Double Feature

Yours truly with the coolest guys you could ever hope to meet: Pete Trewawas, Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse, Roine Stolte

Roland: No idea why these things always come in pairs, but after months of not having any interesting concerts in the calendar there now were two great ones in a row within two days. Last Thursday Transatlantic were playing in Karlsruhe, and just 24 hours later Camel were on stage in Cologne. Obviously this meant a whole lot of traveling, plus we combined it with a weekend with our family.

The Band rocks!!!

Mike Portnoy in a rare moment of stillness

Transatlantic are considered as the Progressive Rock Supergroup, and are consisting of members and Ex-members of Marillion, Dream Theater, Spock's Beard and Flower Kings. Their songs are quite lengthy, usually touching the twenty minutes mark, and their concerts tend to be far over two and a half hours long. I had the chance for a short meet and greet with the band before the set and was rewarded with a photo with the guys. As expected, the concert was fantastic, loud, and very exhausting. Worth every second!

Camel on Stage

The night after I was blessed to see Camel's Andy Latimer one more time, something I actually never expected to happen again since Latimer was diagnosed with Myelofibrosis some ten years ago, but he bravely managed to win this battle.  So, now he put the band back together and celebrated the 1975 Instrumental album "Snow Goose" in remembrance of Camels former member, the late Peter Bardens.

This was another beautiful concert, with far less notes than the night before, but nevertheless touching and charming. After the heavy accustic meal the night before this was like a Digestif for the ears. Here's to another Camel tour in the foreseeable future!

Andy Latimer