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Appelpop, Tiel, The Netherlands
September 8th-9th 2006
Within Temptation, After Forever

Every year, on the second Saturday in September, a festival is held in Tiel, one of the oldest towns in The Netherlands. This festival, called "Fruitcorso", is to celebrate the harvest of the fruit produced in the Betuwe area. This area is famous for its large fruit orchards, containing apples, pears, plums and cherries. In the same weekend there's also a pop festival in Tiel, called Appelpop. It's one of the largest free pop festivals in The Netherlands. Most of the bands that play on this festival are Dutch and there is a lot of variation in music styles, like pop, rock, metal and hiphop. We only saw the bands we were interested in: Within Temptation and After Forever.


Within Temptation

This would be one of the last shows for Within Temptation this year in The Netherlands. With only three shows left to play, one of those to be held in Tokyo (Japan) for the first time, work has to be done for their new cd, which is planned to be released in January 2007. For the fourth time in a row, and for the fifth time in total, this band was about to play at Appelpop. The current band members are: Sharon den Adel (vocals), Robert Westerholt (guitars), Ruud Jolie (guitars), Jeroen van Veen (bass), Martijn Spierenburg (keyboards) and Stephen van Haestregt (drums).

Music
With a delay for about 15 minutes (which we have gotten kind of used to when Within Temptation is about to play) the intro of "Deceiver of Fools" sounded through the speakers. For years, except for the period they were promoting their album "The Silent Force", they use this song as an opener. In my opinion this song is still the most effective opening song, which whips up the audience and it makes people jump. From that moment the attention of the audience was captured. Musically seen the band played well and healthy and Sharon had a pure voice. There were no great faults to find with it, which can be expected from an experienced band on the height of their glory. The overall sound was good except for a short time in the middle of the show, where it seemed that a cable wasn't properly adjusted, so a crackling noise sounded through the speakers. The setlist contained no surprises. It was exactly the same as on M'era Luna. It contained the new song "The Howling", made for the soundtrack from the online game "The Chronicles Of Spellborn". It has the typical Within Temptation sound, with bombastic riffs. Some people thought this song sounded somewhat like "Forsaken".



Performance
This band called this festival, together with M'era Luna in Germany, their favourite festival to play on because of the relaxed atmosphere. Again the band members showed themselves as enthusiastic performers who are able to make the audience wave their hands and move their feet. The stage contained a catwalk this time. Sharon used it very often. Surrounded by the audience it gave the show a more intimate character. Also her band mates Ruud and Robert came forward regularly. Their faces were showing that they were having a good time. Ruud had a beautiful new guitar with a "Spellborn" print on it. A large videoscreen was placed in the back of the tent for the audience in the back who had no direct vision on the stage. The funny thing was that the band members could see themselves on that screen as well, which sometimes led to hilarious situations. What happened on the back of the stage seemed to have become less important because of that catwalk. The band members in the back seemed to stand very far away and the video-projections now only made little contribution to the whole show. It was striking that a lot of people threw presents on the stage. Cuddly toys, books and cards were received by Sharon in gratitude. Because of the 15th anniversary of Appelpop Within Temptation presented some extra additions in their show, like some more spectacular fireworks and at the end of the show a cannon loaded with paper snippets was fired to let it snow during the last song "Ice Queen". The light effects were atmospherical, but at times there was too much smoke, which made the back of the stage even more invisible and the photographers weren't really pleased about it. But overall this was a memorable show from an energetic band from which the end won't be in sight for a long time hopefully.



Setlist
01. Deceiver Of Fools
02. Stand My Ground
03. Jillian
04. Angels
05. Forsaken
06. Memories
07. The Howling
08. Running Up That Hill
09. The Promise
10. Mother Earth
---
11. See Who I Am
12. Ice Queen

Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 7
Light 7
Total 8 (7.8)






After Forever

This would also be one of the last shows for After Forever to play this year. In October they are scheduled to play some gigs in Mexico and Brazil. In the meantime they are also busy with the recordings of their upcoming album. The band members are: Floor Jansen (vocals), Sander Gommans (guitars, grunts), Bas Maas (guitars, vocals), Luuk van Gerven (bass), André Borgman (drums) and Joost van den Broek (keyboards).

Music
The well-known intro from "Come" sounded through the speakers and it formed the start of another energetic show by After Forever. All band members proved themselves as experienced artists who know what to do. Without any troubles they played their instruments. There were only minor flaws, like Floor's microphone, which didn't seem to be adjusted in right balance with the others. After Forever had a short but powerful setlist containing many songs from their album "Remagine" and a few older songs including the complex song "My Pledge Of Allegiance #1" which couldn't be missed and it sounded perfect. They only had 40 minutes to play, so the show was over before we knew. At the end the audience was screaming for the song "The Final Countdown", but unfortunately the band did not return, due to a tight festival schedule. The sudden, like a rising storm they entered the stage, the sudden they disappeared.



Performance
Before the show even started stand-up comedian Joost entered the stage on his keyboard-platform on wheels and waved at the audience with a grin on his face. That guy is always in his element on stage, like a fish in the water. In many bands only the singer attracts most attention and the musicians in the back only make a modest appearance, but in After Forever all band members attract almost as much attention as Floor. Andre showed himself as an enthuastic drummer. In his wildness he nearly smashed off one part of his drumkit. Floor regularly used the catwalk, but not so often as Sharon did, for now there was a little barrier between the stage and the catwalk. She had to to be careful not to hit the monitor speakers and the ventilator. As usual there was a lot of interaction between the band members and with the audience. The lights were atmospherical, but it was quite dark and at times it was too smoky. But those were minor flaws, which seem to appear at Appelpop every year.



Setlist
01. Enter
02. Come
03. Boundaries Are Open
04. Living Shields
05. Pledge Of Allegiance #1
06. Attendance
07. Monolith Of Doubt
08. Being Everyone
09. Forlorn Hope

Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 7
Light 7
Total 8 (7.8)



More photos on page 2

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