TAKE A BOW
This month we’ve been to see Prognosis Festival, Dream Theater, Soen, Haken, The Pineapple Thief, Roadburn Festival, Roy Harper, Lazuli and more…
VENUE DYNAMO/EFFENAAR, EINDHOVEN
DATE 22-23/03/19
Aquestion often asked to us here at Prog magazine, and indeed a question that arises during our talk at Prognosis this weekend, is whether or not there is long-term viability in progressive music. On the one hand you’ve got a multitude of dynamic young prog bands playing their trade, on the other – in the UK, at least – there is a well-established community who’ll flock to a specifically styled prog event, but who pay little attention to something like the newly formed Radar
Festival. Such an attitude is anathema to the fans we speak to this weekend, who are keen to know what the Brits make of it all, and who have travelled from more than 30 different countries to attend the inaugural Prognosis Festival in Eindhoven. The packed crowds (the festival sells out on the first day) pay testament to the diversity of the bill, and the organisers tell us that they’ll be expanding to include some bigger heritage acts for 2020. So the answer to that opening question would seem to be largely positive.
Prognosis is an intriguing concept. Both Friday and Saturday mornings see clinics and talks in the Dynamo Eindhoven building, featuring various members of Haken, Leprous, Devin Townsend, Alex Skolnick, Devin Townsend and Anneke van Giersbergen, who Prog has the daunting task of following. The
“TESSERACT ARE ON MONUMENTAL FORM WITH A SET THAT TRAVERSES ALL FOUR OF THEIR STUDIO ALBUMS.”
audience is enthusiastic and keen. The gender mix is balanced and the span of ages varied, although in general it’s a younger, exuberant crowd, the wide array of T-shirts displaying allegiance to an applaudable array of progressive acts, from the heroes of yore to today’s more cutting-edge acts.
For the music it’s a short walk to Eindhoven’s Effenaar venue, which houses a large auditorium and a smaller room. Facilities are, as one often sees at Dutch venues, excellent. Prices for food and beer don’t make you blanch. The vibe is friendly and laidback. It’s the approach of Summer’s End or Danfest on a much bigger scale, a far cry from the rip-off Britain approach of almost any other UK event. And quite frankly, it’s a joy to attend.
FRIDAY
Anglo-Finnish prog metallers Wheel get things going in the smaller room, but it’s so rammed in there that it takes some time to gain a vantage point, by which time it’s apparent that the impressive plaudits aimed at the band’s Moving Backwards debut album are well deserved. They’re a hot property – miss them on tour with Katatonia later this month at your peril.
It’s off to the main auditorium then to catch The Gathering, beginning a back-and-forth movement between rooms to try and catch a bit of everyone. Perhaps the only drawback is the overlapping of some of the bands over the weekend, but that’s unfortunately a side effect of most multi-stage events. Admittedly it’s the kind thing that can drive the less tolerant in the prog community into a frothing sea of angst on social media, but the Prognosis punters seem to take everything in their stride. The Gathering, however, don’t really seem to even get into their stride, unfortunately, with a meandering and largely tepid set.
Unlike Jo Quail back in the smaller room. A packed audience are held in rapt attention by Quail, her cello and some loop pedals, as she creates mini symphonies of sound that are equal parts art rock, post-rock and classical, with an almost metallic edge. Mandrel Cantus is an evident highlight of one of the sets of the weekend.
As is that of Leprous, who perform all of 2015’s The Congregation, meaning a live debut for Within My Fence. The crowd go bananas for the Norwegians, and Einar Solberg is in splendid voice. Afforded more room on the bigger stage, Leprous respond with the kind of winning festival set that people will be enthusing over for years. They’ve moved so far from the days of being “just” Ihsahn’s live band: these days they’re like a coiled spring ready to explode in a flash of vibrant colour.
Back in the smaller room, the Alex Skolnick Trio impress with their musical chops. Skolnick may be the guitarist for Testament, but his trio allows him the opportunity to indulge his fondness for proggy fusion. This is particularly evident on the title track of new album Conundrum, and on his take of Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1, while a raucous take on Deep Purple’s Lazy has everyone in the audience grinning from ear to ear.
The decision to have Soen headline the smaller room backfires somewhat.
It’s so packed, with a queue stretching out into the merch corridor, that most who want to watch can barely squeeze in.
The prog metal supergroup should have played the main stage.
Still, Soen are reviewed elsewhere this issue in London, as are Friday’s headliners Haken, and, as with Leprous earlier, the British prog rockers dominate the bigger stage and their technically slanted prog metal goes down an absolute storm with the packed crowd. It’s a sight to behold.
SATURDAY
Day two opens with the slight barrier of Prog not having a pass to access the Effenaar, and so we miss young Brit prog metallers Prognosis. As misses go, this one’s up there with that Ronnie Rosenthal open goal miss for Liverpool in 1992! The place is buzzing when Prog finally get inside. Seems the Prognosis boys went down well at Prognosis festival. Salut!
Local heroes Golden Caves have packed fans in to the smaller room and are engagingly delightful, as anyone who caught the band at Summer’s End last year will know. Vocalist Romy Ouwerkerk is an assured presence as the band bounce through their set. Two new songs, Temperature and Light Of The
5 (a working title) fizz with life and bristle with a vivacious energy, which bodes well for a new album, hopefully out later this year.
Green Carnation may not have released anything new for 13 years, but the Norwegian proggers are an utter revelation. Coming on like a melodic Enslaved (minus the growls), they open with the lengthy My Dark
Reflections Of Life And Death, with Kjetil Nordhus’ gargantuan roar of a voice adding to the general sense of the epic that the band generate. New song Sentinels
Of Chaos is simply terrific, bouncing along on an immense riff, suggesting the forthcoming album The Rise
And Fall Of Mankind will be well worth the wait.
Swedish prog metallers
Letters From The Colony are way more metal than prog.
They still pull a reasonable crowd, but as broad-minded as we like to think we are, they’re
just not for us. The same can’t be said for Devin Townsend, however, who is only a handful of shows into his first ever acoustic foray. Yet with just a guitar, a voice and his sense of humour, Townsend holds the packed main hall in the palm of his hand for an hour. Opening with Let It Roll, followed by the Ziltoid fun of Solar Winds, the music fills the hall, his voice a giant rush of an instrument in itself. Anneke van Giersbergen inevitably joins Devin for Ih-Ah!, which is followed by his cover of Josh Groban’s Bring Him Home. The tumultuous applause is ringing around the Effenaar long after Townsend courteously thanks the crowd and departs the stage, a huge grin across his face.
Nosound make a damn good go at following that in the smaller room. Amazingly it’s the first time Prog have caught the band live, and they’re a different proposition from the pulsating electronic prog of record, rather a rocking heavy prog act, mainman Giancarlo Erra attacking his guitar with real intent.
They certainly whip up more of a prog storm than Witchcraft back on the main stage. Seventies-inspired they may be, but it’s a hard rock sound removed from progressive music.
It’s okay, but the band seem slightly lacklustre, a mood reflected in the audience reaction.
Aussie prog legends Cog are the band largely credited with being behind the recent Australian prog resurgence. They may have only reformed in 2016, but there’s a packed smaller room where Witchcraft’s audience upstairs has dwindled. It’s is a sound that marries Rush-like flourishes with Talking Heads’ artier pretensions, and bassist Luke Gower’s impetuous hopping from one foot to the other before his brother Flynn kicks off each song draws more than a few chuckles as the band deliver a concise and hugely enjoyable set. Fellow Australian touring partners sleepmakeswaves follow, with a display born of the confidence of being a headline act (albeit in the smaller room). Instrumental post-rock they may be, but the sheer dynamism on show grips the audience, eschewing any need for a lively frontman. They throw in their recent cover of Robert Miles’ Children towards the end, and the place goes nuts.
Main room headliners TesseracT are having a similar effect upstairs, where a packed audience witness a performance on the level of Leprous and Haken from the previous day. Opening with the tripartite Concealing Fate from their debut album, One, TesseracT are on monumental form with a set that traverses all four of their albums. They may have built their reputation on the intense fretwork of Acle Kahney and James Monteith, but it’s singer Daniel Tompkins who’s the ace in the pack. He rocks when required, but adds a dash of commercial class to the likes of Hexes and
Smile that continues to place TesseracT as a band on the cusp of a real shot at a breakthrough. As with Leprous and Haken, you imagine that them getting a song on a film or game soundtrack could send them into the stratosphere.
And so the first Prognosis Festival is done. Pretty much a triumph from start to finish, and next year can’t come quick enough.