24 October was one of those days. I believe I could choose between 6 shows I would attend on a quiet period.Musicon had Cryptosis, Baroeg had 80's hardrock, Worm played at Samhain, Archspire was in the east. The biggest doubt I had was between Threshold and Uriah Heep saying goodbye in Haarlem. In the end it became Threshold as closer to home, more friends going and Threshold are the best progmetal band of Europe after all. As a result I am now looking for alternative Uriah Heep chances before I go spend my winter in the sun.
First we had two opening bands of whom Course of Fate were the first one. A progmetal band from Norway who were unknown to me, even if existing since 2003. This was their first show in The Netherlands and they went down pretty well. Their progmetal has some 90's flavour to it, which in my book is a good thing. The vocalist had a good voice and they were a welcome discovery. Maybe progpower one day?
The next band were Ancient Curse from Bremen Germany. They played more of a heavy metal set. The progressive traces were there at times, but than more in the vein of other north German band Jester's March. I thought the sound as a bit messy and the vocals not coming over all too strong live. Probably on album they sound fine, but I did not get a copy to check that out. Just like Course of Fate they called the audience full of beautiful people. This while I saw bold, overweight and bearded old men mainly (people like me). The view from the stage must be different.
After two ok openers it was time for Threshold to come on stage. So let me set the ballpark first of Threshold and I. It was 1993 and Manus had moved to the city centre now called Kees CD. One day I entered and Kees said to me "you like bands like Fates Warning, Queensryche and Dream Theater, you should check out this band". He handed me a copy of Wounded Land and listening on headphones in the store made me decide to get the album. The rest as they say is history. In 1994 we saw them playing a short set opening Via Rock festival in Belgium. In 1995 we saw them in Wassenaar (!?) first and later that tourI should see them opening for Psychotic Waltz twice, but both in Vienna and Katwijk Glynn had lost his voice. I still have the tee, but 2026 me is no 1995 me. Later during the Mac years I saw them several times, mainly worried Mac would fall down during his climbing efforts. When Damian Wilson returned another string of strong albums and shows. Now Glynn is back for some ten years again and all sounds comfortable. So a great band with twelve good albums, not one stinker and three good vocalists during the years. No other European progmetal band can say that, so indeed Europe's most consistent progmetal band through the years.
And than tonight's show which was here to celebrate 25 years of Hypothetical. This is one of my favourites by them. I should play them all and rank one day, but I miss two albums from the Mac years, so catching up later on that. When Light and Space kicked off we immediately could see that the band are strong as a unit and individually too. Glynn's voice was very good and the band tight as never before.(why is Johanne James never mentioned among best drummers around? The set knew no surprise at the start playing the full album, but I loved it all, including AOR ballad Keep My Head. During Narcissus we got a nice dedictaion to Mac. At the end we got some more songs with a very welcome duo Consume to Live and Mission Profile closing the set. Of course there was an encore and with King of Nothing the best song of their latest album and Slipstream their heaviest opening track ever and total earwurm a very nice ending to a rather brilliant set tonight. So in the end my choice for de Boerderij paid off, without knowing what I missed at Uriah Heep/Heavy Pettin' of course.
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