By Jase Walker
Zoetermeer and its Poppodium Boerderij venue have been on my radar since moving to The Netherlands after being put on my map following Voyager’s ultimately cancelled tour. This is not a particularly easy venue to get to with its awkward positioning off to the east of The Hague and served by at least a semi decent tram system. Anyway that’s enough about minor logistic complaints about The Netherlands, as Kyros and An Endless Sporadic have landed here for a co-headline show and I’ve taken this chance to catch Kyros again with a much longer set after only just having recovered from having my face blown off by their tasty pop tinged prog. Admittedly I’ve not come across An Endless Sporadic before but I don’t doubt I’ll enjoy them if they’re fit to tour with Kyros!
As I’d hoped to some extent, An Endless Sporadic are first up tonight, marching onto stage with some extremely bright beams of white light shining upwards. After a somewhat more ambient intro, the odd rhythmic grooves start and I can feel a grin starting to cross my face as I know I’ve definitely found another band I’m about to rinse for weeks after tonight. Suddenly switching gears and going straight for the neck, they’re kicking out tasty guitar licks reminiscent of the likes of Plini, Intervals, Arch Echo, Jack Gardiner, all that good stuff. I very much enjoy this sort of stuff, it’s just non-stop tasty god damn riffs and I’m absolutely there for it!
There’s a massive spread of types of sounds they’re using as well, with several keyboards dotted around and one of the members sporting a trumpet, An Endless Sporadic love dropping in all sorts of noises across their music. Even traditional organ gets a look in with one sound bouncing between Deep Purple and Dream Theater.
An Endless Sporadic’s music is busy. Seldom much room for chilled passages or cutting back to more ambient sections, they’re upbeat, fun, maybe a little bit silly in parts but all in the name of playing prog that’s enjoyable to dance along to. It’s not been uncommon for *one* person in the band to start a solo on their guitar and then halfway through switch to a keyboard and finish the segment off on that. These guys are fully committed to music that is full of twists, turns, swerves and shunts all over the place to keep you on your toes. No sooner do I write that but we get a brief moment with a kazoo? Wait, now recorders? Even the drummer? Very weird but extremely amusing. I’m adding these to my ever growing list of off-piste prog, lovely stuff.
And to top the night off, it’s time for Kyros and I realize I may have made an error on what time I’m getting home tonight, whoops.
They kick things off and Shelby dashes on stage in her signature sparkly outfit brandishing a keytar. Some shaky sound to begin with but doesn’t last particularly long as I was about to have my signature moan about the bass guitar needing a bit more grunt. I’m quite happy that ‘Esoterica’ is still so early in the set, really getting things going in the right way especially with those synchronized moves looking fresh. But in contrast to the show I got to see at RADAR Festival earlier this year, this is a headline set with all the deep cut goodies that come along with it and I’m gonna revel in it. I do wish the crowd would move a bit more but prog crowds don’t generally tend to be particularly active types I suppose, shame really given how god damn groovy Kyros are!
Shelby spends more or less any moment she isn’t chained to the keyboard stomping around the stage or dancing, keeping the focus of the show on her as much as possible. Admittedly I keep getting distracted by the older gentlemen nearby who is quite clearly gurning in a manner of interesting ways while dancing like a right goblin, seems harmless though! Looking at all the
mannequin bits that are strewn around the stage I can only imagine what must go through the minds of border officers should Kyros get spot checked when travelling. Oh wait, it’s the merch infomercial break again before swiftly jumping into ‘The End In Mind’. Kyros certainly do keep you guessing in their live shows.
This is driven home even more with a smash cut to the ‘Democracy Manifest’ video clip in the middle of the song as well. We head toward the end and it’s time for ‘Ghost Of You'” – and time to shake my tail feather for a bit at this funky one, not forgetting to sing the words either! Honestly I’ve had a great time dancing and singing along to Kyros but I do feel like the rest of the crowd has been boring and I feel like Kyros deserves better than that.
Anyway to sum it all up, both hands were fantastic, a couple of sound hiccups here and there but nothing major. I had a fantastic time dancing and singing to Kyros, and An Endless Sporadic will be getting a closer listen when I’ve got some time for it. Great show, just need to make this horrid trip back home, urgh…
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photos courtesy of Poppodium Boerderij.
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