By Jase Walker
As I start to dig further into the Dutch prog scene, I find that I’m becoming progressively (hah) more enamoured with a band that pops up fairly often, Lesoir. After their stunning show supporting Riverside I’ve started keeping a keen eye out for more shows and this has led to tonight at Cpunt in Hoofddorp. This tour is also a double headliner show with another prog outfit, Pure Reason Revolution. With a fantastic new album behind Lesoir, ‘Push Back The Horizon’, they’re now armed with another big chunk of fantastically melodic prog that I’m eager to get stuck into my ears tonight.
Admittedly it seems the times on the cpunt site are a bit off as Lesoir starts their set at 20:00 rather than the stated 20:30 so I really hope this doesn’t result in people rolling in just as they’re about to finish! I mentioned this before but Lesoir have a fascinating manner of performing their live shows as members of the band have a habit of switching around to different instruments as the set goes on which leads to a fantastic variety of sounds and layers to the overall show. I mean this is also in addition to the proggy yet easily listenable style they have.
The mix for the show is really doing Lesoir justice as well, even the softer backing vocals are clearly audible amongst everything which is a real rarity for many shows. One of my favourites off the new album, ‘Fireflies’, sounds great too with its somewhat middle-eastern sounding guitar hook and uplifting chorus, oh let’s not forget about the flute solo either, beautiful.
Speaking of instrument switching as well, I love the fact that their bass player sticks his playing on a loop and switches to a lap steel for a short segment as well, the art of doing literally everything live as possible is not lost on Lesoir. It’s not unusual for bands to have guitar swap outs for tunings between songs and stuff of course, but it’s another thing entirely to switch instruments on the fly mid-song and not have something go wrong and yet Lesoir makes it look effortless.
Another thing to add on is that Lesoir has an ample about of riffy songs as well that often remind me of The Pineapple Thief. A solid mix of more arty and atmospheric songs as well as good old riffs and wailing guitar melodies is what Lesoir excels at. Finishing with their album title track, ‘Push Back The Horizon’, I’m quite thankful that I get a headline length set tonight due to the type of show. it’s been a good evening to indulge in another great set from Lesoir.
One super speedy changeover later and it’s time for Pure Reason Revolution who admittedly I’ve only had a brief moment to check before the show but the new album this year is pretty impressive too. Opting for a more chilled intro to their set that’s drenched in atmosphere and layers of hypnotic guitar melodies and wonderful layered vocals, I know I’m already in for a good time with this set. I’ve also noticed that there’s no traditional bass player role here but instead this appears to be taken care of by the synths and a backing track, not that it detracts from a pretty fat sound they’ve got backing up the vocals. The use of harmonized vocals layering in addition to the interesting melodies they use reminds me quite strongly of Fleetwood Mac. When Pure Reason Revolution really lean into their heavier breaks though, the atmosphere gives way to heavy mids-drenched riffage that you’d expect to find from the likes of Kyuss, really great dynamic.
I bloody love the noise coming out of that Korg synth, it’s a wonderful juxtaposition of noise compared to the guitar and keys from the other melody focused part of the band. By the time we’re past the halfway point of the show I’m already soundly convinced I need to give these a far closer listen than just the most recent album as I’m quite taken back by the sheer diversity of the set so far.
The darker segments in some of their songs really scream Porcupine Tree at me, the mix of really high up the neck riffing mixed with mids-heavy tone is a pretty integral part of Steve Wilson’s style and it shines through quite strongly in parts. Finishing the set with attempting to direct a somewhat reserved audience into singing harmonising parts was a bit amusing but a fun way to finish things off though. The synths are particularly present in this one too that use a hard edge that seems to give a bid to the likes of Orbital or Kraftwerk which just adds to the overall huge variety of sound and influences that Pure Reason Revolution seem to embody.
It’s been a real fantastic evening for some proggy goodness, Netherlands does seem to have a very underrated prog scene and shows like this are a great example of what seems to pass through here fairly often. Stay prog Netherlands.
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