Met UNEXPECT, OPETH & DREAM THEATER, AHOY, Rotterdam

Mike Portnoy is the mastermind behind this tour and line-up: four bands and a chance to get to know some new bands. The venue Ahoy Rotterdam was pretty well filled up, but certainly not sold-out since the upper ring was closed. However, several thousands of people had found their way to the rainy harbour city. I apologize for any shortcomings or inaccuracies, but I felt this event had to be covered but I had no intention to do so for DPRP.

The first act was Unexpect, a band from Montreal, Canada. The band was founded around 1996 and to this only the two guitarists are left from the original line-up. The band played a strange mix between classical, gothic rock, death metal, folk and maybe even more influences. Some folks call it avant garde metal, but then again: what’s in a name? Partly because of the imperfect quality of the sound, the very energetic performance of this outfit got lost in chaos at times. Exquisite melodic passage are alternated by doom, death metal with a lot of grunting. The visual aspects are well taken care of by female singer Leïlindel is a beautiful lady but because of her extremely long hair one could hardly see her face, especially when the lighting was as low as it was in Ahoy that evening. From the point of view of a photographer it was much too dark and too much red light. Another eye catcher is bassist ChaotH. His impressive nine-stringed bass combined with his dreadlocks is surely worth watching! This band is definitely crossing borders and I really believe they will be successful in the years to come. I’ve never heard from them until now and I apologize for not being able to produce a decent setlist. This ws a genuine and UNEXPECT-ed surprise!

Line-up Unexpect: Syriak: vocals, guitar, Artagoth: vocals, guitar, Leïlindel: vocals, ExoD: keyboards, sampling, ChaotH: nine-stringed bass, borboën: violin, Landryx: drums.

From the US - although the guitarist and the bass player originate from eastern Europe - came the cult band Bigelf, fronted by founder Damon Fox. Apart from some technical problems with the guitar, it was an enjoyable performance with lots of psychedelic influences, mixed with old-school hard rock from acts like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. Bigelf is one of the few acts in the progressive circus with a frontman playing the keyboards: Memotron and Hammond among others! This performance will undoubtedly contribute to Bigelf's reputation and will help the band to acquire an internationally respected status.

Setlist Bigelf: The Evils Of Rock & Roll (from the album Cheat The Gallows), Neuropsychopathic Eye (from te album Money Machine), Frustration (from the album Closer To Doom), Hydra (from the album Cheat The Gallows), Madhatter (from the album Hex).

Opeth from Sweden hardly needs an introduction. Mikael Akerfeldt used the phrase ‘like oral sex’ for some parts of the music the band played that evening. It amazes me time and time again that a singer can use his voice like Akerfeldt: everything between a good pop singer down to grunts from hell, and it doesn’t seem to take a lot of effort too. Although the major part of the audience seemed to dig those heavy parts more, personally I enjoyed listening to the melodic and atmospheric pieces. No technical problems here and a show worthy of the rising star Opeth seems to be. If mastermind Akerfeldt decides to stick to progressive metal, I’m convinced one day the Heineken Music Hall will be filled with Opeth-fans one day and Opeth being the main event...

Setlist Opeth: Windowpane, The Lotus Eater, Reverie-Harlequin Forest, April Ethereal, Deliverance, Hex Omega.

Last, but definitely not least Dream Theater, the 'inventors' of prog metal. Again a huge demonstration of the unlimited technical abilities from bassist John Myung, drummer Mike Portnoy, keyboardist Jorgen Rudess and guitarist John Petrucci. Singer James Labrie, avoiding the highest screams, was in good form as well. Rudess proved to be a real wizard on the keys and even emphasized that by wearing a magician’s hat for a while. I didn’t like the part of his awesome solo where he uses the continuum fingerboard, but the cartoons accompanying parts of his solo are both funny and pretty neat! Portnoy was constantly interacting with the audience and LaBrie noted that Dream Theater really loves the Netherlands because 'you never let us down'. As long as we don’t have ‘an evening with Dream Theater’, there will always be discussions about the setlist. The current album Black Clouds & Silver Linings was featured with four songs. I would have loved to hear As I Am again, played elsewhere on that same tour but that’s purely my own preference. Main fact is that Dream Theater are still fully in control and they are well ahead in the Champions League of progressive metal.

Setlist Dream Theater: A Nightmare To Remember, A Rite Of Passage, Hollow Years, keyboard solo, Prophets Of War, Wither, The Dance Of Eternity, Take The Time.

Encore:  The Count Of Tuscany