These guys showed how an unfamiliar group (for sympho fans) could be successful as a support act. This was mainly the effort of the excellent female singer Nikki Lamborn, not just because of her characteristic voice, but mainly because of her charisma and her expressive presentation. The music comes pretty close to Fish’s latest album Fields Of Crows. Never The Bride proved to be a solid supporting act. Their music hit the mark, which was proven by the fact that they managed to keep the attention of the crowd.

FISH
I’ve seen Fish perform in the Netherlands probably more than ten times over the last ten years. The memories I have of all these concerts are very vivid, not just because of the great music but most of all because seeing Fish is an evening filled with entertainment. It’s no secret that the main power of the Scotsman lies in his performance rather than on his studio albums.

Over the last couple of years the vocal range of Fish has been rapidly declining. The European Convention in Enschede was without a doubt my favorite gig of 2003, but watching the Convention DVD, it’s at times hard to imagine that you didn’t hear a weak note that entire evening. They were present; but Fish’s performance was just so overwhelming that you just didn’t notice his lack of vocal reach.

Tonight’s gig left me with mixed feelings. On one hand there is an enormous respect for the man himself, for the music, the lyrics he writes and for the self-awareness of his declining vocals. On the other hand I find myself longing for more in-between-song-stuff. His Gollum impression while introducing the band, for example is almost as good as the horse jokes a couple of years back in Groningen. (I think this guy has a bright future as one of the best stand up comedians ever).

Concerning the sound I can be very brief, because the 013-venue again proved to be excellent. Since the band had to go through several changes the last couple of years I had some doubts whether the band was up for the job. Luckily Fish managed to keep Tony Turrell and Frank Usher in his band, as well as one of my favorite bass players today: Steve Ventsis. The only weak player in the band was -at times- drummer Windsor McGilvray, a youngster who for instance didn’t convince in a song like “The Perception Of Johnny Punter”.

In conclusion: if you ask me if I want to go to a Fish concert again, I’d probably say yes! The next time I won’t be going there to be moved by the music (listening to ‘Vigil’ without getting chills is a very strange experience) but to see this class act play and enjoy his crowd. The way the public reacted on the encore medley (So Fellini-Lucky-Market Square Heroes) was simply amazing, and this says enough of the quality of the show.

The pictures are by Ronald den Dekker (www.wacon-images.com)

(Review: Geert Oldenmenger)