The first surprise of the evening was the fact that Asrai did in fact open with a forty five minute show. It was nice to see that this band was so relaxed, confident and loyal to their fans, that they are open to the crowd up until just a few minutes before the start of the show. It didn’t take too long for me to find out why this band is becoming more and more popular. Watching the expressive lead singer Margriet flanked by an impressive guitar player Rik and bassist Martin made clear that this is a real live band. Looking at the reactions from the crowd, my guess is that there were a lot of fans of the band in the audience. Despite the fact that the sound in the hall could have been better, the band convinced me to give their new album another try. I liked what I was hearing and I know that I wasn’t the only one impressed by the band.

Around 10 pm Epica hit the stage. I had seen this band over one and a half years ago and I remember being not too impressed by the show I saw that evening in Nijmegen. Tonight it became obvious that a lot of things have changed since then. Epica has grown to be a mature band with lots of stage experience and this clearly showed in Oss. The biggest difference between that gig and tonight’s performance was the fact that in Nijmegen all eyes were aimed at Simone Simons. Not just because of her looks, but mainly because nothing else was going on on stage. One and a half years later one can speak of an enormous transition. The stage performance was much more balanced. Musicians were changing position frequently and clearly felt more in place than one and a half years ago. Epica has turned from a static to a very dynamic band. The music therefore sounds so much more natural.

The relation I have with Epica is quite strange. I think The Phantom Egony is probably one of the best Dutch releases of the last couple of years but somehow most of the songs individually do not have the same impact on me as the album in its entirety. Therefore listening to one of their shows where the set list differs from the album is a somewhat strange experience for me. Somehow all songs seemed a bit out of place.

Besides the songs from the debut album, three or four songs from the upcoming studio album were played. It’s always difficult to give your opinion about songs you’ve only heard once, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised that Epica hasn’t fallen into the trap of success (like Within Temptation for example). Despite the somewhat soft new single, all other songs were far from commercial and definitely have that typical Epica sound to them. I think I’ll visit one of the Epica shows after the new album is released.

(Review & Pics: Geert Oldenmenger)