Progressive Promotion Festival – Das Rind - Rüsselsheim – Friday 21 September

Das Rind (it means “The Cow” in English) is a smallish venue in the centre of Rüsselsheim which is midway between the German cities of Frankfurt, Mainz and Wiesbaden. It holds 300 – in the same way as the Peel holds 250. The venue itself seems friendly and is a short distance from the river Main. Handily there is a Chinese restaurant next door which serves reasonably good quality food at reasonable prices. There is no room inside the venue for merchandise, so this is outside making access to the venue awkwardly narrow. And, of course, if it rains, everything has to be covered. It rained.

On the first evening, there were about 180 people, and judging by accents and talking to other people, the festival drew a crowd from many countries – UK (I was not alone), France, Hungary, the Netherlands, and (on the second day) Japan (yes – really – a young lady flew in from Japan to see Moon Safari). It feels like the German prog scene is about the same size as the one in the UK.

Sunchild

Antony Kalugin's Sunchild project was the first up at 8:00pm. They were due to play at Summer's End last year and this year, but never made it. On the performance they put it, that is a great shame. It starts with someone in dark glasses being carefully led across the stage, and sat down. He then felt around the chair for an accordion. Then the rest of the band came in – the bass player standing behind the accordionist, then Antony Kalugin's playing keyboards and singing, a female singer, guitarist and drummer.

They played a varied set. The first track was completely instrumental, with the female singer using tambourines and other hitty things. After this, the vocals started and both vocalists were excellent, and there was plenty of instrumental parts to keep everyone happy, but each instrument was used in a way enhance the song, and there was always space in the music.

We also had a two minute harmonica piece from the accordionist – a blues song to mimic a steam train.

Check out Sunchild here -> link

Cryptex

The Tangent were due to play but pulled out, and German 3 piece band Cryptex replaced them. A big thank you to the band for fitting in at the last minute.  The singer played keyboards mostly, although for a couple of songs he played bass. Additionally there was a guitarist who played mostly chords and a drummer. Because of this, the only texture added was by the keyboards. I soon found it lacking in dynamic – for me, it really needed something extra – possibly some guitar. But they got an excellent reception.

Check out Cryptex here -> link

Believe

Last band on Friday evening and Saturday morning was Believe. They did not start until about 11pm, which was no great surprise for me as gigs tend to run later on the continent. On this occasion, Believe were playing as a 5 piece band, without the violinist who is listed as a band member on their last album – “The World is Round”). Any initial disappointment about not having a violin was soon banished as the band put on a terrific show.

When the band started, vocalist Karol Wróblewski entered through the crowd singing through a distorter. Once the distorter was put down, everyone could hear what a very good singer he is -

one of the best singing voices that I've heard for a while, singing with power and emotion. And guitarist Mirosław Gil has a silky smooth guitar playing style which added flourishes where needed.

After about an hour of playing, they came off and back on for two well deserved encores, finishing at about 1am.

Check out Believe here -> link