15th time seeing Project Pitchfork for me, last night in Waregem...
Opener Oberer Totpunkt wasn’t really our cup of tea, so we skipped it — though we were there early enough to catch some fragments in the foyer while having a few social chats. But honestly, not once did I feel the urge to go and have a look.
So, PP it was! They kicked off with a trio of bangers (Timekiller, Song of the Winds, and Conjure) — the first goosebumps already appeared. The sound was excellent and Spilles’ voice was in great shape, so things were off to a perfect start.
After that came a mix of (lesser) older tracks and some (unnecessary) new material. (Although “Blind Mice” is quite okay, those other two — “Memento Mori” and “The Name” — are rather weak.) Project Pitchfork’s recent albums have been pretty mediocre for a while now, and they can’t hold a candle to Dhyani, Entities, Lam-’bras, IO (not a single track from IO on the setlist!!! How the hell is that possible??), Daimonion, and so on. You could definitely feel that in the small dips throughout the set.
Luckily, those dips were compensated by songs like K.N.K.A., Souls, Carnival, Rain, Beholder, and The Island.
But once again, Spilles falls into the “I’m-gonna-let-my-girlfriend-sing-too” trap. What is it with singers always dragging their partners on stage and shoving a microphone into their hands? This is the third time Spilles has done it (the early PP days with Patricia, then Jinxy with Santa Hates You, and now this young lady!) — and none of the three could actually sing! With all due respect, but their voices just don’t blend, and pitch control clearly isn’t her strong suit either.
Anyway, fine, at least it was limited to two or three songs.
After 17 songs, the main set was over — time for the first encore (three songs). And in my opinion, those should be bangers! Don’t throw a new song in there; literally no one’s waiting for that.
Then came encore number two — supposed to be three songs as well, but it ended up being only two. I assume that was due to time constraints. And again, you’ve got to end with bangers. En Garde — fine — but finishing with Rescue? Come on… That’s a messy closer, especially when you skip the encore they should have played: God Wrote.
Still, all in all, it was a more than decent concert. I’ve seen them much worse (Dour 1997), but also way better (the IO tour in 1994 in the Steeple and ’t Syndroom, or De Casino in 2017). Though that might just be the old-timer in me talking. 🙂
Songs of the night: Song of the Winds — always a timeless favorite — and Rain!
Funny thing: during Rain, they played parts of the original video clip, but with the ex-Pitchies (Scheubi!!) filtered out. Weird… but I guess there’s a reason for everything.
On to the next one!!
Photo's © Yves Vand der Straete