Northern Prog Festival

Skylake, Leap Day, Sky Architect,
Silhouette & Comedy Of Errors
November 2, 2019 - De Uthof, Siegerswoude (NL)


Last years Northern Prog Festival (see review) was in many ways a success. The five acts on stage were all on fire. Most of all headliners IO Earth. The band made sure the festival ended with a true musical highlight! But it was not only the music which made it worth visiting this annual festival. Also the wonderful atmosphere between the many lovers of progressive rock characterizes once again this excellent festival. I was hoping this festival would come up with another great 7th edition in 2019 looking forward to a great headliner and some true dark horses! Now one year later our team made our way to the Northern parts of the Netherlands. Again with a great headliner on the menu with Comedy Of Errors from Scotland. The rest of the acts didnīt have to take a plane or to cross a sea to climb the stage of this festival. All of their members speak the same native language and have Willem Alexander as their king and Maxima as their queen. Also, for me no dark horses because I am familiar with all the bands. However, it could be that the opening acts was for some people rather unknown.
 

Skylake

Maybe some people know that Skylake consist of two brothers whose father is the keyboard player in Silhouette. Namely Bart Laan (guitar and vocals) and Arjan Laan (drums). Their dad is Erik Laan. Somewhere on Facebook somebody wrote: "Progfans keep an eye on this new upcoming generation, influenced by Karnivool,
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Suzan van den Engel (►more pics)
Riverside and Steven Wilson". It might have been Erik, but I am not sure about that! Well after hearing their debut In Orbit I must confess that I did not really hear any influences from Riverside and Steven Wilson. To be honest I hardly heard any progressive rock influences in their compositions. Maybe we should be more focused on what is written on their website: "Skylake is a Dutch alternative rock group that is active since 2015. While initially playing covers of their favourite artists, the band quickly shifted focus towards writing and performing their own material. Musically informed by bands such as Karnivool, Tesseract, Anathema and Porcupine Tree, though mostly featuring their own sound". I guess this makes a bit more sense. During the time they were on stage they performed all the tracks from their first musical effort. Only in a different order as on the album. Highlights for myself were the tracks Prisoner and Smooth Skin / War Within. Most of all the use of the harp, which was being used for the first time during a concert by female lead singer Suzan van den Engel, and it gave the music a more melodic sound. A sound which most of the time was dominated by the electric guitars played by Bart and guest musician Jimmie Feld. The bands performance wasn't so bad at all but could have been so much better if they had worked a little bit harder on their stage presentation. If an alternative rock group should be on a progressive rock festival is not for me to decide! Finally, I'll have to give the band's drummer a big compliment for showing up even if he had a bit of a flu!
 

Leap Day

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Eddie Mulder (►more pics)
Most definitely progressive rock was the second act of the day. However different from the way they usually present their compositions. Because the bands lead singer Jos Harteveld strangely enough had other obligations with another employer. Being one of the singers in the Symphonic Rock Night tribute band prevented him from joining his fellow band members. So what to do when you have no lead vocalist have at your disposal?. Being the organiser of the festival, it was probably not a real option to cancel your own performance. So they made a virtue out of necessity as keyboard player Gert van Engelenburg mentioned during their live show. They decided to do a mix of instrumental pieces and asked guest singers to do the vocal parts of songs taken from their back catalogue. This all together made it a very varied and above all entertaining performance. Most of the instrumentals were hardly played live in the past. So, for me it big fun all the way to hear great versions of Sun Stood Still, Taurus Appearance, Awaking The Muse, Skylge's Lair and Humble Origin. Special mentioning goes out to the last title. A composition which showed most of all what a fantastic guitarist Eddie Mulder is by playing fabulous acoustic guitar.
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Bart Laan Margriet Boomsma Sieberein Schaaf Joe Carney
The first guest singer was Bart Laan, who just had done a concert with the opening act. His vocal contributions on March Under The Symbol were not bad, but it showed that he wasn't born to be a lead singer in a band. Just before Eddie Mulder left Flamborough Head to join the band he is playing in nowadays, he wrote Time Passing By. After that the band recorded it for their second album Skylge's Lair (2011, see review). When you hear the song and listen to the lyrics you might understand why current Flamborough Head lead singer Margriet Boomsma choose to sing on this song. Which she did perfectly! Flamborough Head original lead singer Sieberein Schaaf was also asked to lend his voice to one of Leap Day's compositions. The musician, which I hadn't seen for twenty years, picked out Walls because he liked the way the song moves music wise. Which I fully agree! Next to his strong vocal parts he also contributed very well on the acoustic guitar. The final guest singer Joe Cairney could later on be spotted during the set done by the headliners. He had the task to come up with good vocal parts on Changing Directions and God Of Wars. While reading his lyrics from a tablet, he managed to come up with some strong vocal parts, even though they were not easy to do as he explained to me before the concert. So bravo to Joe! Bravo also to bassist Harry Scholing. He played despite the fact that he hurt his back the day before.

In summary you can say, that despite the absence of the bands regular lead singer they gave a unique performance with many guest singers helping them out on stage. Hopefully they will decide to release it one day for everybody to enjoy, next to the people who were present on that day and must have loved it as much as I did!

 

Sky Architect

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Tom Luchies and Rik van Honk (r) (►more pics)
The more I see concerts done by this band, the more I am starting to enjoy them. And I am not the only one. The reaction from the audience were very enthusiastic after every song performed. Songs which were taken from all of their four released studio albums. Some of those albums are unfortunately sold out or deleted. Therefore, people who start to like them just lately must find it difficult to get all those earlier released albums. The first three albums were released on Galileo Records. A label which hasn't released any music since 2018. So you know why they are probably not easy to find. But I guess you can still enjoy the songs from those albums during concerts, next to the songs taken from their latest album Nomad. Which was released two years ago by Freia Music and Bad Elephant Music. The songs taken from this album, Sandwalker, Wasteland and Endless Roads, certainly belonged to the highlights of the set for me personally. The band also announced some new material from a soon to be released fifth studio album. However, they refused to play them, which the audience didn't really like. But without those brand new songs the same audience hadn't anything to complain about because they got to see a band in great shape, who entertained their fans all the way through the entire set. What else do you want you might ask yourself? I guess nothing!
 

Silhouette

The next Dutch band has had a kind of sabbatical year, but made an exception to perform at this festival. The last time the band had climbed the stage was exactly one year ago. But there were no traces that they were nervous or in bad shape.
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Brian de Graeve and Erik Laan (r) (►more pics)
I guess they must have had a couple of rehearsals before making the journey to the Northern parts of the Netherlands. The band has gained a bigger audience since they released their award winning album Beyond The Seventh Wave (see review), which was released in 2014. Too bad they only did three tracks from this amazing album which were Devils Island, Wingst To Fly and the usual encore Web Of Lies. Of course the main ingredients of the set were the songs taken from the band's latest release The World Is Flat (And Other Alternative Facts) (2018, see review). Just like during their ProgFrog concert (see review) July 2018 they opened with the first two songs from this album. Namely March Of Peace and The Flow. Also the epic Symphony For A Perfect Moment could be enjoyed again. However this time around without the technical difficulties. I guess there isn't a concert by the band nowadays where they leave out When Snow Is Falling Down. So, everybody present enjoyed this great tune one more time as well. It has become a sort of Christmas song/ anthem and a great song to sing-a-long with. All in all the band played an excellent concert even if they were on hibernation.
 

Comedy Of Errors

This year's headliners were certainly one of the main reasons people travelled so far from their hometown. Their latest concert in our country was two years ago at the Parkvilla in Alphen aan de Rijn (see review). At the time they had just released their latest album House Of The Mind (see review). Strangely enough they only played
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Joe Cairney (►more pics)
Tachyon from this album. So I had expected that for this show they would focus on their latest effort. But that wasn't the case at all. Only the epic Song Of Wandering Jacomus was done from this album. Instead they decided to do more pieces of music which they had not played for a very long time. Tracks such as Carousel and Fanfare For The Broken Hearted. Of course, the audience favourites were kept on the setlist. Therefore, the crowd enjoyed songs such as The Answer, Jekyll and Student Prince Pt1and Pt2. During the first part lead singer Joe Cairney again made his way into the audience, as he usually does during this song. The crowd loved it and even light up the place with their smartphones. Even though the music of this band is sometimes dominated by the fantastic keyboard parts of Jim Johnston, the band still has the two excellent guitar players Mark Spalding and Sam McCulloch. They complemented each other. With them the guitar sound certainly gets more richer and the many the twin guitar parts were a feast for the ears to hear! I just loved it! That the people in front of them loved it also, resulted in a final encore. With Disobey they not only ended their set in style but also the festival in a pleasant way. Giving the audience a good feeling for their trip back home.

Like every year I can say that once again the organizers can look back at a well organized festival. The bands got again a perfect sound made possible by the people behind the mixing desk. Those bands did their thing on stage very well, so there's nothing to complain, I guess. Furthermore the food and drinks were good and you could again feel the wonderful atmosphere between the many lovers of progressive rock. So all I can say is thanks to everybody involved making it again the best festival in the Netherlands!

Henri Strik (edited by Dave Smith)


Live video
recordings

Henri & Roel Strik

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Smooth Skin/War Within (7:22)
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The Storm (7:59)

Setlist Skylake:

Haste
Prisoner
Vicious
The Storm
Crossroads
Luna
Smooth Skin / War Within


Pictures Skylake by Arthur Haggenburg

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Line up Skylake:

(left to right)
Arjan Laan:
drums
Suzan van den Engel:
vocals and harp
Jimmie Feld:
2nd guitar
Bart Laan:
guitar and vocals
Charlie Feld:
bass guitar
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Live video
recordings

Henri & Roel Strik

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Walls Live 2019 (8:42)


Setlist Leap Day:

Sun Stood Still
Taurus Appearance
March Under The Symbol (Bart Laan)
Awaking The Muse
Time Passing By (Margriet Boomsma)
Humble Origin
Walls (Sieberein Schaaf)
Skylge's Lair
Changing Directions (Joe Carney)
God Of Wars (Joe Carney)





Pictures Leap Day by Arthur Haggenburg

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Line up Leap Day:

(left to right)
Sieberein Schaaf:
guest lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Gert van Engelenburg:
keyboards, backing vocals
Eddie Mulder:
lead guitar, backing vocals
Margriet Boomsma:
guest lead vocals
Koen Roozen:
drums, percussion
Derk Evert Waalkens:
keyboards, backing vocals
Joe Carney:
guest lead vocals
Harry Scholing:
bass guitar
Bart Laan:
guest lead vocals
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Live video
recordings

Henri & Roel Strik

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The Grey Legend (12:23)


Setlist Sky Architect:

Traveller's Last Candle
The Grey Legend
Melody Of The Air - Explicatio
Sandwalker
The Campfire Ghost' Song
Wasteland
Endless Roads





Pictures Sky Architect by Arthur Haggenburg

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Line up Sky Architect:

(left to right)
Wabe Wieringa:
electric guitar
Tom Luchies:
lead vocals and electric guitar
Guus van Mierlo:
bass guitar
Christiaan Bruin:
drums
Rik van Honk:
keyboards, trumpet and backing vocals
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Live video
recordings

Henri & Roel Strik

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Web Of Lies (13:05)


Setlist Silhouette:

March Of Peace
The Flow
Wingst To Fly
Symphony For A Perfect Moment
When Snow Is Falling Down
Encore:
Web Of Lies: Part I - The Vow
Web Of Lies: Part II - The Plot





Pictures Silhouette by Arthur Haggenburg

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Line up Silhouette:

(left to right)
Daniel van der Weijde:
electric guitar
Brian de Graeve:
twelve string acoustic guitar, keyboard, lead and backing vocals
Jurjen Bergsma:
bass
Rob van Nieuwenhuijzen:
drums
Erik Laan:
keyboards, bass pedals, lead and backing vocals
Bart Laan:
electric guitar
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Live video
recordings

Henri & Roel Strik

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Spirit Live (6:23)


Setlist Comedy Of Errors:

The Answer
Jekyll
Something She Said
Fanfare
Student Prince Pt2
Carousel
Song Of Wandering Jacomus
In A Lifetime
Going For A Song
Spirit Edit
Student Prince Pt1
Encore:
Disobey





Pictures Comedy Of Errors by Arthur Haggenburg

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Line up Comedy Of Errors:

(left to right)
Jim Johnston:
keyboard, laptop and backing vocals
Mark Spalding:
electric guitar and backing vocals
Joe Cairney:
lead vocals
John Fitzgerald:
bass and backing vocals
Bruce Levick:
drums
Sam McCulloch:
electric guitar
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