Just like it became a tradition to visit the annual Progfarm Festival many years ago, it has become a tradition
to visit the Northern Prog Festival in the Northern parts of the Netherlands. Even if our team has to take a two
hour long drive, it can't stop us from going up north. Just like in the days of the legendary Progfarm Festival,
the hospitality of the people of the organisation and the location is always a reason to step into our car and
get ready to enjoy five progressive rock acts. Also for the 2016 edition, a great line up was booked to hear on
the first Saturday of November, some amazing progressive rock music. This year the Dutch acts
Picklelegaz,
Leap Day,
Unkh,
Ricocher and the Estonian formation
X-Panda were on the bill.
Picklelegaz
|
Ernst Brobbel |
This year's festival opener was for me a totally unknown band. Picklelegaz hails from Vlaardingen and was founded
in 1988. They label themselves as a neo-progressive rock band and mention bands such as
Genesis,
IQ,
Pink Floyd and
Marillion as possible influences. So far they have released the albums
In Progress (1999) and
Bedroom Circus (2012). In the meantime they already started to write songs
for their third release. They probably wanted to try out the new material, because they started their set with
three brand new songs-pieces of music which can't be find on any of their albums. Although I never had heard them
I still could enjoy them mainly because the included solos done by
Harry Steen (guitar) and
Philip van der Mark (keyboards) were really well done. They closed their one-hour long set with two songs
from their second album. The last of them
Anger And Fear, was without a doubt the highlight of their
entire live performance. The leading role in this 16 minute long epic piece was for lead singer
Ernst Brobbel.
Not only were his vocals sounding very strong but also his acting on stage was fun to watch. I certainly enjoyed
myself during the band's fine performance because they certainly can entertain a crowd and that's what prog is
all about after all!
Leap Day
|
Jos Harteveld |
What can you say about an amazing band such as Leap Day that hasn't been said before? I guess those who have seen
them do know what I am talking about. Again this year's performance was one big highlight. The six band members
were probably all in a good mood because they just had released their first live album titled
Live At The Northern
Prog Festival (see
review), recorded exactly one year earlier at the same festival. Strangely enough they didn't play much
from the songs that are on this release. I guess they did find it more important to come up with a setlist that
differs from the concerts they did in the last couple of
|
Eddie Mulder and Gert van Engelenburg (r) |
months-something which gets my full approval. Hearing
songs such as
Road To Yourself,
Ambrosia,
Skylge's Lair and
Little Green Man again,
really felt good. At the same time I was glad they did songs such as
God Of Wars and
Deucalion which
have become live favourites of mine without a doubt. The band is still working on new things and they proved this
by playing the brand new piece
Like Icarus. A future stage classic might have been born because it contains
everything their fans love so much about them. The musicians on stage did all play brilliantly but I have to tell
you the biggest complement goes to guitarist
Eddie Mulder. It was only after their show that somebody told
me he had an ear infection and went home before waiting for the response of his followers. Well he played his
parts as if nothing was wrong with him and like a real professional he did his job without complaining about his
handicap. So bravo to all band members and especially Mr. Mulder!
Unkh
The last time I witnessed a concert from Unkh, they supported the Cuban formation
Anima Mundi (see
review).
After their performance I have to mention some things that could have been better although they played (in my humble
opinion) a rather strong set. It was mainly their presentation on stage which looked a bit static and hardly contained
any contact with the audience. Also the band members were not introduced and it looked as if they were playing
on an island with no audience surrounding them. Therefore I advise that they should be working even more on their
overall presentation when they do their thing on stage. Moreover they only did songs which hadn't been released
|
Maarten Habraken |
on any album. Most of them I hadn't even heard before. Therefore I hoped the next time I would see them they would
do some familiar album tracks as well. A new concert and so new chances for a band which deserves to be in the
spotlight. With guitar player
Maarten Peerlings, who played on the band's debut, they opened with a very
recognizable tune, namely
Theme Of The Mighty Mushroom. It was not so strange as I'd heard it before, because
it was taken from their fantastic debut album
Traveller (2014, see
review). Also the farewell song
Borderlines.Fr.
I had heard before, again a piece taken from their first musical effort. In between those two album tracks,
the band presented 4 new compositions which were also done during the aforementioned support concert earlier this
year. Again, the songs were very well done, only they had the bad luck of a power failure that killed almost one
of the new songs but after some fast technical help the show could go on but this time with some announcements
as well. I guess you are never too old to learn new things!
Ricocher
|
Erwin Boerenkamps |
Most members of this band started their musical career in a school band playing covers. This resulted in forming
a real cover band. This led in the end to the start of an international act which even played at the famous Baja
Prog Festival in Mexico. The band even supported acts such as
Arena and
Saga. With one EP and two
studio albums released in the early 2000's they called it a day a couple of years later. Now ten years later the
band reformed in almost the original line up. Only their guitar player was replaced. With two shows behind them
in the new outfit, Ricocher climbed the stage very confidently
|
Marchel Mertens |
with a mix of songs taken from all releases the
band has made leaving a rather strong impression. The vocals of lead singer
Erwin Boerenkamps are still
high pitched. This time around bassist
Niels Nijssen even added some bass pedals to his gear. Although
keyboard player
John van Heugten hardly could be seen at the back of the stage, his playing still sounded
very pleasant. Just like
Maikel van der Meer he's a strong rhythmic player behind his drum kit. I guess
the star on stage was for most people in the audience the presence on stage of
Marchel Mertens. You could
tell that former
Queen Of Hearts guitar player was a gifted musician. Even more than the guitarist he replaced,
his heart lies in the progressive rock genre. According to van Heugten the band has enough material in the vaults
to come up with a new album. Well only time will tell if this ever will happen. What I can tell you is that they
came back on stage with a bang!
X-Panda
|
Tamar Nugis |
For a lot of people the Estonian formation
X-Panda was the musical sensation of the last couple of years.
After their performance at the second Progmotion festival (see
review) in 2013 the Dutch audience embraced them
whole-heartedly. Their debut
Flight Of Fancy (2011, see
review) was sold out during almost every show they
did in the Netherlands. Of course everybody was waiting for its successor. This was finally released in 2016 and
got the title
Reflections (see
review). This album showed a more song-orientated band. Bassist
Tamar Nugis handed
his instrument over to
Roland Jairus to focus more on the vocals. It was obvious that the focus during
their performance at this festival was on the new album, however I had not expected that they would play the entire
album just like the track list on the album. So starting off with
The Game and ending with
Esivanemate
Pärand. The last title was very well sung in their native language. In between the mentioned titles you could
say the musical highlights were for me personally the
Toto-like sounding instrumental
On The Way
|
Roland Jairus and Risto Virkhausen (r) |
and the in two parts divided title track. During the performance of the new musical pieces a second power failure
did strike upon the band but it was not a problem for them. According to Nugis, playing progressive rock music
is a technical business after all. After the entire new album was done, some time was left to get the focus on
their debut with the songs
Black and
Flight Of Fancy. The crowd would not allow them to get off
stage without doing an encore. Therefore one more track from their debut could be enjoyed. An amazing version
of
Revelation did leave the audience with a big smile on their faces. Including myself. Once again they
did set the hearts of their Dutch fans on fire with an incredible live performance. I guess I didn't expect anything
else after seeing them twice before!
As for the overall feeling of the fourth edition of this festival I can only put my two thumbs up! We could enjoy
five great bands. Furthermore, the organisation from the band Leap Day and the people of the Uithof was in good
hands and made sure everything went very well. So all I can say finally is that hopefully same time next year
another fantastic event can be enjoyed in the Northern parts of the Netherlands!
Henri Strik (edited by Robert James Pashman)