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Review: Riverside/Klone, SWX
French proggers Klone certainly acquired a lot of new friends when they made their Bristol debut supporting Devin Townsend at the Academy last March. Now they’re back with an ‘unplugged’ set.
Given that Klone trade in such grand soundscapes, it wasn’t entirely clear how, or if, this was going to work. But any doubts swiftly evaporate as the seated quintet spanned across the front of the stage launch in to a generous hour-long set.
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More than usually, the focus here is on Yann Ligner’s powerful, impassioned vocals. The band take the ‘unplugged’ concept seriously, with acoustic bass alongside those acoustic guitars, although drummer Romain Bercé succeeds in getting a huge racket out of his stripped-down kit.
Klone deliver an atmospheric, career-spanning set, with just one track from current album Meanwhile and two brand new songs, allegedly being performed for the very first time, which are so impressive that one can’t help but yearn to hear them in fully plugged band format.
They also add an exquisite cover of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun, which sounds even better than when Chris Cornell himself played it at the Hall Formerly Known as Colston back in 2016. The stunning Yonder from Le grand voyage closes the set, as it did at the Academy, and to say the Bristol prog audience is overjoyed would be something of an understatement. Surely it’s time for a full headlining tour.
Who’s going to take the place of the great prog acts of yesteryear? It’s a question that’s often posed and there’s no shortage of contenders, though the nature of the modern music industry makes it difficult for their music to be heard by their vast potential audience. Poland’s constantly evolving Riverside certainly embody the progressive spirit and in a just world they’d be playing to huge crowds rather than simply making steady progress over a 20 year career.
Their first Bristol show in five years comes towards the end of the lengthy touring cycle for 2023’s ID.Entity album, whose choppy, ’80s-style compositions we’ve now had plenty of time to digest. Michał Łapaj – surely the jolliest keyboard player in modern prog – supplies a Tangerine Dream-esque intro which swiftly resolves into #Addicted from the breakthrough Love, Fear and the Time Machine album.
But it’s not long until they hit Landmine Blast and Big Tech Brother – the first two of six tracks from ID.Entity, which is rooted firmly in the modern world of propaganda, social divisions, conspiracy theories and digital hate rather than retreating into the default fantasy of less imaginative proggers. The effect is rather like political Animals-era Pink Floyd – in concept if not in musical execution.
All that touring has honed Riverside into a formidable live act, with magnificent vocalist/bassist Mariusz Duda proving chattier than usual: “Hello Bristol. If you want to hear the next song, you must first agree to the terms and conditions. It won’t hurt. Well, at least not now. Maybe later . . .” Introducing Lost (Why Should I Be Frightened by a Hat?), he bemoans the “burden” of being categorised as a prog-metal act when they sound nothing like former touring partners and genre titans Dream Theater. Hey – lighten up, Mariusz. It’s a very broad church. Nobody expects you to sound like anyone else. That’s why we’re still here, following you through all those musical changes.
The sound is magnificently clear, showcasing SWX’s PA at its best, while the lighting is simple yet highly effective, with five giant colour-changing octagons dominating the stage. ID.Entity highlights Post-Truth and the epic, frequently angry The Place Where I Belong (“How much can you bear being fucking lied to?”) are played back-to-back, and both work particularly well in a live setting, sounding rockier and more muscular than the original recordings, with Mariusz’s occasionally funky bass and Piotr Kozieradzki’s drums forming a bedrock for the striking interplay between Michał’s keyboards and Maciej Meller’s guitar. It’s hard not to be reminded of Rush in their pomp.
Arguably the most out-there new song, Friend or Foe? also really comes to life on stage and Mariusz is visibly delighted by the audience reaction. The band’s penchant for tinkering with arrangements and dropping in bit of other songs (even a few bars of Riders on the Storm at one point) also helps to keep things fresh. The only slight disappointment is that they completely ignore the Wasteland album.
Like Porcupine Tree, Riverside have never had a hit, which means they can play whatever they damn well like as a final encore. Tonight we get Conceiving You from Second Life Syndrome, complete with the audience participation ‘silent scream’ routine – although a couple of punters get rather carried away and ignore the ‘silent’ bit altogether, setting themselves up for public ridicule.
Gig of the year? It’ll certainly take some beating.
All pix by Mike Evans
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: May 2024
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