PATRONAAT, Haarlem, support-act: CARDAMON

Stream Of Passion was originally the brainchild of Arjen ‘Ayreon’ Lucassen. He invited Mexican singer Marcela Bovio and along the way guitarist Lori Linstruth, Alejandro Millan (piano and just like Marcela member of Mexican band Elfonia), Davy Mickers (drums) and Johan van Stratum (bass) completed the line up.
The first album was called Embrace The Storm released in 2005. The compositions, arrangements as well as part of the recordings were realized by using the internet. A tour followed and a live CD/DVD Out In The Real World was released in 2006. Because Arjen and successively Lori and Alejandro left, Marcela and Johan - with Davy still recording with them - decided to look for new bandmembers to continue Stream Of Passion. The result is The Flame Within, a very strong new album filled with good songs and lots of energy.

Due to unforeseen circumstances I had to miss Stream Of Passion’s show in Tilburg with Autumn, but I got another chance a week later in venue Patronaat in Haarlem near Amsterdam. This time Cardamon, a new young band appeared on stage as a support for Stream of Passion. However, in the band I saw a very familiar face. Cardamon’s bass player turned out to be Luuk van Gerven (ex-After Forever). The band didn’t have too much space on the rather small stage with the gear of Stream Of Passion already set up. They played mainly songs from their new and first full length album The Primrose Path.

Unlike Delain, Stream Of Passion, After Forever etcetera, Floortje Donia of Cardamon chose not to wear extravagant nor tasteful clothing, which I think was a pity. When I’m listening to a record, I don’t mind how musicians are dressed, but when I go to a live show, a little bit more emphasis on the show-element such as dress and make-up wouldn’t hurt and in fact would be a benefit. Although the performance wasn’t too bad, the songs couldn’t convince me just yet, nor the vocal performance by Floortje Donia. With her hair before her eyes like Keith Relf from The Yardbirds or Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones in the sixties, she has to learn a lot to become a real performer. I regret to admit that I wasn’t too impressed and even Luuk van Gerven couldn’t save the day. Also I missed a real keyboardplayer. The band surely has some potential and I’m curious what the actual album sounds like!

Stream Of Passion was another story. The amount of energy displayed on stage was very impressive. Led by the beautiful voice of Marcela Bovio, bassist Johan van Stratum turned out to be an eye-catcher as well. Superb playing by lead guitarist Stephan Schultz and also a very solid performance by the 'bachelor' Jeffrey Revet on the keyboards. The huge shape of the band's own ‘prince of darkness’ Erik Hazebroek filled up Marcela’s right side of the stage, while Van Stratum was just about anywhere. To Marcela’s left, standing in the background and replacing Marcela’s sister Diana Bovio was Lucy Legaspi. Not so much on the foreground as Diana used to be, but her contributions were valuable and she gave a very expressive performance. A big round of applause for Martijn Peters who joined the band just recently to replace Davy Mickers. The band may consider themselves lucky to have found Peters. The ex-drummer of NoVact played exceptionally well and with ease.

The songs from the new album - in fact the whole album was performed live - were even more powerful then on the studio album and the oldies sounded different and exiting with this new line up. Stream Of Passion is ready to conquer more than just the Netherlands and it’s a shame the venue wasn’t packed, fortunately there were enough fans to make this a most enjoyable evening.

Line-up Cardamon: Floortje Donia: vocals, Thomas Kalksma: drums, acoustic guitars, Koen Romeijn: guitars, keyboards, Kevin Storm: guitars, Luuk van Gerven: bass.

Setlist Cardamon: Sleepless World,Masterminds,Deaf Or Blind,Never A Tear, Common State of Mind,Evening, Divided, Spanning The Distance, When Space & Time Collide

Line-up Stream Of Passion: Marcelo Bovio: vocals, violin, Johan van Stratum: bass, Erik Hazebroek: guitars, Stephan Schultz: lead guitar, Jeffrey Revet: keyboards, Martijn Peters: drums, Lucy Legaspi: background vocals.

Setlist Stream Of Passion: The Art of Loss, Now Or Never, In The End, Passion, When You Hurt Me The Most, Let Me In, My Leader, Wherever You Are, Calliopeia, Run Away, Games We Play, This Endless Night, Burn My Pain, Deceiver, Out In The Real World, A PArt Of You, All I Know, Street Spirit, Haunted.