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Recensie

Rock

20 januari 2025

Riverside

Live ID.

Geschreven door:

 (vertaald door: Marcel Hartenberg )

Uitgebracht door: Inside Out/Sony Music

Live ID. Riverside Rock 4.5 Riverside – Live ID. (EN) Written in Music https://writteninmusic.com

Riverside live can simply be fully overwhelming. The Polish band has built a solid live reputation over the years and the ID.Entity tour had the band sound like reborn. That may be called amazing after the loss of Piotr Grudzinski, which really was an unexpected blow to the band.

The album already sounded energetic ánd during the tour Mariusz and the band engaged emphatically with the audience. Listening to the album as well as watching the Blu-Ray, you can hear and see this: the band’s interaction with the equally eager audience speaks volumes. You might think that this is a case of home advantage; the concert was recorded at the Torwar Hall in Warsaw. At the same time, the band excel when- and wherever they perform and overwhelm live time after time. In doing so, it does not matter exactly where and for whom they play: even for non-proggers, Riverside live can just be thriling experience.

What makes Riverside so great is that they combine great musical class with very enthusiastic performances in which the band always are in touch with the audience. A Riverside concert is a joint experience, band and audience experience it intensely together. How keyboard player Michal Lapaj plays great parts, while at the same time he is dancing behind his keys and using arm movements to get you as an audience to move, that already grabs you. With ID.Entity’s songs, this works like a charm: just sit still for a cracker like Friend Or Foe? Undoable! It really, really swings totally. The song’s Eighties vibe comes into its own live. And Mariusz and Michal’s incitements totally finish that off.

Riverside - Friend Or Foe? (Live ID.) (OFFICIAL LIVE VIDEO)Riverside – Friend Or Foe? (Live ID.) (OFFICIAL LIVE VIDEO)

Live ID is a formidable capture of the band’s live strength in all facets. The band’s light show blends seamlessly with the music and shows that a light show does not have to be over the top to impress. Precise, very carefully made and also just like that, presented via a screen, that light show also just gets you as a viewer.

The ID Entity tour did not only feature songs from that album. And so it was at the concert on 1 June 2024 in Warsaw. The band went back as far as 2005’s beautiful Conceiving You from Second Life Syndrome, which closed the set. Before that, however, songs from Rapid Eye Movement, Anno Domini High Definition and Love, Fear And The Time Machine also passed by.

Riverside - Landmine Blast (Live ID.) (OFFICIAL LIVE VIDEO)Riverside – Landmine Blast (Live ID.) (OFFICIAL LIVE VIDEO)

So, if you then want to know how the band sounded during the tour, if they were in shape and how events turned out, this live document comes highly recommended. Piotr Kozieradzki is the drummer behind the kit who is the perfect match for Mariusz’s unsurpassed bass playing; both dare to be free in their playing. This already partly makes the band’s appeal: being able to play tight and take up space as a band. And it’s not just the rhythm section that does that. Michal and Maciek are also strong on their instruments and also dare to improvise. It is more than worth listening to the men’s different parts: after all, without the band losing itself in technique, you are listening to excellent players on their respective instruments. Live ID underlines that.

Riverside played a very fine setlist on 1 June 2024 and it featured some time travelling as well. Not the whole of the discography was addressed, but besides the mostly uptempo tracks of ID. Entity, the band also tackled more melancholic and darker tracks. And in the process, the interaction with the audience was nothing short of outstanding. If you experienced one or more concerts of the last tour, then this already makes for a very, very nice souvenir of the tour.

Live ID, however, is more than just a souvenir of athe tour. It showcases the band as reborn, as a phoenix, in such a driven way as they might not even have expected themselves, after the aforementioned impact of Piotr’s loss. With that, Live ID also represents the band’s resilience and perseverance. Live albums that stand the test of time are still rare to find. Live ID has it in itself to be counted among them in a few years: it is a class live release!

In 2025, the band will, as they mentioned themselves, only play two shows. The first and, for Dutch fans, best attainable show is on 25 January at the Midwinter Prog Festival in Vredenburg Utrecht. With a special show that will also feature the past in the set. If possible, that could be even better than this setlist. As a fan, highly recommended! If you can’t attend, play Live ID again and enjoy this great live album by Piotr, Maciek, Michal and Mariusz.



  1. #Addicted
  2. Panic Room
  3. Landmine Blast
  4. Big Tech Brother
  5. Lost
  6. Left Out


  1. Post-Truth
  2. The Place Where I Belong
  3. Egoist Hedonist
  4. Friend or Foe?
  5. Self-Aware
  6. Conceiving You


  1. #Addicted
  2. Panic Room
  3. Landmine Blast
  4. Big Tech Brother
  5. Lost
  6. Left Out
  7. Post-Truth
  8. The Place Where I Belong
  9. Egoist Hedonist
  10. Friend or Foe?
  11. Self-Aware
  12. Conceiving You
  13. Behind The Scenes Documentary