By Michael Brookhuis
On the seventh of August, a diverse line up was present at Cityrock Leeuwarden. I was a little bit too late to see the first band, “Red Vultures”, but did see Stream of Passion start in front of a small crowd. The music sounded well balanced and seemed to improve as time went by. Not only that, the audience grew as well.
The sound was well mixed, yet it may have been a bit too loud. During their set, songs like “In the End”, “Now or Never”, as well as songs from the new album were performed.. They also played the Sonata Arctica cover I have a right, which will be on the upcoming “A tribute to Sonata Arctica” album. A nice note is that Marcella adressed the crowd in Dutch. They decided to end the setlist with an oldie, “Haunted” from their first album.
Next band was the speedy Kamchatka. This band consisted of only a bass player, guitarist and drums. Nothing flashy, just classic rock and roll. Without a pause they fired song after song towards the audience. After a few songs I had to leave to find something to eat. As many others with me, I went outside of the festival. Even though the choice of different foods was pretty good, three coins (7,50) for a small wrap is a bit too high a price.
I came back just in time before the start of Peter Pan Speedrock. Right from the get go they were vibrant and enthusiastic on the stage. Even though they did their best, they did not get a lot of the people in the crowd going. Yet they played some great tunes, including their own adaption of Downtown Funk.
During The Answer it became clear that most of the fans were probably here for Epica. And that might be the biggest downfall of CityRock. The line up is so diverse, that it seems to be hard to keep the crowd interested. Even though The Answer played a very cool and well performed show, the people in the audience were standing still. They might have enjoyed themselves, but the band deserved some more interaction from the crowd. This was the closing show of a six month tour, so I’m sure they made a huge party afterwards anyway.
Epica was the headliner and that was clearly noticable. Finally the amount of people at the festival peaked and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves during the epic show Epica gave. The instruments blended well together even though it might have been a bit loud. Not only that, but the lightshow and pyros were very cool. It does not matter how big or small the festival is where Epica has to perform, they always give their best and one hell of a show. It seemed as if the people in the crowd would have loved for Epica to continue playing for a while, but sadly everything has to come to an end. For me it was time to reload my energy for the next day as well. Make sure to read the Into the Grave festival review!