Riverside – LIVE: Scala 2011

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Poland’s most successful progressive metal band Riverside elected to celebrate ten years as a band with selected European headlining tour dates and a new EP to be made available at the shows.

For all the shows on the tour Riverside wanted to give bands who don’t get to play certain countries a chance to perform. The UK got two dates on the tour, in London and Holmfirth, and support for those, and the other 10 shows outside of Poland came from fellow Polish outfit Tides From Nebula. At the six shows in Poland English progressive band Pineapple Thief were handed the special guest slot, along with Paatos from Sweden as openers.

Tides From Nebula play a kind of progressive, instrumental post-metal which almost defied a fundamental lack of variation with sheer enthusiasm. The band were visibly thrilled and thankful for the chance to play in London, but the passion with which they delivered their tracks couldn’t quite masque the fact that the music isn’t very interesting. A handful of members of the audience seemed to enjoy what they were doing, and being a prog crowd everything got a warm reception, but musically they belong alongside other similarly drone-derived acts rather than a dynamic progressive band like Riverside. The Pineapple Thief would have won many more supporters.

Riverside by contrast were unanimously well-received from note one. With a crystal clear sound they played a set which drew from all four of their studio albums, plus two tracks from the new EP, including a lot of fan-favourites, and seemed to genuinely feel equal parts enjoyment and honour playing a historically significant show in London. The deft musicianship displayed by all four members of the band, with some truly incredible harmony lines at times, clearly mesmerised the audience from start to finish for which, in true prog-crowd style, the night’s only really big cheer had been saved.

Part of the brilliance of Riverside is their ability to fit such breathtaking playing into songs which rarely break single-figure numbers of minutes in length. A Riverside show is never going to include a 20-minute epic of which only six or seven minutes were really necessary. And perhaps that adds to how much they manage to impress an audience. As vocalist Mariusz Duda admitted (during Conceiving You), they don’t have many sing-alongs, all of their tracks are as complex as they are brief (in comparison to other notable progressive bands), but they could never be accused of being standard structures.

Riverside did everything right tonight, from their song selection to their performance. In front of a less receptive crowd in a festival setting or as a support act perhaps they’d struggle with short songs that don’t really have hooks, but in front of a prog crowd they excel. They are still young, despite celebrating an anniversary, so there should be many more tours to come and tonight’s attendance level shows they certainly have a following in London.

“ deft musicianship ”

Setlist: Beyond The Eyelids / Out of Myself / Reality Dream III / Egoist Hedonist / Living In The Past / Conceiving You / Ultimate Trip / Left Out / Loose Heart / O2 Panic Room / Second Life Syndrome // Forgotten Land / Reality Dream II

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Gigs, Progressive, Riverside