The album Bizarro World, which is Robby Valentine’s most recent album, was released back in 2014. This year the album was finally released as a limited edition vinyl album. People who pre-ordered the album were invited to join the official vinyl release party in the P3 at Purmerend. This was the first time I ever went to this venue and to a concert of Robby Valentine, so I was very curious that evening.
Wow! When the band started to play it was an instant hit. What an energy, what a performance. What also helped was the bright and colourful stage lighting. The music is a real mixture of symphonic rock and metal, but with a lot of pop influences as well. Robby Valentine plays several guitars and also on a grand piano that was on the right side (for the audience left side) of the stage. His voice is in good form and that also applies to the band. After playing a couple of songs Robby thanked the audience for coming and said that he sees a lot of familiar faces but also new faces too.
The band doesn’t only play tracks from their latest album but several tracks from other albums as well. Robby also surprised the audience by playing and singing Life On Mars from David Bowie solo behind his piano. Female vocalist Laura Guldemond was only on stage when she had to sing along with some of the songs. Robby announced that the other female vocalist, Maria Catharina, sadly couldn’t perform because of voice problems. Guitarist Paul Coenradie is a fantastic guitarist who knows how to play interesting guitar solos. Robby is a real virtuoso on the piano. He also started to play some classical piano pieces by Chopin and Tchaikovsky.
After the set the band came back on stage, treating the audience with the track Mustapha, a song from Queen. A contributor of the magazine Aardschok entered the stage in between the encore tracks, and handed out the first pressing the Bizarro Wold vinyl album to mister Valentine himself. During the track Black Rain Robby pointed his microphone towards the audience from time to time. The audience was loudly singing along with the song of course.
I really enjoyed their performance that evening. The band played a lot of varied music and was very good too! This band is a real live band that knows how to entertain the audience. I hope to see Robby Valentine and band perform again in the near future soon!
Valentine are:
Robby Valentine – Lead Vocals, Guitars & Piano
Paul Coenradie – Guitars
Johan Jay Jay Willems – Keyboards, Backing Vocals & Guitars
Andre Borgman – Drums
Luuk van Gerwen – Bass Guitar
Laura Guldemond – Vocals
Anna Postumius – Violin
Setlist:
Intro/Bizarro World
Rockstar
No Turning Back
Megaman
The Magic Breeze
Dear Dad
Fear Of Heights
You’re Tearing Me Down
Magnum Opus
Deadbeat Boy
Life On Mars (David Bowie cover)
Schizophonicated
Trip To The Moon
Close The Door
The Mistake
Make Way (For The Messenger)
Piano Solo Chopin/Tchaikovsky
4th Rate Razorback
Save Myself
Encore:
Mustapha (Queen cover)
Black Rain
Over And Over
Outro
You can read my review on Background Magazine:
http://backgroundmagazine.nl/Gigreviews/20160220Valentine.html
All photos by me.
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