead vocals
Rob van Nieuwenhuizen:
drums
François Koopmans:
guitar
Rich Huybens:
bass

Setlist Trip Trigger:

Trial & Error
Mirrored
News Feed
Wave Away
Trade Of Tears
Becky
Overflow




Pictures Trip Trigger by Arthur Haggenburg

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Line up Trip Trigger:

(left to right)
Erik van Ittersum:
keyboards
Paul Hoogervorst:
drums
Joost Kralt:
lead vocals
Kevin Hoogervorst:
guitar
Bjorn van der Ploeg:
bass

Setlist Profuna Ocean:

Thousand Yard Stare
Losing Ground
S.C.I.T.S
Waiting For The Fall
Hanging In The Balance




Pictures Profuna Ocean by Arthur Haggenburg

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Line up Profuna Ocean:

(left to right)
René Visser:
keyboards
Fred den Hartog:
drums
Raoul Potters:
guitar, vocals
Arjan Visser:
bass

Pictures Dutch Exposure Final by Arthur Haggenburg

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Setlist PBII:

Perfect Day
Never Old
Evil Weed
White
Lorian
Land Of Thousand Wishes
Into The Light
Parental Thoughts
Encore:
Grand Finale




Pictures PBII by Arthur Haggenburg

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Line up PBII:

(left to right)
Tom van der Meulen:
drums
Alex van Elswijk:
bass guitar, bass pedals, keyboard
Nathalie Mees:
soprano vocals, backing vocals
Ruud Slakhorst:
lead vocals
Ronald Brautigam:
guitar
Michel van Wassem:
keyboards, backing vocals









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