Before the show has even started, more than eight people are already on stage, on three different floors of high scaffolding with enormous video screens on which moving machine parts pump and creak. Immediately people are singing in all corners of the stage, usually loud, high and dramatic, and if there are no lasers shooting through the room, fireballs will fly into the air. Welcome to circus Ayreon.
The prog rock project of mastermind Arjen Anthony Lucassen turns the Tilburg hall 013 upside down with five sold-out shows in one weekend. Every few years Lucassen releases a concept album of retro-futuristic symphonic rock, with musicians and vocalists from all over the rock and metal world. But performing them live doesn’t happen often. The last time was in 2019, when he Into The Electric Castle brought to 013. This time Ayreon plays the album 01011001 (2008) in its entirety, with nineteen singers and five musicians. “When I wrote this album I could make it as layered and complicated as I wanted, but it would never have to be performed live,” Lucassen laughed at the end of the concert.
Still succeeded. It was a grand, dazzling and loving production during the first evening in the main hall of 013. What was particularly striking was how well Lucassen knows how to link different rock voices together. There were wonderful duets between Hansi Kürsch (of Blind Guardian) and Damian Wilson (of Arena), and Mike Mills of Toehider with Pain Of Salvation’s Daniel Gildenlöw. The moment alone when Anneke van Giersbergen (ex-The Gathering, Vuur) and Brittney Hayes (Unleash the Archers) sang their precious metal lungs out together was worth it.
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Water clear voice
Brittney Hayes certainly stood out with her room-filling power voice and operatic vocals that – you just have to dare – were sung on the album by Floor Jansen. Even weeping willow Jonas Renkse, who was not in great shape with Katatonia at Baroeg Open Air last week, seemed cheerful here behind the curtain of his black-dyed hair.
Simone Simons from Epica only got a small role on the album and therefore only a small role in the show. A shame of course – she has now grown into one of the biggest stars in the genre – but she settled for it in the glowing ‘Web of Lies’. And luckily she was able to let her water-clear voice shine in the newer ‘This Human Equation’ during the encore.
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The story behind 01011001 didn’t matter much. Something about aliens and an addiction to technology. That wasn’t obvious, and it didn’t need to be. You can even say that the best thing about the evening is that you forgot that 01011001 is not one of Ayreon’s best albums, especially compared to the masterpieces that came before it. The material was driven by the enthusiasm and enjoyment of the band and cast, further lifted by an idolatrous audience from more than sixty countries. It is inevitable that we went home on Friday evening with more love for that album.