The songs The Betrayal, Event Horizon and The Untold Prophecy are played great, the live performance of the songs sounds heavier and is even better than on their debut CD. The last song Trial is a new one and according to the positive reaction of the audience the 35 minutes was actually too short. For me it is clear that we will hear a lot more from this band.

About 21:00 the guys of Riverside climbed the stage. The intro was overwhelming, over 10 minutes of psychedelic and progressive instrumental music with a lot of Pink Floyd (Shine on your Crazy Diamonds) influences followed by Volta Face, this was only the beginning of the show whereby the emphasis was laid on their last album, Second Live Syndrome.

Mariusz Duda (bass and vocals) and Piotr Grudzinski (guitar) were playing fabulously. The sphere of this album (aggression, psychedelic and sometime metal) was performed superb and even strengthened by the terrific sound. Not many bands know how to check their sound as Riverside does. Songs like Artificial Smile, Second Life Syndrome, Dance with the Shadow and The Curtain Fall were outstanding. This is progressive rock at its best! Halfway the show the audience got the chance to breathe again when the ballad I Believe was played. The instrumental encore was the finishing touch of this really superb performance, I consider this show as the best gig of 2006.

At 23:00 VandenPlas started their show. Just before the show the drums and guitar had to be sound checked again. The face of Stephan Lill (guitar) was not the face of a satisfied man and I started to worry a bit. As soon as the first song blew out of the speakers (why was the volume set at such a high level?) unfortunately my misgivings seemed to be true, this was definitely NOT the VandenPlas sound, the guitar and keyboard could not be heard and the drums sounded far too loud. I have seen this band a lot of times (even in the show before Dream Theatre; that was superb) but never with such an awful sound.

The songs on the set list came merely from the last album Christ 0 and Far off Grace, both superb albums but due to the sound and the volume (half the audience had left the hall) the songs didn’t sound the way these songs deserved to do. Only from the fifth song Silently the sound was a little bit better, although during Fire Roses Dance the guitar solo was not hearable at all. The songs Far off Grace, Christ 0 and Postcard to God sounded better again but still not the way they should sound. Keyboard player Gunter Werno probably had imagined his birthday in a different way, although the whole audience (or what was left from it) sang for him. The set was finished with Rainmaker, I think one of the best songs, but this night the song couldn’t convince me. Hopefully next time the sound and the volume will be at a normal level again, so I can really enjoy the performance of VandenPlas again.

Due to the live performances of The Aurora Project and Riverside, I was quite satisfied, but I really had preferred to see VandenPlas also playing their performance with the same sound Riverside had this evening. It would have been outstanding

(Review: Ralph Vermeere
Pics: Geert Oldenmenger)