Ayreon & Plan Nine (Live Report): An Amazing Flight Through Time - Arjen Lucassen's progressive sci-fi space opera melts faces from the stage once more

& Plan Nine @ Hall of Fame

013 Tilburg; September 13th, 2025

It’s been 2 years since Ayreon 01011001: Live Beneath the Waves took over Tilburg in the Netherlands, which means it’s time for yet another highly-anticipated live spectacle from Arjen Lucassen’s prog metal sci-fi space opera project, Ayreon. This year, we’re revisiting the broader Ayreon universe yet again with the band’s 30th Anniversary in another best-of show, An Amazing Flight Through Time! The city of Tilburg spares no expense hosting the event, with the party already starting the week leading up to the shows, with restaurants and shops all getting in on the spectacle. Since I’ve been at all of the Ayreon shows so far, I definitely wasn’t going to start skipping now!

Keep an eye out the full gallery from Hannu Juutilainen over at Metalliluola!

There are few things I enjoy in life more than a little travel adventure and I’m glad that Ayreon shows give me the opportunity to tell stories, because I have always had fun staying at very strange lodgings during these trips… from a place near Schipol that I affectionately refer to as “Shantytown” for The Theater Equation and Ayreon Universe, to this bizarre place without functioning lights and a locking door that we were at this time. Pro-tip to folks who want to come to Ayreon shows, who stress about getting show tickets: there are always people who can’t make it and tickets become rather bountiful the week before. Flights and lodgings, however, are a much trickier thing to pull off, so as long as you have a place to crash and a way to get to town, you’re actually fine.

This year was also interesting because many of the rare special guests that have participated in the past are on tour at the moment — Floor Jansen (Nightwish) and Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) both have fall shows coming up for their solo material and band respectively, while Marko Hietala, Simone Simons (Epica), and Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) are all actively touring. As such, the cast was made up almost entirely of Dutch artists, with a few exceptions in Tommy Karevik (Kamelot), Damian Wilson, and this year’s fresh face, Dino Jelusick (Trans-Siberian Orchestra). There were no unfamiliar names in the band, however, which meant that we could be confident that there would be a fun and professional performance.

CAST

Arjen Lucassen
Wudstik (replacing Edward Reekers)
Robert Soeterboek
Damian Wilson
Anneke van Giersbergen
Marcela Bovio
Irene Jansen
Heather Findlay
Maggy Luyten
Mike Mills
Tommy Karevik
Dino Jelusick

BAND

Joost van den Broek – keys
Ed Warby – drums
Ferry Duijsens – guitar
Timo Somers – guitar
Johan van Stratum – bass
Jeroen Goossens – flute
Ben Mathot – violin
Jurriaan Westerveld – cello

Now, I have to admit that my job gets harder here after every one of these shows. First of all, my notes are nonsense half the time because I’m too busy staring and scooping my jaw off the floor. How many different ways can I say that any Ayreon show is guaranteed to be one of the best live performances you’ll ever witness? There are only so many words I can use to advise you to attend these shows without starting to sound like a broken record. But if you don’t want to trust me, I’ll tell you already that my partner isn’t an especially big concert-goer or music lover, but after seeing Live Beneath the Waves with me in 2023, he had to come back again as well.

So what can I say here? They did it again!

Of note, the stage setup was much simpler this time around and I hope this means they had a much easier time with pre-production and live execution, because dang, the industrial scaffolding piping rig from Live Beneath the Waves was wild, so I’m glad if they made it a little simpler this time around. It’s surely much easier for production and performers alike if you don’t have a concept album to bring to life. I also hope this made things a lot easier for the singers, as I recall hearing that the timing to come out for their parts was one of the hardest things to pull off in these full-album shows. An Amazing Flight Through Time had more of a ‘metal band on stage performing’ vibe than the ‘insane nigh-theatrical event’ required of a concept album, feeling similar to Ayreon Universe back in 2017. These guys all work so extremely hard that I really hope this was an easier spectacle to pull off for everyone.

Simple rocky decorations adorned the stage this time, but that was it — otherwise, there was a big, big screen, with two smaller screens on the side. Visuals were the name of the game this time around, with various equalizers and scene-setting images moving in the background. I changed up my usual modus operandus and went to the balcony this time — that’s a first, as in the past I’ve always been right up front — and found that the epic visuals did distract me a bit from the artists and performance itself. I was able, however, to reprogram my brain to look down at the stage and not at the screens, which was fortunate because my brain doesn’t always listen to me in such scenarios.

Mike Mills was the first one to come out, before things kicked off, and once again asked the crowd to keep their phones down and enjoy the show without spoiling it for the people who hadn’t seen it yet. I was impressed by how many people actually listened this time, as there were very few phones up throughout the show, though there were still a few people (mostly old men, interestingly enough) who thought this request wasn’t directed at them specifically.

Act I

The first half of the set was almost entirely new material that hadn’t been played before, with the exception of “My House on Mars,” which Arjen and Anneke van Giersbergen performed on their The Gentle Storm tour together back in 2014, and the two songs from The Human Equation, which was done live in its entirety in 2015.

The show opened up with visuals that made the entire venue feel like the inside of a starship, with an avatar of Irene Jansen acting as the Computer AI. She introduced the show and got everyone hyped up, before they got things going with “My House on Mars.” We learned very recently, on August 23rd, that Edward Reekers was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and on September 4th, it was announced that Jermain van der Bogt, AKA Wudstik, would be able to step in and fill his admittedly incredibly big shoes. However, Wudstik is no stranger to Arjen’s music, as he replaced the man himself as Best Friend in The Theater Equation, and he was also present for Live Beneath the Waves in 2023, so while we were very sad to lose Edward’s incredible talent, it was extremely nice to see Wudstik back on stage yet again. Unsurprisingly, he did a great job.

Next was “Sail Away to Avalon,” where flutist Jeroen Goossens blasted out onto stage as if he had been fired from a canon. Staying true to such form, Maggy Luyten did a very campy dramatized jog out onto stage. Already, arms got up in the air, waving and clapping, and watching from the balcony, they transform into a strange writhing creature… one that’s really excited about the show! I’m used to Finland’s boring-as-hell crowds who don’t move or cheer or clap or do anything interesting, so it’s nice to see people come to life and let loose a bit.

2025.9.13 Ayreon 30th Anniverary An Amazing Flight Through Time @ 013 Poppodium, Tilburg HJ (14).jpg

2025.9.13 Ayreon 30th Anniverary An Amazing Flight Through Time @ 013 Poppodium, Tilburg HJ (13).jpg

Tommy Karevik took on “Green and Cream” from Guilt Machine, and the trippy green horizontal lights were out of this world. This was the point where I started to find the visuals on the screens distracting and focused down on the singers and band a bit more. It’s nice to see, even from further back on the balcony, how much fun and enthusiasm these singers put in. No one gives a half-assed performance at an Ayreon show.

Arjen isn’t waiting until the end to show his face these days, and he already got the crowd hyped up a mere four songs in by appearing in a sharp red suit to sing one of his solo tracks, “Days of the Knights.” Naturally, everyone went crazy. I always find it heartwarming to see that he’s willing to come out and perform, since he often speaks about having terrible stage fright. So, props to Arjen yet again for facing his fears to give us all a treat! It was also nice to see Marcela Bovio and Irene Jansen getting some vocal spotlights here and there, not just as backing vocalists.

*Marcela Bovio, Sir Arjen Anthony Lucassen, Irene Jansen*

I’d been deeply curious to know who’d be replacing whom in these shows, and one of my first big exciting moments was during “Day Six: Childhood,” when Anneke came out to sing James Labrie’s original part. I had already been blown away when she was chosen to replace Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt in The Theater Equation, so it never occurred to me to put her in the role of Me, but she absolutely killed it, no complaints, no notes, and no surprises there.

*Anneke van Giersbergen, Jurriaan Westerveld*

Speaking, incidentally, of Marcela and Irene, I was thrilled to see them get a song of their own for a change! They are — as Arjen put it in his speech, no less — both lead-singer quality vocalists acting as backing vocalists, so letting them unleash their full spectrum in a song like “Dragon on the Sea” was a really pleasant treat. They both have such phenomenal voices and they sound so good together.

Heather Findlay revisited her original part in “Day Thirteen: Sign,” with a dramatic entry despite the slower song. The really have a knack for choosing songs where the vocalists get to show off their unique talents. Timo Somers and Ben Mathos were cranking out emotional riffs on the guitar and violin respectively, sending goosebumps all up my arms, before Marcela joined in with her deeply passionate part. This was a truncated version of the song, however — none of the men took over the parts of Me or anyone else.

*Ben Mathot, Heather Findley, Jeroen Goossens*

Then came a personal highlight, because “Sea of Machines” is one of my favorite songs from “The Source” and I was not expecting it to be done live, so I was very extra specially delighted to hear this one, which doubled as one of the few songs in the first half of the show that I actively recognized. Damian Wilson and Tommy Karevik took on some lead roles in this one, which was utterly spectacular; Tommy was on this album, but he was trying out a new role this time around, while Heather nailed Simone’s part.

2025.9.13 Ayreon 30th Anniverary An Amazing Flight Through Time @ 013 Poppodium, Tilburg HJ (43).jpg

2025.9.13 Ayreon 30th Anniverary An Amazing Flight Through Time @ 013 Poppodium, Tilburg HJ (44).jpg

As mentioned, Dino Jelusick was the only fresh face this time around and was a new name for me, who did his own song, “The Year of ‘41,” from the 2022 Star One album, “Revel in Time.” He’s been on the rise in the scene for over a decade now, so this was a great opportunity for him to really show us what he’s got, which was one hell of a set of pipes. There’s a high bar to uphold in shows like this but he fit in seemingly with ease. The crowd got still and trance-like, and I realized that it’s wonderful that they don’t up-scale the venue, because it would really suck to see a show like this from the nosebleeds somewhere. Then, suddenly Mike Mills! Mike Mills and those absolutely ridonculously high notes. Just, wow, okay? I admittedly love how he acts as both a vocalist and an all-around hype guy, running around and getting everyone excited, both on stage and in the crowd. It makes you wonder why, but also want to scream “hell yeah!” because you don’t really care why.

Wudstik then returned for “The First Man on Earth” and once again, I just have to give the man a shout-out for having joined so late, yet for sounding like he’d been part of the team the whole time. And on the spectrum of performances, you know, usually it’s the guitarists who do the power slide, but he did a power slide up to Timo, so he’s also flipping the script in a fun way.

“The Lighthouse” and “The Argument 2” had Tommy, Anneke, Damian, and Mike, with Tommy and Mike in their original roles, while Damian and Anneke replaced JB and Cristina Scabbia respectively. I’ve always had a rocky relationship with that album in its studio form, but I can’t deny that every song from it absolutely kills live, especially with a cast like this.

The first half wrapped up with “Carried by the Wind,” which brought Arjen back to the stage once more, reprising his role from “The Universal Migrator.” I’m not too sure why he always says that he’s not a singer, as he’s really got an excellent voice and he should be proud of himself! This was a great song to wrap up the first half of the show with and he did as good of a job as everyone else, so I hope he gives himself a pat on the back.

*Timo Somers, Arjen Lucassen, Marcela Bovio*

Act II

We returned then briefly to the starship so that Irene’s avatar could inform us that the second act would be comprised of songs we’d already heard in previous live shows that seemed to be particular fan favorites.

No time for intermissions and no rest for the sickest, as we were treated immediately to parts 1 & 2 of “The Theory of Everything,” and I should probably mention right away that the first thing my notes read from Act II were “once again, Jeroen Goossens absolutely fucking rules.” One of the best parts about this album is the woodwind work and the fact that he can pull it off while prancing about live just makes him a truly out-of-this-world performer and I am endlessly in awe.

Mike was yet again in his original role of the Father, while an interesting choice was made to put Maggy in the role of the Mother. Unfortunately, I think there was some sort of fault in her mic, because she couldn’t be heard at first and there was some sort of strange popping, but it seemed to get sorted out quite quickly.

“Actual Fantasy” was a nice track to revisit from its eponymous album, done in Ayreon Universe by Edward Reekers, so it was a bit bittersweet to have Anneke doing it, but she puts so much life and passion into everything she sings that surely no one was complaining. In fact, I think it was fun that they gave different vocalists opportunities to fill in for the original singers; of course they kept the original vocalists when they were present, but it was nice to get a chance to hear different takes on the songs I’ve heard before. For example, when “Into the Black Hole” began afterwards, I wondered if Tommy would be singing it again, as he had done in Ayreon Universe, but I had been secretly hoping that Damian would do it, since I heard once that he was asked to replace Bruce Dickinson (the song’s original vocalist) in Iron Maiden once upon a time. As such, when wondering who can pull off a Bruce Dickinson song, you can imagine how delighted I was to see Damian take the stage. Did he rock the ever-loving shit out of it? Yes. Yes he did. Also, another necessary shout-out needs to be included here for Irene and Marcela, because ladies? Ghatdamn! Simply out of this world.

Once again, we had another bittersweet replacement when Heather came out for “Dreamtime,” which was also the only representative of “The Final Experiment” this time, surprisingly. At that point I also noticed that “Transitus” was mysteriously left out of this show, but I suppose that’s okay because they did “This Human Equation” during Live Beneath the Waves and I do seem to recall Arjen saying at some point that he probably shouldn’t have called it an Ayreon album, so perhaps one of those explains why it was left out. I am still hoping I’ll get to hear “Get out, NOW!” live someday though (ideally with Jack Black on vocals, if I dare to dream).

I digress, Heather got an audible gasp from the crowd when she raised her arms to reveal a butterfly-winged cape during this song and she did an absolutely gorgeous version of the song. I also appreciate that she didn’t replicate Edward’s epic final note, but did her own take.

Dino made a comeback for “Dawn of a Million Souls,” which I’ve heard before as done by Jaycee Cuijpers (who was also somewhat surprisingly not on the personnel list for this show). This was another reason to fall in love with Dino’s voice and stage presence — he’s got a lot of energy to match those lungs and he’s a lot of fun to watch. I also quite belatedly noticed Ferry Duijsens was back after having been swapped out for Marcel Coenens last time around. I really adore both of them so I’m always sad when either of them are missing from a show, though Timo seems to know his way around a guitar and back again, so I can’t complain.

“Valley of the Queens” was one of the rare songs — all from “Into the Electric Castle” — that have now been heard live thrice, meaning each version has to live up to the previous. Now, having seen the version from Ayreon Universe that had Floor Jansen with Marcela and Anneke, hearing Anneke on her own during Electric Castle Live & Other Tales, but of course three voices are better than one. On this occasion, Heather and Maggy were with Anneke, which was interesting. Maggy was again very hard to hear — I heard mention that she was sick, so perhaps this was part of the issue, but I also wonder if her voice was not the best-suited for this song, because she’s such a powerhouse with that whiskey grit. Honestly, I just would like to have heard her better so I could have a more clear picture of how it all came together. That said, I was told that Marcela actually sang this one on Sunday, so she really did amazing work if she was feeling so ill.

*Jeroen Goossens, Heather Findley, Maggy Luyten, Anneke van Giersbergen, Jurriaan Westerveld, Ferry Duijsens*

Now, we know that I’ve had my words about Mike Mills’ take on “Day Sixteen: Loser,” so I am very glad to say that this was probably my favorite rendition of the song so far. During The Theater Equation, it felt more like spectacle than character, and I liked the version from Ayreon Universe a bit better, where the backing vocalists acted in place of Devin Townsend as Rage. This followed in the footsteps of the Ayreon Universe version, only this time the part of Rage was left to Marcela and Irene alone, whom you can always rely on to kick absolute ass. It is also worth noting that the role of the Father in “The Human Equation” does seem to belong to Mike nowadays (the original vocalist, Mike Baker, sadly passed away in 2008), so I’m glad that his rendition of the song now feels like it nicely walks the line of fun performance and true-to-character that the part deserves.

While we’re on the note of “Loser,” I have to shout out the band yet again, because they just. Kick. Ass. For reals. Ed Warby on drums is probably getting sick of me rambling on about how great he is and how much I respect I have fort he amount of work he — very specifically — has to do for these shows to happen. Absolute legend. Jeroen Goossens I’m sure you’re also sick of me highlighting, but COME ON he plays the digeridoo… if you weren’t sold already for some baffling reason, this song should tip you over. Jurriaan Westerveld answered the thought-question I had regarding how a cellist can rock out during this song, bouncing and spinning his instrument like he was born with it. Johan van Stratum remains an ever-enjoyable presence to both watch and hear on stage, with the trademark dreadlocks always making him a highlight to watch. As a former violinist, Ben Mathot is, simply, my hero, and I wish I could have ever dreamed of being that cool back when I used to play. Holy crap. And of course, I’ve already mentioned that Ferry and Timo never fail to deliver the monstrously awesome guitar lines that Arjen throws out into the world.

Now, who did I forget…

I jest, of course. You know, in recent weeks, my regular photographer and I have been discussing which keyboardists are actually fun to watch and photograph. It’s quite rare, to find a keyboardist who looks like they’re having a good time… in fact, keyboardists are often the least interesting to watch. Amongst the strong contenders for excellence out there in the performance sphere are performers like Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish, Auri) and Robert Engstrand (Marko Hietala). I will absolutely throw in a recommendation that Joost van den Broek be crowned as king of this list, because not only does he absolutely rock the hell out of amazing solos — like the one in “The Theory of Everything” — but he does it while tossing his hair around and looking like he’s a wizard creating complicated magic all the while. If I was still doing photographs, I’d be making sure to keep an eye on him — what a performance!

Now… where was I…? After “Loser,” a digital head of the narrator appeared for “The Castle Hall” and “Amazing Flight,” which introduced the suspiciously absent Robert Soeterboek to the stage at long last. Indeed, as someone who’s name was on the cast list, he was the only one who wasn’t strutting their stuff in Act I, so I had at some point wondered if he had indeed been on the cast list at all, or had I misremembered. Perhaps the reason relates to Plan Nine’s aftershow, which I can attest must surely be a demanding performance. Nevertheless, he’s grown to be rather a favorite of mine, so seeing him come out in a purple suit that matched Arjen’s was a treat and I really love the way he hits Jay van Feggelen’s low notes in these songs, which also happen to be two of my favorite songs as well, and the other songs that we viewers have now seen live three times. Not once has either of these tracks failed to get a legitimate thrill out of me.

“Amazing Flight” always has to top itself: during Ayreon Universe, it acted as Arjen’s appearance before anyone knew if he was going to perform; in Electric Castle Live, he dressed up like a hippy and smoked a hookah from a beanbag chair. This time, he and Robert looked like a very mischievous pair in their matching suits, with Arjen sitting down to have tea while Robert ranted and raved about the life of a Barbarian. Every time I’ve seen this song live, it’s been a delight, and this time was no different. These two songs remain some of my favorite live songs ever, regardless of which event I’ve seen them at. This time around, the best part was the campy Dutch tall guy exit walk Arjen and Robert did as they left the stage.

*Marcela Bovio, Arjen Lucassen, Robert Soeterboek (front), Jurriaan Westerveld (back), Irene Jansen*

These songs, sadly, signal that the end is in sight. Fortunately, there was one more song left, which was a truly beloved spectacle from the 2017 show: “Everybody Dies” from “The Source.” Mike’s role in that is of an android that’s panicking, which suits both his drama and high-notedness to a T. Wudstik came in with Tommy for Hansi’s back ‘n’ forth, and Irene did her first-ever one-to-one replacement for one of her sister’s parts — I’ve been wondering if they’d ever do that, and here we are! It’s a really energetic song and makes for an excellent finisher!

Then, we had our break for Arjen’s speech — which really always ends up being Arjen and Joost’s speech — where we learned that Arjen’s been shrinking, celebrated that he’s a knight now, and naturally, everyone called Joost a “lul,” which is simply tradition at this point.

However, the show couldn’t possibly be over already, so Dino and Damian came back for “Set Your Controls” by Star One, which gave us one more playful tune before the intro track, “Day One: Vigil” opened up “Day Two: Isolation” from “The Human Equation,” which made for one hell of an ensemble song for them to end the show with. They’ve always picked some pretty epic closers in the past and I was a little worried because that’s such a gloomy song, but damn if it didn’t work!

At this point, show now concluded, I had to just bask in everyone’s reactions for a while, because the friend who had never been before was absolutely starstruck, while everyone else was delightedly talking about their favorite parts. Nobody had any genuine complaints, beyond noticing the mic crackling at the one point. There was a trance-like state amongst everyone, though a few people wanted to go down to get some more merch after the show, and I can hardly blame them. After you see something so mind-blowing, it’s hard not to want to throw some support money towards the creators.

However, it was not yet time to rest, because I had been dying to see Plan Nine live since “The Long-Lost Songs” came out in 2024, so we regrouped after the show and headed over to Hall of Fame — a short 10ish minute walk from 013 — for the afterparty. Keep reading below…

*Ayreon 30th’s Anniversary: An Amazing Flight through Time*

Ayreon Setlist:

Act I

My House on Mars (From The Universal Migrator)
Sail Away to Avalon (from The Final Experiment)
Green and Cream (Guilt Machine song)
Days of the Knights (Arjen Lucassen solo song)
Day Six: Childhood (from The Human Equation)
Dragon on the Sea (from The Universal Migrator)
Day Thirteen: Sign (abridged; from The Human Equation)
Sea of Machines (from The Source)
The Year of ‘41 (Star One song)
The First Man on Earth (from The Universal Migrator)
The Lighthouse (from The Theory of Everything)
The Argument 2 (from The Theory of Everything)
Carried by the Wind (from The Universal Migrator)
Act II: The Classics
The Theory of Everything, part 1 (from The Theory of Everything)
The Theory of Everything, part 2 (from The Theory of Everything)
Actual Fantasy (from Actual Fantasy)
Into the Black Hole (abridged, from The Universal Migrator)
Dreamtime (from The Final Experiment)
Dawn of a Million Souls (from The Universal Migrator)
Valley of the Queens (from Into the Electric Castle)
Day Sixteen: Loser (from The Human Equation)
The Castle Hall (from Into the Electric Castle)
Amazing Flight (abridged, from Into the Electric Castle)
Everybody Dies (from The Source)
Encore
Set Your Controls (Star One song)
Day One: Vigil (intro track, from The Human Equation)
Day Two: Isolation (from The Human Equation)

Hall of Fame was a really cute little venue across the tracks from 013, with the capacity to host around 300-350 people. They had opened up an extra fifty tickets to this show towards the event, which was really nice of them, because, if I thought my night couldn’t get any better after an Ayreon show, I was wrong.

Let me say this up front: if we were to go have a lookie at my concert stats on setlist.fm, you’d see that I’ve seen over 1165 shows from over 466 different artists (and that doesn’t include indie acts or psytrance bands that aren’t on the MusicBrainz server). Ergo, thanks to my decade+ of journalism, I’ve pretty much seen it all by now. Very little gets me excited about live shows anymore, save something that’s as big of a spectacle as Ayreon. So when I say that Plan Nine’s set was one of the best things I’ve seen in the last 5-10 years, you know that this is quite a compliment.

First of all, “Drunker than Whiskey” was tied with Ott’s “Muggy Boneheads” as my absolute favorite song of 2024, so I’ve been thirsting to hear it live for nearly a year now, watching all the live photos on Instagram and feeling oh so sorry for myself that they haven’t toured very far out from the Netherlands yet. So when they were announced as an afterparty, you’d better believe I was amped right up to max!

The mix was pretty murky as they got started at midnight, and backing vocalist Jane Goulding’s sound was all over the place, but I could see her gesturing to the sound tech and they got it sorted out after a song or two. Also, I’m going to need a moment here to shout her out, because she was doing the work of both herself — already an absolutely stellar singer — as well as Irene Jansen, who sadly yet understandably did not do double-duty on this night. This band really soars with two backing vocalists and the fact that she upheld the song quality on her own without — I repeat — Irene Jansen with her? Utterly incredible. She deserves two awards for this performance.

*Robert Soeterboek, Jane Goulding, Storm van ‘t Westeinde*

This entire show was made up of little highlights, like the phenomenal band wankery that opened “The Preacher” and Robert Soeterboek’s rambling stories about making music with Arjen back in the day (like how they wrote their first songs together from their considerably smaller apartments), while all of the songs that weren’t on “The Long-Lost Songs” — “Gimme the Night,” “Texas Size,” “Stand Tall,” “Where Do the Wild Things Sleep,” and “Smoke Stack Lightning” at the start of the encore — ended up being some of my favorites of the night, which makes me very enthusiastic about their next release! On top of that, they played all of the songs from the debut album, so I truly had nothing to complain about.

*Robert Soeterboek, Storm van ‘t Westeinde, Joris Lindner*

“Drunker than Whiskey” live was everything I dreamed it would be, and I even found myself at one point lost to the boogie (AKA I was dancing) in a way that the world around me evaporated and I existed only inside the music… I’m not sure that’s ever happened before, as I’m not a big dancer, but I certainly enjoyed myself and am grateful for the brain-obliterating performance.

“Texas Size” was a stellar track and drummer Koen Herfst got to melt our faces with a drum solo at the end. Robert shouted out their extremely young guitarist, Storm van ’t Westeinde, as well as Marcel Singor, whom I recognized from Electric Castle Live & Other Tales as one of the guitarists. And as someone who is always screaming about not wasting your bass player, you can imagine how much I was pleased to hear Joris Lindner doing something deeply pleasing to his instrument in “Ice on Fire.” And, last but absolutely not least, Willem Hoving could really hardly be seen in the back with no lights on him, he shall not be forgotten here, because he was killing it on multiple songs as well, particularly towards the end of the set, like in the beginning of “Smoke Stack Lightning.”

Apart from the new material, other highlights included my other favorite song from the album, “Annie Moore,” which included a long back ‘n’ forth between Robert and the audience, where he included a little snippet from “The Castle Hall” to give us Ayreon nerds a thrill. I had been worried that I’d be in too much pain (my bones don’t hang out where they belong) to last through the entire Ayreon show and a full afterparty, so I was expecting to allow myself to leave after “Annie Moore,” but found myself staying until the end of the show and beyond, because I knew that Robert would come out to the merch booth to greet people and I really wanted to thank him for blasting my brain out the back of my head. Because, I’ve gotta say, if I wasn’t already scraping my face off the back wall, I was by the time they finished their set with a medley of “Lazy” and “Space Truckin’” by Deep Purple, polished off with a little bit ‘o “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin. I’ve seen “Space Truckin’” live by Deep Purple back in 2022 and I can tell you, this was a better performance, even if Deep Purple are still extremely competent players.

Ultimately, this show was a wild and incredible performance, with emphasis on the “performance” part of it. Robert mentioned after the show that he understood how I might be getting bored watching four guys just playing their instruments, and mentioned that he was always drawn to big performances in the vein of acts like Alice Cooper, so he wants his shows to not just be live renditions, but a spectacle worth leaving home for. Well, he sure managed to keep me on my feet far longer than I thought was possible, so I’d say it was a resounding success. I’m literally wondering if I need to fly back to see them again with Irene, just so I can say I’ve had the full experience (though that cover medley was a nice treat in her absence).

Setlist

Doctor Robert’s Medicine Show
Let it Ride
The Preacher
Gimme the Nighttime
High Speed Chase
Before the Morning Comes
Drunker than Whiskey
Texas Size + drum solo
Stand Tall
Long Cold Night
Ice on Fire
Where Do the Wild Things Sleep
Annie Moore
Die with Your Shades On
Encore
Smoke Stack Lightning
Get Down to Biznez
Lazy / Space Truckin’ / Whole Lotta Love medley

Do I really need a conclusion in here? Surely you can deduct that, despite the fact that I was barely capable of walking on the 14th (if you saw a sad hippy hobbling towards the train station in extremely colorful pants before noon, yeah, that was probably me…), I had an exceptionally good time and it was absolutely worth the devastating next day when neither of my legs wanted to do as they were told. Despite the filthy and unsafe “hotel” room. Despite my damned age! Yes, once again, I’m going to have to tell you that if you decided to casually skip this show, you were a fool, and I, for one, will be booking my next flights to the Netherlands for the next Ayreon show the moment they are announced. In the meantime, where can I preorder the live DVD?

See you at the next shows! ❤️🐻

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