THE LAST TRAIN

Before the Brainbox reunion started, some members were since 2001 playing in the Dutch bluesband Flavium. The line-up of that formation was Anne Geert Bonder and Rudy de Queljoe on guitar, Eric Bagchus on bass, Pierre van der Linden on drums and Kaz Lux on vocals. They played an exciting combination of Flavium blues and some of the best Brainbox songs.(A mix between blues, psychedelica and powerpop.) At the end of 2002 Kaz Lux introduced singer/blues harp player Jos Veldhuizen on stage, and told the audience about a complete reunion of both groups. Guitarist John Schuursma was willing to play in Brainbox again and Bonders continued Flavium with Veldhuizen and Rob Geboers on piano. Bagchus and van der Linden kept playing in both bands and did two shows the same evening, 'cause they did a tour with each other. Easter 2003 was their first concert. Kaz Lux kicked off the show with a solo act of half a hour, followed by Flavium and Brainbox as headliner. The last train is a valuable live recording which shows what a delightful band Brainbox was at that time. The cd opens with the bluesrock of Baby,with as special guest Rob Geboers on piano. To you and Cruel train belong to the best songs they made without Akkerman and are played longer than the original version.It contains fascinating guitarwork from Schuursma and de Queljoe. Another bluessong is Sinner's prayer, with Jos Veldhuizen on the blues harp. Doomsday train is a faster,more heavy song with Kaz Lux as extra guitarplayer. It's made a little longer and mostly they played it again at the end of the evening. Sea of delight is called a song about makin'love by Kaz Lux and has a jazzy guitarsection and a short drumsolo by masterdrummer van der Linden. Summertime is less powerful than the version with Akkerman.It sounds tame and is not something to call a highlight. The instrumental Mobilea is very pleasant and a pause for the voice of Kaz Lux. Dark rose is a song the audience likes to hear. A faster song with the second drumsolo from van der Linden. Between Alpha and Omega is a restful one with an extra long psychedelic guitarpart by Rudy de Queljoe. The end of the evening is almost reached. Time for a strong version of the all-time favourite Down man. That song really rocks! The last song Gloria is a favourite of Lux and was written by Van Morrison for his band Them. The last train was recorded in july 2004. In september of that year they did their last show. Brainbox was disbanded because Kaz Lux had hearing damage. Still he has, but armed with special hearing protection he decided to re-form Brainbox again. Since january 2010 they appear on stage again with Kees van der Laarsse on bass. Pierre van der Linden is member of Focus and Brainbox. I saw them in january and it was sold out.