Every first Saturday of November many lovers of progressive rock make their way to the northern parts of the Netherlands.
Their destination is the Northern Prog Festival held at De Uthof in Siegerswoude. This amazing festival is organised
by
Leap Day. Without any doubt one of the best progressive rock bands our country has to offer. The band
themselves are always the second act on the bill. Around this fact they put up a line up which might attract many
people from the Netherlands and from across the border. This year was already the eleventh time the festival was
held. As usual many Dutch acts climb the stage at this venue. No exception this time around. Next to the earlier
mentioned band they also booked
Momentum and
For Absent Friends to warm up the crowd for the final
headliner. In the past several big names in the progressive rock scene closed the festival. Bands such as
Comedy
Of Errors,
IO Earth and
Galahad. At first
Antony Kalugin was booked to perform the music
of
Karfagen,
Sunchild and
Hoggwash. However, he was not able to put up a band because of
the war in Ukraine and the musicians living too far from each other. Therefore, a suitable replacement had to
be found. And yeah they did find indeed a suitable replacement. Because with the name of
Overhead they
made many people happy. Including myself. I just had seen them a couple of months ago at't Blok in Nieuwerkerk
aan den IJssel doing an outstanding performance (see
review).
Momentum
According to The West Frisian band Momentum they stand for idiosyncratic Dutch-language rock with influences from
prog, metal and (synth)pop. This band from the area of Hoorn already released the albums
Uit Het Leven Gegrepen
(2021) and
De Slag Op De Suyderzee (2023). They were recorded with several musicians in the band. However
just after they were booked for the festival only two members remained in the band. Namely
Marc Schouten
(vocals, bass, drums, guitar) and
Fons Flotman (keys, vocals). They assured the organisation that no matter
what they would be continuing the preparations to play on the festival. To do this they were forced to work with
backing tracks, because as a duo they can't do everything live. They had filmed almost all parts that come from
the backing track while playing, which they showed that on a screen behind them. So everything that you did hear
during their performance you could see happening. It is a bit unconventional but they tried it any way. Did it
work? Yes and no! Marc was playing on his bass guitar and did most of the vocal parts. However I think it would
have been better if he had played on the electric guitar instead. This way the solos would have come more alive
and the crowd had something to look at. Fons was standing behind his keyboards and occasionally did some of the
vocals. Because a lot of parts came from the screen behind them, on which they were playing a long with, it sounded
too many times too chaotic. It also didn't help that the audio sound that could be heard was far from good. As
for the songs played. They choose to perform a large collection of songs taken from their debut
Uit Het Leven
Gegrepen. Leaving out the pieces of music taken from
De Slag Op De Suyderzee. Instead, they treated
the audience of a lot of brand new songs which will later on be on their third album
Aardewerk. Hopefully
for the band they will find new fellow band members to climb with them the stage to perform their music in front
of a live audience. Because I personally think this experiment failed even how hard they tried to entertain the people present!
Leap Day
As for the second band that climbed the stage I can be more positive. I even can say that this is by far their
best performance I have seen in the current line up. The 6 musicians were without any doubt playing on top of
their game.
They were willing to give the audience something they later on would speak about. Right from the start
with the instrumental piece
Viral Cage the band kicked ass. Followed by
Falling Star with lead singer
Hans Kuypers joining his fellow band members on stage. Both new pieces of music showed that the band can
still write excellent progressive rock tunes which are performed in an excellent way. Just like they managed to
perform top notch live versions of the songs taken from their large back catalogue. There was so much to enjoy.
The only two songs (title track and
Autumn) from their latest effort
Treehouse (2021, see
review)
made me dream away while they played them. But also, the rest of the even older material, which they hadn't played
for many years, were loved by the audience in front of them and many times rewarded with a well-deserved round
of applause. As for the songs such as
Home At Last,
March Under The Symbol,
Deucalion and
the oldie
Little Green Man I can listen to every time of the day. And when they do great live versions
of them my day couldn't be better. So, both thumbs up for this incredibly beautiful concert. Without a doubt the
first musical highlight of the festival.
For Absent Friends
This band comes from the Rotterdam area and was rather famous in the progressive rock scene when they released
their first albums in the 90s. After several line up changes the band still released albums in 2001 and 2006.
During that period I saw them several times. However after that period it became rather quiet around this band.
Then suddenly out of the blue the band released their sixth studio album
Disappear in 2022. Also the band
went on the road to play their music in front of a live audience again. Therefore, I was rather glad to see them
on the bill of this festival. And they didn't disappoint me. Their performance was rather strong and of course
it contained several compositions from the earlier mentioned album. Songs such as
Magic,
Disappear,
the strong instrumental
Keytar and
The Poet which featured the solos taken from the
Cinema Show.
I guess it wasn't so strange they did this classic
Genesis tune because many of the band members also play
in the Genesis tribute band
Squonk. But the band did also not forget their musical legacy and some old
fan favourites could be heard. From their first period (with singer
Alex Toonen)
Snow (encore),
Into Love and the well known emotional duo song
Boy/ Father. From their second period (with singer
Hans van Lint which is still in the band) they did not forget to do fan favourites as well by doing songs
such as
Berlin Wall and
The Big Room. The the band is still sounding fresh and alive and kicking.
They did show this by playing a strong brand new song titled
Nerd Illusion. So all in all a very strong
performance from a band which I hadn't seen for a very long time. Well done guys.
Overhead
For those who know this wonderful band from Finland an introduction is not needed. I already mentioned their outstanding
performance in the Netherlands earlier this year. And also this time around the five musician on stage showed
why they were chosen as a headliner and to replace Antony Kalugin and his band. Of course the setlist contained
many of the same songs done at 't Blok. And therefore no surprised could be expected. Even though the band already
started to work on new material they did not choose to show some of the new musical tunes. I guess it is also
not necessary to play new work when you can draw from an extensive back catalogue. Especially their last album
Telepathic Minds (2023, see
review) contained some really beautiful musical gems. And is considered by
many, including myself, as a true masterpiece. Therefore I was glad I could hear once again the strong opener
War To End All Wars. But also my album favourite
Ghosts From The Future was done again in a perfect
way.
Planet Of Disorder,
Tuesday That Never Came and the title track were done from the bands best
album release. Of course, the weird stage act from singer
Alex Keskitalo could be enjoyed once again during
Metaepitome. During the band's encore, which was the
King Crimson classic
21st Century Schizoid
Man, he left temporary the stage to give his fellow band mates all the space to freak out on their instruments.
For me it was great fun to see bassist
Janne Katalkin, keyboardist
Mikko Patama and guitarist
Jaakko
Kettunen doing all those amazing solos on their instruments. It was a perfect way to end a perfect performance.
I guess I couldn't ask for more...
Just like last year I can almost end my review with the same words again. I can once again only say that the eleventh
edition of the Northern Prog Festival was another festival with almost only musical highlights on stage. Only
the first act was a bit disappointing. And also once again thanks to the people who booked all the bands! And
once again a thank you goes out for the people of De Uthof who made it possible that everybody had enough food
and drinks while watching the four acts. Also, once again thanks to the people for the sound. The Northern Prog
Festival was for me personally once again the best festival in the Netherlands!
Henri Strik (edited by Dave Smith)
