This weekend I really enjoyed the Symforce 2007 festival at 013 Tilburg.

Opening act Focus showed a really vivid Thijs van Leer, accompanied by his band. Jan Akkerman replacement Niels van der Steenhoven did a brilliant job – he’s about a quarter of Thijs his age (who is a 120 by now I guess) and he really knows how to combine rock, blues and feeling. A great gig.
Next, Riverside from Poland surprised. I had never heard them before, only heard about them. These guys know what technical play is, and managed to get my attention.
Party rockers Pendragon – that’s no offense, they do have a party on stage without loosing their grip on great rock music – followed suite. I wanted to see Beardfish, but got so tangled up in the Pendragon show that by the time I got there the small venue was completely full. All I could do was listen in from the hallway, about next to Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) who was there too.
After Beardfish I slipped into another small venue to see The Aurora Project, a Dutch progressive metal batallion. Great, loud and enthousiastic.
After that – I skipped The Flower Kings, they simply never did what Riverside managed to do today, which is to arrange a click in my head.
Instead, I visited Bootcut, which is Beardfish’s organplayer together with a drummer friend. Great stuff, only drums and Hammond – if you like the sound of the Hammond beast.

All in all, Symforce was a great festival and we have good hopes that next year 013 will organise Symforce 2008. At least they announced it for the third weekend of september that year. If so, I’ll be there.

Technorati Tags: Progressive Rock