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On stage: The Gathering



- W.O.A. - Aug. 1999 - Wacken (D) -
- My Dying Bride, The Gathering & Flowing Tears - Feb. 2000 - Cologne (D) -
- The Gathering & Pale Forest - Apr. 2003 - Bochum (D) -
- ProgPower Europe - Oct. 2004 - Baarlo (NL) -
- The Gathering & Autumn - Jan. 2010 - Krefeld (D) -
- The Gathering & Autumn - Jan. 2010 - Bratislava (SLO) -
- The Gathering - Feb. 2010 - Thessaloniki (GR) -


www.gathering.nl









- The Gathering - The West Pole/20th Anniversary Tour -
- February 27th 2010 - Thessaloniki (Greece), Block33 -





The Gathering - live in Thessaloniki

The Gathering - live in Thessaloniki

The Gathering - live in Thessaloniki

The Gathering - live in Thessaloniki

The Gathering - live in Thessaloniki

The Gathering - live in Thessaloniki

The Gathering - live in Thessaloniki

It's the 20th Anniversary Tour for The Gathering and they visited Thessaloniki once more in the frames of it. I was double anxious for this concert cause: 1. Three years have passed since the last time I saw them with Anneke and 2. this time, it would be different & special since the line-up changed and Silje joined the band. I was curious to see how Silje would be on stage and if the audience would correspond to the 'new Gathering'. Unfortunately, my curiosity was dissolved 4 days before the concert when I heard that only 37 tickets were sold so far by Ticket House. Of course, the fact that there was no support band and yet the price reached the 30 € might had kept some people behind, but this is a lame excuse.
So, the day of the concert came and I reached Block33 at about 8pm. The Gathering came on stage at 10pm and by that time 200 people were gathered at the club for the gig. 200 are way better than I expected, but still so much less than The Gathering worth! Fortunately, the band was not affected by it (or at least not obviously affected) and they gave a wonderful show. The show started with When Trust Becomes Sound, an instrumental to warm us up and prepare us for what is about to follow. The set list was something like a best-of, containing old and new songs and a little surprise for us... a cover of Daniel from Bat for Lashes, which they were playing for the first time live!



Silje was unexpectedly good on stage as regards both voice and performance and she seemed to have overcome the stress of the first shows. She proved that she is much more than a capable substitute of Anneke and she erased the image of the 'old' Gathering for me... You could see her shining while singing the new songs. Not that she failed at the old ones... On the contrary, she interpreted them as good as Anneke, which is admirable! It's just that it is normal, in my opinion, to have an extra-sparkle while singing songs that you have written the lyrics for. And this is why I believe that as they go on, she will shine even more! While watching them, I was thinking of how lucky I am for being here and supporting this band, cause even after 20 years of success and recognition they remain modest and down to earth... Truly thanking us for being here for them. Not just saying it, but also showing it with their attitude on stage (and after the show too). This is why I said that they deserve more than 200 people.
After 1,5 hour of playing, and a 'waterfall' of all-time favorite songs like Saturnine, Travel, Leaves etc, they thanked us and left the stage, but soon came out to talk with the fans, take photos and thank us personally for our presence! Marjolein told us that they are about to start recording the new album which will probably be out in 2011 and gave us a promise of coming back after that. We will be waiting for it and I hope that the next time will be more successful as regards the correspondence of the fans...


More photos? Click here! More videos? Click here!




Marina Arvaniti

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- The Gathering & Autumn - Jan. 30th 2010 - Bratislava (Slovakia), Randal Club -




This was the second time The Gathering visited Slovakia. First time it was in June of 1997 during a tour after the release of Nighttime Birds album and so much changed since then...
The concert was announced to begin at 19:00, however it really started a bit more then hour later and one of support bands, Dying Passion from Czech Republic, didn't appeared at all. So first band which actually played was Autumn.
Everyone who likes The Gathering's Nighttime Birds era should give Autumn a try. Not very original, but songs, performance and vocals were great. I especially liked parts where singer and guitar player sang together. As a support band they didn't had too much time for them to play, unfortunately, coz they had very positive effect on crowd. However I think that they should try to focus on to develop their 'own face' a bit more, this reminiscence of The Gathering's past was sometimes a bit too strong.
In following break, while all members of Autumn posed for photographers, signed posters and booklets and talked with fans, The Gathering started to prepare for their part. Fans know that the last album, The West Pole, doesn't feature vocals of unbeatable goddess of female singers, Anneke. The main frontwoman is now Silje Wergeland from Norway. The album is one of the bests in their discography, so I was really looking forward to see them live.
Everything began (quite expectedly) with instrumental song of last album. In this song Silje played together with Frank on keyboards. Intro finished, Silje moved to the centre of stage and showed us all that she is now real part of group and no one should mourn about Anneke any more. 'Her' songs from The West Pole sounded as well as from CD. Of course some older songs were also played, in them she sang like Anneke and difference between her own style and style of Anneke was quite noticeable.
However singing of songs composed for one of best vocalists ever is a real challenge. And the result was unexpectedly good. While I must admit that Silje doesn't have this colourful and strong of voice which Anneke has, its also true that she sang everything as it should be. The Gathering chosen well and I hope they will stay together for a very long time. Also her performance on stage felt good, lot of smiles, it looked she really enjoyed the show, very positive and likeable.
Only little disappointment of the evening was missing bass player Marjolein, she couldn't come because of her work or something like it. However they found really good temporary replacement for her, the band's original bass player Hugo Geerligs. Well, I will have to wait for her signature until next time... but who knows, it was maybe the last chance to see The Gathering playing together with Hugo, so maybe it made this evening even more special then was planned.
I will not comment the stable part of band in big detail. René performed his guitar magic, Frank played keyboards and I think he also took care about samples (thanks to samples songs sounded almost the same as on the albums) and Hans gave never-failing rhythmical support. The result was excellent musical experience, exactly on level I expected from them.
One weaker point was sound. Atmospheric passages were perfect, but in heavier parts sound of keyboards was a bit lost. It was possible to hear everything, but a little bit of higher volume would be nice. Still, it wasn't too bad and it didn't ruin the experience at all.
The show ended at 23:10 and again started a big session with taking photos, signing, talking... Naturally it was Silje who had the most followers at her heels, but she behaved very friendly and I really hope I didn't bothered her too much. O:-).
It's too soon so say that it was the best live show I experienced in 2010, but I have feeling it will be among the bests for sure. Let's hope that on their next tour they will come to Slovakia again.



Michal Seliga
(guest writer)
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- The Gathering & Autumn - January 22nd 2010 - Krefeld (D), Kulturfabrik -





Autum - live in Krefeld

Autum - live in Krefeld

Autum - live in Krefeld

The Gathering - live in Krefeld

The Gathering - live in Krefeld

The Gathering - live in Krefeld

The Gathering - live in Krefeld

The last time I saw The Gathering Anneke was still in the band, now Silje Wergeland is fronting The Gathering and with The West Pole they showed a first sign of life after Anneke's departure. The West Pole is out for several month and now the Dutch hit the road to support the album live and to celebrate the band's 20th anniversary. The band did a few warm-up shows, but tonight they officially kicked off the European tour. As support they picked their fellow countrymen Autumn who releases almost a year ago their 4th album Altitude via Metal Blade.
Autumn singer Marjan Welman and her mates began the show with Synchro-Minds, but it took the first song to adjust the sound. Next in line was the Altitude opener Paradise Nox, a rock tune with progressive elements and a 70's rock vibe. Even if a few people in the audience knew Autumn, they had to convince the majority and they managed just to do that during their set. The band has to thanks Marjan for this, coz the charismatic singer not just offered a good vocal performance, she rocked the stage and seemed to enjoy every moment! Even if the sextet focused on their current album Altitude, they also offered some older tracks like Blue Wine, Epilogue, Satellites and Forgot To Remember off the 2007 release My New Time. Marjan Welman thanked the people for giving them such a warm welcome. My highlights were Cascade (For A Day) - let in and out only with vocals and Jan Munnik's keyboard - and Skydancer, but it's probably coz I only know Altitude and so the older tracks are new to me.... And perhaps because Skydancer is also special to Marjan who introduced the song "This one is one of my favorites on the new album.... Skydancer!" The Dutch closed the set with the title track Altitude. A good show, even if a bit more light wouldn't have hurt... To get an idea about Autumn watch this video from Krefeld, the link was twittered by Marjan...




After a change over which most used to grab a drink it was time for The Gathering! They kicked off with the instrumental opener When Trust Becomes Sound off The West Pole. In my opinion not the best way to start a set... For No One Spoke Silje Wergeland took over the center stage after joining Frank Boeijen on keyboards for the opener. No easy task to replace a charismatic singer like Anneke van Giersbergen who was an essential part of The Gathering for more then a decade. Vocally Silje Wergeland managed very well and it seemed that the band felt comfortable on stage. Even if they had quite a few songs off The West Pole on the set list, they traveled back in time with songs like Inuit, Analog Park, Great Ocean Road, Leaves and In Motion 1. Some seemed to know why bassist Marjolein Kooijman wasn't on stage with them, coz when Silje wanted to explain someone in the audience shouted something which I didn't get and she stopped talking. So, no idea who was playing the bass that night and why Marjolein was standing in the audience... Silje Wergeland's show was static and I started missing Anneke van Giersbergen who was always full of energy, dancing, singing and talking. Perhaps the Norwegian singer just needs a bit more time... Anyway, it was great to hear songs like Saturnine and Leaves again. Old and new songs melt into one. Don't get me wrong, musically The Gathering were doing great, but show-wise they couldn't convince me... Let's wait and see, perhaps next time the show is more entertaining...




Claudia Ehrhardt

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The Gathering & Pale Forest
- April, 14th 2003 - Bochum (D), Zeche -




It's been awhile since The Gathering toured in Germany. This time they took the Norwegian band Pale Forest with them on a trip through out Europe. So I asked for a set list to deliver you at least the songs, actually I never heard of them before. When the band entered the stage, the Zeche was filled with about 450 fans on this warm, sunny day. The song These Old Rags first let them sound a little bit like a rock-swing melange, but then they rocked. I don't know which songs are new and which are old, but in the set of the Norwegian sextet they sound homogenous. Tristesse - as far as I understood - is an old one. The emo rock of Pale Forest has elements of bands like Muse and Placebo added with some gothic elements. Singer Kristin caught the attention of the fans and her warm voice embraced the listeners. Their set offered also Stigmata, Exit Mould, Revelation, Peil and Envy. I liked their music and so did most of the fans who came actually to see the Dutch. Until they come around next time I'll know more about these band.
After a break the stage was flooded with green light and the new track Golden Grounds opened up the show. During the first track singer and front lady Anneke van Giersbergen also played guitar. Even if the quintet was on tour to promote their latest release Souvenirs they didn't forget their past and so Nighttime Birds were next in line. These days older tunes been rearranged to fit to their nowadays sound. The light show and the music created a certain atmosphere and it was obvious that the five really enjoyed being back on the stages. Anneke and her mates enchanted the fans with These Good People, Broken Glass, Analog Park and later traveled further back in time and played Eleanor and Amity before they finished their set with Souvenirs. After a few moments the trip-rockers came back for You Learn About It where Kristin of Pale Forest joined Anneke for a duet. Black Light District was supposed to be the last one, but due to the great response they came back one more time to play Great Ocean Road.
A two hour journey through melodic, melancholy soundscapes, but always with a positive vibe. Another great show of the five-some and surely not the last one I visited. I guess it's the same for the ones who were at the Zeche. Thanks for a great night! Hope to see you soon back on the stages of the world.



Claudia Ehrhardt

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           ©2008-2010 by Claudia Ehrhardt • E-Mail: contact@ice-vajal.com




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