DPRP : CONCERT REVIEW ARCHIVE

DPRP meets Quidam
A thrilling story in three chapters
By Ed Sander

Quidam - September 19th 1997
at the Para, Breda, The Netherlands.
by Jerry van Kooten

Para is a venue way too small in Breda, a town way too weird. I couldn't believe it when Martijn said he was willing to pick up my Polish guest (Magda) early to do a bit of sightseeing there. After leaving the car in a seemingly safe parking lot, it was only a matter of time for Martijn and Magda to enjoy the marvellous presence of yours truly and new guest, Kilian.

During the sound check, the venue gave us something to remember them by - the loss of ear drums. Fuck, that was loud! Way too loud, man.

Rocket Scientists from the USA were opening. They were more than just nice, as long as they played instrumental music. Half of the set list therefore, was merely nice. The instrumental parts weighed in heavily and increased the average.

We were awaiting the beautiful sounds of Quidam of course, and the venue's PA was to be expected to be fully capable of drowning every potential in relaxation and atmosphere. A couple of songs into the set list things changed for the better, fortunately. I won't bore you by giving you a set list of song titles you cannot pronounce, but I will mention the two new songs Quidam played.

Third track on the set list was Wesola (meaning Happy). The bands thinks this title reflects the song's atmosphere. There are some wonderful sounds in there, especially the guitar lines. Tears was the other new song. Tears is the debut in Emila's writing lyrics, by the way. This is not the official title, though.

Songs like these make me very anxious to hear more new stuff! But probably not as anxious as you could be, since Martijn and I are to be envied in our luxury of knowing no less than six new songs already. Rub rub rub...

Quidam - September 20th 1997
at De Pul, Uden, The Netherlands.
by Jerry van Kooten

Next day - Uden! Jeroen, another DPRP team member, came along with us. Er, we came along with him - we let him drive. Some blondie working for De Pul (that's the name of the venue) would not let us in to see the band. Some people have all the luck that in a situation like this, I am not carrying my baseball bat, to be buried in currently still undecided hard and soft and dry and wet parts of her physique. Lucky bitch. [Calm down Jerry ! Ed.]

Later on, when we ordered her to bring us some more tea, the astonishment (or was it shame?) on her face was enough to make us feel good. Ha, a woman confused! A work of art.

Ed, the fourth DPRP team member to join the group, has a kid, who was able to entertain most of the suckers following me to his place. I guess you guys were up for some deep conversation, right? Ewa was shown the beginnings of what will eventually become the official (?) Quidam web site.

Here, Martijn also got photgraphic proof of what will be known as the Lush Attic Incident... Strictly confidential!

Aha, sounds a lot better! Our hero tonight (besides myself, of course) is the Pul's sound engineer. Great job!

Martijn was very nervous when he offered Ewa a birthday cake just after midnight. Ewa was even more nervous, since she didn't know what was going to happen. She didn't expect the whole audience to sing Happy Birthday as well...

Afterwards, the dressing room didn't offer a lot of refreshment, although I am not talking about drinks. It must have been the music that got some of us a bit hot...

Another great weekend with great music. Hope to see Quidam again in November, when they are scheduled to play with countrymen Collage!

Quidam - September 20th 1997
at De Pul, Uden, The Netherlands.
by Ed Sander

It was one of those infamous DPRP meetings when I heard Quidam's music for the first time. Martijn played us a piece of a live tape on a deserted parking lot from the tape player in his car - the one which would be involved in a car crash a couple of days later.
At the time I like the music but was a bit put off by the Polish lyrics. I'm someone who is very interested in lyrics and likes to sing along a lot. Quite difficult if you haven't got a clue what it's all about ...

I wasn't able to go to the 1997 Planet Pul festival when Quidam played but the rest of the DPRP team kept raving about the band. At first I didn't want to give in but when Martijn started threatening me I thought it might be safer to give it a try.

It was around 8 o' clock on the 20th of September when shadows past the window of my living room and the sound of the door bell rang through the hall. When I opened the door I was greeted by Jerry, Martijn and a friend, Jeroen and a very charming lady called Ewa. Ewa turned out to be the flute player of Quidam.
As agreed Martijn would use my PC to show Ewa the work in progress on a Quidam page. We all went upstairs, followed by my three and a half year old son Nick who desperately tried to convince Martijn that the games on the PC were much more interesting than those Quidam pages.
Ewa seemed to be impressed by Martijn's work and after having a drink while Jeroen and Ewa inspected my CD collection and a very exited Nick tried to get everybody's attention by showing them his collection of Lego, we went back to De Pul.

Ewa who turned out to be a slightly shy but very nice person, arranged free entrance for the group. After sharing some small talk and laughter in the dressing room Jerry and I could no longer suppress our thirst and decided to hit the bar.
It's always great to visit a prog concert because the same old faces and friends keep turning up every time.

The concert was a double gig. The first one and a half hours were filled by Galleon. The music of this band was nice but missed the right triggers to really excite me. I couldn't discover a real original sound in the bands song; it was too much like all the other mediocre prog out there. I nevertheless believe that the band has more potential than they showed that night.

Quidam waited till midnight before they came on stage. I grabbed myself another beer and went to the front of the hall to check them out. It didn't take long before I was completely stunned by their abilities. Man, these Polish folks rock !

I completely forgot about the Polish gibberish of the talented female singer Emilia and was swept away by Zbyszek's keyboards, Maciek's amazing guitar play, bald Radek's powerful bass playing, Rafal's drumming and of course the enchanting presence of Ewa and flute.

After the first song Martijn came on stage to offer Ewa a cake with little candles since the 21st was her birthday. She was clearly moved and had to wipe away some tears.

The band played a couple of new songs which already made me hunger for their second CD (while I hadn't even heard the first one !). They played Camel's Rhayader and a rocking version of Rhayader Goes to Town. They also incorporated Pink Floyd's Goodbye Cruel World and the solo of Genesis' Firth of Fifth in other songs. The encore was a lovely prog version of Deep Purple's Child in Time.

It was already well past 1.30 AM when the gig ended. Even though I live 3 minutes walking from De Pul I did not join the others backstage. I was completely exhausted and Nick probably wouldn't accept any excuses when he would pull me out of bed the next morning.

I had a great time and would like to advise everyone to check out this band. They are top musicians, each and every one of them. Martijn, you were right .... how could I ever have contradicted you ..... ;-).