A Winter Evening with Stream of Passion
A Winter Evening with Stream of Passion III
@ Tivoli de Helling Utrecht (Netherlands)
Friday 27 December 2013
For the third time Stream of Passion pleases their fans around Christmas with a special Winter Evening event. It’s an extended gig without support but with a number well-known guests/friends. The set consists of songs that were played at standards gigs, some in a different version, some with a different setting and some covers. The rainy Friday between Christmas and New Year didn’t keep the people away and those that were present enjoyed a well spent evening.
Exactly on time (8:30 PM) the show started with an intriguing intro to move into the dynamic “A Scarlet Mark” from Darker Days (marked as 3 later). With “Passion” the relaxed audience became a little more active. This song from their first album Embrace the Storm (1) is played with passion. Marcela Bovio (vocals, violin) is in perfect shape and sounds great. Johan van Stratum (bass) is known as “the flying Dutchman” because of his dynamic moves and jumps on stage, but he gets challenged this time by Stephan Schultz (guitar) who starts jumping as well. On the other side of the stage, Eric Hazebroek (guitar) is a little more static but he compensates with heavy head banging. The visual aspect is taken care of very well by the front row. The show continued with the bombastic “Collide” (3) and “The Mirror” (3). The dynamics slow down a very little bit with the intro from the still very popular Radiohead cover “Street Spirit” and “The Endless Night” from The Flame Within (2).
Now it was time for the second part, a more acoustic set. On Facebook was a discussion whether there would be a classical piece in the show. And my suggestion in the discussion became reality: a duet of Marcela and the first guest Dianne van Giersbergen (vocals) [Ex Libris, Xandria]; they performed “Sull’aria” from Mozart, with the Dianne’s regular classic pianist Erik Onnink. Their two voices match very well in this genre. When Dianne and Eric had left the stage, Jeffrey Revet (keyboard) took his place again to support Marcela in the delicate “Open Your Eyes” (1) with very modest piano. Then came a song that is known already by the people that were present at the acoustic set earlier this year. The Mexican traditional "Llorona" got an additional flavor with guest Maaike Peterse (cello) [Kingfisher Sky]. It was for some not a surprise see Stephan playing mandolin. This mandolin also played in the acoustic version of “Broken” (3). In this song Johan was very motionless playing the bass at the very side of the stage. After thanking again for the support of their crowd funding campaign it was time for a new song. Earlier (acoustic set) it had no tittle but now it looks like it will be called “Don’t Let Go”. This song was supported by Ben Mathot (violin) [Ayreon]. With “My Leader” (2) the acoustic set came to an end.
Then it was time for some heavy stuff. This opened with “Lost”(3) and the “new” songs “The Curse” and “Earthquake”. After another new song “Secrets” another guest was introduced. This time it was Valerio Recenti (vocals) of My Propane, also known for being support of Revamp. The low raw voice of Valerio give a nice sounding contrast in “This Moment” (3). Now some fun! In mutual agreement (Valerio, Marcela) it was decided to do Skunk Anansie’s “Charlie Big Potato”. With Ben on stage as well it became a real party. The crowd loved it! And it stayed a party because all the other songs had one or more guest players. Now it was Dianne that gave “The Art of Loss” (2) a real operatic flavor. What a great voice. This was followed by a musical ‘fight’ from Ben’s violin with Stephan’s guitar in “In the End” (2). Then the last guest appeared: Amanda Somerville (vocals) [Trillium]. Now the small stage got really overcrowded with Amanda, Ben and Maaike. With a really happy looking Amanda in “Out in the Real World”, the party ended.
Not really, a show like that always has an encore. In this case only Stream of Passion was on stage with one of my favourites “Haunted”. And you might have missed one name. Martijn Peters (drums) was present for sure. And with this last song he could prove once again his talents.
With a gig like this Stream of Passion shows that they deserve a bigger stage. However the numbers (audience in NL) makes it hard to achieve. Luckily they have a solid base of true fans that support them immensely. And SoP appreciates that sincerely. That was shown at the after party. All band members (and guests) stayed quite a long time to talk and get in photos with the fans. A perfect ambience for the last real show of the year.
