Vanden Plas (Spritzehaus- Frankfurt Am Main - 16 - 17.10.02)
Written by: Aleš Podbrežnik

It was quite funny how I got there. Just one day after we saw Dio in Graz, I met Alen in a CD store (where else). He also headbanged to Dio last night. He said: "Would you join me for a Vanden Plas gig in Frankfurt?" "What are you talking about?", I couldn't believe my ears and I replied as a real wimp: "I have to work, you know, I just can't take a vacation!". Well anyway, upon Alen's request, I visited the Vanden Plas official website to investigate for further information. About the price of tickets, how to get to Spritzehaus, will the concert be sold out etc...

Not even two hours passed, when I got a reply. It was Ties. He was very enthusiastic about my plans. Oh, I had to lie that I will visit Vanden Plas to ensure myself a response. The enthusiastic letter from Ties forced me to seriously think about seeing this show. The "PostDio" excitement was slowly fading away and I felt a certain hunger for a new gig. When it became clear that I'm going to survive financially till the next salary, I made my final decision. I took three days off at work.

At 6:00 a.m. we started the rather long journey from Ljubljana. I was very excited, 'cause Vanden Plas were the fourth progressive band I'd see on stage. At 5:00 p.m., we passed Stuttgart and near Karlsruhe, storm clouds began to thunder. Excitement. Heavy rain, I was worried, 'cause if something went wrong then...Well we arrived in Frankfurt Am Main at 8:00 p.m. And, of course, we immediately got lost. We got lost terribly, 'cause nobody could explain to us where GroßeRitter Strase is. We were in Sachenshausen driving around and around. Then we parked the car near river Main. I asked an American tourist for directions and he explained, where to go. Interesting. Before that, dozen of Frankfurt citizens couldn't give me such an exact explanation. And the first foreigner we met was right. It is a nice place, Frankfurt. You can find pubs on every step. A strictly pedestrian area, where cars are forbidden. "Sptritzehaus" is a very pleasant place to be. A pub. What? Where is the hall? Where are the security guards? Where are the long vehicles with all the musical equipment? Just a Vanden Plas poster in front of the entrance. So we had to take a photo there and at that moment, a very familiar face stepped out to make a phone call. It was Günther Werno (Vanden Plas, keyboards) dressed as if he'd just returned from jogging. He just looked at us shortly with his cynical smile.

We entered the door and paid only 8 eur/person. A club's price. This was the first shock. I expected at least 25 eur/person as the usual prices are. Then Anja and I took a sit behind the bar and ordered two large beers. Wow, what a great feeling, when I was filling my mouth with cold smooth tasteful beer. Meanwhile everything was prepared for the gig to start, only Andy was still tuning in.

Ties, the guy who takes care of Vanden Plas official web site, joined us. We began to talk. He was very calm in comparison to me. I was jumping from enthusiasm and I got a feeling that I'm going to explode. The whole scene was really something special to me. Everything was still so familiar to me even though I was 800km from home. The stage was improvised, but big enough for five guys to take their positions. People were still paying more attention to their glasses of beer than the Vanden Plas intro that announced the beginning of the show.

Anyway, the audience sent huge cheers to the guys on stage. "Push" was the song that start the show. A song with a pre-chorus beat that always reminds me of Judas Priest's "Desert Plains". I was surprised by the choice of their first song. People were sitting and discussing everyday things. But I couldn't stand still. I joined Alen and Mateja, who were in their typical headbanging positions. First row? There were no rows. Did you ever see a row in a pub? Only when waiting for a drink. The waiter was using the passage between the stage and the bar to deliver beer. And while I was shaking and obviously going too wild, I broke a glass of beer on the bar. I wanted to pay, but waiter just laughed and didn't show any kind of frustration about it. O.K. Back to the stage. This Vanden Plas gig in Spritzehaus was a warm-up gig for a forthcoming prog rock festival, which was planned for 19.10.2002. The set list was a complete dreamland. First class strikers "Into The Sun", "Iodic Rain" and "We're Not God" were to follow. After that the band warmed up well and the fifth song, "Soul Survives", was the first highlight for me. A progressive masterpiece. The guys seemed to be having a great time. They were constantly communicating, with smiles on their faces. The whole scene was so cool. Image? A man behind the drum wheel was of course Andreas Lill. I really hardly recognized him with short hair. If by some coincidence I got a chance to meet him on the street, I would never guess that that is him. A new hair style, a new person. The most interesting look was Thorsten's. His beard grew quite long, so I got the impression that I was watching an ancient Egyptian playing the bass guitar. The mixing table was pushed almost behind the bar. Just three meters away from the stage and the guy behind it easily communicated with all the band members on stage.

After the end of the 10 minutes of ecstasy, incarnated in the performance of "Soul Survives", the band continued in an easier way. With "Rainmaker". The end of "Rainmaker" divided the show into two parts. After the pause, the band continued with intro pt. 2. The second part of the show consisted of songs, taken from the latest release "Beyond Daylight". And burst out with its great opener "Nightwalker" that was followed by "Cold Wind". The band also did - in my opinion - one of the most impressive songs in their career called "Healing Tree". Here, they slowed down things a little bit, but ambiental atmosphere reached its peak during concert. Andy's soulful approach has a lot to do here. His feeling for improvisation and for acting on stage. In one moment he's angry, in the next, he's sad. This music is full of sadness. Just that impression, and when you begin to think about Andy's poetry, and find all the information, that will never get you close to the core, but can make you enter the eternity or on a certain level connect with it. I just wanted to say, that Vanden Plas' poetry is much more than meets the eye. "Free The Fire" power drive tornado was kicking real high. And the second highlight was here. "Beyond Daylight". A fantastic intro, a magic between the band members reborn once again. This band is perfectly tuned in on stage. And "Beyond Daylight" is - in my opinion - the band's representative piece in this recent period. A song like that is showing heavy metal roots of the band on one side and a great progressive blasting attack that keeps everything in balance on the other. This music gives Andy enough space and freedom of course, to express his huge talent in writing his poetry and the whole feeling brings out a real sadness. The performance of "Beyond Daylight" confirmed the alchemy between the boys on stage. The set list was something special. Because of the order of appearance. The first part were Vanden Plas archive songs, the second consisted from "Beyond Daylight" songs.

Funny, after the guys finished the main part of the gig, they jumped off stage, made two steps more and were lost in a "backstage" door (I mean Spritzehaus private rooms). I missed the "Far Off Grace" songs. Obviously, the band read my mind. They returned and began the encore with "Into The Sun" that was followed by "Far Off Grace". The gig was over. I was astonished when observing the alchemy between Günther and Stephan. How brilliantly they did all those harmonies. I was satisfied in hearing and seeing no mistakes. The sound was perfect, all instruments found a great sonic symbiosis. Rhythm section uauuuu!!! Andreas is the kind of drummer that punches with the whole body, if I may use this expression, "a body drummer". Diversity brings even more dynamics, and this dynamic is assured when having Thorsten and Andreas in rhythm section together. Just can't stand still for a single moment. And the great use of the double bass pedal by Andreas. He had a smile on his face all the time during the show ("a happy drummer"). Muting the cymbals is a piece of cake for him. It is very rare to see him cross the sticks.

The band gave the overall feeling that they're having lots of fun on stage. They have been playing together for quite a long time and they know each other very well. And this is also one of the keys for having such a brilliant tuning in a band.

Although I'm using superlatives right now, the band didn't push their performance to the limits so we stayed a bit hungry for the next evening. The first reason was surely that they were on a small stage and not in front of a huge crowd of hundreds of crazy fans, the second was that they are perfectionists and they used this gig for observing the sound during a gig, paying attention to "those small things" on stage, concerning tuning, timing, performing of certain bridges during songs, fade outs, intros, etc... I was watching the guys on stage that checked each others moves very often, but in a very relaxed way. The next thing was the small stage. Andy would fly away if he could, but instead of that he almost fell off stage a couple of times. Ties mentioned before the show, that Vanden Plas like to play in Spritzehaus. The band members and the owner of the pub are good friends. This band simply loves such small places to play in. More action from the band was to follow next evening.

After the show we had the opportunity to get in touch with a few interesting people. The feeling was great. As if we knew each other for all eternity, as if our destinies were somehow connected. Tino told me the exact locations of CD stores in the center of Frankfurt, and his close friend was very excited about fact that we were from Slovenia: "Aaaaauch, you were driving 800km to get here!?!?" "Well, you all deserve a beer, I'll go get it, and with no comments please!"

Alen and Mateja brought a kind of a homemade flag with the Vanden Plas logo. We really thought that Spritzehaus is going to be a huge hall. The band members were coming one by one and gave us their autographs. Andy gave us special attention. First he brought us beers, than we began to talk. Andy showed a kind of frustration when I asked, what was maybe a very stupid question, if he believes in reincarnation and the sort of things he writes about in his lyrics. He replied that he is very afraid of talking about spiritual dimensions at the moment. The fact was, that "Beyond Daylight" lyrics talk almost exclusively about Andy's father. Shortly after "Beyond Daylight" release, his father died from a heart attack. So we stopped drowning ourselves further in the search for an answer about life and death, but having in mind that there is much more than just rational perception of the world that tries to force us in believing only in math's algebra and physics. We asked Andy if there is a possibility for "How Many Tears" to be included in the set list on next evening. He promised that he'll ask the others in the band what they think about that suggestion. Andy invited us to join the band in an Italian restaurant. We couldn't refuse that.

Andy stayed with us all the time. By that time his band, close friends and relatives were ordering food in a restaurant nearby.

We were the last to join the table, Andy shortly introduced us. But I've seen some strange looks in our direction, as if we had come down from a distant galaxy. Funny, you can't hide that you're a foreigner. Image has nothing to do with that. Just acting. My acting? What is this supposed to be? I am I. I won't change. It would be an unhealthy deed. The majority were only drinking, but Andy ordered a real giant supper. Like a real gentleman, he was offering food to Anja who sat next to him: "Here, try this!" And than of course some house wine that followed. Andy was really enjoying himself.

Meanwhile Mateja couldn't stand any longer and fell into her dreamland behind the table. But this was not an ordinary sleep for her. Even cold water didn't help here. This was a real elephant sleep. Andy was worried about that. Alen tried to explain in a very relaxed way, that this is nothing unusual, 'cause it often happens and that everything is under control. But anyway, when we finished our meals and paid (only food on the band's request) we got a bit of a bad feeling. But he didn't care about it. He helped us carry Mateja to our car. What a great person Andy is. A real cool guy. Thank you Andy, once more.

I remained in my sleeping position for only three hours. I thought I'm gonna die in that position, all bones ached me. Than Anja and I moved to the Youth Hostle (18eur/person per night). A building,....what, for a moment I thought that we got lost in a monastery. Men and women separated into rooms. So I got the interesting company of some Japanese guys. I couldn't stand that "instant" behavior. So I could hardly wait to run away with Anja into the center of Frankfurt, to see this town. I had a terrible headache and I had intestinal problems, so I became a frequent visitor of all kinds of toilets on my way. But we really enjoyed our time in Frankfurt.

O.K. let us talk about music again. It was getting late. The second Vanden Plas gig was closer and closer. When we entered the Spritzehaus I immediately felt a different ambiental feeling in the air. Uf, tonight we'll reach boiling point here! The crowd was bigger. Spritzehaus was almost full. And we didn't have to pay at the entrance, cause Andy put us on the guest list. I was also honoured when I got in touch with a girl that was as huge a Savatage fan as I am. She said that she was Jeff Plate's girlfriend for some time.

By the bar, I had a conversation with Tino. We talked about our jobs. It was quite an interesting discussion about how very much we have devastated nature in the last fifty years, and what EU should do about that. Tino works in a computer company as a designer, so he can help Vanden Plas in designing their booklets. This time we were much shorter with money, but I didn't stop myself from buying a band's T-shirt. Superb motives, superbly designed shirts, especially those with long sleeves. Well, meanwhile the band went on stage and the show began. The set list was the same except the encore and the order of appearance of the songs in the first part of the gig, before band began with "Beyond Daylight" pieces.

This time, the band received a huge reply from audience. The guys felt that on stage and they did the whole performance in upper gear. Andy was singing with full force, supported by great back vocals from Stephan and Günther. Andy was improvising with his voice and completely let himself into the music. A soulful approach. During "Soul Survives", Andreas faced short trouble when his drumstick split into two pieces. He also rolled his sticks during the performance, the previous night he didn't. In general, this gig was even more spontaneous. I heard no mistakes in the performance. This chemistry simply works. Stephan uses a Yamaha Pacifica in natural wood colour and a cherry beauty that I don't know the name of. Perhaps it was home made. It looked like that. Stephan was very precise in his marvelous riffing drive, crystal clear arpeggios and great work of his little finger. A man that joins his great talent and musical school knowledge into a fantastic performance that hangs in balance all the time thanks to his soulful approach. Andy was untamed and very aggressive in certain moments, the crowd was breathing with the band all the time and the band received ovations: "Vanden Plas, Vanden Plas,....!" During long keyboard or guitar solos, Andy jumped off the stage to relax a bit or had fun with his bottle of water on stage.

After the encore was done, the band took their leave. But the audience didn't give up: "Zugabe, zugabe,....!" We succeeded. On the stage, Günther, Stephan and Andy appeared once again. What was that supposed to mean? Without any rhythm section you're lost. No shit! After jazzy Günther's intro they began with "How Many Tears". Andy kept his word and yesterday's promise. The unplugged version of that song was great. The crowd was satisfied.

Vanden Plas members don't live from money earned with their musical activities. Everybody has his own and permanent job. And when they come together as Vanden Plas their music is always done with love and passion. A musical perfection. This band just can't let you down. They are what they are. And this is a key to their uniqueness, never forcing themselves in making music, they just let ideas to flow. It was a great experience. When a new date in Spritzehaus will be announced I'll be there for sure. I tried to talk with band members after the gig was finished. I would very much like to stay for the whole night in Spritzehaus and have fun with the whole band, but Anja and I had to return to the "monastery" by 3:00 a.m., 'cause they locked the main door and otherwise they won't let you in if you arrive to late. Bullshit, I was very frustrated because of that. A real stupidity and another method how to control people's minds.

Next day we turned to the south. Of course, as was expected, we got lost again. When it became obvious that Anja and I were too nervous, Alen, as well an experienced man, came to the front line to take control of whole situation. We finally assured ourselves that we were really driving home and not further on north, in the direction of Koln. This time we were moving through Nurnberg -.Munchen direction back to our sweet home. The weather was once again everything except snow. With heavy rain and sunny breaks the sky was full of rainbows. Again, complete entertainment. My pockets ran out of money, and I'm a poor guy now. I should get a sponsor in the future. One day I hope that in Slovenia, things will go better for the progressive metal scene and that a Vanden Plas gig in our country would not be just a crazy dream. Maybe I should organize a Vanden Plas gig in Slovenia myself. "I'm just a dreamer, I dream my life away" (Ozzy, 2001).

Vanden Plas set list (16th and 17th October 2002, Spritzehaus, Frankfurt Am Main):

-------intro 1------------------------------
Push
Iodic Rain
Into The Sun
We're Not God
Soul Survives
Rainmaker
-------intro 2------------------------------
Nightwalker
Cold Wind
Healing Tree
Free The Fire
Beyond Daylight
-------------------------------------------- first encore
I Can See
Far Off Grace
-------------------------------------------- second encore
How Many Tears (added only on 17th October)
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