Plackband: De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands, 11 October 2024

Jerry van Kooten

I was excited about this second reunion as I was about the first one in 1999. I learnt about Plackband only after they broke up the first time so never got to see them play live at the time, but had a few tapes that I listened to a lot. When in the late 1990s a reunion was announced, I couldn't be happier. It all ended a couple of years later, and the musicians went on to do projects with a slightly different sound. Good, but my taste was missing that darker and heavier edge. And here we are again! A holiday to the Netherlands happened to coincide with the date of the gig, so that made it extra special.

The night was split into two sets (both the band and the audience have grown a lot older since last time!). I have no idea whether it was a conscious decision, but the first set turned out to be mainly slower-paced songs (although not anything less dark, of course), while the second set had the more up-tempo songs. With slow-paced songs I mean the songs with some slower sections, like the first part of Bloodmaster, most of See The Dwarf, parts of After The Battle, and the foundation of The Hunchback. With the intermission this actually worked pretty well, as it was letting the tension grow slowly and resulting a long release in the second set.

The sound was excellent, which was to be expected from both the venue and the band's long-time sound technician who knows the music very well. The lighting technician has been working with both the band and the venue for a long time, and having access to the full array of what the venue had to offer in this department, this was adding much to the atmosphere the music was setting.

That music was well-known by part of the audience, yours truly included. But played with the added experience over the many years, it did come across as a slightly updated sound. Not the least with new singer Koos Sekreve, taking over from original singer Kees Bik who had to step down for health reasons. Koos did give credit to Kees, and specifically the man's lyrics. Kees is a gifted lyricist and storyteller, of the darker kind, about serial killers, gnomes, vampires, space warriors — and going deeper as well by wandering the protagonists' minds and psyches as well. The stories have always fit the music of Plackband perfectly.

(Photo by Béla Alabástrom)

The second set starts with the band's only instrumental song (save a few intermezzos on the studio CD), Teesing The Boss. (A pun on their former manager Huub Teesing, who didn't like instrumental songs.) Up-tempo right from the start, a great set opener. Koos joins again and the band start playing their new single, the cover of L'enfant de 92ème (originally by Pierre Rapsat). They have really arranged this song to fit Koos' voice, and he seizes the opportunity. An emotional song delivered with passion from all. It's all progged up of course, a full-on symphonic power-ballad, if there ever was one.

Although influenced by the sound of early Genesis, it was not until the 2004 tour with Karel Messemaker that the band played a few Genesis songs (Carpet Crawlers, Red Rain, and Los Endos / Afterglow). This time there were no full covers, but the long instrumental section of The Good Earth had a rendition inserted of the classic guitar solo from Firth Of Fifth. The slip of the finger at the beginning of the solo was very soon forgotten when the rest of the solo, as we all know it, followed as we all know it so well, but still in a slightly different way: the arrangement was heavier, deeper, mainly due to the keyboard layers added by Michel van Wassem. One thing I've always liked in the Plackband sound is how they took that super melodic sound and made it a bit darker and heavier. Here they applied it to this iconic section, making it fall into an ever more comfortable place within my taste. Just wonderful.

(Photo by Jerry van Kooten)

Closing the regular set with Seventy Warriors is no surprise. Announced by Koos as something more uplifting, which can only be taken as sarcasm, of course. It's a powerful song, super-melodic, with some wonderful harmony vocal melodies and alternating lead vocals between Koos and Michel. The guitar solo seems to be different every time, which is something I really like. The song always has some unexpected elements. Ronald's guitar playing style is shown here in it's most shining way.

Michel like to change melody lines even more than Ronald. I've heard solos being different every time, but even well-known melodies in bridges or pre-choruses for example, where 99% of the bands would not deviate from the recorded parts, are not safe from variations on the keyboards. It's another important factor why I like this band so much.

No need to pretend to leave the stage and demand people to shout for an encore, and just play the last song straight away — I like that. Ghost Town. I've always found this track a little underrated, it does not appear to have been on the setlist many times through the years, and I liked it was being included on the studio CD. A good song for an encore, or at least close a gig after the power that is Seventy Warriors.

Most of the time this concert gave me the same feelings as the previous Plackband gigs I attended. The guys have rehearsed this through and through, obviously, and managed to recreate the original sound and feel, while staying relevant. Still a great fix for those in need of some super-melodic symphonic prog.

(Photo by Béla Alabástrom)

The change in sound is in the vocal department of course, simply because no one sounds like Kees Bik. During the Karel Messemaker line-up, I really missed Kees' voice, as Karel's voice was thinner, which did not bring out the heavy darkness in the sound and lyrics. Koos is a rock singer. (I've heard Koos sing with Plackband before but that was a while ago.) With Bloodmaster as the opening track, with its verses when the instruments play rather quietly and the story of the bloodmaster begins begging for the deep hollering of its lyricist, that feeling came again for a while. Later on, Koos showed how impressively easily he could reach both high and low, and powerful at that, in sections where he was adding his own interpretation. Might I request (well, I actually did request it when I talked to him after the show) to let him do his own vocal melodies in more places? Kees and Koos are both strong vocalists but just different, in the sense that they sound better in slightly different ways. I would love for Koos to find his own way in more songs. It will make things even better.

(Photo by Béla Alabástrom)

I met several people who were new to Plackband and were surprised there was no music or merchandise for sale. I know Dutch Music Works have bought the original stock from Xymphonia Records (who released The Last Battle CD, the Remember Forever single, and the Visions DVD). DMW runs the Xymphonia Records Bandcamp Page that has these three titles in digital form, and they even have some physical copies left at the official DMW store.

(Photo by Béla Alabástrom)

The live album The Lost Tapes was released by the band themselves and there is currently no way of buying copies (I assume they are sold out). While a reprint could be an easy option, I sincerely hope the band will consider releasing the full recording of that gig. It's the tape that got me into the band in the first place somewhere in the 1980s (several years after their first split) and it would be so wonderful to listen to it in full and in proper quality, from the master tapes! The archives of the Dutch broadcasting companies also have a complete show from Baarn 1981 that never got broacast but is there, digitised and ready to be used.

(Photo by Jerry van Kooten)

Links