It was that time of the year again, to enjoy the wonderful prog festival in Valkenburg, The Netherlands. This year featuring amazing bands like Kristoffer Gildenlöw, Arena and The Steve Rothery Band. The weather on Friday was really fine, not too warm and, thank god, no rain. But more importantly the music on this first Mid Summer Prog day was really breathtaking and sometimes even out of this world. So 100% real prog rock bliss indeed.
 

Kristoffer Gildenlöw

Kristoffer Gildenlöw and Chris Jonker

For me this day started with the highly awaited performance of Kristoffer Gildenlöw - by the way I missed opening act Theraphosa - who just recently released his fantastic new album Empty (2024, see review). Besides Kris (vocals, guitar) the band featured Dirk Bruinenberg (drums), Joris Lindner (guitar), Paul Coenradie (guitar), Christian Jonker (keys) and Liselotte (Lilo) Hegt on bass guitar. The opening track of Gildenlöw's set was Time To Turn The Page, the opening track of his latest album. This one set the tone for this beautiful atmospheric gig. The guitar solo here was truly breath-taking, reminding me of Mike Oldfield and Pink Floyd. What a way to start this live performance! He's Not Me was the next highlight, again starting off very relaxed and quietly with smooth guitar picking and an almost Floyd-like melody. Gildenlöw's melody lines are beautiful and his vocal performance is more than beautiful. What a special voice this man has. Down We Go is next and it starts dark and almost "spooky" with Gildenlöw's atmospheric vocals before it evolves into a beautiful prog rock gem. Featuring a long dreamy melodic guitar solo starting at the 4:30 minute mark, goosebumps! From Gildenlöw's debut album Rust (2012, see review) we were treated to two songs: Living Soil and the beautiful, quiet title track. From Let Me Be A Ghost (2021) Fleeting Thought was performed. However, the closing track Empty of this impressive gig was the milestone here, as this one highlighted all that Gildenlöw's music is about: emotion, melody, atmosphere, superb vocals, and impressive guitar playing. With a breathtaking, extended guitar solo, starting around the six-minute mark, Gildenlöw & Co ended this gig in a more than glorious way indeed!!
 

Arena

Damian Wilson and Mark Bogert

Next up was Arena, featuring Clive Nolan (keys), Mick Pointer (drums), Kylan Amos (bass guitar), Damian Wilson (vocals) and our "own" national guitar hero Mark Bogert of Knight Area and Magoria.
Two years ago, Arena released one of their best albums called The Theory Of Molecular Inheritance (see review), featuring singer Damian Wilson (ex-Threshold) for the very first time. But Arena only played two songs of that album here in Valkenburg. The majority of today's setlist was from their 1998 album The Visitor. No less than five tracks were played from the best Arena album ever, at least that is my humble opinion. Iconic songs like A Crack In The Ice and The Hanging Tree. But the highlight was Don't Forget To Breathe. This was the opening song of the set and truly formidable! Bogert's guitar playing was second to none, "replacing" John Mitchell superbly, and Wilson's vocals were even better than Paul Wrightson's on the original recording of The Visitor album. Besides singing more than excellent, Wilson also did a wonderful job as an entertainer and "bandleader". Connecting with the crowd and showing his appreciation for the warm response of the excited audience. From Arena's last masterpiece the audience could marvel at Time Capsule (the first song of that album), The Equation (The Science Of Magic) and Life Goes On. The Equation was the absolute highlight of these three awesome songs, as especially Wilson's vocals were truly out of this world here, while Nolan's keys carpeting and Bogert's guitar picking added those extra musical dimensions. Older Arena songs like Crying For Help (from the Pride album, 1996), Ascension (from the Contagion album, 2003) or The Tinder Box from The Seventh Degree Of Separation (2011, see review), were also great to hear again. But for me the five songs of The Visitor were the absolute highlights of this more than awesome gig, proving that Arena has always been and still is one of the best prog rock bands on this planet!
 

The Steve Rothery Band

The headliner for this first day of Mid Summer Prog was The Steve Rothery Band. A band that really does not need any further introduction, right? Last year (September 7), the SRB, played a more than excellent gig in Weert and now nine months later we are again treated to a fabulous guitar picking gig. But with a rather different setlist.

The Steve Rothery Band

This gig started the same as the one in Weert, namely with two tracks - Morpheus and Old Man Of The Sea - from Rothery's solo album The Ghosts Of Pripyat (2014, see review), showcasing Rothery's highly melodic guitar soloing which gave me goosebumps right from the start. The rest of tonight's setlist featured a mix of Marillion oldies, kicking off with King Of Sunset Town, the first of two songs from the Seasons End album (1989). The second was Hooks In You which was the first single of that notorious album featuring new singer Steve Hogarth for the first time. Then it was time for the well-known Misplaced Childhood medley, tonight consisting of: Kayleigh, Lavender, Bitter Suite and Heart Of Lothian. This transported me right back to the beautiful eighties with Steve's extraordinary guitar picking and Jakubski's excellent vocal performance. Further on with four tracks from the Holidays In Eden album (1991), being This Town, The Rakes Progress, 100 Nights and the singalong Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven). After that we went back to the Fish-era of Marillion. Featuring Slainte Mhath and The Last Straw from Clutching At Straws (1987) and Forgotten Sons from the debut album of Marillion Script For A Jester's Tear. The latter was a real blast as that one has not been played for an exceptionally long time! The SRB, besides Steve of course, consisted this evening again of: Yadim Halimi (bass guitar), Lein Parr (drums), Dave Foster (guitar), Riccardo Romano (keys) and vocalist Martin Jakubski. A more than excellent band indeed. The audience was in awe most of the time and enjoyed this trip down Marillion memory lane for sure. It had to end sometime, but not before the band returned for a beautiful encore. This was the classic epic song Fugazi of Marillion's eponymous studio album. A glorious ending for the first day of this beautiful festival.


Text & pictures Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen)