Fish

Approximately five weeks ago Fish and his band played the second show of "The Road to the Isles Tour" in Maastricht (see review). And now they are back for another gig here, same stage, same band, almost the same crowd, same clothes - at least Fish -, but as Fish promised on 4 October, with a completely different setlist. Unfortunately, Fish does not live up to that "promise" as tonight's setlist only contains seven "new" songs, so we get seven songs that we heard on the previous gig here in The Muziekgieterij.

Opening track was once more the impressive title track of Fish's debut solo album and again it was an incredibly beautiful beginning. Two Fish "oldies" - Credo and Big Wedge (also from the debut album) - followed and especially Credo, one of the best tracks from the Internal Exile album, showed a couple of vocal flaws, but the crowd sang along perfectly, creating a great atmosphere indeed.
Then, after a rather long, emotional verbal introduction about the Great War, the first highlight of this evening followed as the epic song The High Wood, consisting of five parts, took control over the venue. The High Wood, from the Feast Of Consequences album (2013) is in my humble opinion, one of the best songs Fish ever recorded, as that track features excellent musical diversity, breath-taking guitar solos, beautiful vocals, and dark melodies indeed. Especially part two (Crucifix Corner) and four (Thistle Alley) gave me goosebumps this evening, as they are really filled with anxiety, emotion, and that immense brutality and

Steve Vantsis

total madness of the first World War; hats off for Fish for this more than excellent version of a true prog rock classic.
Slainte Mhath, meaning Good Health, from Marillion's epic album Clutching At Straws was up next, followed by two songs that we had already heard in Maastricht, being Just Good Friends and A Feast Of Consequences. Fugazi, the title track of Marillion's second album, was the next highlight of this evening, as this was sheer and utterly musical bliss indeed as Fish almost cried out: "where are the prophets, where are the visionaries, where are the poets to breach down the dawn of the sentimental mercenary"; awesome, as this world is indeed totally fugazi!

The beautiful first encore : A Gentleman's Excuse Me, a true Fish classic, sounded great, but the three Marillion songs from Misplaced Childhood were vocally, just like the first time in Maastricht, to put it mildly, mediocre, and I would have preferred songs like Internal Exil or Market Square Heroes as encores. Finally, of course it was time for The Company, the folky track from Fish's debut album and thus it ended, as this was the final gig of Fish in The Netherlands ever.

Overall this second show in Maastricht featured a couple of utterly fantastic songs - The High Wood, Fugazi and Vigil, but also a couple of vocally mediocre songs, but as Fish once said to me in an interview in 2020 : "I'm just a writer who can sing, not a singer who can write"... I still wonder though why he never played a song from the Field Of Crows album (2003) on this farewell tour..... maybe he did not like the album....
Cheers and Slainte Mhath to Fish and his band.

Text & pictures Martien Koolen (edited by Dave Smith)