THE FIFTH SEASON - LIVE IN CONCERT

In the late Nineties I witnessed a gig by Polish progrock band Quidam, my strongest memory about that concert is the wonderful version of Genesis their masterpiece Firth Of Fifth, say no more! I won't consider that I didn't like Quidam but they did not make music that managed to keep my attention.

This DVD (recorded live in Poland, 2005) is another story, perhaps because of the fresh blood in the line-up? Anyway, the first track Hands Off showcases Quidam their new sound: a wonderful balance between dreamy parts (with warm vocals, sensitive electric guitar and flute) and more bombastic pieces (howling electric guitar and fluent work on organ and synthesizers). The neo-prog sound is blended with progressive poprock bands like U2 (guitar sound) and Talk Talk (especially the vocals). My highlights are the Led Zeppelin cover No Quarter (fine Fender Rhodes piano sound, flute and then a kind of 'symphonic rock Camel turn' to the original quite raw and dark climate), the long and alternating titletrack (halfway a jazzy piano solo along fat guitar riffs and a propulsive rhythm-section) and Everything's Ended (first dreamy, then more and more lush and bombastic delivering howling electric guitar). The song Jestes contains Polish vocals and the final track Not So Close has a final part with the vocal harmonies from Hush Hush by Deep Purple. This DVD also contains lots of many extra's like recording sessions, video clips, festival and concert reports, an interview and a biography, discography and photo galery.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the high level of Quidam and their tasteful and inspired modern progrock sound, along with the extra DVD value (beautiful lightshow, pleasant images and nice crowd participation) this DVD is highy recommended!

I must say I have mixed feelings about this concert. On one hand this DVD is extremely well recorded and performed. The songs from SurRevival gain some extra punch and life, specially the opener Hands Off. On the other hand I saw their bootleg DVD recorded live in Mexico. While the latter is clearly an amateurish affair, the band sounded much more progressive and original when Emilia was the lead singer. This is quite clear on the new DVD too: when the band plays the old material they sound much better than with the new stuff (and get much more response from the audience, by the way). New singer Bartek Kossowics is obviously very good, still he has a lot to proof and stepping into Emila´s shoes is not an easy task. She not only had a great voice but was also very charismatic and quite responsible for the Quidam sound we all know and love.

Actually Quidam´s future is not really on his hands (or voice). It´s the main songwriters decision to go more alternative sounding (like on the album) or to stick to progressive music that hangs in the balance. Since I´m not a big fan of the former style, I really hope they choose the prog path. At least they gave us some great moments, like their beautiful debut CD. No wonder their most enthusiastic received songs on this DVD are their past tunes.

So, in the end, this DVD is kind of an enigma. An excellent performance of a band which we really don´t know where they´re going to. Emila´s ghost and their past progressive work still weights a lot on them. They´re still good, but there´s still some things missing here.