It’s not easy maintaining a modern prog band as a commercial concern. Plenty of acts with loyal followings keep their fanbase well-fed and the coffers topped up between studio albums with ‘deluxe’ versions, reissues, acoustic sets, B-sides collections and that venerable staple, the live album.
So it’s slightly surprising to find that after more than 20 years in existence, Airbag have only now officially released a full-fat, plugged-in concert record, following on the heels of their sixth studio album, 2024’s A Century Of The Self.
Recorded at Poppodium Boerderij – a familiar haunt of many a touring progger in Zoetermeer, Netherlands – Dysphoria Live features A Century played in full, followed by a second half of older material. Extra flavour is undoubtedly teased out of the recent material, as opener Dysphoria benefits from several minutes of atmospheric introductory ambience compared to the studio take.
Then Asle Tostrup’s vocal, which sounds so dry and vulnerable on record, has a more openly emotional quality here as he asks: ‘Did you come here to find some peace and hide/Too much confusion in your head at times?’
Tyrants And Kings and Erase are full of sharper contrasts than their dreamier studio counterparts, with Bjørn Riis’s guitars sounding positively canyon-straddling during the instrumental peaks, and the rhythm section creating a formidably portentous rumble underneath it all.
Chiming acoustic guitars, midnight piano and plumes of fretless bass combine on Awakening to offer a smoky backdrop to Torstrup’s yearning invitation to ‘Wake up now and feel again’ – a sentiment that seems tailor-made to be sung to a live audience.
The emotional intensity is cranked up further when A Century’s 15-minute closer Tear It Down reaches an engulfing, cavernous-sounding climax. Then Machines And Men from 2020’s A Day At The Beach builds from a brooding instrumental pulse to a state of roaring panic as Torstrup offers the heartfelt cry: ‘I wanna get out.’
There’s always been a beautifully resonant, high-and-lonesome quality to his voice, also highlighted on the ‘God is the future’ crescendos of Redemption, which supports the recurring theme of Airbag’s songs: human connections fraying under the weight of an uncaring, increasingly impersonal modern world.
In the immersive emotional ride of Dysphoria Live, though, they’ve shown there’s nothing like music to make us feel whole again.
Dysphoria Live is on sale now via Karisma.
