Live | Ayreon – 30th Anniversary – An Amazing Flight Through Time – 013 – Tilburg [NL]

12 September 2025

Two years ago, Ayreon and Company “conquered” the city of Tilburg with their ‘Live Beneath The Waves’ show and now Tilburg is again baptized as Ayreon City, as 15.000 fans will come to hear and see the ‘Amazing Flight Through Time’ spectacle. The cast of this show consisted of singers Wudstik, Damian Wilson, Tommy Karevik, Robert Soeterboek, Anneke van Giersbergen, Marcela Bovio, Irene Jansen, Heather Findlay, Maggy Luyten and the wonderful musicians: Joost van den Broek (keyboards), Timo Somers (lead guitar), Ferry Duijsens (guitar), Johan van Stratum (bass guitar), Ed Warby (drums), Jurriaan Westerveld (cello), Jeroen Goossens (flute) and Ben Mathot (violin).

The stage ornamentation was again second to none, featuring lasers and magnificent images on huge tv-screens, while the setlist was divided into two parts. Act 1 contained thirteen live debuts, so songs that were never played live before by Ayreon or other side projects of Sir Lucassen, while Act 2 contained thirteen tracks that were performed live before, but then again with other singers.

AYREON – ACT 1

The show started with the bombastic ,,My House On Mars”, sung by Wudstick, from one of the best Ayreon albums, being ‘Universal Migrator Part 1, of course. The folky, prog classic ,,Sail Away To Avalon” from Ayreon’s debut album – originally sung by no one less than Barry Hay – was performed by Maggy Luyten and yes, she did a wonderful job. However, the next two songs, Guilt Machine’s ,,Green And Cream” (sung by Tommy Karevik) and ,,Days Of The Knights” from Lucassen’s solo debut ‘Pools Of Sorrow, Waves Of Joy’, sung by mister Ayreon himself, were not really that spectacular, as these were not that well-known to lots of people in the audience….

But with songs like ,,Day Six: Childhood”, beautifully sung by Anneke van Giersbergen, and ,,Dragon On The Sea” we were back on track, and the audience was really enjoying these wonderful, melodic prog tracks for sure. Other highlights from Act 1, such as ,,First Man On Earth” and the last song of part 1, ,,Carried By The Wind”, followed and the music got better and better.

AYREON – ACT 2

The Ayreon Classics set 2 kicked off with ,,The Theory Of Everything Part 1 and 2” and ,,Actual Fantasy”, the title track of Ayreon’s second studio album, followed by the amazing ,,Into The Black Hole” from the ‘Universal Migrator Part 2’ album, which was extremely well sung by Damian Wilson. Then it was time for one of the best songs on the entire setlist, at least that was my humble opinion, namely ,,The Awareness, Dreamtime” from Ayreon’s debut album; a glorious, emotional track with bliss melody and goosebump vocals by Heather Findlay.

Other highlights of Act 2 followed; ,,Dawn Of A Million Souls” and the three ‘Into The Electric Castle’ classics: ,,Valley Of The Queens”, ,,Amazing Flight” and ,,The Castle Hall” (vocals by Robert Soeterboek). Act 2’s final track was ,,Everybody Dies” from `The Source’ and after this spectacular second set Joost and Arjen entered the stage to give an emotional speech indeed.

AYREON – THE ENCORE

Encores are the Star One song ,,Set Your Controls” and two tracks from my favorite Ayreon album ‘The Human Equation’, being: ,,Day One: Vigil” and ,,Day Two: Isolation”, ending this wonderful Ayreon spectacle with flying colours. What a show this was again, with really impressive prog rock music at the highest musical level and a standout performance of lead guitarist Timo Somers who really played a mean guitar tonight!!

See you all in 2027 with a new Ayreon show packed with wonderful music.

All photos by Martien Koolen