Occasionally Metalrage.com visits and reviews concerts on the softer side of heavy music. Sunday January 30th 2005 two Dutch bands played our favorite bar ‘Plein 79’ in Den Bosch. Of course we were there. First band up was Taxi To The Ocean.

I read about this band before so I was curious for what to expect. Taxi To The Ocean consists of two guitarists (of whom one also does some keyboards), a bassist, drummer and vocalist/guitarist. The first thing I noticed about this band was the bass player. He was totally rocking the stage which was very entertaining. He did all the rock star moves like Jack Black (Tenacious D) would do them. And not only his moves were good, he also managed to play a nice piece of bass. Which brings me to the music. I would describe it as quality pop. The band brought a lot of variation to the stage. In the softer songs the singer and songwriting reminded me of John Mayer. The more up tempo songs, now and then leaned towards the sound of Counting Crows. Which is rather funny because when I visited their site, almost all press quotes contained that comparison. Taxi To The Ocean is a highly entertaining band and surely will appeal to the crowds of all major summer festivals. Be on the look out for this band, they rock.

The headlining band was Coparck from Amsterdam. I knew this band from the single "The World Of Tomorrow" which gets a lot of radio airplay. I liked the song, so I decided to attend this show. Coparck uses a lot of electronics in their music. Both the drummer and keyboard player use samples and that gives the band quite a big sound. The vocalist does an excellent job, he has a great voice and is visibly one with the music. It’s hard to say what style this band plays. The songwriting is very distinctive. Some parts are really stretched and atmospheric, other parts are really rocking and very much in-your-face. Sometimes this was a weak point, the set now and then tended to be a bit weary, like I was listening to a jam band. But overall it was a good set and I definitely don’t regret spending my Sunday afternoon checking out these two bands.