Progdreams Festival came back to de boerderij after some years of Covid absence. Looking at the line-up I thought they went for slighly lesser known bands this time, which also can be caused by the complications of organizing a festival in uncertain times. Friday night would be Swedish, even if Dutch and Swedish would be more appropitae. Today five bands will play, but the one I was looking forward to (Cyan) cancelled, so I shall pass. Upon arrival it was clear that the lesser known names had a negative effect on ticket sales. So all those people who over the past two years complained on social media how they miss live shows, again decided to stay home or do other things. Maybe some of them already spent their money on Genesis earlier this week. Anyway upon entering the main hall we noticed the bar on the right being closed and the merchstand was in the hall contrary to the corrider normally used. Up front we had five party tables where you could hang behind or put empty glasses on. So attendence was small, but as Arie announced, that did not mean the quality on stage would be lss interesting.
Kristoffer Gildenlöw would open the evening with his band. Now I know he lives for years in Holland, started a solo career and plays more atmospheric rock. Now I knew of these facts, but I never heard a note of his music. For me he remained that former bass player in Pain of Salvation's best period and possibly the last time I saw him live on stage was at Headway Festival 2003. During that show the band played in orange shirts with No War written on it. Not much changed over the past 19 years. Actually the fact that the next band holds Daniel Magdic on guitars (also ex PoS/Entropia) made me believe we would get Winning a War tonight on stage. Well I was wrong. The show itself turned out to be a mixed bag for me. Performance and songs all sounded very good, but what I missed was energy within the songs and thus on stage. It all passed by very calmly, even if the melodic guitar solos were beautiful. At times over these songs Kristoffer's voice sounded close to his brother's, but on the Road Salt era. Luckily not trying to blend in gospel, country or anything weird though. The best was saved for last. First a new song was played, where the band did go heaviest of their evening. Then the show closed with Rust. This song with people telling what they woudl have done differently in hindsight, saw Daniel Magdic entering teh stage. The duelling guitars that Paul 1 and he gave us, was the highlight of the show. So maybe not Winning a War as hoped for by me, but still a rather sensational ending to a show that overall was a bit too laidback for my taste.
Then the next band would be Prehistoric Animals. In 2019 they played Progpower and they became one of the very positive surprises of that edition. Their music is hard to categorize really. They played the progmetal festival progpower, but they have a lighter poppy side to them as well and I think that I know people who would love them, even if never heard of them (The same Peter and Joop that loved my tipped Dream The Electric Sleep as well) The best of it all is that the band has a very nice stage presence and the songs are all good. Inbetween these songs we did get treated on some amazing guitar solos as well. During their third ever show at PPE, they still had a hairy keyboardist. I guesss he started a vegetarian foodtruck after the festival, since I remember he liked his Pois Chic falafel. Now he was not there, the keyboard duties were shared among the other members, so a multi talented bunch they are. According to Setlist.fm yesterday was their seventh show ever, so I saw 28% of their live performances not bad for a Swedish band. What I do remember is that the only song not played from Consider it a Work of Art, was now played for us. The final two songs I remembered as well on the big screen accompanying movie front. First the Romans marching on during Into Battle and as an encore their message of sharing love, it's everything. Again I saw a highly entertaining show by PreHistoric Animals, so a petty there were not more people around to be converted to jurassic fans. The band has the songs, the presentation and the live playing to convince many. Major task to me seems, how to reach all these potentail fans. They can fish in ponds of Progrock, AOR, alternative music, progmetal and pop. Curious to see how they move forward. I am now playing The magical Mystery Machine Chapter Two, released this Thursday. Sounding fine again so. Finally suppose this was your birthday party music on stage, I guess you could have done a lot worse.
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