Riverside – I.D.Entity at the Indigo 02

The tour to promote their 2023 album, I.D.Entity, which began in Florida on February 17^th, finally reached London two months later and saw Polish progmeisters Riverside being the closing act at Sunday’s Prognosis Festival, where they were greeted like returning heroes.

Riverside are clearly the product of their influences, operating somewhere in the midway space between Porcupine Tree and Dream Theatre though throughout the show band’s main man, bassist and vocalist Mariusz Duda, suggests they’re more than a prog-metal band. Be that as it may they can play power metal as good as anyone, they can be either chill or ambient when needed – they even occasionally freak out, and a particular shout-out has to go to the ever-smiling keyboard man Michal Lapaj for the evocative soundscapes he produces for the band to play against. Though every member of the band is also a superb musician and unlike say Dream Theatre, they don’t drown everything in virtuosity onstage.

There’ve been some changes in and around Riverside. Their last visit to the UK was in 2019 and was a sombre affair in that they were coming off the tragic demise of original guitarist, band co-founder Piotr Grudinski, and promoting 2018’s Wasteland, an album about struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, which they recorded as a trio. Four years on, however, with new guitar man Maciej Mellor in place, who’s slotted into their style of playing perfectly, the band have a renewed sense of purpose and this is reflected in the atmosphere onstage, with Mariusz Duda now more upfront and engaging with the audience. He seems to have become more of a showman and comfortable as a frontman, and he’s now very close to rivalling Geddy Lee with his ability to handle some quite complex bass lines whilst singing. 

Tonight’s set featured twelve songs, playing six of the seven tracks on the latest album, with only ‘I’m Done With You’ not given an airing, four from their pre-2010 period, with tracks like ‘Egoist Hedonist’ and ‘Left Out’ from 2009’s Anno Domini being inspired choices from their earlier catalogue and surprisingly, only one track from 2015’s Love Fear and the Time Machine album. Despite its relatively recent release, however, there’s nothing from Wasteland. this was a skilfully judged set, with the newer songs sitting comfortably with older tunes.

They open with ‘#Addicted’ from Love Fear .. with the intro lengthened as the band take to the stage individually .. first on, drum man Piotr Kozieradski lays down a beat, then the keyboard player comes on and starts up the compulsive keyboard run, followed by Maciej Mellor laying down the guitar line before Mariusz Duda comes on and adds the bass .. and off we go. This is followed by long-time stage favourite ‘Panic Room’, from Rapid Eye Movement, which sees Duda attempting to get the audience to sing ‘sweet shelter of mine’ with him. Who’d have ever thought there’d be an audience sing-along at a Riverside gig? ‘Landmine Blast’ was one of the highlights of the set, with its complicated time changes handled superbly. Riverside’s music sounds deceptively easy but, on closer listening, is quite complex but they avoid flaunting their dexterity on their instruments and play songs which involve the whole band, rather than pieces for individual musicians.

Before ‘Big Tech Brother’, Duda quotes from the album “If you want to hear the next song, you’ve got to agree to terms and conditions” before beginning the 13-minute ‘The Place Where I Belong’, which Duda says is not where you want him to be, conforming to your expectations, becomes a ‘live’ epic.

They conclude a stunning set with ‘Self Aware’, with its hints of early 80’s Rush, and ‘Friend Or Foe’, both from the new album, with the latter track particularly brilliantly executed. What was noticeable this evening was how the songs from the new album are brought to life onstage, with the band’s stellar musicianship making them sound bigger in a ‘live’ context. They encore with an extended ‘Conceiving You’, which sees Duda engaging with the spellbound audience in an amazing bout of silent screaming, before the band departs the stage to a rapturous ovation, after a glorious show of close to two hours.

Riverside are certainly one of the shining stars in contemporary prog rock, as demonstrated by their recent album, and I suspect their next London gig will be at a much larger venue.