STREAM OF PASSION drummer Davy Mickers has issued the first gig report from the band's current tour.

"Was I nervous that day? No... Yes... No... Well, of course. I was most definitely excited about doing the new shows with the new line-up.

When Pieter was checking the sound system I was hoping he would use the same songs as he did during the other tours. And so he did. When he played Ayreon I was getting in to the live mood, but when he played Rammstein I had goosebumps all over me. That song has been the 'main tour theme' from the start, so it brings up a lot of memories and emotions.

The support act, ANNATAR, had a special guest. Mischa van der Hout used to be one of their guitar players and grunter of the band and he didn't have a decent farewell gig yet. Funny thing is that I know Micha as one of my drum students.

Stephan had told me he would be extremely nervous right before the show, so I just let him do his thing. Eric told me he wasn't as nervous as he had expected, but I noticed that he didn't talk as much as he normally does. Jeffrey looked a bit nervous, but he just gave in and went with the flow.

Our time to go on stage. I was a bit less nervous than I used to be. Mostly because this time I didn't have to start off with a technical drum part. The audience gave the whole band a very warm welcome. It felt good to be back on stage again. It was really cool to see the new guys go crazy on stage. Stephan swinging around with his guitar and Jeffrey throwing his hair all over the place.

I couldn't really see Eric that well, because my cymbals blocked my sight. For one of the new songs I had to know if he was ready with his guitar changeover, but even when I stood up I couldn't see him. No lights and a lot of smoke. So I just yelled: 'Eric, I can't see you.' He answered: 'Give me a few more seconds.'

By the time we were all ready to start that song I found myself still standing, so I thought 'what the heck'. So I started that song standing. I'd never tried that before, but luckily it worked out well ;-)

One girl couldn't help but scream my name every now and then. I was really flattered by her reactions.

We saw a lot of familiar faces in the venue. Quite some people whom we had got to know on the road. A few from the SoP messageboard, a few friends and some colleagues. AFTER FOREVER's drummer, André Borgman, told me he had really enjoyed the show. Especially because of my drum kit (go google his kit, you'll see the resemblance ;-)

It was really cool to see that the new members also had to sign stuff and be in pictures with a lot of people. It seemed as if the audience embraced them just as much as we did. Even our backing vocalist, Lucinda Zoutendijk, had to be in a picture with our loyal fans The Jochempies to be added to their SoP photo collection in their home.

After the meet & greet we were supposed to drive to Tournai, where we would be sound checking at 10 AM the next morning. Even though this day seemed to be coming to an end, our bed was still so far away.

Thank you all for the really warm welcome!!! On stage and off stage!

Grtz, Davy."

Check out more photos here.

The band's upcoming live dates include:

April

18 - De Kade - Zaandaam, Holland
24 - Effenaar - Eindhoven, Holland
25 - Fenix - Sittard, Holland

Stream Of Passion features vocalist Marcela Bovio, who was a featured performer on the AYREON album The Human Equation.