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imperia2005peppelzeist_end024.jpgDe Peppel, Zeist, The Netherlands
March 18th 2005
Imperia and Asrai

By the time the doors of the Peppel opened a small crowd had gathered and due to the last winter cold and the promise of a great concert they were all eager to get in. It was not a busy night but the mood was right and the crowd was ready to be entertained.

Asrai

It seemed as though Asrai was quite unknown to the audience. Only the first row was dancing and singing along. But these strong ladies and of course their two guitar players knew how to warm up the audience and when they finished their last song, the entire audience was applauding them.

Music
After a strong start with their first song it seemed as though Asrai still needed a little warming up and not just them, also the sound engineer had to adjust for the sound was not that great. Margriet (vocals) didn’t seem to get every note as usual, but she fought her way through and after this they sounded as they should, strong and convincing.

Performance
Soft whispers calling ‘Asraiiii, Asraiiii’ and a wind like sound announced the performance of the first band of this evening had begun. Margiet, with a huge amount of glitters al over her hair is the strong leading lady of this band, her fire shooting eyes and constrained fingers show us the passion she is feeling while singing her lines. This evening however the guitarists caught my eye as well. Martin (bass) seemed to be making love to his guitar, I can just imagine him caring for his guitar as if he were married to it. Rik (guitar) was completely at one with his guitar, he held it as close to him as possible. Sometimes he was bending over so deep; his guitar almost touched the ground. It is a great sight to see two men so completely devoted to their instrument. But there was more to see on stage, Manon (synths) and Karin (drums) were really enjoying themselves, singing along and dancing along with the music, their interaction was fun to see, it showed the warm connections between these band members. It was a pity the lights were so bad, otherwise these interactions would have stood out a bit more. There were huge amounts of red light and there was hardly any front light so let us all hope this will change in the future.

Rating
Music 7
Performance 7
Sound 6
Light 5
Total  7 (6,5)


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Imperia

Even before the show had started Helena was entertaining people, just by walking through the venue with a radiant smile she was obviously looking forward to the show. The crowd had grown a little by the time Imperia hit the stage and they were very enthusiastic.

Music
‘A siren surrounded by metal heads’ is one of the many ways in which you could describe Imperia. You can say al you want about Helena but one thing is for sure, she has a great voice and she has it completely under control for she is even able to sing the highest notes while head banging. They played a great gig and were even cheered in to doing two encores.

Performance
Helena entered the stage wearing a cowboy hat which she borrowed from Asrai but during the second song she took it off because she wanted to bang her head. She also untied her ponytail, which caused her to look like al lion at first, wild manes surrounding her head, a hairdo which suited her mood for she was wild this evening. In between songs Helena was enjoying a beer and every time she took a sip she shouted ‘Cheers’. A guy in the first row answered this with ‘skol’ (cheers in Norwegian) after which Helena asked us all to join in and shout ‘skol’. She had great contact with the audience and this all added to the intimate atmosphere of this evening. It didn’t matter that the venue wasn’t packed, she was there to entertain and she did! The other band members seemed to enjoy themselves as well, although they hardly had any space to move especially when Helena asked two fans to dance with her on stage. She was a bit too enthusiastic for she asked them on stage about three times and we weren’t there too see the fans, we were there to see Imperia but they did seem to enjoy themselves big time and I don’t think they’ll ever forget this evening. At one point during the show a girl came up to Helena and asked her if she would take her shirt of for a beer. I think this was absolutely outrageous showing no respect what so ever for Helena as a person. If this girl wanted to see naked women she was in the wrong place. The light was bad, adding absolutely no extra value to the show and huge clouds of smoke did nothing but block my view, hiding the entire band which was a pity.

Rating
Music 7
Performance 7
Sound 7
Light 3
Total  6 (6,4)

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