It has already been two years since I witnessed a concert of the Dutch prog rock band Mangrove. At the time (September 2012, see review) they supported the Cuban band Anima Mundi. However, it has lasted still longer when the band released a new album. Their latest one Beyond Reality appeared in 2009, so it was time to listen to some new material. There wasn't a better way to find out whether they had written new songs or not than visiting one of the concerts the Dutch Progfrog team had put together. They invited the Dutch band Survival to support them.
 

Survival

Probably most of our readers aren't familiar with keyboard player Jack Langevelt and his band Survival, so an introduction is in place! Langevelt founded his band in 1981; he was above all inspired by bands like Trace, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Ekseption, The Nice, Procol Harum and Deep Purple.

Jack Langevelt

The band existed from 1981 until 1997 although Jack continued to make music under the name of Survival. In 2008 he released Crusader, the first official album of the band on which many of his influences could be noticed.

At venue 't Blok, a new line-up entered the stage to warm up the audience for the headliners. During their one-hour performance they managed to entertain me throughout, although the start of this second gig since the comeback didn't meet Langevelt's expectations. The intro to one of his compositions was recorded on tape and unfortunately, it started too early. The sound technician probably thought that this intro should be used as the opening for the concert instead of one of the songs. However, it left Langevelt untouched since he was determined to make this concert work, no matter what would happen. He faced bad luck earlier when

Linda Maarseveen

the band's former lead singer and drummer had let him down just two weeks before a performance.

Nowadays, the band is fronted by the excellent singer Linda Maarseveen, who usually sings in blues and jazz bands. Behind the drums I saw a rather familiar face, namely drummer Frank van Essen (Iona), who was willing to help

Survival @ 't Blok

the band during the gigs that were already booked. Although he didn't practise with the band he did a splendid job! Bassist Frans Muys van de Moer, who formerly was a member of the Dutch band Ekseption, turned out to be an excellent player on the fretless bass. Finally the UK born guitarist David Dexter; while listening to his playing I couldn't help comparing his style of playing to Ritchie Blackmore's  (ex-Deep Purple). Next to Langevelt he provided all the excellent solos on stage. Throughout the concert it became clear that all the above-mentioned influences were incorporated in the songs. Somebody in the audience said 'this gig is a trip down memory lane with all those music from the seventies', and I can only confirm it, but I loved it anyway! Unfortunately Survival had to skip the title track of the album Crusader from the set list. Otherwise the concert would have taken too long, because Mangrove was still waiting to perform. But even without this excellent song their performance was certainly worthwhile to watch and to listen to!
 

Mangrove

The people present at the venue can hardly deny that they saw an amazing two-hour show performed by one of the best Dutch prog rock bands. The four musicians, all dressed in a white outfit, blew me away right from the start. They played just as strong as the last time I saw them play many of my favourite compositions like Wizards Of Tunes,

Roland van der Horst and Pieter Drost (r)

Voyager and the encore Time Will Tell. They even included the brand new tune A Call To Arms. All of these excellent prog rock tunes featured terrific guitar and keyboard passages! The musicians didn't let me down! Apart from the great music they presented a good show as well.

Especially lead singer and guitarist Roland van der Horst set this gig on fire with his movements on stage. Walking to the right side to rock together with bassist Pieter Drost and then to the other side to interact with keyboard player Chris Jonker. He even climbed onto the platform on which Remco Engels

snack

had installed his drum set. And as usual he was walking amongst the people in the audience while playing the guitar. In the meantime he stopped several times to embrace some of his greatest fans. While being busy this way he hardly played any wrong notes during the fantastic piece There Must Be Another Way. Maybe he missed some notes on the acoustic guitar during this track.

Mangrove @ 't Blok

Apart from being an excellent musician, Van der Horst is also a good spokesman on stage as well; his introductions to the songs were sometimes hilarious. When they were presented some snacks before Wizards Of Tunes, he didn't ask the audience to wait a moment because they had to eat, but he said that some technical problems had occurred which must be fixed first. The second time they got snacks on stage they were still playing and therefore one of the organizers put the snacks in their mouths. That was of course a rather funny thing to watch! Anyway, mentioning only Roland van der Horst wouldn't do justice to the other musicians who are either responsible for the band's amazing performance that brought the people in the audience in the right mood. They were even holding hands during Beyond Reality, the final song of the band's regular set, as if they were singing You Never Walk Alone. And some people spontaneously started to dance during the unrehearsed encore Time Will Tell. It seemed that everybody enjoyed this show just like I did!

The people of Progfrog can look back at a well-organized concert featuring two bands that both gave great performances during the last held Progfrog concert of 2014!

Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)