Live report DON AIREY & Friends / VAN HALEN TRIBUTE 5150, Cultuurpodium Boederij – 08.03.2019

Don Airey’s discography is a huge one. The keyboarder contributed to more than 200 longplayers and was part of bands like Deep Purple, Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne and many more. He’s truly a legend in rock.

With such an remarkable musical history a concert tour of Don Airey feels like a musical time warp through the heydays of classic rock and metal. The iconic keyboarder is on such tour, together with some friends that aren’t rookies either. Jon Finnigan, Dave Marks, Carl Sentance and Simon McBride share the stage with Airey on this tour, a road-trip that again includes a stop at Cultuurpodium Boerderij in Zoetermeer.

It seems to become a tradition that the iconic keyboarder plays in Zoetermeer in March, since this show is the third one in a row after having been in Zoetermeer in March 2017 and 2018 too and I guess we can look forward to March 2020. But let’s not get too much ahead of things. Let’s laser in on tonight.

Don Airey & Friends is not only about Airey tickling the ivories. This show is teamwork in which the main focus of fans might go to the keyboarder, but it is a band that’s on stage. It’s friends that enjoy playing great rock music that includes metal smasher like Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Mr. Crowley’ with Airey’s mighty keyboard intro. The set also faetures of a moment when the guys go even further back in time. ‘Intergalactic Strut’ (Colosseum II) is one of these jaw-dropping moments when the magic of rock reveals its beauty. Wow.

Furthermore it’s Rainbow classics like ‘I Surrender’ and ‘Lost in Hollywood’ that are much appreciated by everyone in the almost sold-out venue. The live performance of these anthems also shows how much underrated songs of the later Rainbow area are. These classics go perfectly together with rather new songs like the heavy grooving ‘Victim of Pain’ from Airey’s latest 2018 solo release.

These five guys live rock’n’roll and the enjoy playing music live on stage. They do it without any frills or decoration and it’s solely the joy of what they’re doing that makes this concert to a special one. Live music can’t be more authentic than what we see that night in Zoetermeer.

I don’t want to forget mentioning the opening act, which was a great experience too. Van Halen Tribute 5150, with Helloïse’ Stan Verbaak, is obviously fascinated by Eddie Van Halen and bandmates. More than 40 years after Van Halen unleashed their timeless debut album, the Dutch quintet fires some first riffs at the crowd in Zoetermeer, that appreciates the great music and the legendary songs in return. But the band has more in their repertoire than Van Halen only. It’s a wider set that even includes a short ‘Pretty Woman’ intermezzo. Van Halen Tribute 5150 is an energetic opener that heat up Zoetermeer’s rock fans for much more classic rock that’s still to come.