The Italian progressive rock band RanestRane is most of all known for putting music to classic movies. In the past they wrote their own score for Werner Herzog's tribute film Nosferatu The Vampyre and the two Stanley Kubrick movies The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Furthermore being a support act for the Steve Rothery Band certainly introduced them to a wider audience. Just recently they accompanied Steve and his band again during several European dates. One of them included a Dutch date at the De Pul in Uden. Strangely

Daniele Pomo

enough the same venue was also one of the locations for the band's first European tour on their own. A tour which would lead them to Denmark, Italy and Germany as well. During this tour they would introduce the second part of their Space Odyssey trilogy, which started with Monolith in 2013. Now two years later A Space Odyssey Part Two H.A.L. (see review) saw the light of day. As a lover of their music I couldn't afford to miss their only Dutch concert and went to Uden to see what they would come up with!

The first set was for the brand new album H.A.L.. The music they would perform was almost completely new to me, because the album was on sale for the first time during this tour. Only their first tease (Spacewalk) on the band's first live release Monolith In Rome - A Space Odyssey Live (2015, see review) and a couple of video fragments on the internet revealed what I could expect. Of course it only partly showed what was going to happen before my eyes. The combination of excellent progressive rock music in the style of their predecessor and the images of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey projected at the back was a very pleasant one. The left side of the stage was reserved for Maurizio Meo to show his tricks on the bass and double bass. Drummer Daniele Pomo was sitting behind him, although many times he stood up to do his lead vocals when he didn't have to play drums. Bravo for the way he combined his singing and playing at the same time. Next to him stood Riccardo Romano behind his stack of keyboards, who also helped out doing some backing vocals. In front of him stood Danny's brother Massimo Pomo who played on the electric guitars and E-bow. Together they worked as a solid live unit, who must have practised a lot to perform the music from the band's fourth release so perfectly. A show of hands also for the way they played along with the images behind them. After this great live rendition of H.A.L.it was time for a very short break.

The second part was reserved for a selection of songs taken from the band's back catalogue. They opened with a large part taken from their debut Nosferatu Il Vampiro (2006). It was great to see the band perform in front of the images of Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula, Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker. After this part was finished Danny spoke a few words to his audience, telling them about an Italian saying. He mentioned something like "Solo poche persone, ma le persone migliori" which means in English "Only a few people but the best people". Which of course resulted in a big round of applause.

Maurizio Meo

The images on the screen behind the band, which had the biggest impact on me personally, came next. The songs from their second album The Shining (2011) mixed with the evil face of Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance and the scary face of his wife Wendy Torrance played by Shelley Duvall worked perfectly. Most of all the way Daniele Pomo responded to the images on the screen were amazing to watch. A good example was when Jack tried to open the door with an axe. At the same time you could see how Danny hitting his drums with a lot of power. After the selection of songs from The Shining Danny once again addressed himself to his fans. This time he introduced all the members of the band. He praised the working relationship between the band and the people at the venue. He spoke of two teams from Italy and Holland becoming one.

Next up was a part of my favourite RanestRane album, A Space Odyssey Part I Monolith (2013). Before playing a part of it Danny mentioned the band's collaboration with the two Steves on this album. He was, of course, referring to guitarist Steve Rothery and singer Steve Hogarth, both from Marillion. Unfortunately this part of the album, was way too short. Only doing Materna Luna felt a little bit disappointing at first. However, the way they performed this piece of music brilliantly brought a smile to my face. When the song was over there was another band introduction and the crowd started screaming Rane, Rane, Rane. Soon after that the musicians left the stage. At first it seemed they wouldn't return for an encore because nobody was asking for more. I guess the fantastic audience was a little bit shy at first and needed some help to ask the band back on stage. Therefore when only a few were screaming for an encore the rest followed very soon, resulting in seeing the faces of the musicians one more time.

The final part of the evening was for the opening part of Nosferatu Il Vampiro. However before it was performed Danny once more took his microphone to tell some inside information about this movie. The first part of the story took place in the imaginary German city Wismar, which was filmed in the Dutch city of Delft. A city they would visit during their time off from the tour later on. Just like all of the music performed during this Dutch show this last encore went down very well.

After the musicians left the stage for the last time they showed up later on to meet their fans face to face at the bar and the merchandise desk, signing CDs, taking pictures and have a bit of a chat with them and giving them the perfect night out. I guess they could not have asked for more after such an amazing performance!

Henri Strik (edited by Astrid de Ronde)