Saturday the 18th of March 2023
Brabanthallen Main Stage, ‘s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.
Only one day after the release of their latest album “The Awakening,” symphonic power metallers Kamelot bring their Awaken the World Tour to The Netherlands. This time they set foot on new grounds, as they have never played in ‘s Hertogenbosch and Mainstage Brabanthallen houses quite a few fans. Sadly, this meant that the venue was not completely sold out, but still there were a lot of people here to see this line up.
To be fair, I haven’t witnessed a tour that often where the main act brought along three supporting acts, but here we are. Starting off today, we got to see League of Distortion, followed by Eleine, Myrath and the evening was ended by Kamelot, obviously.
League of Distortion kicked off right at the scheduled time of 6PM. The band originating from Germany is fairly new and really thankful of Kamelot for bringing them on tour, as lead singer Anna Brunner told the crowd. She said that she met the band about a year ago and things went pretty fast from there.
Even though Brunner had some issues during the beginning of the show, as her in-ear was not working properly, she still managed to pull off a good show. The theatrics could be a little less dramatic for me, as I didn’t see the point of her crawling on stage on her hands and knees. It’s always hard to start up the crowd, but League of Distortion tried their best and managed to get some activity.
I am two out of two for the number of Eleine shows in The Netherlands. Last time they played an acoustic set while they were a supporting act for Sonata Acrtica. This time, their set was all but acoustic and to be fair, this style suits Eleine so much better. As lead singer Madeleine Liljestam took a moment to talk to the fans, she mentioned how she tried all day to pronounce the name of the city we were in. At some point she gave up trying, but she did learn “frambozen” (raspberries) and “pindakaas” (peanut butter), during which the people in the crowd cheered her on.
Later on guitarist Rikard Ekberg tried his best to say “dank je wel” (thank you) and “hoe gaat het” (how are you) but strangely enough people hardly reacted to this, which left him a bit disappointed.
We were treated to the new song “We Are Legion,” a little competition on who could cheer the loudest (which seems like a way too common thing nowadays) and they tried to get the audience to sing along with “Death Incarnate,” but it seemed the crowd didn’t really understand what their job was in this.
The Arabic sound of Myrath was up next. A new album is around the corner and the Tunisians took this opportunity to play a few new songs from the upcoming record as an appetizer. For the second time this evening, the audience was divided into groups, to see who makes the most noise.
Songs like “Born to Survive” and the new “Child of Prohpecy” were played, of which the latter is a debut during this tour. Lead singer Zaher Zorgati was very active on stage. At one point he mentioned that during their headlining tour, they would have a belly dancer, but this time we had to make due with just him dancing, which made the crowd laugh. All in all, they gave a very good show and I’m sure they got quite a few extra fans today.
Kamelot loves The Netherlands and The Netherlands love Kamelot. The band decided to record their most recent live album “I am the Empire” at the 013 in Tilburg and now they would make new video footage in ‘s Hertogenbosch.
With their latest record “The Awakening” just released, the setlist contained mostly songs from that one. But older songs like “Karma,” “Forever,” “When the Lights are Down” and “March of Mephisto” were played too. Sadly, no songs from “Epica” or the older “The Fourth Legacy” were played, but the more records you make, the harder it gets to please everyone and make a great selection.
A great selection of songs it was, nonetheless. Lead singer Anna Brunner from League of Distortion joined on stage for “Sacrimony.” Other cleans and growls came from Melissa Bonny from Ad Infinitum. During a few songs, lead singer Tommy Karevik acted like he was directing her notes, like a composer and this type of performance really fits the Kamelot show.
While I was taking pictures, bassist Sean Tibbetts tried to stick a guitar pick to the bald head of the photographer next to me, which I gave to one of the fans front stage. Kamelot was very active on stage and the show was filled with lots of pyro and sparks.
Not only that, but the band tried to fill the show with cool little gimmicks. Of course we got treated to the standard solo bits by drummer Alex Landenburg and keyboardist Oliver Palotai. But next to that, we got a small surprise keyboard solo from Karevik.
During this tour, while “One More Flag in the Ground” is played, Karevik waves the flag of the country they are in. Here in The Netherlands, the fanclub always provides a Dutch flag with Kamelot Netherlands printed on it. I can’t wait to see that in a video somewhere.
As always during Kamelot shows in The Netherlands, the fans respond extra intensely while “Forever” is played. For over ten years, the same ritual has taken place where everybody just keeps on singing even while the band has stopped.
Moments like this make it even more special for the band and I think it’s also one of the reasons The Netherlands has a place in the hearts of every band member.
Kamelot maart 2023
