5th April, at Logo in Hamburg, an awesome combination of progressive bands arrived: Earthside, Voyager and Leprous. I arrived and entered just in time as Voyager began to build their stuff up on stage. At first, I perceived some switched-off televisions on stage. I didn’t know what the matter was, but I was curious about it. The venue was not packed but there were enough people to give the feeling of a filled venue –people with Earthside, Voyager and Leprous shirts everywhere.
Voyager entered the stage and I was really impressed from the beginning –all the members of Voyager, singer, guitarists, bassist and drummer, were going crazy like I hadn’t seen before. You could see the fun they were having while playing –they headbanged, moved over the whole stage and between the people in the audience. Praise wireless technology! This spirit of fun and energy jumps over to the audience as well. Headbangers, dancers and hard-nodding beer-jugglers dominated the venue. I admit I was really surprised about the live performance and the clarity of the music.
The most memorable and surprising moment at the performance was their song “Lost”. This song is one of the more melancholic and mystical ones, and in the middle of the song, singer and keyboardist Daniel Estrin began to play the lead synth of Darude’s song “Sandstorm”. Seriously, what the hell! This was a metal version of this well-known, old-school techno song. I could see many smiles and hear many happy laughs about this. I didn’t expected that!
Leprous followed as the last band of this evening and I was excited to be there to see and hear them live on stage. I was curious about the setlist and quality in comparison to the records. The televisions were not used by the guys before, but in this moment they lit up for Leprous with freaky, wonderful, mystical videos in the background. The first song was “The Flood”. I think, it’s a daring choice for an opener song, but the guys of Leprous never do things without a reason. As Leprous fans know, the song ends with a groovy and dance-worthy part, so everything was fine and the audience remained energized. The atmosphere built up quickly, and I had the feeling everyone was caught in it. While the song “The Prince” was played, we sang the choir parts together with singer and keyboardist Einar Solberg, sinking into the music of Leprous as the lights and videos supported the atmosphere in a wonderful way.
The setlist was a powerful and melancholic mix of the newest record ‘The Congregation’, ‘Coal’ and two songs of ‘Bilateral’. Although the music and riffs they compose are complex to play (e.g. parts of “Red”, “Moon” or the encore “Forced Entry”) they always danced/moved over the stage, posed like superheroes on boxes/monitors and interacted with the audience. All of the musicians did a great job on stage. I didn’t have the feeling that any of the crazy guys on stage ever played a wrong note. Especially impressive was Einar singing his lyrics like it would be played from a tape; Leprous on stage was earnestly unreal.
The evening was full of awesome musicians, songs and crazy fans in the audience. Voyager heated things up cheerfully and with groovy riffing, and Leprous with their melancholic but powerful stuff. Be sure to visit the next concert!
