LIVE REPORT: Damian Wilson, Altamullan Road, & Delain
Bibelot, Dordrecht; May 11th, 2024 (& Zwolle, May 12th)
Overseas Excursions
So, you’ve surely by now read at least one or two or maybe even three or four live reports on this site about Altamullan Road. One might even think that I’ve seen them enough, but when a show is this good, you keep your eyes peeled for new and fun opportunities. Well, it was indeed new and fun to hear that Dutch Delain would be performing a show at Bibelot in Dordrecht on May 11th, 2024, alongside none other than Altamullan Road and Damian Wilson, the latter of whom I’ve become a fan thanks to his performances with Ayreon and Arjen Lucassen’s other projects. So, since my friend Kathy was able to come over from the US for the show, I decided to join her because this promised to be a night (or two, since Altamullan Road and Damian Wilson were also playing in Zwolle on the 12th) of pure ear candy for me!
One of the first things I always pay attention to when traveling for shows is the differences in venues across countries. This Bibelot show really made me lament the current state of Finnish venues, as most of them have terrible acoustic structure or unskilled sound engineers, or a variety of other problems that are generally caused by venues existing in places that weren’t originally meant for music. Bibelot was attached to a bar that also sold toasties [toasted bread with toppings] and other snacks, and a locker space, which was very convenient—in Finland we just have narikka, which is coat check and that’s much less convenient, if you ask me. Our hall was on what I think was about the third floor of the venue, which meant that we had some stairs to hike before we reached a room that reminded me a bit of the 013 Poppodium in Tilberg, but on a smaller scale, as 013 hosts about 3000 people and Bibelot has a capacity of 800. It was like a nice throwback to Nosturi in Finland, only much better quality. I further was pleased to never find myself too warm once we got inside (the hallways outside the venue room were pretty toasty, so we were concerned, as the show had almost sold out). I was also interested that the bar seemed to use a “good behavior” system—we were given pink tokens when we arrived and they allowed us to get a beverage without additional costs. It seemed that the token was for a free plastic cup, which otherwise cost a euro or so, and by returning the cup, you would get another drink without the fee, or a new token. This was an interesting system and seemed to work pretty well to help keep the floors clean, though there were still a few crushed cups afterwards… certainly not as many as you’d find in Finland though, so it was definitely interesting.
Our first stop on arrival was to quickly say hello to Robin La Joy (Eye of Melian), who was behind the merch table, working her socks off, before we found a nice spot up close to get ready for the shows. It also seems that Damian Wilson’s reputation from Ayreon shows of being the nicest guy of all time still holds true, as he was everywhere, all night long. We caught him the first time in the queue as we were waiting to get inside, and then again once we were inside, as he was going through the crowd asking people if they were willing to help him sing along to a song. He asked that, whenever he would sing, “homegrown,” that as many of us join in as possible. I did have to ask if it was a weed song, since the line was, “do you ever smoke homegrown,” and he said yes but, it’s actually a song about hypocrisy. We then caught him again after the show near the merch tables, where he continued to delight us with his wonderful presence and personality. If you ever get the chance to meet and talk to Damian Wilson, you absolutely should! He’s just the best.
Speaking of, he put on a truly wonderful performance. If you follow along with me, you know that I am not the most enthusiastic about metal shows these days, which means that Damian Wilson’s acoustic solo performance delighted the ever-loving heck out of me! He just came out with a guitar and started by singing a wonderful song that was unsurprisingly called “Homegrown,” which elicited quite a lot of enthusiasm and singing along from the crowd—it seemed his efforts to get the crowd engaged were successful!
A lot of his set was spent telling us amusing stories, like one about an Easter egg hunt indoors during a vacation to the Netherlands in his use, his love of Cadbury Creme Eggs, and the eventual discovery of the white chocolate creme eggs, which he then started to throw into the crowd. He also told stories of being a simple man, who has everything he needs in a bag and lives in a van, but before that, he lived in a boat (until it sank). While I didn’t know the names of any of the songs he sang besides “Homegrown,” I can say that he’s a joy to watch perform, as his voice is so rich and full of emotion. I particularly liked the part of the show where he admitted that he doesn’t understand why we can’t all be nice to one another… me too, Damian, me too.
Another highlight of his set was in the middle when he put aside the guitar and belted out a song with absolutely no accompaniment whatsoever. It really goes to show what a truly amazing and powerful voice he has! The worst part of the show, however, was a British fellow in the crowd who seemed to feel entitled to talk loudly throughout the set and demand an egg from Damian towards the end of the set, when he asked if there was anything else he could do for the crowd. We all surely would have preferred if he had shown literally any other person there even an ounce of respect. What we could also all use is just a lot more of Damian’s magical voice and beautiful positivity and kindness in our lives. His show alone was worth the trip!
Samsung Galaxy S20
Next up was Altamullan Road and this was definitely going to be an interesting show because, of course, we’ve seen them playing in Kitee, Hyvinkää, Helsinki, and Porvoo between Kathy and I, but those were Finnish music hall shows, which is a very different vibe and atmosphere from club venues overseas. I’m sure it was also going to be really exciting for the artists as well, as these were their first club venue shows and they were also overseas, so everyone was pretty excited and curious about what to expect.
These events were bound to be much shorter shows and I was wondering if most of the covers were going to be cut for time, since their slot was about half as long as the shows in Finland. They started out with six or so of their own songs—“Candle in the Dark,” “Song of the Lark,” “Art of Losing,” “When it’s Time,” “Underwater,” and “The Merry Scallywag”—before performing the Avicii cover of “Hey Brother.” While I’m not familiar with the Swedish act personally, it did seem that the song was quite well-known, as people were cheering and singing along, though the response to the band’s own material was equally enthusiastic. They naturally included “They Should’ve Sent a Poet” at the end up wrapped up their set with “Moth to a Flame,” which was a surprise cover of the Delain hit that even Martijn Westerholt didn’t know they were going to play. It was such a lovely way to thank them for having them over to do the show with them and the cover was truly great—a different take but equally wonderful, and I’ll never complain about hearing that song twice in a night, as it’s right about as catchy as can be.
What was perhaps the most memorable about the set, besides the wonderful voices, the brilliant musicianship, and all of that magic that we remember from the earlier shows, was the atmosphere on stage. Of course in Finland they looked full of joy, but perhaps they were pleasantly surprised by the big, excited crowd, because the happy faces on all of them (Mikko Iivanainen and Timo Kurkela as well) were so heartwarming to watch. I don’t think I need to hope that they had as wonderful of a time as we did, as I’m quite sure they did… and I’m so glad!
Images by Melanie Wachtfeitl (IG @melln1290)
Last but certainly not least was Delain, whom I’ve seen at least twice at Tuska Festival in Finland but for whatever reason, I’ve never been able to catch their club shows (which is a shame, because I really enjoyed their latest album). I also have no interest in discriminating based off of band member changes. While I enjoyed the old lineup, after seeing them at Tuska last year, I thought the new lineup was just as bangin’ and this show did nothing to dissuade me from that feeling, though the atmosphere wasn’t as powerful as it had been at the big festival (which is, of course, obvious).
Firstly, the setlist was great and it was a long, long set. I got to hear pretty much all of my personal favorite Delain songs, like “Suckerpunch,” “The Quest and the Curse,” “April Rain,” “Get the Devil Out of Me,” “The Gathering,” “Moth to a Flame,” “Control the Storm,” and of course, “We Are the Others” (yes, I mostly know their hits, but they’re good hits). I was also curious to see if they’d have any guest singers, which seems to be a regular thing for them and I was pleased that their guest vocalist from Tuska was still kicking around: Paolo Ribaldini. It’s been driving me nuts wondering where I know him from these days. I thought for a while that he was the new singer of Thy Row, but that wasn’t right; it turns out he’s actually the new singer of Leverage (who’ve undergone quite a few lineup changes in recent years)… this also explained why there was a random Finnish band’s cards with a signature available at the show’s merch stand. He’s a phenomenal vocalist and performed four songs with them: “Queen of Shadow,” “Your Body Is a Battleground,” “The Gathering,” and “Control the Storm.” There was also one other special guest during “Start Swimming”: Ivar de Graaf (Kingfisher Sky, ex-Within Temptation), which was a rather special inclusion, as I would have to assume that his time in Within Temptation crosses over with that of Martijn Westerholt.
The performance itself was also really delightful. At this point in the night, I had to go sit down for a while because, well, if you follow me you know that I have issues with my bones slipping around in my body and severe chronic pain because of it, and since my crew had shown up early, I was already standing for an hour before the shows started. So I moved upstairs (which, again—shout-out to the venue—was layered so that everyone upstairs had a chance to see the stage at least a bit) where I could rest my screaming legs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the stage as well as I did on the floor, but I could see Martijn having a blast behind the keyboards and Ronald Landa (guitars) was full of energy. I also caught a few glimpses of Ludo Cioffi (bass) throwing his gloriously long curly hair around and of vocalist Dianna Leah being as fabulous as ever. And, the general fan-favorite part of the show was when Ronald went over to Martijn and planted a little kiss on his forehead. By the time the show hit “We Are the Others,” a couple of my friends admitted to crying, just because we were generally so surrounded by lovely friends and good vibes that the song was speaking volumes.
On the whole, this was an absolutely brilliant night of wonderful music, incredible atmosphere, topped off with smiles and friendships, both new and old. Was it worth it to travel all the way to the Netherlands to see this show? Yes, yes it most certainly was!
Setlist
The Cold
Suckerpunch
Burning Bridges
The Quest and the Curse
April Rain
Get the Devil Out of Me
Army of Dolls
Invidia
Queen of Shadow (ft. Paolo Ribaldini)
Your Body Is a Battleground (ft. Paolo Ribaldini)
The Gathering (ft. Paolo Ribaldini)
Don’t Let Go
[interlude]
Moth to a Flame
Not Enough
Here Come the Vultures
Start Swimming (ft. Ivar de Graaf)
Control the Storm (ft. Paolo Ribaldini)
We Are the Others
Images by Kathy Criswell (IG @stardatextoday)
If you’re still reading this far, I suppose I’ll throw in a few teasers from the second night at Hedon in Zwolle. I was helping out with merch that night and met an absolute storm of amazingly lovely people. The 12th only had Damian Wilson and Altamullan Road from the previous night, but they were once again amazing sets, and both acts got to play a little bit longer because Altamullan Road was headlining.
Like the night before, this was a really cool and cute little venue, which has a capacity of around 120 or so, if I recall correctly. Damian was, of course, out chatting with everyone before and after the show and he put on a similar set with similar tales from the night before, including the story of the Cadbury Creme Eggs and how they were ruined when the company was bought by Kraft, but how the white chocolate edition makes up for it (which, it seems, he can’t actually eat anymore because he’s vegan). The crowd absolutely ate him up.
Then, of course, Altamullan Road was headlining this night, so alongside the set from the previous night, we got to hear a few more covers, like “Fields of Gold” and “Mama Werewolf,” as well as an encore that included “Society” and “What Was I Made For.” Once again, it’s hard not to have a heart overflowing with joy to see all of the love on stage when this group performs, for one another and the crowd. If you know anything about Finland, you know how rare smiles are, so to see all of the biggest smiles on their faces on stage made us all so happy. We’re extremely glad if the band had even close to as wonderful of a time as we did!
So, obviously, if you get an opportunity to ever see any of these acts, don’t hesitate, because they’ll definitely leave you feeling warm and fuzzy for days afterwards, and if that isn’t something that all of our souls need, I don’t know what is! And a big shout-out to everyone that I met while I was there—you guys are the (best) others!
Image by Denise Hods (IG @denisehofs)
Setlist
Candle in the Dark
Hearts of Old
Art of Losing
When It’s Time
Interstellar Friends
Underwater
Fields of Gold (Sting cover)
Song of the Lark
Mama Werewolf (Brandi Carlile cover)
Hey Brother (Avicii cover)
The Merry Scallywag
They Should’ve Sent a Poet
Moth to a Flame (Delain cover)
Encore:
Society (Eddie Vedder cover)
What Was I Made For? (Billie Eilish cover)
Image by Denise Hods (IG @denisehofs)
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