Monday 21 April 2014

Fates Warning & Kingcrow - De Bosuil Weert 19 April 2014


"I Know it's getting late, but I feel I need to explain" Fates Warning Rules !!! In Progmetal the talk has been about the Big Three, the Progmetal founders or whatever more. In a way this is defendable and logic, but inexplicable remains that the best of these three: Fates Warning never came close to the success of either Queensryche or Dream Theater. Last year they released after 9 years a new album and "Darkness in a Different Light" is yet again a great collection of songs, which ranges from fast and heavy to a short ballad and ending with an epic. For some reason this album got almost no great reviews, nor did it appear in year lists of specialized sites and magazins. So being a niche player in an already tiny niche market let me once more explain what those who did not show up in de Bosuil missed yet again.


First great news was that there was an opener after all and not the least. One week earlier I was sad that a worktrip made it impossible for me to reach Ittervoort in time for Threshold/Kingcrow and only one day later I saw announced that Threshold would be back at de Boerderij later this year after which one week later Kingcrow was added as surprise opening act to Fates Warning. Kingcrow released there very good In Crescendo album last year and in the 45 minutes they had concentrated mainly on that album. They played Progpower before and already convinced, but with an even better album to support they now turned into a very good band. As they toured with Redemption before it seemd that their vocalist took over some Ray Alder poses and looks, not looking much different from a younger cousin version of same. With voice and playing also at good level I see Kingcrow are now defintely in the leage of ones to follow. This show matching the In Crescendo album it was a pity they did not play for a full hour.


At 22:30 Fates Warning hit the stage in de Bosuil that was nicely packed due to the small build up. Fates Warning has been playing Holland frequently over the past years and they do not attract large crowds anymore. Coming back to my opening comment it still beats me why Dream Theater can sell out HMH (4000) and 013 (1500) within one year and Fates Warning has to do with a half full Bosuil. Anyway this results in the audience being all real music lovers and a large part of the crowd do visit Baarlo as well during each first weekend of October.


Fates Warning live does usually not hold many surprises in the setlist, as they visit several obligatory songs and change a few songs only. This time they had 4 songs of DIADL mixed in, amongst the usual highlights of their career. They also normally play 90 minutes, which was not much different today. Yet still this one stands to me as one of the better shows I saw the last years from them. Ray Alder was with a good voice, the sound was clear and musically we never can complain. Frank Anesti still not joining, but his not-introduced substitute took the honors well. Jim Matheos still remains (!) one of the great guitarists around, Joey Vera stands out in playing and haircuts, while barefoot Jarzombek on drums is a stable factor now in the post Mark Zonder years.


Any remarks on the setlist? Well with so many great songs out, there always remains a long list of favorites not played. I did miss "Nothing Left to Say", "APSOG 12", "Pieces of Me" and so many others. When upon arrival I saw at the tour shirts also having a No Exit T-shirt I did silently hope for a full "The Ivory Gate of Dreams", but that was not going to happen. On the T-shirt I could not pass. While most recent covers are real works of art that would in large format hang well on a wall the "No Exit" album knows their last ugly cover. Still with the old logo and square No Exit on the back this turned into a modern shirt after all.

So Fates Warning came again and blew all away with a set build upon their faster works. The Eleventh Hour played at the Eleventh hour and Another Perfect Day has ended. Fates Warning Rule!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment