It's always fun to see two bands who are both booked as headliners. This means both bands get the same amount of playing time. Therefore I was glad this was also the case when X-Panda from Estonia and Synaesthesia from the U.K. did a short double headliner tour in the Netherlands. I like both acts a lot and would have felt bad if one of them got less time to do their tricks on stage. Because Den Bosch is closer to my home town I chose to visit the W2 venue instead of Cultuurpodium De Boerderij in Zoetermeer. Unfortunately it wasn't very crowded. However it didn't keep both bands from trying to entertain those who were present as much as possible!
 

X-Panda

Anybody who had witnessed the first concert of X-Panda on a Dutch stage was blown away by their performance at the time. This was at the second Progmotion Festival (2013, see review) at De Pul in Uden. One year later they were rewarded with a

Tamar Nugis and Garrett Kuut (r)

performance at the annual Progdreams Festival in Zoetermeer. And now in 2014 the band made the long twenty-six hours journey to the Netherlands for the third time in a row. Well, according to guitarist Risto Virkhausen the trip was as long as the first time. However by now they got used to sit on a tour bus for such a long time. Even more because they love the Dutch audience who welcome them whole heartedly every time. The 80 minutes long show was in a way a copy of the show they did in 2013. Once again they were all dressed in long black jackets, except for drummer Karl-Juhan Laanesaar. The long jackets were taken off after a couple of songs. The setlist was also nearly a copy from the first time they came to conquer our country. The first three tunes (Black, Dickybirds and Siren) could be enjoyed just like they had already done in Uden. Did I care? To be honest I didn't! Because that's just what I wanted to hear, just like many who came to see this band who mixes progressive rock with influences taken from fusion, metal and jazz rock in a very fine way. The only difference was that bassist and lead singer Tamar Nugis forgot to ask the audience to participate in yelling during the fine instrumental Dickybirds. However his funny remarks, when guest musician Garrett Kuut

Kaarel Tamra

helped him out to play the bass when he had to do some lead vocals, had remained in the set. It certainly brought some humour on stage when he introduced him as the bass player from Metallica. Also still present were the virtuosic musical parts played on the guitars and keyboards, done by the already mentioned Risto Virkhausen and Kaarel Tamra. The last one still pulled funny faces and gestures while he jumped around behind his keyboards. All of the musicians are students on a music academy and therefore have little time and money to write and record a new album. Something a lot of their fans are waiting for, because their debut Flight Of Fancy (see review) dates from 2011. But they did manage to come up with a new composition of which they made a very cool video. Slaves Of Lies sounded a bit like one of their earlier compositions Revelation, which also has gothic musical elements and moves towards a band as Nightwish musically. The title track was planned as an encore, but they decided to do it during the regular set. I am glad they did, because the audience was a bit too shy to call them back for an encore! One they certainly deserved, because once again they made me speechless, even if I had seen them doing the same kind of magical musical tricks two years earlier!
 

Synaesthesia

Under the wings of IQ's Mike Holmes the band released their eponymous album in 2013 (see review). They even supported IQ several times when they did some live shows. With some new material under

Adam Warne

their belt it was time to do some concerts without their British friends. I was certainly hoping they would start with a track taken from their debut, because it's always nice to hear something you are familiar with. Strangely enough they dared to open with a new piece of music. Heritage sounded rather good, but it was notable that the song was still in progress. Next were the songs that had already settled into my head. The songs that were recorded for their first album release. Sacrifice and Epiphany turned out to be well covered compared to the studio versions. During all those performed songs it was obvious that keyboard player and lead singer Adam Warne was the person on stage who attracted most of the attention of the audience. Sometimes singing behind his instruments and sometimes walking around the stage to interact with his fellow band members. The presentation was also in his hands. Introducing the songs and talking about the large tape recorder at the back of the stage. He made clear the music didn't come from this recording equipment. It was on stage for other purposes, but he refused to tell why it was on stage. Well, since they played their music in real time it was very obvious to me. Although they played their compositions in a rather good way I couldn't help noticing that something went wrong while the musicians played their parts. If this was the case during Technology Killed The Kids, Part II was difficult to tell, because it's a brand new song I hadn't heard before. One of my personal musical highlights was without a doubt Noumenon.

Joey Frevola and Peter Episcopo (r)

During this short piece of music Adam was wearing a mobile keyboard. It certainly gave him more space to walk around the stage. Just before the third new song (Cloudburst) could be enjoyed the American citizen in the band was put into the spotlight. Adam told everybody that guitarist Joey Frevola was from now on a permanent band member. The song that I was waiting for was next. The epic Time, Tension & Intervention is the musical highlight on their debut and therefore I was curious if they managed to do a proper live version. Well, they certainly did bring it to a good ending. The final two songs of the regular set were also taken from their 2013 album. Technology Killed The Kids and Life's What You Make Of It broken were well performed even though Joey broke a guitar string during the last mentioned title. He got a new guitar to do the unexpected encore. The new composition The Lamb, Badger & The Bee was planned to do only during the second gig in the Netherlands. However, they did this new song, to be released September 2015 on the band's second album, anyway. Adam warned the spectators that towards the end of it they shouldn't be too critical, because the acapella vocals inspired by Spock's Beard were a difficult thing to do. Well, they brought it to a good ending and the audience gave them a well deserved applause, which of course was for the strong one and a half hour long show they did as well.

I certainly had a great time watching X-Panda and Synaesthesia on stage. However the combination of those two bands sharing the stage wasn't the right one for everybody. Some of those who went nuts when X-Panda was on stage couldn't cope with the music done by Synaesthesia and left before they ended their set. Surely they don't sound the same, but that makes progressive rock such an interesting musical style to listen to! It's never the same! But I still like it!

Henri Strik (edited by Astrid de Ronde)