Yazmine Park Tribute Night

Meat Loaf, Motörhead and Iron Maiden on one bill. Too good to be true. Correct if you’re looking for the real ones. With Tribute bands, these possibilities are more realistic. Why make a review of a show with tribute bands? Simply because the approach of the three bands on stage is somewhat unique. They don’t try to cover it in perfection, they make a tribute to the band and their music by giving it a totally different twist by rearranging the songs into an (semi)-acoustic setting without taking the soul out of the songs.

The setting in the venue is a bit different too. Chairs and tables, more a Nightclub than a rock venue. However, this more intimate setting the fitted pretty well to the approach and set-up of the evening.

The evening opened with Meat Love, not difficult to guess who they tribute. Interesting feature is the resemblance of the leader of the pack Frank van Zon with Meat Loaf, vocal wise and shape. Jens van Breemen re-arranged the guitar parts to suit keys. And there you do have the basis of Meat Love. The venue, Paradox Tilburg, does have a grand piano which added an extra dimension in sound. For this show the duo was supported by a female counterpart and a female violin player. A totally different, downsized instrumental set-up. It’s no rocket science to predict the songs on the set list: “I’d Do Anything for Love”, “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad”, “Dead Ringer for Love”, “Bat out of Hell” and of course “Paradise by the Dashboardlight” are on.

Not any resemblance of the vocalist of Snake Bite Love with Lemmy, vocalist of Motörhead. Snake Bite Love does have a female singer. Frontwoman Micky Huismans (ex-End of the Dream) is accompanied by 4 musicians who are doing the job assigned to them: musical support. Not in the traditional set-up as a rock band, the two guitarists (Remco Schouten and Jitse Zonneveld, both on acoustic guitar) are joined by Cajon (Stand-in Fons van Dijk) and electric double bass (Siebe Sol Sijpkens), to create a unique sound.

The musicians of Snake Bite Love do have a background of the Metal Factory (regular school with specialization Metal) in Eindhoven. They revamped the songs of Motörhead in a way that fans hardly can imagine. Stripping the dynamics of the original, combined with the different very pleasant voice of Micky, understandable lyrics and the chosen instrumental set-up, makes that it takes a few moments before you know which song they play. Songs from their just released album “Back to the Pub” dominate the set. Classics like ‘Killed By Death’, ‘Motörhead’ and ‘Ace of Spades’ but also the subtle song ‘Don’t Let daddy Kiss Me’ that gets an additional tension with a woman singing.

Main act of the night was Maiden uniteD. The tribute project with support of Iron Maiden was playing in their ‘home town’, the place where it started. When the Dutch Iron Maiden fan club asked Joey Bruers to do a different show for the convention; something else, not just a next cover band. Steve Harris was attending the convention, so Joey had to think of something special. With musicians from several bands he performed a set of rearranged acoustic Maiden songs. The idea of a show then became a project that is still running with a large group of known and less-known musicians.

The latest release of Maiden uniteD is “Empire of the Clouds”, the song (released as single) Iron Maiden never played live. This song is re-arranged to a suite with four pieces. The tracks tells the story of the R101 airship, which crashed on its maiden voyage in northern France on 5 October 1930. This show is part of the large Sailors of the Sky Tour 2019. And it’s obvious that this name is linked to that album.

The musicians of this gig were; Frank Beck (vocals – Gamma Ray), Joey Bruers (acoustic bass – Up the Irons), Daan Janzing (acoustic guitar – My Favorite Scar), Dirk Bruinenberg (drums – Elegy / Place Vendome) and Polle van Genechten (keys – The Overslept).

Next to the suite, classics as ‘Aces High’, ‘Children of the Damned’, ‘The Trooper’ and ‘The Evil that Men do’ were on the set list. With ‘Die with your Boots on’ the set and acoustic tribute night ended.

Larger set, different photos: Maiden uniteD, Snake Bite Love, Meat Love.