As almost every year in April many bands are on tour, but once in awhile there is one you don't see too often on stage. Now they are on tour with The RPWL Experience and stop in Essen. Tonight they have Dutch band Splinter as support and to be honest I haven't heard about them before, so I was a bit curious.
A guitar intro led into Goodbye, an atmospheric prog rocker with a bit of Styx vocally. Singer Ewout Ongering did a good job entertaining the people and is a real simpatico. The Dutch focussed on their album Dreamers and so songs like Anthony's Songs and Korsakov followed. The quintet combines prog elements, jazzy parts with catchy hooks and some light melodies á la Supertramp. The instrumental middle part of Korsakov was a bit ELP-ish. After Korsakov frontman Ewout explained that they had a long drive, but that it was worth it. The next song was a new one - The Hymn - which is about the Dutch weather forecasts. The short tune only with keyboard and vocals by keyboarder Menno Broer van Dijk. Followed by the instrumental The Sunset and last, but not least Bio Engine. At Bio Engine I had to think of Threshold.. A good show! And I think I have to check out their album Dreamers... Hope, this isn't the last time we saw them on stage in Germany!
After a short change over it was time for RPWL! The Bavarians started with Silenced into a set which had many new tracks, but also some old ones. Singer - and live part-time keyboarder - Yogi Lang entered the stage in a dark suit and placed a folder at the music stand. Between the songs Yogi talked to the fans and explained the meaning of the songs which also were supported by projections on the backdrop. Yogi introduced Masters Of War as a song from a visionary, a song written back in 1963 by Bob Dylan which is still up-to-date. And so they showed on the backdrop photos of soldiers as well as of world leaders like Sarkozy, Merkel and Bush Jr., but also Bill Gates and other CEOs. After Stranger it was time for Choose What You Want To Look At - and to visualize they showed parts of commercials and brands like BMW, Coca-Cola, McDonalds and so many others. At This Is Not A Prog Song was they added some citations of Rockin' Allover The World with slightly changed lyrics - Progin' Allover The World - and Spider Murphy Gang's Mir san a bayrische Band. With Start The Fire they looked back at World Through My Eyes and they kept going back in time as Yogi explained Gentle Art Of Swimming should initially been released on Try To Kiss The Sun, but just made it onto Stock. During this one drummer Mark - who jumped in for the tour - added a short solo. It was obvious that guitarist Kalle Wallner and his mates enjoyed being on stage and performed songs like Time To Kiss, God Has Failed and 3 Lights. Hole In The Sky was played as an encore and after more then 2 hours it was over. But who stayed late had the chance to meet the band and have a little chit-chat. The sympathetic Bavarians will be on tour a little longer. Kudos to the band, these days it's not very common to play long shows like they do. They really pay back to their fans with long shows performed on a high level!