Flamborough Head (NL), Yesterdays (Rumania) and Mindgames (Belgium) gigged at The Starsound Studio Utrecht on Saturday October 16 2010.
“In April 2009 I visited a small progressive rock festival at the Starsound Studio’s in Utrecht organized by Dutch prog band Flamborough Head. In spite of the fact that only few people showed up, they recently organized the same kind of mini-festival again. Watching this fine band perform was a good reason to drive to Utrecht, but the performances of Yesterdays (Romania) and Mindgames (Belgium) were a good excuse to write a review about this progressive rock festival. Both bands had become friends with Flamborough Head after they had visit the northern part of The Netherlands to perform at the legendary Progfarm Festival. This annual festival attracts visitors from different countries, but even this small festival proved that progressive rock has no borders. There were spectators from Germany and even a man from Japan. […]
@Live pictures: Arthur Haggenburg
Together with some thirty natives they saw Flamborough Head perform first. The band showed that people who didn’t attend this festival missed something special. With the new guitarist Gert Polkerman, the band has become a very strong live unit. His style of guitar playing is perhaps less melodic than that of former guitarist Eddie Mulder, but instead we can enjoy a more aggressive guitar sound on stage. However, a very enjoyable sound with no traces of prog metal at all. The band performed some new songs as well. I also noticed that Mr. Polkerman enjoyed playing those old guitar parts. He often played them with a big smile on his face. For me, the highlight of this fine performance was Looking For John Maddock, the 20-minute long title track of the band’s latest release. This epic piece containing different moods and changes was splendidly performed with a leading role for keyboardist Edo Spanninga.
Next on stage were Yesterdays from Hungary and Romania. The audience wanted the band to do an encore. After the encore Tükör their time was up, but they can look back at a well-performed concert.
That also applied for Mindgames. Thanks to Flambourough Head our Belgian friends returned on a Dutch stage. […] Mindgames also deserved an encore and the few people left in the audience made enough noise to get them back on stage. Their last song was Both Sides Of The Show, a beautiful epic piece that finished an excellent performance. Hopefully this wasn’t the last MMX-show in The Netherlands… Too bad, that only a few people visited the Starsound Studio in Utrecht to witness three wonderful live acts. The prize to see the shows couldn’t have been the problem. Maybe some other concerts held during the same weekend could have been the reason for prog heads to show little interest. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned Flamborough Head may organize such triple live shows again. I had a good time just like all the other people who joined me in witnessing some outstanding progressive rock bands. Henri Strik (Please visit Background Magazine for Henri’s complete review)
