Since September 2011 I follow the Dutch band
ENorm.
During the 'Nazomer Open Air' concert (see
review) in Enschede, a city in the eastern
part of the Netherlands, they performed the music of their former band
Marathon.
Apart from doing material from the two Marathon albums and songs from their current band, they also
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Eric ten Bos and Liejondo Nijhuis (r) |
played some stuff from their favourite bands like
Saga,
Marillion,
Rush,
The Alan Parsons Project
and
Genesis.
It was a fantastic event with some great music and also a meeting of old
friends. A year later they performed the 'ENorm's Marathon Revival Show' (see
review) at Cultuurpodium Boerderij in Zoetermeer. This was an even bigger
success than the previous show. The songs performed were almost the same only now they included some music of
U2 as well.
This successful formula of Marathon music interspersed with songs of their favourite
bands worked very well, so it was obvious that in 2013 a similar event would take
place. This time they called it 'Marathon by ENorm' performed at the DRU
Cultuurfabriek in Ulft, another venue in the eastern part of our country. This
venue is familiar to the band members because in 2012 they had supported
The Watch
(see
review) in Ulft. I wondered if they would play the same prog rock tunes interspersed with songs recorded by
ENorm as during the above-mentioned shows. If they did the audience could look forward to a fantastic evening.
Well, after almost three hours of an amazing performance of the well-oiled machine that
ENorm is, I could only conclude that they'd broadly stuck to their repertoire of
the last couple of years. This means that they also played songs from ENorm's latest album
Finding My Way (2012, see
review). Tracks like
Horizon,
High Above The Ground and
Zoe
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Attractive screen projections
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got great live versions and suited perfectly on the set list that was dominated by progressive rock music. Once
again I could enjoy the classic Marathon tunes as
Patters Of The Landscape,
Ozone Layer,
I'll Be There,
Medicine Man,
Casanovas and the final encore
Beyond The Veil. During the latter track they did the usual beer shower. Both sets
contained covers of their favourite bands like the two Saga tunes
Humble Stance
and
On The Loose, and
Easter,
Kayleigh and
Lavender
by Marillion. The musicians had planned to play
Incommunicado
as well, but they finally cancelled this piece. Obviously a Rush-medley was performed since the band had seen them
only a couple of days earlier in Amsterdam (see
review). The way they performed
Tom Sawyer,
The Spirit Of Radio and
La Villa Strangiato
came even closer to the versions Rush would have done live on stage. These songs were a real showcase for
Martin Platenkamp (keyboards),
Ronald ten Bos
(guitars),
Ferry Bult (drums) and
Liejondo Nijhuis
(bass).
Old And Wise, the first song of a medley
of The Alan Parsons Project, once was the introduction to progressive rock music for lead singer and entertainer
Eric ten Bos.
Of course not everything was similar to the concerts they previously performed, although
the way they opened the second set reminded me of their last year's tribute to
U2. Once more only Eric and Ronald ten Bos shared the stage doing a great acoustic guitar version of
Love Of My Life. This was the start of an amazing
Queen-
medley containing excerpts from
Bohemian Rhapsody,
Under Pressure,
One Vision,
Tie Your Mother Down,
Another One Bites The Dust,
I Want To Break Free,
Radio Ga Ga and
We Will Rock You. The band managed to
do this perfectly; on this year's Queen's Day they played the same medley that Marathon already had performed in 1997.
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Karin Hertsenberg |
During this version of 'Marathon by Enorm' the vocal duets, which
Eric ten Bos
did together with soprano singer Karin Hertsenberg, were new
and they certainly belonged to the many highlights of this evening. The way they performed
Time To Say Goodbye and
Barcelona together
with the band was just breathtaking and is surely something to keep on the set list,
although a number of songs they performed from their favourite bands could have
been removed from the set list. Maybe it would be a wise decision to perform
other tracks instead of the ones they played in recent years. Don't get me
wrong; I still love to see these musicians playing those great prog rock tunes,
but it might be better for them as well as for their audience to perform some other material in the future.
People who attended this concert could look back at a very entertaining evening. Maybe
it could have been a bit more crowded, but that didn't prevent these excellent
musicians from doing their utmost to treat us to very good music!
Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)