Listening to the first set of the evening left me with mixed feelings. On one hand the music, based on atmospheres and emotions, sounds very, very promising and is probably the best the band has written in years. On the other hand I found the live performance somewhat boring. In my opinion Marbles should be best listened to in your favourite chair, wearing headphones (this is the only comparison I can find with Brave) and not in a large venue with close to 1400 people present. The song "Invincible Man" is characteristic in the way that the band builds to a climax like "King" and "Few Words For The Dead", but lacks a certain strength or roughness so important for the live experience. Only Hogarth delivers a certain ruggedness with his edgy vocals in the final section of the song. There`s absolutely nothing wrong with the music, but the live performance just doesn`t move me the way it used to. The only exception in this case is the track "Neverland", that closed the first set (as well as the new album).

The same goes for the tracks "Marbles I, II and III" and the singles on the new album. Fine music, but a little bit too smooth, too much atmospheric to impress all the way in a live situation. Watching the show convinced me that Marbles will be a successful album, appealing to a lot of people, fans as well as people unfamiliar with the band. However, it also made me wonder whether I should go to a Marillion concert in the future. The beauty of this band lies in the fact that the studio recordings gained so much power and really touched me in a live situation. Marillion new style seems to move me more when I listen to the cd.

The second set of the show mainly consisted of up-tempo rock songs from the last three albums (I never thought that "Cannibal Surf Babe" could ever be one of my favourite live tracks). The fact that this song is never released as a single is without doubt the biggest mistake Marillion ever made. I`m absolutely sure that it would have made the top 10 everywhere. The only real surprise in the set was the performance of "Bridge", "Living With The Big Lie" and the second encore, "Made Again".

Writing this review in this way is a bit strange since objectively spoken there was absolutely nothing wrong with the show; beautiful music, great sound, relaxed musicians and impressive lights. The only element lacking was that certain something and that is hard to explain.

Pictures are by Ronald den Dekker
For more pictures, check his site www.wacon-images.com

(Review: Geert Oldenmenger
Pics: Ronald den Dekker)