Stream of Passion – Borderline 2006

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It’s taken twenty long years, but January 29, 2006 saw the return of Dutch multi-instrumentalist (but primarily guitarist) Arjen Anthony Lucassen to London with his new outfit Stream of Passion. Playing a combination of material from new album Embrace The Storm and classic Ayreon material this was destined to be a night to remember for fans of Lucassen, as the turn-out proved.

For the uninitiated, Arjen rarely tours his music because since leaving Vengeance (the band he was here with last time) he has made mostly epic rock operas and concept albums, involving several different international vocalists playing the roles in the stories and several musicians, which would always prove expensive and logistically impossible to tour. He managed it once, with his Star One project, which was more of a band-oriented affair. However, the tour only took in a few central European countries and didn’t include the UK.

So, with his second band-oriented project Lucassen finally made it back here, and comfortably sold-out London’s prestigious Borderline venue. Hopefully it won’t be long before they come back, as Stream of Passion look set to continue for some time, and they’ll be able to play a bigger venue like the Mean Fiddler, the Underworld, the Garage or the Electric Ballroom.

Neatly utilising the tribal drum intro to album opener Spellbound, the band entered the stage one by one (obviously starting with excellent drummer Davy Mickers). As the final member squeezed onto the tiny Borderline stage (Arjen, as you might have guessed) the band launched full-blooded into the song proper, and from their into Passion, which directly follows on the album as well. After this however, unless you’d cheated and looked at previous nights’ setlists, the track order was far from predictable. I’d made a concerted effort not to spoil the surprise, and this paid dividends, as I shall reveal later.

Much of the rest of the debut album is understandably plundered, including Wherever You Are, Calliopeia, the phenomenal Haunted and a truly beautiful piano and vocal version of Nostalgia (keyboardist Alejandro Millan is surely destined to become a true virtuoso). The rest of the set was mostly Ayreon material, the first time in the eleven years of Ayreon that any of the songs had been played in England (well, apart from the previous night in Rotherham). Before the show the only Ayreon song I felt sure would be included was Computer Eyes, as a new Stream of Passion version of this song was set to appear on the forthcoming Out In The Real World single (also aired tonight). I think anyone with a bit of Ayreon knowledge would have put money on Castle Hall and maybe Valley Of The Queens, both of which were included, but the big surprises came fairly late in the set when, after a snippet of Star One’s Songs of The Ocean was segued to the end of Deceiver, Arjen took the mic to introduce Day 1: Vigil from the latest Ayreon masterpiece The Human Equation.

With Stream of Passion vocalist Marcela Bovio having played one of the parts on The Human Equation, I guess songs from that album were always on the cards, but one never knew. Later Pain (slightly rechristened from Day 3: Pain) made an appearance, also recently rerecorded by Stream of Passion for the new single. But the best was still to come. The final song before the encore was indeed Castle Hall, but joining the band on stage was Damian Wilson, one of the original Star One vocalists who also performed on the tour, and a singer on the Ayreon albums The Dream Sequencer and Into The Electric Castle. The band proceeded to completely eclipse what had already been a superb set.

And it still wasn’t over. The band left the stage for a couple of minutes before returning, with Damian, for one of the most powerful Ayreon songs to date. Originally sung by legendary Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson, and by Damian on the Star One tour, Into The Black Hole was nothing less than astounding. The band ended the encore with their cover of Led Zeppelin‘s When The Levee Breaks (the third and final new recording to appear on the new single) before thanking the audience (Damian, by this point, had jumped off the front of the stage and made a beeline to his friends at the bar) and leaving the stage again, only to return a second time to play the first single from The Human Equation, Day 11: Love.

Arjen has assembled an impressive band for Stream of Passion, showcasing an amazing talent in Marcela Bovio (with her equally talented sister Diana on backing vocals for this tour) and the fluid, effortless playing of lead guitarist Lori Linstruth. The DVD (filmed on the last night of the tour in Belgium) should be excellent. Tonight was a remarkably good show under normal circumstances, but made into perfection by one Mr. Damian Wilson.

“ amazing talent ”

Setlist: Spellbound / Passion / Waracle / Wherever You Are / Computer Eyes / Calliopeia / Valley of The Queens / Haunted / The Charm of The Seer / Deceiver > Songs of The Ocean / Day 1: Vigil / Pain / Nostalgia / Out In The Real World / Castle Hall // Into The Black Hole > Cold Metal / When The Levee Breaks // Day 11: Love

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Gothic, Stream of Passion