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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
» INTERVIEWS
» LIVE REVIEWS
» SPECIALS
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AVALON - S.C.A.R.
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Ed & Rocco's - Geleen (NL)
July 15th 2006
http://www.avalonrocks.nl
http://www.s-c-a-r.com
Among the many reunions of 80's bands in the past years, is the one of the Dutch hardrockers Avalon. This band from the south of the country got some fame outside their own region when the talented guitarist Jack Pisters wun a Gary Moore guitar. In 1986 they played the Aardschokdag and the very first edition of the Dynamo Open Air festival, after they released the EP "The Third Move". Despite that, they never got a big breakthrough and disbanded in 1989. Jack went to study music and the metal scene didn't really hear from him anymore. It turned out he did stay active in the rock business and now has a band called S.C.A.R.. And that is exactly the band we were about to see open for Avalon this nice summer night in Geleen.
Ed & Rocco's is a cool pub where they play cool music, but the bands that play there only have a small stage in the back. It was hot outside, so even hotter inside and many stayed in the front of the pub (or outside), near the open doors where you could still hear the music well and see the band on a big screen.
Jack Pister's current band S.C.A.R. opened and entertained us with some great rock music, guitar oriented and with some psychedelic touches - the band calls it "expressive rock". Jack's style is still melodic hardrock (think Blackmore, Meniketti etc.) and he seemed to have more fire for this music than for Avalon (which would also be understandable of course), but Jack said afterwards that he has just as much fun on stage playing with Avalon again. But S.C.A.R. is less heavy, seems more technical and with various influences. Next to Jack on guitar as well as vocals (and that was pretty good too!), we see the American Victor Dirks on drums and the Englishman Nick Granville on bass.
The middle part of the set was a bit too quiet, but the songs got a bit heavier again later on and it was definitely a very cool show. They amongst others played songs from their album "The Awakening" like "Buddha", "Train To Origin", "The Awakening", "Step Into The Water" (check out its video on myspace.com/expressiverock), "Guardian Angel", "The Promise" and the highlight, the beautiful "Unrequited Life Song" (also to be heard on their MySpace) with a great build up and awesome guitar solo (in the vein of "I Believe In You").
Shortly after it was time for AVALON. They reunited last year to release an overview of their work with the 2CD "The Final Move" (including remastered demo and album songs as well as 4 re-recorded tracks) and to play a few gigs to support it. The pub was filled with a lot of friends, family and some old fans. The Avalon rockers didn't look as "hardrock" anymore after all these years and the long hair was either more grey, short or simply gone ;) Not that it mattered 
for the show, it was just a much more mature band in all aspects now! In the front it was hot, but despite the lack of space on the tiny stage, singer Richard "BG" Muermans still managed to move around quite a bit. He made his audience enthusiastic and sing along on some songs. As usual the backbone was the rhythm section, Jan van Dinteren on bass and Jax Kraal on drums, who also did some announcements and introduced the band. My favourite members are the guitarists though, Maarten Huiskamp who also played some keyboards, and Jack Pisters. Again some great playing that captured everyone's attention, and lots of familiar songs came by, like "Just Call Me Conrad", "Morgana Le Fay" and the great "Dancer In The Eye Of The Storm" (check out the setlist for them all). And the chemistry is so good again, that these "The Final Move" gigs may very well not be the final ones for Avalon after all!
setlist Avalon:
Necronomicon
Prophets In Disguise
Just Call Me Conrad
Guns Of Avalon
Can't Take My Eyes From You
Morgana Le Fay
Real Time Hero
Dancer In The Eye Of The Storm
Search For The Paragon
Perfect Illusions
Corwin's Defeat
It Ain't Easy
The Ancient (Chapter 1)
Cool Runner
The Angle Of Eternity
Hard Lovin' Man
Necronomicon
submitted by Marlies 12.09.2006
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