The Midwinter Prog Festival is organized specifically for me
On Saturday Feb 7th we were at the yearly Midwinter Prog Festival here in the Netherlands, featuring five prog rock / metal bands. I often joke it's organized specifically for me, because every year I am already a fan of half the bands, the Tivoli Vredenburg venue is a 10 minute bike ride away from our house, and it's always around my birthday!
This time the lineup featured three Norwegian bands (Leprous, Gazpacho, Green Carnation) and two UK bands (Pure Reason Revolution, IHLO).
The big highlight for me was the 20 year anniversary show by Pure Reason Revolution, playing their debut album The Dark Third in full. Back in 2008, they performed this album at a smaller venue, which was the first ever concert that I went to as a teenager! So it was very exciting being able to revisit this album so many years later, in a much larger venue. They put on a great show!
Headliner Leprous brought maybe the heaviest prog metal that this festival has seen so far, but also had some lighter moments with songs like Alleviate, which I still argue would be an excellent entry to the Eurovision song contest. There was also an unexpected cover of the song Take on Me by the fellow Norwegian band Aha.
Gazpacho had a stressful day, and said they considered canceling twice! Not only was their bassist still back in Oslo due to a canceled KLM flight, but he was also the one carrying the in-ear monitor equipment. Luckily the venue was able to lend the band some equipment. The bassist ended up performing and recording the entire concert from home, merging his bass track with the existing backing track. In the end they made it work, good show!
We had great seats as well, and had some friendly chats with the people next to us. Though folks, I beg you: if you want to know more about the band that's playing in front of you, please leave the Wikipedia scrolling until after the show. Same goes for checking the latest Olympics results. Also, your phone has a brightness slider.
One new thing this year was a sheet in the hallway where people could fill in suggestions for bands to play next year's edition. Some suggestions were more realistic than others.
Whatever it'll be, I'm sure next year's lineup won't disappoint!