May 28^th, Arena at the Metropool Hengelo.

 

"How is it possible" and "how time flies" are just a few clichés that come to mind when I realize that Arena has been around for thirty years. I saw them perform for the first time at a Marillion fan club day, but in acoustic form. By then I already had the debut album Songs from the Lion's Cage in my cherished possession. Still a great album. The band around Mick Pointer and Clive Nolan quickly became one of my absolute favourites and after the accession of John Mitchell and their, for me, best album The Visitor, it became my favourite band (a position they now have to share with Canadian Mystery). I have seen many concerts and seen many singers and bassists pass in review, but the quality was always top level. Since the arrival of Damian Wilson, there has been an ideal line-up. I think the latest album The Theory of Molecular Inheritance is very good, but it is very song-oriented and there are far too few guitar solos on it. From the tour that followed the release of this album I have seen two concerts and especially the concert in Zoetermeer (where else) on October 6^th 2023 has left a deep impression, what a band and what a singer.

Because of the thirtieth anniversary, these men of respectable age decided to go through the whole adventure of touring again with a somewhat modified tour bus so that Nolan could also get his rest. Don't underestimate what all this means in terms of living conditions and disrupted rhythms. But as a fan I was very happy with this decision because you never know if there will be another chance. Due to other appointments and the short distance, this time only the performance in Metropool Hengelo remained for me. That may have been a bit of an unfortunate decision, but I will come back to that later. Of course it's nice not to have to sit in the car for four hours for a concert.

Upon arrival I went straight to the merchandise desk and there it was a bit disappointing that the special 30th anniversary T-shirt was no longer available in my size but in the end I bought a smaller size and the shirt is now hanging in my music room. Too bad they had misjudged this so much. Nothing new on CD so we went to get a nice beer.

With the fantastic concert in Zoetermeer still in my memory, it was a bit of a shock when the band kicked off. The sound was not good, the keys were almost inaudible and the whole tuning was unpleasant. Is that because of the venue? Can it only be done in the Boerderij? Anyway, gradually it all got a bit better but not optimal and that is of course a great pity.

Of course, it remains a pleasure to hear the music of the past 30 years in summarized form and because so much music has been released, it is always difficult to put together a setlist that satisfies everyone. As far as I'm concerned, that didn't quite work out because I missed a number of favourite tracks. For myself, I always make an "up to date playlist" of about two hours of all my favourite bands for the holidays and that is the ideal setlist for a concert for me. A personal best so to speak. There was not very much  overlap with this concert and there are so many songs that I would have loved to hear with Damian as singer. Still, the songs chosen were a beautiful anthology of the band's impressive oeuvre. The chats between the songs were once again laced with the typical British humour of Nolan in particular and gave insight into some turning points in the history of Arena. The stage dive joke in which Nolan went to the edge of the stage after Wilson's attempt and wondered "what is it about this stage dive thing" went down like the proverbial cake. Of course Solomon was played and in front of us we saw an until then fairly quiet man go completely crazy. Yet the atmosphere was not quite like a year ago in Zoetermeer, but as already stated, that is probably only possible in the Boerderij. Too bad, but Mitchell remains such a whopper, that it is always more than worth it and Wilson sang the lungs out of his live as only he can. What a stage presence this man has. Pointer and Kylan Amos steadily did their thing and as Mitchell said, without Mick there would be no Marillion or Arena! And then at the end, those now somewhat older legs in those mega shorts, it remains a recognizable and precious moment. Thank's Mick!

We all had another fantastic evening with beautiful music, but we went home with the nagging question if we will ever see Arena live in this line-up again. We'll see. In any case, I'll be there.

I am sorry that there are no photos to accompany this review but I never take them myself and have not been able to find someone who wanted to share theirs.