The first song I witnessed was a guitarless track, with the singer behind his keyboard. Not knowing what to expect from them, I was a bit worried not to see a guitar. Not that it is a must-have for good music, but the song was pretty boring in my opinion. Following a jazz-like bassline it was too slow and boring.

The show ended with a much faster song and this was mainly due to the use of guitars again. The keyboard wasn’t used though and that lead to a rather avarage song, with a strong alternative feeling to it.
Although it wasn’t my taste at all, it was ok to listen to, but I wasn’t able to detect anything unique about them. Well, maybe the bassist who kept watching his other two bandmembers so he hardly faced the crowd, not something I’m fond of…especially after Anathema`s show last week at ProgPower.

Since Marillion doesn’t really attract a large number of rock/metal heads, the alternative music of White Buffalo suited the crowd better than a metal band would have. Still, there must be better bands out there…

Marillion
One of those better bands is of course Marillion, the band that the 2200 people came to see perform live tonight. Marillion is a well known band and they almost don’t really need an introduction. Its` origin can be found back in the early 80’s and they have always been respected by a large group of fans, including fans of the progressive rock genre.

Marillion has changed during all these years and nowadays combines rock with pop, jazz and plenty of other genres with an everconsisting groove. After the release of their latest album ‘Anoraknophobia’, that was funded by 12.000 fans who pre-ordered it online before it was recorded, it’s time for the British guys to hit the stage again at a soldout show in Tilburg.

Vocalist Steve Hogarth was in excelent shape. The singer who replaced the original singer Fish in 1989, has a remarkable stage presence. It took him about an hour and a half before he first talked to the crowd. ‘Dank je wel’ is what he said, which is Dutch for ‘thank you’.
Despite his lack of words he interacts with the crowd in a way not many people can do. He simply has to move or look a certain way and people know how to react to it. It proves how popular Marillion still is and that they have lots of die hard fans who sing along with the lyrics.

I’m glad he took off the jacket he was wearing in the beginning, since it looked strange. This was replaced by a raincoat that was decorated with dozens of mirrors from the inside. All of this happened during ‘Goodbye To All That’ from the ‘Brave’ album.
The songs Marillion played tonight were all songs from the Hogarth-era. This meant no classics like the famous ‘Kayleigh’ or ‘Lavender’. Even though I love the Fish-era as well, I think it’s good they didn’t go back to those albums. So what did they play then? Five songs from ‘Anoraknophobia’ for example.

‘Quartz’ was a good moment for Steve Rothery to show how he masters the guitar. While he stood in one place the entire show, it was still fun to watch him play.
It’s almost impossible to picture him without a guitar in his hands since he really becomes one with it on the stage. He was always smiling to the fans and that was especially appreciated by a kid in front of me who waved to Rothery. In return he nodded to him and put on a big smile. Of course, the kid was happy as hell.

All the fans were loving the show and it was a real ‘feel good’ evening. The new single ‘Map of the World’ was also performed live and this turned out to be a good live song to add to the ‘feel good’ mood of the show. It wasn’t a surprise to hear ‘This is the 21st Century’ live, since it was the first song that was released of the new album.

Judging from the reactions this was quite a popular song. ‘When I Meet God’ is a personal favorite of mine so I was more than pleased to hear it live. The last song played from ‘Anoraknophobia’ was also the last song of the night, ‘Between You and Me’. A great way to end the show with this happy and upbeat song.

Drummer Ian Mosley was a bit on the background. Although he doesn’t do much to interact with the crowd, he can still hit the drums very well and that is quite respectable for someone who is almost 50 years old. Mark Kelly was also on the background. It didn’t help much that he was standing on a high platform with his keyboard.
He did a good job though. Last member of the band is of course bassist Pete Trewavas. Together with Hogarth he was the most active of them all. Running on the stage every now and then, doing backup vocals and making sure that the crowd was clapping their hands, there was also room for some laughter.

This occured when he made a little mistake that ended up being noticable because it happened during a slow moment. It sounded really funny and it made Hogarth look at him laughing, thinking ‘what the hell was that?’. The audience couldn’t help to not laugh as everyone saw the childish smile on Trewavas’ face.
After a while he had some slight problems with his bassguitar. ‘Damn cheap equipment’ as he almost whispered jokingly in his mic. Someone from the audience yelled ‘speak louder!’ to which Hogarth responded ‘it’s not worth hearing’.
Another fun moment was when Hogarth announced the last song of the night (which was ‘King’). This was of course accomponied with lots of boooo’s. Trewavas laughed and said ‘ahhhh you know what we mean!’.

Hogarth thanked everyone for coming and ‘paying for the expensive tickets’ and also thanked themselves for showing up, cause ‘otherwise, you would be fucked!’. It’s nice to see them being able to do more than play damn good music.
The first encore was ‘The Great Escape’ after which they left the stage again. After loud cheerings of the more than 2000 people, they came back again to finish the set with ‘Between You and Me’, as I’ve mentioned before. The crowd wanted more, but unfortunately, they didn’t come back again.

It was a succesful and fun evening of 2 hours of music from Marillion, a band that is still alive and kicking in the 21st century. Keep it going guys!

(Review & Pics: Frank Alders)