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Bibelot, Dordreht, The Netherlands
26th January 2007
Stream of Passion, Morning

Tonight it would be the last show for the time being for Arjen Lucassen's band Stream Of Passion to play in The Netherlands. With only a few shows left to play in the UK they now stood in the sold out venue Bibelot, a former church in Dordrecht. At that time they were still unaware of the nightmare that was about to happen in Calais where they had to take the ferry to England. The band never made it to the UK. The Mexican bandmembers were detained by officers of the British Immigration Service, who were convinced they would take illegal residence in the UK. But okay, back to the Bibelot... It took quite a long time before we could enter the venue. That wasn't really amusing, because it was cold outside, and so were the security members. It took some effort to enter the building for the venue's paperwork was messed up. Parts of the guestlists were lost and I almost couldn't bring my camera with me.


Morning

The gothic metal band Morning was proud to be the opening act for Stream Of Passion. This band has its residence in Sittard, in the south of The Netherlands. In the summer 2000 the singer Saskia van Heugten and the drummer Mauro Pi founded the band Morning. Pol Bannier (bass-player) and Stijn Bannier (synths) joined the band and for a while they worked with a guitarist and in 2001 and 2002 they released two demos. Shortly after that Martijn Brauwers (guitars) and Bas Rensen (guitars) reinforced the band. The 2003 demo "Inside" was received well by the press and their first official album "Hour Of Joy" found its way to the stores in September 2005.

Music
This band was given about half an hour to play, which was enough in my opinion. Their music is entertaining for a while, but it lacks the necessary variation and it misses renewing elements. After a short intro the band started up with the titletrack of their album, "Hour Of Joy". Saskia had a powerful, but not a very unique voice. In the song "Captured By The Colour Of Faith" she showed her qualities as a grunter, which she did pretty well. Besides songs from "Hour Of Joy" it was time to present the audience with a few new songs.



Performance
The venue was already filled up when Morning started to play. There were actually people in the audience who came to see this band, for they were very well able to sing along with their songs. Saskia and her bandmates were honoured to be Stream Of Passion's guests for tonight and that showed. Particularly Saskia and Martijn showed themselves as enthusiastic performers, the others were somewhat reserved. Inbetween the songs Saskia was chatting with the audience and couldn't hide her excitement. The lightshow wasn't really exuberant and sometimes strange shadows were cast on Saskia's face.



Setlist
01. Intro
02. Hour Of Joy
03. Killing Truth
04. Death Of Hearts
05. This Unreachable Mess
06. Fading vs. Waking
07. Captured By The Colour Of Faith
08. Inside

Rating
Music 6
Performance 7
Sound 5
Light 5
Total 6





Stream of Passion

The history of Stream Of Passion goes back to 2005. The ever busy Arjen Lucassen, famous for his projects Ayreon and Star One was impressed by the qualities of the Mexican female singer Marcela Bovio who took part at his latest Ayreon project "The Human Equation".  Also the press was full of praise and he felt he had to form a new band in which her qualities (singing, composing and writing) could show to full advantage. Through contests on his website and contacts with the Dutch Rock Academy in Tilburg, other talented musicians joined and the new international band "Stream Of Passion" was born. The bandmembers are: Marcela Bovio (vocals, violin), Lori Linstruth (lead guitar), Johan van Stratum (bass guitar), Alejandro Millan (keys), Davy Mickers (drums) and Arjen Lucassen (rhythm guitars, vocals)

Music
Flashes of blue lights rang in the intro of the first song Spellbound. It literally kept the audience spellbound, building up subcutaneous tension. The audience was presented with a mix of Stream Of Passion songs as well as Ayreon and Star One material. This time there weren't any guest musicians on stage, but that wasn't disturbing, for these talented bandmembers were very well capable of doing this show by themselves. The opinions about Marcela's voice differ a lot from person to person, but it couldn't be denied that she was in good shape tonight. So was her sister Diana who joined her during songs like the re-arranged "Valley Of The Queens". With the absence of guest musicians, Alejandro, emerging from behind his keyboards, took over a few vocal parts which he did pretty well. In the middle of the setlist it was time to cool down on the fragile "Open Your Eyes", with Marcela, only supported by Alejandro on keyboards. Unfortunately the sound was not so great. Overall it was too loud and in the beginning there were some problems with the keys which couldn't be heard properly and the bass was adjusted too loud. At times a crackling noise sounded through the speakers. I heard from some people that the sound quality was not equal through the whole venue, but strongly depended on the position where one stood.



Performance
This band really knows how to entertain the audience. In many bands only the frontman or -woman steal the show, but in Stream Of Passion each bandmember provides a nice contribution to a great performance. Their energy and enthusiasm affected the audience and each other. Unfortunately Bibelot has a very low stage, so only the first rows were able to see the band. That's a shame, for it was really worthwile to hear ánd to see this band. Marcela put down a credible performance. She expressed herself in a way one believed what she was singing. In the fragile parts the emotions were written on her face and during the harder parts she couldn't stop moving and headbanging. It was fun to see the duelling guitarists Arjen and Lori. Lori, at times stealing the show with her appearance, was immensely popular with the audience. That showed when the bandmembers were introduced. When her name was mentioned the audience kept shouting out her name. Alejandro was the only one who appeared a little bit shy, hidden behind his keyboards. But the audience loved him and gave him an ovational applause when he was more in the picture when he started singing or when he played a nice solo. The lightshow was abundant and gave the finishing touch to a great performance.



Setlist
01. Spellbound
02. Pride (Ayreon)
03. Passion
04. Wherever you are
05. Computer Eyes (Ayreon)
06. Valley of the Queens (Ayreon)
07. Haunted
08. High Moon (Star One)
09. Deceiver / Songs of the Ocean
10. Vigil (Ayreon)
11. Pain (Ayreon)
12. Quazar (Ayreon)
13. Open Your Eyes
14. Out in the Real World
15. Castle Hall (Ayreon)
---
16. Black Holio (Ayreon)
17. Love (Ayreon)

Rating
Music 9
Performance 10
Light 8
Sound 7
Total 9 (8.8)






More photos on page 2
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