With three studio albums and an eleven-year career, Aisles has become one of South America's most acclaimed progressive rock bands of the past decade. The band has played in South America and Europe, and their albums have been released in Europe, North America and Japan. Aisles are from Chile and have just released their fourth album Hawaii and were- after seven long years-back in Europe. They did a tour that brought them to Belgium, France, the UK and the Netherlands. It was obvious that I never would have forgiven myself if I hadn't attended one of the booked Dutch shows. Being a lover of their music since their debut The Yearning (2005), I had to see them. Therefore our team made a trip to Tilburg to see the band perform at Extase, a rock café with a small concert stage, a stage which the band had to share with two other acts (Profuna Ocean and Little Eye) but of course not at the same time!
 

Little Eye

Allan Sieczkowski

A four-piece unit from Scotland had the task to warm up the crowd before the headliners would make their appearances. Strangely enough they are not a progressive rock act just like the two bands that would climb to the stage after them, although their guitar player Evan Malloch told me before their performance, he used to be in one of those bands in the past. He was even familiar with bands such as Comedy Of Errors and Pallas, all from Scotland. And obviously, he knew Fish as well. Little success playing in a prog act made him join a rock act like Little Eye, a band with no keyboard player in their line up, but I could not really say I missed one because they entertained me from time to time with their more mainstream guitar rock sound. Malloch turned out to be a very gifted guitarist. Moreover the rhythm section, consisting of Marcus Cordock (bass) and Jay Hepburn (drums) sounded very tight. Also their singer Allan Sieczkowski, who has Polish ancestry, impressed me with his vocal abilities. He told the audience that he felt it awesome to be part of an international line up of bands that were playing at this venue. All in all I could tell they did a very strong half hour long set and entertained somebody who had come to hear prog only!
 

Profuna Ocean

Raoul Potters

This Dutch band is certainly not unknown to me. As winners of the Dutch Exposure competition in 2013 they won a record deal with FREIA Music resulting in releasing their second studio album In Vacuum (see review) earlier this year. This was their first full-length album after the release of their mini album Watching The Closing Sky in 2009. I had already seen them perform a couple of times. Therefore I pretty much knew beforehand what to expect music-wise. What I didn't know was that they had added after their concert at the second Progcity festival (see review) in May an extra guitar player to the line-up. This way lead singer Raoul Potters could focus even more on his vocal contributions. However, it didn't mean he couldn't be heard on his guitar anymore. Together with Yacco den Toom he was responsible for treating the audience to a melodic guitar solo from time to time. As for the music performed, you could say that the focus during their forty-five minute long set was mainly on their last musical effort. Only one piece was taken from their debut, namely Lost Inside (The Landscape). Those songs performed came out fine and therefore the band can look back at a good live show!
 

Aisles

Sebastián Vergara

As for the main dish, you could certainly say that the expectation did run high before I even heard a single note. I guess it's not so strange if you do know they have delivered already four outstanding albums. So the question I did ask myself was if they could copy the sometimes complex music on a live stage. Well it seemed that they could handle it with so much ease as if the band had been together in the current the line-up right from the start which is of course not true. The brothers Sebastián Vergara (lead vocals) and Germán Vergara (guitar and vocals) with Rodrigo Sepúlveda (guitar and vocals) have been the key members in the band since they started in 2001. Along the way people came and went. Finally the following musicians went on tour with the ones mentioned earlier; Daniel Baird-Kerr (bass), Juan Pablo Gaete (keyboards) and Felipe Candia (drums and percussion). Together they gave a musical explosion which lasted for one and a half hours. During the time they were on stage they perfectly copied the songs taken from their entire back catalogue. Sometimes I had the idea I was listening to a tape. You hardly could hear the difference from the original versions. Of course songs from their latest release were included as well. The opening pieces from Hawaii were the to be expected opening tunes. During The Poet Part 1 - The Dusk and The Poet Part 2 - New World the music of Gino Vannelli came to mind several times. Difficult to mention any highlights, because the entire set the band did was one musical highlight. So I will not go into details concerning what songs they presented during this amazing concert.

All I can say is that their mix of South American passionate Latin music and European progressive rock music is for me a perfect marriage of musical styles. Maybe I had wished they could have done a two hour long set but then again what they offered was of such a high level that I already was satisfied with what they came up with. In the end the entire show on Dutch soil just made me speechless. The musical craftsmanship of the band and perfectionism that they brought with the songs to their audience had totally blown me away!

I had a blast! Gracias! Hopefully it will not take another seven years to see them back on a European stage!


Henri Strik (edited by Robert James Pashman)