By Jase Walker
Riverside are definitely somewhere close to the top of my list of “bands not to miss under any circumstances” and as a rare privilege, I get to see them a second time this year in another country. Today’s trip takes me over to Utrecht to the bloody massive building of Tivoli Vredenburg, but this time I’m in the Grote Zaal for Riverside supported by Lesoir, which is at odds with their ÜK shows earlier this year with no support.
I get into the main venue hall, and good god, this room is absolutely incredible, a gigantic almost circular room that’s already packed with many people and I’ve decided to forgo a seat for tonight in favour of standing in the comparatively small floor area.
Literally the moment I took a chance to have a sit down, Lesoir takes the stage, great timing! Starting off with a really interesting mix of tribal rhythms, harmonised vocals and melodies that abuse the whole middle-eastern sound of harmonic minors. These immediately have my attention right from the start as I adore this sort of songwriting, and I can see from the selection of other instruments dotted around the stage, this is going to have some pretty interesting changes throughout the set and more immediately an extended flute passage, beautiful. This by no means indicates they’re afraid of ripping out some tasty riffs and guitar work as they continually demonstrate as well. Given their style, it’s also surprised me how I’ve never seen their name before as well. This sort of style is right up my street and I’ll be definitely familiarizing myself with their back catalogue following this show.
Their use of harmonized gang vocals is astounding, nevermind the rest of the outrageously skilled musical work that every single member of the band displays. Almost every few seconds there’s an element of their subtleties that catches my attention and wows me, whether it’s some sort of rhythmic accent of the drummer, a tasty guitar lick or bass fill, there’s always something. One good example of this is watching their bass player loop something and then switch to a lap steel for an extended instrumental break, this band is really quite something.
There’s often parts that remind me quite strongly of Karnivool or TesseracT, strong layered vocals against heavily reverb-y guitar playing and then others have the more quieter strengths of bands such as MEER or Kalandra but also (and yes I know so many prog people will cringe), Pink Floyd. This set has completely taken me by surprise, Lesoir are an incredible outfit of musicians, each of them exceptionally skilled and have created some incredible stuff, what a treat.
- Lesoir play five shows in the ÜK next February and March, starting in Leicester and taking in London, Rotherham, Stourport and Southampton.
After a clearing of the stage and a bit of a break, it’s time for Riverside and the difference in the width and openness of the stage puts quite a different perspective on the performance compared to the show at Manchester Academy 2. Their keyboard player looks every bit as enthusiastic to be on stage as well, I don’t think he’s spent a single gig he’s played without a massive grin on his face the whole set. For some reason this time round it’s striking me how much some songs sound like Faith No More, just without the craziness of Mike Patton’s attitude.
Riverside’s singer has a brilliantly dry sense of humour as well, so very deadpan in his delivery which seems to go over very well with the Dutch crowd, it’s not just a music show with Riverside as there’s often quite funny anecdotes and sometimes a brief history lesson over either a song or the latest album.
Riverside epitomizes some of the best things I love about prog, especially when it comes to drawing out some segments while at least one person from the band goes on some crazy journey for a few minutes and these guys do it so very well. Being quite literally surrounded by the rest of the crowd all the way up the sides of the venue in the stalls means crowd participation singing goes from background noise to an all encompassing roar. Riverside don’t really ever take themselves totally seriously either, despite their Singer having an often dry demeanour and their craft being intricate and brilliant songwriting, there’s a streak of being a bit silly which shines through now and then and really adds to the character of their live shows.
As the show moves on, Riverside truly shows that they’ve never lost sight of what makes a show an entertaining experience, the ease of which they play this sort of stuff makes it such an accessible and enjoyable performance. Admittedly I forgot about the “silent scream” bit on the encore which is weirdly hilarious as well.
Tonight’s show at the Grote Zaal in Tivoli Vredenburg had been a beautiful experience, a brilliant couple of acts in what is probably one of the best venues I’ve ever been in. I can’t wait to come back for more shows here in future but I don’t think I could have wished for a better first time than with Riverside.
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